A quiet reader for Marcus Aurelius's Meditations
Marcus Aurelius wrote the Meditations in private, for himself, while serving as a soldier and emperor. The text was never meant for publication. It survived anyway — first in manuscript, then in print, then in translation into nearly every European language.
This site publishes all 487 passages in the public-domain George Long translation (1862), with an index, full-text search, and a direct link to every passage. No commentary, no ads, no signup.
The Letters to Fronto section adds 213 surviving letters between Marcus and his rhetoric teacher, in C. R. Haines's Loeb translation.
Everything
All 487 passages across twelve books, translated by George Long (1862).
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Every passage has its own URL. Cite, share, or quote without losing the reference.
Public domain
The George Long translation is in the public domain. You can reuse it freely.
Who was Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius (full name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, 121–180 CE) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 — the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors. A student of the philosopher Junius Rusticus, he ruled jointly with Lucius Verus until 169 and spent most of his reign on military campaigns against the Parthians, the Marcomanni, and the Quadi.
Stoicism — the school founded by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE — held that virtue is sufficient for happiness and that external circumstances lie outside our control. Marcus continued the Roman Stoic line of Seneca and Epictetus, whose Discourses he read closely. He died at Vindobona (modern Vienna) in 180 and was succeeded by his son Commodus.
About the Meditations
The Meditations (Greek Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν, literally "to himself") is a private notebook Marcus kept on military campaign, mostly between 170 and 180 CE. It was never meant for publication. The first known mention is in a letter by the Byzantine bishop Arethas of Caesarea around 900 CE. The first printed edition was published by Wilhelm Xylander in Zürich in 1559.
The book is sometimes called To Himself or ad se ipsum after the Greek title. On this site you read it in the public-domain George Long translation (1862) — all twelve books, 487 passages, every one of them with its own URL.