Marcus Aurelius Meditations

There seems to be an ambiguity as to whether Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations is indeed a private document, or whether it was meant for a broader audience. Marcus Aurelius makes many private comments such as, “From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper,” in the Medications that indicate that the book was a personal diary or a journal rather than a book meant for others. Marcus Aurelius records his private notes and ideas on the Stoic philosophy which further supports the argument that the book is a diary, as he expresses himself without a filter and jots down his ideas and beliefs in an informal way and uses the book as a source of self-improvement.

The intimacy within Marcus Aurelius can be seen in chapter 5 verse 26 where he reflects upon himself and tries to form ideas of how to lead an ideal life. He argues, “Let the part of your soul that leads and governs be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let it not unite with them, but let it circumscribe itself and limit those affects to their parts,” and focuses on how to control his thoughts and emotions. He argues that we have emotions and thoughts, and both are different, separate things where we cannot control our emotions, but we can control our thoughts on those emotions. Aurelius explains to himself how the mind is the

He uses informal language, uses unorthodox style, and uses a bulleted layout rather than a smooth storytelling one. This infers that Aurelius was writing in a diary or a journal and not in a book that he was trying to share with the rest of the world. It is highly unlikely that Aurelius ever wanted the writings to be published publicly. Meditations deals with one’s judgment of self and others and learning one’s position in the grand cosmic perspective which Aurelius was trying to figure out for