Meditations
The sympathy he asks he also gives, and as old age brings more and more
infirmity, Marcus becomes even more solicitous for his beloved teacher.
The poor old man suffered a heavy blow in the death of his grandson, on
which Marcus writes:[44] 'I have just heard of your misfortune. Feeling
grieved as I do when one of your joints gives you pain, what do you
think I feel, dear master, when you have pain of mind?' The old man's
reply, in spite of a certain self-consciousness, is full of pathos. He
recounts with pride the events of a long and upright life, in which he
has wronged no man, and lived in harmony with his friends and family.
His affectations fall away from him, as the cry of pain is forced from
his heart:--
[42] Ad M. Caes., v. 19
[43] iv. 11
[44] De Nepote Amissa
[45]'Many such sorrows has fortune visited me with all my life long. To
pass by my other afflictions, I have lost five children under the most
pitiful conditions possible: for the five I lost one by one when each
was my only child, suffering these blows of bereavement in such a manner
that each child was born to one already bereaved. Thus I ever lost my
children without solace, and got them amidst fresh grief.....'
[45] De Nepote Amissa 2
The letter continues with reflections on the nature of death, 'more to
be rejoiced at than bewailed, the younger one dies,' and an arraignment
of Providence not without dignity, wrung from him as it were by this
last culminating misfortune. It concludes with a summing-up of his life
in protest against the blow which has fallen on his grey head.
'Through my long life I have committed nothing which might bring
dishonour, or disgrace, or shame: no deed of avarice or treachery have
I done in all my day's: nay, but much generosity, much kindness, much
truth and faithfulness have I shown, often at the risk of my own life.
I have lived in amity with my good brother, whom I rejoice to see in
possession of the highest office by your father's goodness, and by your
friendship at peace and perfect rest. The offices which I have myself
obtained I never strove for by any underhand means. I have cultivated
my mind rather than my body; the pursuit of learning I have preferred to
increasing my wealth. I preferred to be poor rather than bound by any'
man's obligation, even to want rather than to beg. I have never been
extravagant in spending money, I have earned it sometimes because I
must. I have scrupulously spoken the truth, and have been glad to hear
it spoken to me. I have thought it better to be neglected than to fawn,
to be dumb than to feign, to be seldom a friend than to be often a
flatterer. I have sought little, deserved not little. So far as I could,
I have assisted each according to my means. I have given help readily
to the deserving, fearlessly to the undeserving. No one by proving to be
ungrateful has made me more slow to bestow promptly all benefits I could
give, nor have I ever been harsh to ingratitude. (A fragmentary passage
follows, in which he appears to speak of his desire for a peaceful
end, and the desolation of his house.) I have suffered long and painful
sickness, my beloved Marcus. Then I was visited by pitiful misfortunes:
my wife I have lost, my grandson I have lost in Germany:[46] woe is me!
I have lost my Decimanus. If I were made of iron, at this tine I could
write no more.'
[46] In the war against the Catti.
It is noteworthy that in his _Meditations_ Marcus Aurelius mentions
Fronto only once.[47] All his literary studies, his oratory and
criticism (such as it was) is forgotten; and, says he, 'Fronto taught
me not to expect natural affection from the highly-born.' Fronto really
said more than this: that 'affection' is not a Roman quality, nor has
it a Latin name.[48] Roman or not Roman, Marcus found affection in
Fronto; and if he outgrew his master's intellectual training, he never
lost touch with the true heart of the man it is that which Fronto's
name brings up to his remembrance, not dissertations on compound verbs
or fatuous criticisms of style.
[47] Book I., 8.
[48] Ad Verum, ii. 7
NOTES
This being neither a critical edition of the text nor an emended edition
of Casaubon's translation, it has not been thought necessary to add full
notes. Casaubon's own notes have been omitted, because for the most part
they are discursive, and not necessary to an understanding of what is
written. In those which here follow, certain emendations of his
are mentioned, which he proposes in his notes, and follows in the
translation. In addition, one or two corrections are made where he has
mistaken the Greek, and the translation might be misleading. Those which
do not come under these two heads will explain themselves.
The text itself has been prepared by a comparison of the editions of
1634 and 1635. It should be borne in mind that Casaubon's is often
rather a paraphrase than a close translation; and it did not seem worth
while to notice every variation or amplification of the original. In
the original editions all that Casaubon conceives as understood, but
not expressed, is enclosed in square brackets. These brackets are here
omitted, as they interfere with the comfort of the reader; and so have
some of the alternative renderings suggested by the translator. In a few
cases, Latin words in the text have been replaced by English.
Numbers in brackets refer to the Teubner text of Stich, but the
divisions of the text are left unaltered. For some of the references
identified I am indebted to Mr. G. H. Rendall's _Marcus Aurelius_.
BOOK II "Both to frequent" (4). Gr. τὸ μή, C. conjectures τὸ μὲ. The
text is probably right: "I did not frequent public lectures, and I was
taught at home."
VI Idiots.... philosophers (9). The reading is doubtful, but the meaning
seems to be: "simple and unlearned men"
XII "Claudius Maximus" (15). The reading of the Palatine MS. (now lost)
was paraklhsiz Maximon, which C. supposes to conceal the letters kl as
an abbreviation of Claudius.
XIII "Patient hearing... He would not" (16). C. translates his
conjectural reading epimonon ollan. on proapsth Stich suggests a reading
with much the same sense: .....epimonon all antoi "Strict and rigid
dealing" (16). C. translates tonvn (Pal. MS.) as though from tonoz,
in the sense of "strain." "rigour." The reading of other MSS. tonvn is
preferable.
XIII "Congiaries" (13). dianomais, "doles."
XIV "Cajeta" (17). The passage is certainly corrupt. C. spies a
reference to Chryses praying by the sea-shore in the Illiad, and
supposes M. Aurelius to have done the like. None of the emendations
suggested is satisfactory. At § XV. Book II. is usually reckoned to
begin. BOOK II III. "Do, soul" (6). If the received reading be right,
it must be sarcastic; but there are several variants which show how
unsatisfactory it is. C. translates "en gar o bioz ekasty so par eanty",
which I do not understand. The sense required is: "Do not violence to
thyself, for thou hast not long to use self-respect. Life is not (v. 1.
so long for each, and this life for thee is all but done."
X. "honour and credit do proceed" (12). The verb has dropt out of the
text, but C. has supplied one of the required meaning.
XI. "Consider," etc. (52). This verb is not in the Greek, which means:
"(And reason also shows) how man, etc."
BOOK IV XV. "Agathos" (18): This is probably not a proper name, but the
text seems to be unsound. The meaning may be "the good man ought"
XVI. oikonomian (16) is a "practical benefit," a secondary end. XXXIX.
"For herein lieth all...." (~3). C. translates his conjecture olan for
ola.
BOOK V XIV. katorqwseiz (15): Acts of "rightness" or "straightness."
XXIII. "Roarer" (28): Gr. "tragedian." Ed. 1 has whoremonger,' ed.
2 corrects to "harlot," but omits to alter' the word at its second
occurrence.
XXV. "Thou hast... them" (33): A quotation from Homer, Odyssey, iv. 690.
XXVII. "One of the poets" (33): Hesiod, Op. et Dies, 197.
XXIX and XXX. (36). The Greek appears to contain quotations from sources
not known, and the translation is a paraphrase. (One or two alterations
are here made on the authority of the second edition.) BOOK VI XIII.
"Affected and qualified" (i4): exis, the power of cohesion shown in
things inanimate; fusiz, power of growth seen in plants and the like.
XVII. "Wonder at them" (18): i.e. mankind.
XXXVII. "Chrysippus" (42): C. refers to a passage of Plutarch De
Communibus Notitiis (c. xiv.), where Chrysippus is represented as saying
that a coarse phrase may be vile in itself, yet have due place in a
comedy as contributing to a certain effect.
XL. "Man or men..." There is no hiatus in the Greek, which means:
"Whatever (is beneficial) for a man is so for other men also."
XLII. There is no hiatus in the Greek.
BOOK VII IX. C. translates his conjecture mh for h. The Greek means
"straight, or rectified," with a play on the literal and metaphorical
meaning of ortoz.
XIV. endaimonia. contains the word daimwn in composition. XXII. The text
is corrupt, but the words "or if it be but few" should be "that is
little enough."
XXIII. "Plato": Republic, vi. p. 486 A.
XXV. "It will," etc. Euripides, Belerophon, frag. 287 (Nauck).
"Lives," etc. Euripides, Hypsipyle, frag. 757 (Nauck). "As long," etc.
Aristophanes, Acharne, 66 i.
"Plato" Apology, p. 28 B.
"For thus" Apology, p. 28 F.
XXVI. "But, O noble sir," etc. Plato, Gorgias, 512 D. XXVII. "And as
for those parts," etc. A quotation from Euripides, Chryssipus, frag. 839
(Nauck).
"With meats," etc. From Euripides, Supplices, 1110. XXXIII. "They both,"
i.e. life and wrestling.
"Says he" (63): Plato, quoted by Epictetus, Arr. i. 28, 2 and 22.
XXXVII. "How know we," etc. The Greek means: "how know we whether
Telauges were not nobler in character than Sophocles?" The allusion is
unknown.
XXVII. "Frost" The word is written by Casaubon as a proper name,
"Pagus.'
"The hardihood of Socrates was famous"; see Plato, Siymposium, p. 220.
BOOK X XXII. The Greek means, "paltry breath bearing up corpses, so that
the tale of Dead Man's Land is clearer."
XXII. "The poet" (21): Euripides, frag. 898 (Nauck); compare Aeschylus,
Danaides, frag. 44.
XXIV. "Plato" (23): Theaetetus, p. 174 D.
XXXIV. "The poet" (34): Homer, Iliad, vi. 147.
XXXIV. "Wood": A translation of ulh, "matter."
XXXVIII. "Rhetoric" (38): Rather "the gift of speech"; or perhaps the
"decree" of the reasoning faculty.
BOOK XI V. "Cithaeron" (6): Oedipus utters this cry after discovering
that he has fulfilled his awful doom, he was exposed on Cithaeron as
an infant to die, and the cry implies that he wishes he had died there.
Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 1391.
V. "New Comedy...," etc. C. has here strayed from the Greek rather
widely. Translate: "and understand to what end the New Comedy was
adopted, which by small degrees degenerated into a mere show of skill
in mimicry." C. writes Comedia Vetus, Media, Nova. XII. "Phocion" (13):
When about to be put to death he charged his son to bear no malice
against the Athenians.
XXVIII. "My heart," etc. (31): From Homer, Odyssey ix. 413. "They will"
From Hesiod, Opera et Dies, 184.
"Epictetus" Arr. i. II, 37.
XXX. "Cut down grapes" (35): Correct "ears of corn." "Epictetus"(36):
Arr. 3, 22, 105.
GLOSSARY
This Glossary includes all proper names (excepting a few which are
insignificant or unknown) and all obsolete or obscure words. ADRIANUS,
or Hadrian (76-138 A. D.), 14th Roman Emperor.
Agrippa, M. Vipsanius (63-12 B.C.), a distinguished soldier under
Augustus.
Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, and Conqueror of the East,
356-323 B.C.
Antisthenes of Athens, founder of the sect of Cynic philosophers, and an