Thursday 25 February 2021

Marcus Aurelius one of the "good Emperors" .... today on the wireless

Now I have tried over the years to read the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and never got far.


But that I suspect is down to me.  I have friends who regularly read them , a few a night, so maybe I shall try again.

In the meantime I will be listening to this weeks In Our Time, in which "Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man who, according to Machiavelli, was the last of the Five Good Emperors. 

Marcus Aurelius, 121 to 180 AD, has long been known as a model of the philosopher king, a Stoic who, while on military campaigns, compiled ideas on how best to live his life, and how best to rule. 

These ideas became known as his Meditations, and they have been treasured by many as an insight into the mind of a Roman emperor, and an example of how to avoid the corruption of power in turbulent times.

With Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, and Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Cuirassed Statue of Marcus Aurelius, 150 AD, Altes Museum, Berlin, Author, Anagoria, this file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

*Marcus Aurelius, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sjxt


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