Genre and place in the book. A two-part aphoristic coda to the theme of fame. After 04-33 (an eternal remembrance is "wholly empty"), shorter and sharper still: not only fame but the very memory of it is short-lived — and doubly so.

The double ephemerality. ἐφήμερον — "of a day," living but a day (ἐπὶ ἡμέραν). Marcus doubles the thought with a play on cognate participles: both τὸ μνημονεῦον (that which remembers) and τὸ μνημονευόμενον (that which is remembered) are fleeting. Therein lies the point: memory is no refuge from oblivion, for the one who remembers will also vanish. The prop of fame — "I shall be remembered" — collapses from both sides at once (cf. Med. 8.44: those who will remember you are likewise mortal; 04-33; 04-19).

ἐφήμερον and the river. The first word is πᾶν, "everything": the particular case (memory) is placed under universal transience. The substance of the Whole flows like a river, nothing stands still (Med. 4.43; 5.23). Against this flux, memory is but a ripple upon a ripple; to cling to it is pointless.

The disciplines. The principal one is assent: the right judgement of reality — that all, memory included, lasts but a day (whence fame is worth nothing). The secondary is desire: from this judgement follows the release of the craving for posthumous remembrance.

Parallels. The double futility of memory — 04-33; 04-19; Med. 8.44; 2.17. Universal transience, the river of things — Med. 4.43; 5.23 (cf. metabole). Fame from on high — Med. 4.3; 9.30 (cf. view-from-above).