Meditations

The prescript that frames Book 2 indicates that Marcus composed his entries during the 170s, when his military campaigns brought him into conflict with the Quadi, a Germanic tribe. Like Book 1, Book 2 is characterized by its compositional and thematic unity. Unsurprising given the private nature of the Meditations (when he uses the second-person pronoun, he is speaking to himself), Marcus here and across the text repeatedly revisits the same concerns, differing primarily in how he approaches them. He alternately exhorts, questions, encourages, and comforts himself. Other times, he seems to scold himself, still others simply to observe untroubled. The character of his responses likely is shaped by the pressing needs and particular struggles of the moment.

His reminder to himself that he will inevitably interact with people who exhibit bad behavior speaks to the importance of focusing his attention on himself and his own thoughts and actions, rather than on what others say or do. This is also reflected in his discussion on the importance of regulating his responses, not allowing others to provoke anger or hatred in him, since this would be acting against his beliefs about the unity of all. As a “fragment of dignity” lives in him, it lives also in others.

Marcus’s reflections on the Whole offer a fuller treatment of the theme of fate, free will, and divine intervention. Repeatedly across the Meditations, Marcus references the divine Whole into which all matter is enfolded and which works to benefit all matter. Though his terminology alternates, his view is essentially a theistic one: He believes in and holds reverence for the divine, variously referring to it as the gods, God in the singular, Nature, Providence, Fate, universal Nature, the nature of the Whole, or simply the Whole. A few times, he names Zeus (the Greek king of the Gods, whom the Romans called Jupiter) and once Clotho (one of the Fates in ancient Greek tradition). Effectively, these terms are used interchangeably, speaking to the relationship between what is mutable (mortals; the material) and what is eternal (the divine essence that shapes and reshapes matter) and the implications of this relationship on living a virtuous life.

A third theme developed in Book 2 is Mortality and the Transience of Life, which is introduced in his discussion of Providence and the works of the gods. The way of nature dictates a limited lifespan for mortals. Death, then, is inevitable, and since the Whole acts to benefit all its parts, it must be accepted in these terms and not feared. The only thing humans should fear is acting contrary to nature, whether by revolting against it, rejecting or intending to harm others, losing control to pleasure and pain, being dishonest, or acting without forethought. These behaviors can be understood as resulting from false beliefs about mortality and its consequences on human life.