Table Of ContentMARCUS AURELIUS:
A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
Bloomsbury Guides for the Perplexed
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Guides for the Perplexed available from Bloomsbury:
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Socrates: A Guide for the Perplexed, Sara Ahbel-Rappe
Stoics: A Guide for the Perplexed, M. Andrew Holowchak
Suetonius: A Guide for the Perplexed, Tristan Power
MARCUS AURELIUS:
A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
WILLIAM O. STEPHENS
Bloomsbury Academic
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© William O. Stephens, 2012
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-2561-3
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For my father
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. The Man, the Emperor, the Thinker
The Man
Judging a Book by Its Title
The Family and Boyhood of “Truest”
The Philosopher-Prince
The Early Reign
A Stoic at War
Father and Son
The Thinker
2. The Influence of Heraclitus and Epictetus
Heraclitus
The divine law of logos
Sleeping, waking, remembering
Harmony of opposites
River
Flux, fire, and fortitude
Epictetus
Plato’s Socrates as a Stoic hero
Mighty mind and beastly body
Death’s door
The theater of life
3. Wholes and Parts
Simple Mereology
The Parts of a Person
Cosmic Holism
Death Harmlessly Transforms
Limbs of the Social Body
The Bees and the Hive
What, Then, is the Good of the Individual Citizen?
4. Time, Transience, and Eternity
The Rushing River of Existence
All that Happens Happened Before
Time Quickly Erases
The Gift of the Present
You Can’t Lose What You Don’t Have
5. Virtues, Vices, and Junk
Determine its Nature, Substance, Cause, Purpose, and Duration
Stupid, Paltry, Decaying, Putrid, Filthy, Vile, Contemptible, Worthless Junk
Ashes, Bones, and Smoke
What in Us Should We Prize?
The Task of Philosophy
Goodness is Your Job: Perfect Your Character
Justice and Reverence, Injustice and Blasphemy
The Self-cleaning Spring and the All-consuming Fire
What is Owed to Others
Epilogue: The Soul of a Stoic
Appendix: Marcus, Maximus, and Stoicism in Gladiator (2000)
Notes
Glossary
Further Reading
Subject Index
Name Index
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Bust of Marcus Aurelius in the first portrait type, circa 140 CE
Genealogical diagram
Marcus’ Roman Empire
The Northern Frontiers
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many are to thank for helping me complete this book. I am grateful to the Graduate School of
Creighton University for the 2010 Summer Faculty Research Scholarship that supported this
project. I thank the Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society of Creighton
University for the grant that funded a course release for time to work on the book Fall
semester 2010. Jeff Hause’s comments on Chapter 2, Scott Rubarth’s comments on Chapter
3, Anne Ozar’s comments on the Appendix, and Ryan Wallenstein’s comments on all the
chapters and the Appendix all considerably improved the book. Tony Long kindly directed
me to the introduction to Hutcheson’s translation of the Meditations. I greatly appreciate the
stalwart production of the Subject Index by Jack Dudley. Cartographer extraordinaire Dave
Helm has my deep gratitude for the patient, good humored artistry, and long hours he
lavished on the maps. Thanks also go to the editors at Continuum who invited me to propose
this book for their Guides for the Perplexed series and patiently awaited its delivery. I am
especially grateful to Greg Bucher for his wise advice on Chapter 1 and for gently prodding
me to provide the glossary, the genealogical diagram, the maps, and the photograph.
Selecting and obtaining the right to reproduce the photograph from the Deutsches
Archäologisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, and composing the description of it would
have been impossible without his assistance. All of these friends were generous with their
time, talents, and encouragement, and all have my gratitude. Naturally, I am responsible for
the shortcomings of the book that remain.
W. O. S.
Omaha, July 2011
