The logos determines everything that happens in the universe, and its design for the universe is harmonious and good. The world is directed by the logos, a word that’s notoriously difficult to translate-in human beings, it refers to the faculty of reason, and within the universe at large, it refers to the rational principle organizing the cosmos and is roughly synonymous with “nature” or “God.” That is, it’s not just an impersonal force, but a substance that pervades and animates all things. Stoics believed that the world is rationally organized and can therefore be understood. 332–262 B.C.E.) it was further expounded by Chrysippus (280–c. Centuries before Marcus lived, a philosophical school called Stoicism emerged, founded by a teacher in Athens named Zeno (c. In the ancient world, philosophy was not primarily an academic discipline it was seen as practical, a set of guidelines for life-more akin to how religion is thought of today. He was succeeded by his son, Commodus, whose reign was both more peaceful and far more scandalous than his father’s. Marcus was married to a woman named Faustina and had at least 13 children with her. Meditations was written during this last decade of his life, during a period marked by upheaval on the borders, revolt within, and the deaths of loved ones. In 168, Marcus himself marched with the armies to fight in what were known as the Marcomannic Wars on the Empire’s northern frontiers. His entire reign was troubled: early on, the Empire was devastated by a plague brought back by soldiers fighting against the Parthians (an empire in what’s now Iran), followed soon after by the invasion of Germanic peoples from the north. In 161, Antoninus’s death made Marcus Emperor Marcus then made his adoptive brother, Lucius Verus, his co-regent. At this point, Marcus added the family name of Aurelius Antoninus to his own. In 137, the childless emperor Hadrian selected the senator Antoninus Pius as his successor, who in turn designated his nephew and adoptive son, Marcus, as his own successor. He did not regard himself as a philosopher, but simply as a student of philosophy-a subject that became increasingly important to him later in life.

He came from a fairly distinguished family and enjoyed a well-educated, upper-class youth that would have included study of classical literature in both Latin and Greek, as well as rhetoric and philosophy. He was born Marcus Annius Verus and brought up by his grandfather, a Roman consul (Marcus’s father having died when he was young).

Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of the Roman Empire for almost two decades, from 161–180 C.E.

Meditaciones by Marcus Aurelius