This week on the LRB Podcast, a free episode from one of our Close Readings series. For their final conversation Among the Ancients, Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones turn to the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Said by Machiavelli to be the last of the ‘five good emperors’ who ruled Rome for most of the second century CE, Marcus oversaw devastating wars on the frontiers, a deadly plague and economic turmoil. The writings known in English as The Meditations, and in Latin as ‘to himself’, were composed in Greek in the last decade of Marcus’ life. They reveal his preoccupation with illness, growing old, death and posthumous reputation, as he urges himself not to be troubled by such transient things.
Readings by Hazel Holder.
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Further reading in the LRB:
Mary Beard: Was he quite ordinary?
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n14/mary-beard/was-he-quite-ordinary
Emily Wilson: I have gorgeous hair
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n11/emily-wilson/i-have-gorgeous-hair
Shadi Bartsch: Dying to Make a Point
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n22/shadi-bartsch/dying-to-make-a-point
M.F. Burnyeat: Excuses for Madness
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v24/n20/m.f.-burnyeat/excuses-for-madness
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