Emperor · 121 – 180

Marcus Aurelius

Little-Known Facts

  • The Meditations was never intended for publication; it was Marcus's private notebook of self-examination.
  • He wrote much of it in army camps while campaigning on the empire's northern frontier.

Myths & Misconceptions

Was Marcus Aurelius a perfect ruler?

He is admired as a wise and dutiful emperor, but his reign faced war, plague and the persecution of Christians, and his choice of his son Commodus as heir proved disastrous.