A royal privilege. Four Greek words Marcus takes from the Cynic tradition: Βασιλικὸν εὖ μὲν πράττειν, κακῶς δὲ ἀκούειν — "kingly: to do well — and to hear ill." ἀκούειν κακῶς is the idiom for "having a bad name": the pairing of beneficence and abuse is presented not as a misfortune but as a privilege of rank. The aphorism's logic is inverted book-keeping: if good is paid for with praise, the transaction is complete and there is nothing kingly in it; good repaid with slander is a pure act, bought by nothing. The saying's real addressee in this notebook is obvious: the emperor is the one man in the empire guaranteed both the maximal power of benefaction and the maximal abuse.

A Cynic gift to the Stoa. The saying came through Epictetus (Disc. 4.6.20); in Plutarch (Alex. 41) Alexander speaks it — Marcus skims both traditions: the Cynic training in enduring disrepute and the royal practice of not noticing it. The Stoic frame is already in place in the corpus: good is done for the act's own sake, "as the vine bears its cluster" (5.6 — the benefactor who expects no receipt), while praise and blame are indifferent (6.2: "in blame as in praise — the same fitting act"; 7.34: look at the judges). The governing discipline is action (to do the good); the sustaining one, desire (to need no reply).