Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 267 pages of information about Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 267 pages of information about Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

    [C] His mother was Domitia Calvilla, named also Lucilla.

    [D] Perhaps his mother’s grandfather, Catilius Severus.

5.  From my governor, to be neither of the green nor of the blue party at the games in the Circus, nor a partisan either of the Parmularius or the Scutarius at the gladiators’ fights; from him too I learned endurance of labor, and to want little, and to work with my own hands, and not to meddle with other people’s affairs, and not to be ready to listen to slander.

6.  From Diognetus,[A] not to busy myself about trifling things, and not to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers about incantations and the driving away of daemons and such things; and not to breed quails [for fighting], nor to give myself up passionately to such things; and to endure freedom of speech; and to have become intimate with philosophy; and to have been a hearer, first of Bacchius, then of Tandasis and Marcianus; and to have written dialogues in my youth; and to have desired a plank bed and skin, and whatever else of the kind belongs to the Grecian discipline.

[A] In the works of Justinus there is printed a letter to one Diognetus, whom the writer names “most excellent.”  He was a Gentile, but he wished very much to know what the religion of the Christians was, what God they worshipped, and how this worship made them despise the world and death, and neither believe in the gods of the Greeks nor observe the superstition of the Jews; and what was this love to one another which they had, and why this new kind of religion was introduced now and not before.  My friend Mr. Jenkins, rector of Lyminge in Kent, has suggested to me that this Diognetus may have been the tutor of M. Antoninus.

7.  From Rusticus[A] I received the impression that my character required improvement and discipline; and from him I learned not to be led astray to sophistic emulation, nor to writing on speculative matters, nor to delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing myself off as a man who practises much discipline, or does benevolent acts in order to make a display; and to abstain from rhetoric, and poetry, and fine writing; and not to walk about in the house in my outdoor dress, nor to do other things of the kind; and to write my letters with simplicity, like the letter which Rusticus wrote from Sinuessa to my mother; and with respect to those who have offended me by words, or done me wrong, to be easily disposed to be pacified and reconciled, as soon as they have shown a readiness to be reconciled; and to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book; nor hastily to give my assent to those who talk overmuch; and I am indebted to him for being acquainted with the discourses of Epictetus, which he communicated to me out of his own collection.

    [A] Q. Junius Rusticus was a Stoic philosopher, whom Antoninus
    valued highly, and often took his advice (Capitol. M.  Antonin.
    iii).

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Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.