Marcus Aurelius: A Biography FROM THE PUBLISHER
Marcus' personal attitude to the fate of the Christians must remain largely undiscoverable: the Meditations provide limited and uncertain guidance. But as a Stoic, who by his training and by the necessity of his position believed profoundly in the duty of the individual towards the state, he cannot have viewed kindly the activities of people who professed complete lack of concern with worldly lifeﾽ. There is no need to suppose that Marcus actively approved of persecution any more than a Trajan, for example. But the precedent had already been established, that to be a Christian was in itself a capital crime. Marcus clearly did not initiate the persecutions personally. But equally he would have seen no reason to obstruct the course of law.
SYNOPSIS
Contemplative, intellectual, and highly moral by nature, the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius assumed the "post'' of Roman emperor out of a sense of duty. Yet once in office, he governed wisely and was well loved; and although he was not perfect, history counts him among those few sovereigns noted for their beneficence. Drawing on art and literary sources (ranging from reliefs depicting the ruler at war to Justin Martyr's writings in defense of Christianity to the annals of imperial China), renowned historian Anthony Birley gives a full account of the emperor who best embodied the pagan virtues of Rome. Meditations, Marcus's own writings from the last ten years of his life, provides revealing glimpses into his character and explains why he remains one of the most studied individuals from antiquity and a man considered "the perfect emperor'' by his contemporaries. Black and white photos.
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