Podcast brief
Marcus Aurelius's Final Years and Meditations
Ryan Holiday and Professor William O. Stephens discuss the illness, loss, and isolation behind Marcus Aurelius's final years and the writing of Meditations.
A Stoa brief of an episode from The Daily Stoic
Inside the Final Years of Marcus Aurelius
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The brief
This conversation argues that Meditations was not a philosophical treatise composed at leisure, but private notes written by a sick, grieving man near the end of his life. Ryan Holiday and Professor William O. Stephens reconstruct the physical and emotional weight Marcus Aurelius carried in his final campaigns, and read his famous book against that backdrop.
Stephens traces a body worn down by chronic digestive and respiratory trouble, treated by his physician Galen with theriac, a compound containing morphine and strange ingredients such as viper flesh, which may have disrupted his sleep and even caused dependence. Around him, the Antonine Plague killed enormous numbers of people, likely including his wife Faustina and his co-emperor Lucius Verus, and probably hastened Marcus's own death near age 59. Textual clues, like references to being on the River Gran, place the writing of his private notes during these last, grinding years along the Danube frontier. Stephens treats the book as a kind of swan song, the reflections of someone who suspects he does not have long left.
The conversation raises a real puzzle: why did these notes survive at all? Marcus had years in which he could have destroyed them or ordered them destroyed. Stephens reasons that this silence suggests Marcus was not opposed to others eventually reading them, even without direct evidence he intended publication. That is a contestable inference, but a suggestive one.
The strongest and bleakest claim here concerns friendship. Stephens argues that Marcus's position made genuine friendship impossible, since no one around an emperor can be fully candid with him. Everyone must defer, so no one can safely tell him he is wrong. Set against this isolation, both speakers find something admirable in Marcus's persistence: his refusal to retreat from duty the way Tiberius had, and his invocation of bees and ants quietly doing their natural work as reason enough to get up and do his.
Read this way, Meditations looks less like a set of timeless maxims and more like a record of someone talking himself, again, into showing up.
Strongest arguments
Marcus's health was precarious throughout his life
4:46Stephens explains that Marcus suffered from chronic digestive and respiratory issues, and that his physician Galen treated him with theriac, a compound containing morphine and dozens of unusual ingredients including viper flesh. One scholar suggests Marcus may have become addicted to this treatment, which also disrupted his sleep.
The Antonine Plague likely hastened Marcus's death
5:28Stephens notes the plague killed possibly up to a million people and likely caused the deaths of Faustina and Lucius Verus. He suggests it was probably only a matter of time before the plague caught up with Marcus himself, since he did not isolate or flee from it as emperor.
Meditations was likely written in Marcus's final years as a kind of swan song
6:31Stephens argues that textual evidence, such as references to being on the River Gran, places composition of the memoranda during Marcus's final campaigns along the Danube. He treats the work as reflecting a man aware his life may be ending soon, citing passages expressing world weariness.
The survival of the notes suggests Marcus was open to them being read
7:33Stephens reasons that since Marcus had years to destroy his private notes or instruct others to destroy them after his death, and did not, this suggests he was not opposed to future readers encountering them, even though there is no direct evidence he intended publication.
Being emperor made real friendship impossible
11:58Stephens argues that no one around Marcus could be fully candid with him because of the power imbalance inherent in being emperor. Everyone in his circle had to defer to him, making genuine friendship, the kind where someone could tell him he was making a bad decision, unavailable.
Marcus's persistence despite catastrophic loss is itself remarkable
17:01Holiday argues that given the string of deaths, betrayals, war, and plague Marcus endured, simply continuing to get out of bed and perform his duties each day represents a powerful form of fortitude. Stephens adds that Marcus explicitly rejected the option of retreating from responsibility, as Tiberius had done on Capri.
Marcus modeled his conduct on nature's own diligence
18:14Stephens describes Marcus invoking the image of bees and ants going about their natural order as justification for getting up and doing his job as a human being. This reflects the Stoic idea that one should not postpone becoming good, since only the present moment is available to act in.
Concepts discussed
- Death as natural transformation Death is a natural process like generation, a rearrangement of the same elements, and nothing to be ashamed of or feared.
Philosophers and works discussed
- Marcus Aurelius
- Meditations
- Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-King By William O. Stephens.
Questions this episode answers
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What health problems did Marcus Aurelius suffer from?
4:46Marcus had chronic digestive and respiratory issues throughout his life and was treated by Galen with theriac, a compound containing morphine and many unusual ingredients including viper flesh, which may have caused addiction and disrupted sleep.
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When and why was Marcus Aurelius's Meditations likely written?
6:31Scholars believe Marcus began writing his private notes during his final years while campaigning along the Danube, based on textual references to locations like the River Gran, making the work a kind of swan song written as he faced declining health.
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Why did Marcus Aurelius's private notes survive after his death?
7:33Since Marcus had the opportunity to destroy his notes or order them destroyed but did not, this suggests he was not opposed to others eventually reading them, even without direct evidence that he wanted them published.
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Why was it hard for Marcus Aurelius to have real friends as emperor?
11:58Because everyone around him had to defer to his authority, no one could be fully candid with him or challenge his decisions, making genuine friendship, where someone tells you when you are wrong, effectively impossible for a Roman emperor.
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How did the Antonine Plague affect Marcus Aurelius and his family?
5:28The plague killed hundreds of thousands to possibly a million people and likely caused the deaths of Marcus's wife Faustina and his co-emperor Lucius Verus, and may have contributed to Marcus's own death near age 59.
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What kept Marcus Aurelius going despite so much personal loss?
18:14Despite losing nearly all his family and friends and suffering chronic illness, Marcus rejected retreating from duty as Tiberius had done, instead invoking the natural diligence of bees and ants as a model for continuing to act as a human being should, refusing to postpone becoming good.