Genre and place in the book. A passage-analogy: the wrestling-ground as a school for handling those who jostle us. The principal discipline is action (one's stance toward the "offender"); the sustaining one is assent (not to judge him "enemy" or "schemer"). Kin to 06-06 (the best requital is not to become like the wrongdoer).

The wrestling-ground (ἐν τοῖς γυμνασίοις). In a bout a partner accidentally scratches with a nail, splits one's head — yet we "make no note of it" (ἐπισημαινόμεθα), take no offence, do not suspect in him a "schemer" (ἐπίβουλον). We do guard ourselves — but not as an enemy (οὐ ὡς ἐχθρόν) and not with suspicion, rather with a "good-natured drawing-aside" (ἐκκλίσεως εὐμενοῦς). A fine distinction: caution (φυλάττεσθαι) is not enmity; one can be on guard without harbouring hatred.

So too in life. Marcus carries the image over to "the other parts of life": to look on many as "training beside us" (προσγυμναζομένων) — sparring-partners on the arena of life — and to "overlook" much in them (παρενθυμώμεθα, to let it pass indulgently). An everyday injury is like a scratch in the palaestra: unintended, not worth enmity.

It is in our power (ἔξεστι). The ground is the DOGMAdichotomy of control: "it is possible (ἔξεστι) to draw aside, without suspecting or hating." Prudent avoidance is compatible with the absence of the anti-social passions — suspicion (ὑποψία) and hatred (ἀπέχθεια). To protect oneself does not require hating the one guarded against: both are in our power, so the choice is ours.

Disciplines and parallels. The principal one is action (how to bear oneself toward those who jostle us); the secondary is assent (not to dress them up as "enemies"). Parallels: 06-06 (not to become like the wrongdoer); 02-01 (human beings are made for one another; they err through ignorance); "it is in our power" — the DOGMAdichotomy of control, Epict. Ench. 1.