The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antonius: (Forgotten Books) [Paperback]

Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 13, 2007

Book Description:

"This Roman Stoic hands down the day-to-day principles on which an all-powerful Emperor ruled for the welfare of the people." (Quote from bartleby.com)

Table of Contents:

Publisher's Preface; Book One; Book Two; Book Three; Book Four; Book Five; Book Six; Book Seven; Book Eight; Book Nine; Book Ten; Book Eleven; Book Twelve

About the Publisher:

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org

Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

About the Author:

"Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, born in Rome AD 121, the date of his birth being variously stated as the 6th, 21st and 26th of April. His original name was Marcus Annius Verus. His mother Domitia Calvilla (or Lucilla) was a lady of consular rank, and the family of his father Annius Verus (prefect of the city and thrice consul), originally Spanish, had received patrician rank from Vespasian. Marcus was three months old when his father died, and was thereupon adopted by his grandfather. The moral training which he received from his grandfather and his mother must have been all but perfect. The noble qualities of the child attracted the attention of Hadrian, who, playing upon the name ""Verus"", said that it should be changed to ""Verissimus."" Hadrian adopted, as his successor, Antoninus Pius, uncle of Marcus, on condition that he in turn adopted both Marcus (then seventeen) and Lucius Ceionius Commodus, the son of Aelius Caesar, who had originally been intended by Hadrian as his successor, but had died before him. Marcus had been, at the age of fifteen, betrothed to Fabia, the sister of Commodus; the engagement was broken off by Antoninus Pius, and he was betrothed to Faustina, the daughter of the latter. In 139 the title of Caesar was conferred upon him and he dropped the name of Verus. The full name he then bore was Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus, Aelius coming from Hadrian's family, and Aurelius being the original name of Antoninus Pius. In 140 he was made consul." (Quote from nndb.com)

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: Forgotten Books (December 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605063568
• ISBN-13: 978-1605063560
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Amateur publication..., November 29, 2009

By 

P Presta (Overland Park, KS, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antonius: (Forgotten Books) (Paperback)

The first thing to greet me when I opened my newly arrived Forgotten Books edition of the Meditations was the following paragraph:

"...this book has been scanned and reformatted from the original, and as such we cannot guarantee that it is free from errors or contains the full content of the original."

Charming. There is no foreward from the translator as one would expect from a quality publication and the cover looks like it was done in 10 minutes in MSPaint. That combined with the above paragraph makes the whole book seem amateurish...

As for the actual text, the translator seems to sacrifice clarity for a somewhat archaic style of English which does have its appeal, however I tend to regard the former as more important in a book of philosophy. I recommend instead either the Oxford Classic or the Penguin Classics edition.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Verbose and Unneccisarily Romantic Language, May 4, 2008

By 

Stan "Rocket-Reader" (Baghdad, Iraq) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antonius: (Forgotten Books) (Paperback)

I love reading Marcus Aurelius but George Long's translation is painful. Marcus Aurelius's thoughts and philosophical concepts are complex enough without the flowery verbosity and the unnecessary King James English.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emperors book of wisdom, January 20, 2008

By 

Steve Burns (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antonius: (Forgotten Books) (Paperback)

This book will give you the rare opportunity to read a book of wisdom written by a Roman Emperor. Marcus Aurelius was a well liked emperor you lived from 120 A.D. to 180 A.D. ruling in the late part of his life. The book's theme is to live your life in balance with the universe. Do your duty and fulfill the role the "Gods" put you on earth to do. Let reason be your master always doing what is beneficial to all. Do not sin because you only sin against yourself. Why worry about correcting others behaviors when you have so much uncompleted work to do on yourself. If you enjoy reading Plato, Epictetus, or philosophy in general I know you will enjoy reading this book, it is truly packed with wisdom and will take you back to Roman times and let you see how the wise among them thought before the dark ages and modern religion came on the stage of civilization. Very interesting read.