[A] Marcus means to say that conquerors are robbers.  He himself warred against Sarmatians, and was a robber, as he says, like the rest.  But compare the life of Avidius Cassius, c. 4, by Vulcatius.

    [B] By the law he means the divine law, obedience to the will
    of God.

12.  What need is there of suspicious fear, since it is in thy power to inquire what ought to be done?  And if thou seest clear, go by this way content, without turning back; but if thou dost not see clear, stop and take the best advisers.  But if any other things oppose thee, go on according to thy powers with due consideration, keeping to that which appears to be just.  For it is best to reach this object, and if thou dost fail, let thy failure be in attempting this.  He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.

13.  Inquire of thyself as soon as thou wakest from sleep whether it will make any difference to thee if another does what is just and right.  It will make no difference (vi. 32; viii. 55).

Thou hast not forgotten, I suppose, that those who assume arrogant airs in bestowing their praise or blame on others are such as they are at bed and at board, and thou hast not forgotten what they do, and what they avoid, and what they pursue, and how they steal and how they rob, not with hands and feet, but with their most valuable part, by means of which there is produced, when a man chooses, fidelity, modesty, truth, law, a good daemon [happiness] (vii. 17)?

14.  To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt.  And he says this not proudly, but obediently, and well pleased with her.

15.  Short is the little which remains to thee of life.  Live as on a mountain.  For it makes no difference whether a man lives there or here, if he lives everywhere in the world as in a state [political community].  Let me see, let them know a real man who lives according to nature.  If they cannot endure him, let them kill him.  For that is better than to live thus [as men do].

16.  No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.

17.  Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance, and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a fig, and as to time the turning of a gimlet.

18.  Look at everything that exists, and observe that it is already in dissolution and in change, and as it were putrefaction or dispersion, or that everything is so constituted by nature as to die.

19.  Consider what men are when they are eating, sleeping, generating, easing themselves, and so forth.  Then what kind of men they are when they are imperious + and arrogant, or angry and scolding from their elevated place.  But a short time ago to how many they were slaves and for what things; and after a little time consider in what a condition they will be.