An argument taken from the opponent. Marcus names no school, but the description is unmistakable: τὴν TERMἡδονὴν TERMἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸν πόνον TERMκακὸν κρίνοντες — these are the Epicureans. He takes the argument from where it is least expected: if even those from whom death takes away the one good have despised it, then all the more should you.

The word that fixes the genre of the entry. ἐγερτικώτατον — "most rousing," a superlative of ἐγερτικός (from ἐγείρω, "to wake"). Not "truest" and not "most convincing": Marcus rates the argument by its waking power, as a means and not as a theorem. That is generally how he chooses material for the notebook.

What is actually proved here. Strictly speaking, nothing about death; all that is proved is that contempt for it does not require Stoic premises. Hence the measure of the argument: it does not replace 12.23 (which shows why death is no evil) but serves as a prop — a reproach addressed to oneself.

A gesture across the schools. Such recourse to a rival school is not unique in Marcus: in 9.41 he copies out the words of Epicurus about how he bore his illness — and there too what is valued is not the doctrine but the conduct. The governing discipline is desire, the sustaining one assent.