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MED. 1.7
George Long · 1862 EN · Long

From PERSONRusticus1 I received the impression that my character required improvement and discipline; and from him I learned not to be led astray to sophistic emulation, nor to writing on speculative matters, nor to delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing myself off as a man who practises much discipline, or does benevolent acts in order to make a display; and to abstain from rhetoric, and poetry, and fine writing; and not to walk about in the house in my outdoor dress2, nor to do other things of the kind; and to write my letters with simplicity, like the letter which Rusticus wrote from Sinuessa3 to my mother; and with respect to those who have offended me by words, or done me wrong, to be easily disposed to be pacified and reconciled, as soon as they have shown a readiness to be reconciled; and to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book; nor hastily to give my assent to those who talk overmuch; and I am indebted to him for being acquainted with the discourses of Epictetus4, which he communicated to me out of his own collection.

Original · ancient Greek

Παρὰ Ῥουστίκου τὸ λαβεῖν φαντασίαν τοῦ χρῄζειν διορθώσεως καὶ θεραπείας τοῦ ἤθους· καὶ τὸ μὴ ἐκτραπῆναι εἰς ζῆλον σοφιστικόν, μηδὲ τὸ συγγράφειν περὶ τῶν θεωρημάτων, ἢ προτρεπτικὰ λογάρια διαλέγεσθαι, ἢ φαντασιοπλήκτως τὸν ἀσκητικὸν ἢ τὸν ἐνεργητικὸν ἄνδρα ἐπιδείκνυσθαι·

καὶ τὸ ἀποστῆναι ῥητορικῆς καὶ ποιητικῆς καὶ ἀστειολογίας· καὶ τὸ μὴ ἐν στολῇ κατ' οἶκον περιπατεῖν μηδὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα ποιεῖν· καὶ τὸ τὰ ἐπιστόλια ἀφελῶς γράφειν, οἷον τὸ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τούτου ἀπὸ Σινοέσσης τῇ μητρί μου γραφέν·

καὶ τὸ πρὸς τοὺς χαλεπήναντας καὶ πλημμελήσαντας εὐανακλήτως καὶ εὐδιαλλάκτως, ἐπειδὰν τάχιστα αὐτοὶ ἐπανελθεῖν ἐθελήσωσι, διακεῖσθαι· καὶ τὸ ἀκριβῶς ἀναγινώσκειν καὶ μὴ ἀρκεῖσθαι περινοοῦντα ὁλοσχερῶς μηδὲ τοῖς περιλαλοῦσι ταχέως συγκατατίθεσθαι· καὶ τὸ ἐντυχεῖν τοῖς Ἐπικτητείοις ὑπομνήμασιν, ὧν οἴκοθεν μετέδωκεν.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Commentary

Genre and place in the book. The seventh entry in the catalogue of debts, devoted to PERSONQ. Junius Rusticus — the most doctrinally influential of all of Marcus's teachers and the only one whose name Marcus associates with a pivotal event in his biography: the receipt of a copy of Epictetus's Discourses. After 01-06, where Diognetus gave Marcus the philosophical disposition and the visible ascetic mode, 01-07 fixes the transition to school philosophical formation: Marcus meets not a "teacher of life" but a doctrinal Stoic who corrects the adolescent philosophical habitus already formed. The paragraph is structurally the longest after 01-16 (Antoninus Pius) and 01-17 (the thanksgiving to the gods); only these three portraits occupy more space in Book I, which reflects their relative weight in the formation of Marcus.

Who is Junius Rusticus. Q. Junius Rusticus — Roman senator and Stoic philosopher; ordinary consul of 162 (during what was already the joint reign of Marcus and Lucius Verus), later prefect of the city. The grandson of Q. Junius Arulenus Rusticus — the oppositional Stoic senator under Domitian, executed in 93 for a panegyric on Thrasea Paetus. Junius Rusticus thus inherited the direct tradition of the "Stoic opposition" of the first century — the line that ran from Thrasea through Helvidius to Arulenus. More in the PERSONcard.

The structure of the passage. The three Greek paragraphs match the content-logical blocks:

  1. Paragraph 1 — the general apprehension of the need for θεραπεία ἤθους + four anti-sophistic maxims (not to deviate into σοφιστικός ζῆλος, not to write theoretical treatises, not to deliver protreptic speeches, not to play the ascetic or the benefactor).
  2. Paragraph 2 — three transitions to simplicity (renunciation of ῥητορική / ποιητική / ἀστειολογία; renunciation of the στολή at home; plain letters, with a concrete example — the letter of Rusticus from Sinuessa to Marcus's mother).
  3. Paragraph 3 — three "practical" maxims (quick reconciliation, accurate reading / slow assent, access to Epictetus's Ὑπομνήματα).

The movement is from diagnosis (1), through the asceticism of public self-presentation (2), to positive intellectual-ethical practices (3), and it culminates in the meeting with Epictetus. Compositionally the whole paragraph is organised around this final meeting: everything preceding it prepares Marcus for the Discourses of Epictetus to fall on the right ground.

Paragraph 1: φαντασία τοῦ χρῄζειν διορθώσεως.

  • τὸ λαβεῖν φαντασίαν — literally "to receive a φαντασία," a standard Stoic term: "impression," "presentation." Here φαντασία is not a passive perception but a cognitive event: Marcus, in his commerce with Rusticus, receives the impression (that is, a perception with probative force) that his own ἦθος is in need of διόρθωσις (correction, regulation) and θεραπεία (therapy, medical care). The metaphor is medical — Stoic philosophy as "the therapy of the soul" (a standard Hellenistic theme going back to Chrysippus and developed in Epictetus, Seneca, and Galen's De propriorum animi cuiuslibet affectuum dignotione et curatione). This is the central Hellenistic-Roman image of philosophy as the medicine of character.
  • τὸ μὴ ἐκτραπῆναι εἰς ζῆλον σοφιστικόν — "not to be diverted to the side, into a sophistic ζῆλος." In the second century σοφιστικός is not an attack on the fifth- and fourth-century sophists but on the Second Sophistic (Δευτέρα Σοφιστική, in Philostratus): the contemporary culture of public rhetorical virtuosity, in which the philosopher-sophist appears with spectacular declamations for the sake of δόξα and financial profit. This is the principal competitor of Stoic-style philosophy in Marcus's century. Rusticus warned Marcus against being drawn into this culture of public intellectual showmanship.
  • τὸ συγγράφειν περὶ τῶν θεωρημάτων — "not to compose [treatises] on theoretical matters." Θεωρήματα are "theoretical propositions," doctrinal points of school-philosophy. Rusticus warns Marcus against the writing of school-philosophical treatises — the characteristic genre in which the philosophers of the day produced logical, physical, ethical monographs. Marcus did not in fact write a single such treatise: the Meditations are generically opposite (not theoretical monographs, but exercises in the form of notes for himself). This Rusticus maxim is apparently directly responsible for Marcus's renunciation of the treatise as a genre.
  • προτρεπτικὰ λογάρια διαλέγεσθαι — "to deliver protreptic speeches" (i.e. exhortatory speeches calling [the hearer] to philosophy; λογάρια the diminutive of λόγος, "little speeches"). The protreptic is a separate Hellenistic genre (from Aristotle's Protrepticus to Cicero's Hortensius). Rusticus warns against the public rhetorical stylisation of philosophy.
  • φαντασιοπλήκτως τὸν ἀσκητικὸν ἢ τὸν ἐνεργητικὸν ἄνδρα ἐπιδείκνυσθαι — "not to show oneself off, struck by an impression, either as a man ἀσκητικός (an ascetic) or as a man ἐνεργητικός (active, a benefactor)." Φαντασιόπληκτος literally is "stricken by a φαντασία" — taken in by an image / impression, self-dazzled by one's own role. This is a critique of two kinds of philosophical publicity: (a) the show of asceticism (the φιλόσοφος who visibly displays his unpretentiousness) — and (b) the show of benefaction (the philosopher-"benefactor" demonstratively performing good works). This maxim directly correlates with 01-06: there Diognetus inculcated in Marcus the Greek ἀγωγή (the cloak, ascesis, σκίμπους + δορά); here Rusticus teaches him not to parade this habitus. This is the resolution of an apparent contradiction: the adolescent ascetic instinct (01-06) is corrected by Rusticus's mature moderation (01-07).

Paragraph 2: simplicity.

  • τὸ ἀποστῆναι ῥητορικῆς καὶ ποιητικῆς καὶ ἀστειολογίας — "to abstain from rhetoric, poetic art, and ἀστειολογία (urbane learned conversation)." Ἀστειολογία is "urbane" (ἀστεῖος) speech, the worldly verbal virtuosity. In his youth Marcus was actively occupied with rhetoric under Fronto (see 01-11), and the surviving correspondence with Fronto documents how Marcus at a certain point moved away from the rhetorical formation — and this is the very "moving away" that here is ascribed to Rusticus. Med. 1.17 indirectly thanks the gods that Marcus did not advance too far in the rhetorical education.
  • τὸ μὴ ἐν στολῇ κατ' οἶκον περιπατεῖν — "not to walk about the house in a στολή." Στολή is a long ceremonial garment, normally worn out of doors (which Long translates as "outdoor dress," Rogovin as "сто́ла"; footnote ¹³ explains that στολή properly equals the Latin stola, a long woman's tunic, sometimes worn also by men). The sense of the maxim: at home not to be in public costume, not to turn private space into a stage for display. The same theme of public vs. private self-presentation as in the first paragraph, here transposed into a household modus operandi.
  • τὸ τὰ ἐπιστόλια ἀφελῶς γράφειν — "to write letters ἀφελῶς (simply, without adornment)," followed by a concrete example: "like the one he himself wrote to my mother from Σινοέσσα (Sinuessa)." Σινοέσσα / Sinuessa is the coastal town at the border of Latium and Campania (footnote ¹⁴), known for its hot springs; Rusticus evidently visited it and wrote from there to PERSONDomitia Lucilla (Marcus's mother) a letter that Marcus remembers as a model of simplicity. This is the only example in the whole of Book I of a concrete, tangible memory — Marcus does not merely enumerate virtues but refers to a text he had read, held in his hands, and that has remained in his head as exemplary. It is a detail of biographical intimacy.

Paragraph 3: practical maxims.

  • τὸ πρὸς τοὺς χαλεπήναντας καὶ πλημμελήσαντας εὐανακλήτως καὶ εὐδιαλλάκτως ... διακεῖσθαι — "to dispose oneself toward those who have grown angry and have wronged me as εὐανάκλητος (easily called back) and εὐδιάλλακτος (easily reconciled)." Εὐανάκλητος is literally "easily summoned back"; εὐδιάλλακτος "easily turning about [in disposition]." The key reservation: "as soon as they themselves are willing to come back" (ἐπειδὰν τάχιστα αὐτοὶ ἐπανελθεῖν ἐθελήσωσι). This is not a one-sided pardoning — Marcus is not to run after with reconciliation; he must be ready as soon as the other makes a movement. The maxim will recur in Marcus at Med. 6.27, 7.22, 9.11. For a future emperor holding the judicial power it is technically weighty: the capacity to accept reconciliation without resentment is one of the principal "imperial" virtues in the speculum principis.
  • τὸ ἀκριβῶς ἀναγινώσκειν καὶ μὴ ἀρκεῖσθαι περινοοῦντα ὁλοσχερῶς — "to read ἀκριβῶς (accurately, with care) and not to content oneself with comprehending ὁλοσχερῶς (in the general sense)." Περινοεῖν literally is "to think round about," that is, to form a general impression of the text without entering into the detail. The Stoic hermeneutic is the slow, painstaking reading where every word is reckoned with; against the Hellenistic "culture of the aphorism" and the erudite superficiality of the Second Sophistic.
  • μηδὲ τοῖς περιλαλοῦσι ταχέως συγκατατίθεσθαι — "and not to give quick συγκατάθεσις (assent) to those who talk overmuch." Συγκατάθεσις is the technical Stoic word: the act of voluntary assent to a φαντασία. Marcus here receives from Rusticus an epistemological rule: hold off assent in the presence of much speaking (περιλαλοῦντες). This is the direct Stoic ἐποχή / suspension transferred into the context of everyday social communication.
  • τὸ ἐντυχεῖν τοῖς Ἐπικτητείοις ὑπομνήμασιν, ὧν οἴκοθεν μετέδωκεν — "and [the fact that I was able] to come upon Epictetus's Ὑπομνήματα (notes, Discourses), which he passed to me out of his own [library]." This is the pivotal biographical event. The Ὑπομνήματα of Epictetus are the Διατριβαί (Discourses) preserved thanks to the recording and publication of Arrian (Rogovin's footnote ¹⁵ makes this point: Epictetus himself wrote nothing). Rusticus gave Marcus his own copy (οἴκοθεν — "from home," that is, from his own library). In the Meditations Marcus then actively cites Epictetus (dozens of times; cf. Med. 11.33–39, where a whole series of Epictetan formulae is gathered). This encounter with the book through Rusticus is the principal doctrinal event in the educational biography of Marcus.

Biography: Junius Rusticus and Marcus. The relations of Marcus and Rusticus were apparently long and close: Rusticus is mentioned by Capitolinus (SHA Marcus, ch. 3) among the principal philosophical teachers; during Marcus's reign Rusticus will become ordinary consul of 162 and prefect of the city — offices that speak of active political trust, not only of intellectual gratitude. Dio Cassius (book 71, in the account of Marcus's reign) adds the detail that Marcus would regularly consult Rusticus even after he himself had become emperor. That is to say, Rusticus is not merely a teacher of youth but a continuing presence in the life of the emperor Marcus.

A correction to Rogovin's footnote ¹². Rogovin calls Rusticus "philosopher-Stoic, the mentor and friend of Marcus Aurelius." This is correct but understates the political dimension: Rusticus belonged to the dynasty of Stoic opposition (the grandson of Arulenus Rusticus executed under Domitian), and his standing at Marcus's court is a rehabilitation of that line. Marcus, in choosing Rusticus as his principal Stoic teacher and then as his consul and prefect of the city, closes the account between the principate and the Stoic opposition of the first century, integrating the latter into the imperial structure.

The shape of the inheritance from Rusticus. If 01-06 (Diognetus) gave Marcus the adolescent philosophical initiation (scepticism + παρρησία + ἀσκετικός habitus + the first teachers + the dialogues), then 01-07 (Rusticus) gives the school-correction of that initiation: in place of adolescent enthusiasm — mature moderation; in place of σοφιστικός ζῆλος — slow Stoic hermeneutic; in place of ostentatious asceticism — private simplicity; and, above all, the doctrinal base in the form of the Epictetan Discourses. This is the transition from the life of the philosopher (Diognetus) to the school of the philosopher (Rusticus) — exactly the transition announced in 01-06 but not yet made there.

Parallels. SHA Marcus, ch. 3 — Rusticus among the principal philosophical teachers of Marcus; his consulate of 162 and his prefecture of the city are mentioned in SHA Marcus in the later chapters on the reign. Dio Cassius, book 71 — the continuation of their collaboration under the emperor Marcus. Med. 1.17 — the thanks given to the gods for the meeting with Rusticus (indirectly). Epictetus himself — especially Diss., book 1 (on προαίρεσις), book 2 (on demonstration and assent), and book 4 (on freedom), on which Marcus subsequently leans; the precise chapters to be verified at the point of citation [verify:schenkl]. Plut. Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscatur (in the Moralia) — the canonical Stoic-Platonist treatment of the difference between friend and flatterer, the background for the Marcus-Rusticus maxim of παρρησία (as the capacity to receive criticism from the genuine friend). Galen, De propriorum animi cuiuslibet affectuum dignotione et curatione — a treatise contemporary to Marcus "on the recognition and cure of one's own affects"; the same medical metaphor as in Rusticus's opening phrase of the passage (διόρθωσις καὶ θεραπεία τοῦ ἤθους).

Record added 2026-05-25
Status published
Read · Book I

MED. I.7

Original · ancient Greek

Παρὰ Ῥουστίκου τὸ λαβεῖν φαντασίαν τοῦ χρῄζειν διορθώσεως καὶ θεραπείας τοῦ ἤθους· καὶ τὸ μὴ ἐκτραπῆναι εἰς ζῆλον σοφιστικόν, μηδὲ τὸ συγγράφειν περὶ τῶν θεωρημάτων, ἢ προτρεπτικὰ λογάρια διαλέγεσθαι, ἢ φαντασιοπλήκτως τὸν ἀσκητικὸν ἢ τὸν ἐνεργητικὸν ἄνδρα ἐπιδείκνυσθαι·

καὶ τὸ ἀποστῆναι ῥητορικῆς καὶ ποιητικῆς καὶ ἀστειολογίας· καὶ τὸ μὴ ἐν στολῇ κατ' οἶκον περιπατεῖν μηδὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα ποιεῖν· καὶ τὸ τὰ ἐπιστόλια ἀφελῶς γράφειν, οἷον τὸ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τούτου ἀπὸ Σινοέσσης τῇ μητρί μου γραφέν·

καὶ τὸ πρὸς τοὺς χαλεπήναντας καὶ πλημμελήσαντας εὐανακλήτως καὶ εὐδιαλλάκτως, ἐπειδὰν τάχιστα αὐτοὶ ἐπανελθεῖν ἐθελήσωσι, διακεῖσθαι· καὶ τὸ ἀκριβῶς ἀναγινώσκειν καὶ μὴ ἀρκεῖσθαι περινοοῦντα ὁλοσχερῶς μηδὲ τοῖς περιλαλοῦσι ταχέως συγκατατίθεσθαι· καὶ τὸ ἐντυχεῖν τοῖς Ἐπικτητείοις ὑπομνήμασιν, ὧν οἴκοθεν μετέδωκεν.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
George Long · 1862 · EN · Long

From PERSONRusticus1 I received the impression that my character required improvement and discipline; and from him I learned not to be led astray to sophistic emulation, nor to writing on speculative matters, nor to delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing myself off as a man who practises much discipline, or does benevolent acts in order to make a display; and to abstain from rhetoric, and poetry, and fine writing; and not to walk about in the house in my outdoor dress2, nor to do other things of the kind; and to write my letters with simplicity, like the letter which Rusticus wrote from Sinuessa3 to my mother; and with respect to those who have offended me by words, or done me wrong, to be easily disposed to be pacified and reconciled, as soon as they have shown a readiness to be reconciled; and to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book; nor hastily to give my assent to those who talk overmuch; and I am indebted to him for being acquainted with the discourses of Epictetus4, which he communicated to me out of his own collection.

Marginalia 4
Related 2
PERSON Quintus Junius Rusticus principal philosophical mentor of Marcus Aurelius; ordinary consul of 162, prefect of the city under Marcus; grandson of Q. Iunius Arulenus Rusticus, executed under Domitian PERSON Domitia Lucilla (the Younger) mother of Marcus Aurelius; daughter of P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso (consul 109); heiress of an enormous fortune that included the Roman brick-works *figlinae Domitiae Lucillae*; patroness of Greek philosophers and rhetoricians
Commentary

Genre and place in the book. The seventh entry in the catalogue of debts, devoted to PERSONQ. Junius Rusticus — the most doctrinally influential of all of Marcus's teachers and the only one whose name Marcus associates with a pivotal event in his biography: the receipt of a copy of Epictetus's Discourses. After 01-06, where Diognetus gave Marcus the philosophical disposition and the visible ascetic mode, 01-07 fixes the transition to school philosophical formation: Marcus meets not a "teacher of life" but a doctrinal Stoic who corrects the adolescent philosophical habitus already formed. The paragraph is structurally the longest after 01-16 (Antoninus Pius) and 01-17 (the thanksgiving to the gods); only these three portraits occupy more space in Book I, which reflects their relative weight in the formation of Marcus.

Who is Junius Rusticus. Q. Junius Rusticus — Roman senator and Stoic philosopher; ordinary consul of 162 (during what was already the joint reign of Marcus and Lucius Verus), later prefect of the city. The grandson of Q. Junius Arulenus Rusticus — the oppositional Stoic senator under Domitian, executed in 93 for a panegyric on Thrasea Paetus. Junius Rusticus thus inherited the direct tradition of the "Stoic opposition" of the first century — the line that ran from Thrasea through Helvidius to Arulenus. More in the PERSONcard.

The structure of the passage. The three Greek paragraphs match the content-logical blocks:

  1. Paragraph 1 — the general apprehension of the need for θεραπεία ἤθους + four anti-sophistic maxims (not to deviate into σοφιστικός ζῆλος, not to write theoretical treatises, not to deliver protreptic speeches, not to play the ascetic or the benefactor).
  2. Paragraph 2 — three transitions to simplicity (renunciation of ῥητορική / ποιητική / ἀστειολογία; renunciation of the στολή at home; plain letters, with a concrete example — the letter of Rusticus from Sinuessa to Marcus's mother).
  3. Paragraph 3 — three "practical" maxims (quick reconciliation, accurate reading / slow assent, access to Epictetus's Ὑπομνήματα).

The movement is from diagnosis (1), through the asceticism of public self-presentation (2), to positive intellectual-ethical practices (3), and it culminates in the meeting with Epictetus. Compositionally the whole paragraph is organised around this final meeting: everything preceding it prepares Marcus for the Discourses of Epictetus to fall on the right ground.

Paragraph 1: φαντασία τοῦ χρῄζειν διορθώσεως.

  • τὸ λαβεῖν φαντασίαν — literally "to receive a φαντασία," a standard Stoic term: "impression," "presentation." Here φαντασία is not a passive perception but a cognitive event: Marcus, in his commerce with Rusticus, receives the impression (that is, a perception with probative force) that his own ἦθος is in need of διόρθωσις (correction, regulation) and θεραπεία (therapy, medical care). The metaphor is medical — Stoic philosophy as "the therapy of the soul" (a standard Hellenistic theme going back to Chrysippus and developed in Epictetus, Seneca, and Galen's De propriorum animi cuiuslibet affectuum dignotione et curatione). This is the central Hellenistic-Roman image of philosophy as the medicine of character.
  • τὸ μὴ ἐκτραπῆναι εἰς ζῆλον σοφιστικόν — "not to be diverted to the side, into a sophistic ζῆλος." In the second century σοφιστικός is not an attack on the fifth- and fourth-century sophists but on the Second Sophistic (Δευτέρα Σοφιστική, in Philostratus): the contemporary culture of public rhetorical virtuosity, in which the philosopher-sophist appears with spectacular declamations for the sake of δόξα and financial profit. This is the principal competitor of Stoic-style philosophy in Marcus's century. Rusticus warned Marcus against being drawn into this culture of public intellectual showmanship.
  • τὸ συγγράφειν περὶ τῶν θεωρημάτων — "not to compose [treatises] on theoretical matters." Θεωρήματα are "theoretical propositions," doctrinal points of school-philosophy. Rusticus warns Marcus against the writing of school-philosophical treatises — the characteristic genre in which the philosophers of the day produced logical, physical, ethical monographs. Marcus did not in fact write a single such treatise: the Meditations are generically opposite (not theoretical monographs, but exercises in the form of notes for himself). This Rusticus maxim is apparently directly responsible for Marcus's renunciation of the treatise as a genre.
  • προτρεπτικὰ λογάρια διαλέγεσθαι — "to deliver protreptic speeches" (i.e. exhortatory speeches calling [the hearer] to philosophy; λογάρια the diminutive of λόγος, "little speeches"). The protreptic is a separate Hellenistic genre (from Aristotle's Protrepticus to Cicero's Hortensius). Rusticus warns against the public rhetorical stylisation of philosophy.
  • φαντασιοπλήκτως τὸν ἀσκητικὸν ἢ τὸν ἐνεργητικὸν ἄνδρα ἐπιδείκνυσθαι — "not to show oneself off, struck by an impression, either as a man ἀσκητικός (an ascetic) or as a man ἐνεργητικός (active, a benefactor)." Φαντασιόπληκτος literally is "stricken by a φαντασία" — taken in by an image / impression, self-dazzled by one's own role. This is a critique of two kinds of philosophical publicity: (a) the show of asceticism (the φιλόσοφος who visibly displays his unpretentiousness) — and (b) the show of benefaction (the philosopher-"benefactor" demonstratively performing good works). This maxim directly correlates with 01-06: there Diognetus inculcated in Marcus the Greek ἀγωγή (the cloak, ascesis, σκίμπους + δορά); here Rusticus teaches him not to parade this habitus. This is the resolution of an apparent contradiction: the adolescent ascetic instinct (01-06) is corrected by Rusticus's mature moderation (01-07).

Paragraph 2: simplicity.

  • τὸ ἀποστῆναι ῥητορικῆς καὶ ποιητικῆς καὶ ἀστειολογίας — "to abstain from rhetoric, poetic art, and ἀστειολογία (urbane learned conversation)." Ἀστειολογία is "urbane" (ἀστεῖος) speech, the worldly verbal virtuosity. In his youth Marcus was actively occupied with rhetoric under Fronto (see 01-11), and the surviving correspondence with Fronto documents how Marcus at a certain point moved away from the rhetorical formation — and this is the very "moving away" that here is ascribed to Rusticus. Med. 1.17 indirectly thanks the gods that Marcus did not advance too far in the rhetorical education.
  • τὸ μὴ ἐν στολῇ κατ' οἶκον περιπατεῖν — "not to walk about the house in a στολή." Στολή is a long ceremonial garment, normally worn out of doors (which Long translates as "outdoor dress," Rogovin as "сто́ла"; footnote ¹³ explains that στολή properly equals the Latin stola, a long woman's tunic, sometimes worn also by men). The sense of the maxim: at home not to be in public costume, not to turn private space into a stage for display. The same theme of public vs. private self-presentation as in the first paragraph, here transposed into a household modus operandi.
  • τὸ τὰ ἐπιστόλια ἀφελῶς γράφειν — "to write letters ἀφελῶς (simply, without adornment)," followed by a concrete example: "like the one he himself wrote to my mother from Σινοέσσα (Sinuessa)." Σινοέσσα / Sinuessa is the coastal town at the border of Latium and Campania (footnote ¹⁴), known for its hot springs; Rusticus evidently visited it and wrote from there to PERSONDomitia Lucilla (Marcus's mother) a letter that Marcus remembers as a model of simplicity. This is the only example in the whole of Book I of a concrete, tangible memory — Marcus does not merely enumerate virtues but refers to a text he had read, held in his hands, and that has remained in his head as exemplary. It is a detail of biographical intimacy.

Paragraph 3: practical maxims.

  • τὸ πρὸς τοὺς χαλεπήναντας καὶ πλημμελήσαντας εὐανακλήτως καὶ εὐδιαλλάκτως ... διακεῖσθαι — "to dispose oneself toward those who have grown angry and have wronged me as εὐανάκλητος (easily called back) and εὐδιάλλακτος (easily reconciled)." Εὐανάκλητος is literally "easily summoned back"; εὐδιάλλακτος "easily turning about [in disposition]." The key reservation: "as soon as they themselves are willing to come back" (ἐπειδὰν τάχιστα αὐτοὶ ἐπανελθεῖν ἐθελήσωσι). This is not a one-sided pardoning — Marcus is not to run after with reconciliation; he must be ready as soon as the other makes a movement. The maxim will recur in Marcus at Med. 6.27, 7.22, 9.11. For a future emperor holding the judicial power it is technically weighty: the capacity to accept reconciliation without resentment is one of the principal "imperial" virtues in the speculum principis.
  • τὸ ἀκριβῶς ἀναγινώσκειν καὶ μὴ ἀρκεῖσθαι περινοοῦντα ὁλοσχερῶς — "to read ἀκριβῶς (accurately, with care) and not to content oneself with comprehending ὁλοσχερῶς (in the general sense)." Περινοεῖν literally is "to think round about," that is, to form a general impression of the text without entering into the detail. The Stoic hermeneutic is the slow, painstaking reading where every word is reckoned with; against the Hellenistic "culture of the aphorism" and the erudite superficiality of the Second Sophistic.
  • μηδὲ τοῖς περιλαλοῦσι ταχέως συγκατατίθεσθαι — "and not to give quick συγκατάθεσις (assent) to those who talk overmuch." Συγκατάθεσις is the technical Stoic word: the act of voluntary assent to a φαντασία. Marcus here receives from Rusticus an epistemological rule: hold off assent in the presence of much speaking (περιλαλοῦντες). This is the direct Stoic ἐποχή / suspension transferred into the context of everyday social communication.
  • τὸ ἐντυχεῖν τοῖς Ἐπικτητείοις ὑπομνήμασιν, ὧν οἴκοθεν μετέδωκεν — "and [the fact that I was able] to come upon Epictetus's Ὑπομνήματα (notes, Discourses), which he passed to me out of his own [library]." This is the pivotal biographical event. The Ὑπομνήματα of Epictetus are the Διατριβαί (Discourses) preserved thanks to the recording and publication of Arrian (Rogovin's footnote ¹⁵ makes this point: Epictetus himself wrote nothing). Rusticus gave Marcus his own copy (οἴκοθεν — "from home," that is, from his own library). In the Meditations Marcus then actively cites Epictetus (dozens of times; cf. Med. 11.33–39, where a whole series of Epictetan formulae is gathered). This encounter with the book through Rusticus is the principal doctrinal event in the educational biography of Marcus.

Biography: Junius Rusticus and Marcus. The relations of Marcus and Rusticus were apparently long and close: Rusticus is mentioned by Capitolinus (SHA Marcus, ch. 3) among the principal philosophical teachers; during Marcus's reign Rusticus will become ordinary consul of 162 and prefect of the city — offices that speak of active political trust, not only of intellectual gratitude. Dio Cassius (book 71, in the account of Marcus's reign) adds the detail that Marcus would regularly consult Rusticus even after he himself had become emperor. That is to say, Rusticus is not merely a teacher of youth but a continuing presence in the life of the emperor Marcus.

A correction to Rogovin's footnote ¹². Rogovin calls Rusticus "philosopher-Stoic, the mentor and friend of Marcus Aurelius." This is correct but understates the political dimension: Rusticus belonged to the dynasty of Stoic opposition (the grandson of Arulenus Rusticus executed under Domitian), and his standing at Marcus's court is a rehabilitation of that line. Marcus, in choosing Rusticus as his principal Stoic teacher and then as his consul and prefect of the city, closes the account between the principate and the Stoic opposition of the first century, integrating the latter into the imperial structure.

The shape of the inheritance from Rusticus. If 01-06 (Diognetus) gave Marcus the adolescent philosophical initiation (scepticism + παρρησία + ἀσκετικός habitus + the first teachers + the dialogues), then 01-07 (Rusticus) gives the school-correction of that initiation: in place of adolescent enthusiasm — mature moderation; in place of σοφιστικός ζῆλος — slow Stoic hermeneutic; in place of ostentatious asceticism — private simplicity; and, above all, the doctrinal base in the form of the Epictetan Discourses. This is the transition from the life of the philosopher (Diognetus) to the school of the philosopher (Rusticus) — exactly the transition announced in 01-06 but not yet made there.

Parallels. SHA Marcus, ch. 3 — Rusticus among the principal philosophical teachers of Marcus; his consulate of 162 and his prefecture of the city are mentioned in SHA Marcus in the later chapters on the reign. Dio Cassius, book 71 — the continuation of their collaboration under the emperor Marcus. Med. 1.17 — the thanks given to the gods for the meeting with Rusticus (indirectly). Epictetus himself — especially Diss., book 1 (on προαίρεσις), book 2 (on demonstration and assent), and book 4 (on freedom), on which Marcus subsequently leans; the precise chapters to be verified at the point of citation [verify:schenkl]. Plut. Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscatur (in the Moralia) — the canonical Stoic-Platonist treatment of the difference between friend and flatterer, the background for the Marcus-Rusticus maxim of παρρησία (as the capacity to receive criticism from the genuine friend). Galen, De propriorum animi cuiuslibet affectuum dignotione et curatione — a treatise contemporary to Marcus "on the recognition and cure of one's own affects"; the same medical metaphor as in Rusticus's opening phrase of the passage (διόρθωσις καὶ θεραπεία τοῦ ἤθους).

Record added2026-05-25
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