Marcus Aurelius, Rome's Greastest Emperor

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Who is Marcus Aurelius? What did he do to make his mark in the pages of history? Why did the people of Rome respect and admire him? To the common person, Marcus was just a man who was an emperor of Rome and just another person who helped shaped this world. Marcus Aurelius was more than that! Anthony Birley writes, “The acquaintance of a man like Marcus Aurelius is an imperishable benefit.” The character of Marcus Aurelius is truly special, but was molded by many important people and figures in his life. With the absence of honor and duty in Rome, influences such as Junius Rusticus, a book called “The Discourses of Epictetus”, and the Roman Emperor Hadrian, led Marcus Aurelius to become one of the most important stoics and one of Rome’s greatest Emperors.

From the very beginning of his life, Marcus Aurelius Antonion Augustus was destine to become one of the worlds most remarkable men. Born into an advantageous environment—blood, education, status—Marcus had all the opportunities to succeed. Marcus’s family had been very involved with helping the empire. His grandfather M. Annius Verus, served as the presiding perfect or mayor three times, his father Annius Verus, was praetor of the city, and mother Domitia Lucilla, was a consul’s daughter and heiress to fortune and was also a scholar in both Greek and Latin literature. Coming from a family with high ideals, it is not odd to see how he was able to revive Rome’s vision of doing what one should consider right.

The first eight years from being adopted from Antoninus Pius, Marcus spent studying subjects such as Roman law, philosophy, and literature. Marcus was first introduce to subjects such as these from Cornelius Fronto, a leader during his time in the senate and a ...

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..., that is to the highest part of himself, the governing element, the deity within him. Marcus writes, “Man violates his soul when he turns away from any human being or is borne against him with intent to injure him. Love the human race.” Marcus understood that a good stoic could not be annoyed by others, but found it hard to deal with.

Works Cited

Anthony Birley, Marcus Aurelius, (Psychology Press, 2000), 9.

Brand Blanshard, Four Reasonable Men, Marcus Aurelius, John Stuart Mill, Ernest Renan, Henry Sidgwick, (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1984), 5.

Arthur Spenser Loat Farquharson, Marcus Aurelius, His Life And His World, (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Pub Group, 1975), 53.

M.L Clarke, The Roman Mind: Studies In The History Of Thought From Cicero to Marcus Aurelius, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1956), 33.

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