Date: 01/21/03 07:30:59 PM
Name: "Diogenes"
Subject: Opening of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, continued
City/Location: Chicago
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Let's continue where we left off with the quote from the opening of
"The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius"
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- " From Maximus, I learned self-government, and not to be led aside
by anything; and cheerfulness is all circumstances, as well as in
illness; and a just admixture in the moral character of sweetness
and dignity, and to do what was set before me without
complaining. I observed that everybody believed that he thought
as he spoke, and that in all he never had any bad intention; and
he never showed amazement and surprise, and was never in a hurry,
and never put off doing a thing; nor was he perplexed nor
dejected, nor did he ever laught to disguise his vexation, nor,
on the other hand, was he ever passionate or supicious. He was
accustomed to do acts of kindness and was ready to forgive, and
was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a
man who could not be diverted from right rather than of a man who
had been improved. I observed, too, that no man could ever think
he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself
a better man. He had also the art of being humorous in an
agreeable way.
- In my father I observed mildness of temper, and unchangeable
resolution in the things which he had determined to do after due
deliberation; and no vainglory in those things which men call
honors; and a love of labor and perserverance; and a readiness to
listen to whoever had anything to propose for the common weal; and
undeviating firmness in giving to every man his deserts; and a
knowledge derived from experience of the right times for vigorous
action and for relaxation. And I observed that he had overcome any
passion for boys; and he considered himself no more than any other
citizen; and he released his friends from all obligation to dine
with him or compulsion to attend him when he went abroad, and
those who had failed to accompany him, by reason of any urgent
circumstance, always found him the same.
I observed too his habit of careful inquiry into all matters of
deliberation, and his persistency; and that he never stopped an
investigation as though satisfied with first appearances; and that
his disposition was to keep his friends, and not to be soon tired
of them, nor yet to be extravagant in his affection; and to be
satisfied on all occasions, and cheerful; and to forsee things a
long way off and to provide for the smallest details without
display; and to check immediatly popular applause and all
flattery; and to be ever watchful over the things which were
necessary for the administration of the empire, nd to be a good
manager of the expenditure, and patiently to endure the blame
which he got for such conduct. And he was neither superstitious
with respect to the gods, nor did he court men by gifts or by
trying to please them, or by flattering the populace; but he
showed sobriety in all things and firmness, and never any mean
thoughts or action, or love of novelty. And the things which
conduce in any way to the comfort of lie, and of which fortune
gives an abundant supply, he used without arrogance and without
excusing himself; so that when he had them not, he did not want
them. No one could say of him that he wa either a sophist or a
flippant slave or pedant; but everyone acknowledged him to be a
man ripe, perfect, above flattery, able to manage both his own and
other men's affairs. Besides this, he honored those who were true
philosophers, and he did not reproach those who pretended to be
philosophers, nor was he yet led by them. He was also easy in
conversation, and made himself agreeable without any offensive
expectation. "
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Note from me : I'm going to have to break in, here, so I
won't lose a lot of you. Some of what you're going to see
in the next passage will leave you going "who cares". You
have to put this all in context, though. In the Empire
were seen behaviors that would be almost unheard of,
today, at least in the West.
When he talks about "bathing at unreasonable hours", he's
not talking about taking one's daily shower at 6 pm
instead 8 am. He is most likely referring to the practice
of lounging in the bathhouses all day, taking a luxury to
such a ludicrous extreme, as to get in the way of getting
other things done.
On the other extreme were to be found the Cynics, who went
around "dirty and unkempt, abusing the society in which
they were parasitic, with nothing positive to offer", who
had enjoyed a revival under the emperor Vespasian during
the late 1st century AD. When Marcus Aurelius mentions his
father's hygeine, this is not like one of us saying "oh,
and dad could tie his own shoes, too". He is seperating
himself, on a philosophical level, from the extreme
asceticism represented by that camp, which, about a
century later, his original readership may well
have heard of.
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"He took a reasonable care of his body's health, not as one who
was greatly attached to life, nor out of regard to personal
appearance, nor yet in a careless way, but so that, through his
own attention, he very seldom stood in need of the physicians's
art or of medicine or external applications. He was ready to make
way without envy to those who possessed any particular faculty,
such as that of eloquence, or knowledge of the law, or morals, or
anything else; and he gave them his help, that each may enjoy
reputation acording to his deserts; and he always conformed to
the institutions of his country without making any show of
doing so. "
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Note inserted by me : Remember the point I made about
importance of not jumping in with an interpretation,
until you had read the entire passage ? The
countercultural crowd would probably have jumped in, way
earlier, and said, "See, see ! The ancients didn't believe
in judging people, so if you respect their ideals, neither
will you. But, the ancients, for the most part, held to no
such position.
Notice the fact that they had courts and capital
punishment, the ultimate judgemental statement a court can
make about the personal worthiness of the condemned
defendant, a fact which did not change under Marcus
Aurelius' rule. He is not talking about categorical
imperatives, but about restraint, this passage would
suggest, when taken in its totality, but in isolation from
the rest of the work. (A deficiency of my discussion here
which I may remedy in time, if there should be interest).
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Getting back to our quote, which we left in mid-paragraph :
"Further, he was not fond of change or unsteady, but loved to
stay in the same places, and to employ himself about the same
things; and after his paroxysms of headache he came back
immediately fresh and vigorous to his usual occupations. His
secrets were not many, but very few and rare, and only about
public matters; and he showed prudence and economy in putting on
public spectacles and constructing public buildings, in donations
to the people, and such things; for he was one who looked to what
ought to be done, not to the reputation a man gets by his acts.
He did not bathe at unreasonable hours; he was not fond of
building houses nor curious about what he ate; he did not care
about the texture and color of his clothes, or about the beauty
of his slaves. His clothing came from Lorium, where his country
house was, and was usually of Lanuvian wool."
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"Huh ?", you say ? According to the footnotes I'm looking
at as I type this, Lorium was the villa to the north of
Rome where Marcus Aurelius grew up. In other words, his
father was wearing homespun garments, or something close
to homespun, as opposed to something ostentatious.
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"We know how he behaved to the toll collector at Tusculum who
asked his pardon, and such was his behavior always. There was
nothing in him harsh, or implacable, or violent, or, as one may
say, anything carried to the sweating point; but he examined
things one by one, as if he had plenty of time, and without
confusion, in an orderly way, vigorously and consistently. And
that which might be applied to him which is recorded of Socrates,
that he was either able to leave or take those things which many
are too weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy in moderation But
to be strong enough either to do the first or be sober in the
second is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible
soul, as he showed in the illness of Maximus. "
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Comment inserted by me : There's more to come, but I think
you can begin to see a point developing here, and a
question, or, perhaps one might say, a hint of a dilemma.
Imagine the emperor's quandry. "If my subjects value life
too much, they will be too afraid to fight, and the Empire
will fall. If they value it not at all, as the Cynics
might inspire them not to, then they will be left with
nothing to care about, nothing to fight for, and
apathetic, and the Empire will fall".
Marcus Aurelius was charged with nothing less than the
preservation of his own society, a duty which I'm sure you
can tell he took very seriously. As well he should,
considering the horrors which preceded and followed the
end of the Western Roman Empire, horrors which would
not have surprised him, considering what had happened when
societies had collapsed in the past.
The impression one might be left with is that his answer
to this dilemma would be to seek a sort of middle path
between anxiety and indifference, which would better serve
the cause of creating a healthy society. But, these are
our words, and not his, so let's see, as the discussion
continues, if this will be the direction he ends up
taking.
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To be continued later, as I have to go take my own bath at an
unreasonable hour, having put it off to write this. 
(Click here to continue).