Genre and place in the book. A thought-experiment on death (EXERCISEthe memory of death): a god announces your term — tomorrow, or the day after. The aim is to dissolve the fear of the timing of death and the over-valuing of long life.

The triviality of the difference. Between "tomorrow" and "the day after" — πόσον τὸ μεταξύ; "how small is the difference?". Only a base man (ἀγεννής, "ignoble, mean-spirited") would cling to the extra day. And if so, the gap between "tomorrow" and "after many years" is essentially the same: μηδὲν μέγα, "nothing great." The argument works as a ladder: having levelled adjacent days, it levels distant terms as well.

The indifference of the term. The length of life is an DOGMAindifferent: a good life is measured not by duration but by worth. Hence long life is no good, and an early death no evil (cf. the image of the incense 04-15 — sooner or later makes no difference; 03-08 — a life is whole at any moment by virtue, not span; not as if ten thousand years — 04-17).

The disciplines. The principal one is desire: to release the craving for long life and the fear of imminent death. The secondary is assent: the right judgement — the term of life is "nothing great," an indifferent.

The exercise. EXERCISEThe memory of death: to imagine the term announced by a god — a device that lays bare the triviality of the difference between "soon" and "late."

Parallels. The term and length of life are indifferent — 04-15; 04-17 (cf. DOGMAvirtue-is-sufficient). The long and the short life come to the same, only the present is lost — Med. 2.14 (cf. EXERCISEmeditatio-mortis). A life is whole at any moment by virtue, not span — 03-08.