Marcus Aurelius and His Meditations Marcus Aurelius (121 A.D to 180 A.D.) , Emperor of Rome (r. 161 A.D. to 180 A.D.), wrote all his deepest insights and strategic plans in a personal diary, which was later published. He was very focused on his philosophy and his Stoic lifestyle, which was also included in his Meditations. His journal also contained lessons from Epictetus and his principles of life. Although Marcus wrote Meditations as a personal keepsake with all his private thoughts, it still has many valuable lessons that could be useful to society. One of the greatest emperors of Rome learned multitudes of lessons from his education.
The people blamed Socrates to have a neutral approach towards their Gods, so they decided to put the blame on him for all the misfortunes. Socrates actually believed in after death which means that he also respected the presence of supernatural
He describes the emperor as “an agent of destiny”. Decius was a ponitfex maximus who was responsible for sacrificial rights. The end goal for emperors was to achieve peace with the gods avoiding their anger in nature and society (Brent 120). According to Novak in his book, “Christianity and the Roman Empire,” Decius’ edict was issued in December of 249 AD. The basic demand of the edict was that all Roman citizens were to give sacrifices to the gods for the safety of both the emperor and empire.
Almost immediately after Augustus came to power, he began manipulating Rome’s entire political system in order to give himself absolute control. In an excerpt from the Annals by Tacitus, Augustus’s predecessor, Julius Caesar, is described as “an aged sovereign… who had provided his heirs with abundant means to coerce the State.” After Caesar was killed, every authority he held was passed on without consideration. From the very beginning of his career, Augustus was practically handed his place as a powerful leader, and he used this position to continuously strip Rome’s Senate of its influence, giving himself more authority. Historian Cassius Dio writes: “He gave the Senate control of the weaker provinces, on the ground
Two pieces from this time period, Plato’s Republic and Cicero’s Laws, focus on the knowledge needed in order to govern well and live the best kind of life. After analyzing both pieces, it can be concluded that knowledge of intellect and philosophical intuition, not necessarily just laws themselves, is needed in order to govern efficiently and achieve the most ideal type of life. Plato believes that in order to govern well,
The first lesson is about individualism and freedom. Byzantium flourished when it allowed its citizens, and particularly its soldiers, greater individual freedom and responsibility. The second lesson from Byzantium is on war strategies. Heraclius made the conscious decision not to fight at the borders. He focused less on territory and more on defeating the enemy in the most efficient
In Book V of the Republic, Plato exhibits the point of view of his teacher, Socrates, regarding sexual relations between the male and the female guardians in the context of an ideal city. Socrates teaching method was constituted by arguments on certain notions throughout which various opinions were presented while Plato was capturing them. The characters that take part in his book, The Republic, are Socrates, Cephalus, Polemarchus (son of Cephalus), Glaucon (brother of Plato), Thracymachus and Adeimantus. Through his discussions, Socrates implies that a city should be divided into three groups of people as not all people can be successful in all tasks. These divisions are the producers, the guardians, and the rulers.
In the Meditations the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic, extolls the character and actions of his father for his humility, sobriety, justness, lack of anger, and patience. He places reason as that which, “promises freedom from hasty judgement, and friendship towards men, and obedience to the gods.” He argues that since life is fleeting man must live for the day, in the present, realizing that the memory of him will die with those who die soon after. To Aurelius then, since death happens to all people, as does both good and bad, it is virtuous actions through the “commands of reason” that bring truth, love, and contentment. Virtue then is the highest quality in man, and it is governed by reason. Virtue is centered in and willfully pursued by human nature.
First, I will introduce these two schools in general. Specifically, Stoicism is served as an ethics which is famed by its way of logically thinking and its perception towards the natural world. What’s more, Stoics always try to limit themselves in a
Stoicism is a religion that was founded in an ancient Greek school of philosophy. Tillich states that, “Stoicism in this sense is a basic religious attitude, whether it appears in theistic, atheistic, or transtheistic forms.” Stoicism is both a philosophy and a religious attitude. Stoicism is not as unusual of a religion as many people think. Stoicism is actually quite similar to Buddhism, and even Catholicism. Stoicism does have a few different views on things like the way they view the world.