Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

It's at times like these that a reading of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Roman emperor and philosopher, brings comfort. A brilliant general, he was engaged in wars on the northern and eastern frontiers of the empire throughout his reign.

In his domestic policy, Marcus Aurelius was a champion of the poor, for whom he founded schools and hospitals and lessened the burden of taxes. He even sold his personal possessions to alleviate the effects of famine and plague within the empire. He also tried to humanise criminal law and the treatment of slaves by their masters

As a philosopher he is remembered for his Meditations, a compendium of 12 books of moral precepts written while on his various campaigns. The work is an important formulation of the philosophy of Stoicism and reveals his belief that the moral life leads to tranquillity. It stresses the virtues of wisdom, justice, fortitude, and moderation. Consider:

"Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee. Thou seest how few the things are, that which if a man lays hold of, he is able to live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods; for the gods on their part will require nothing more from him who observes these things."

The legions of Marcus Aurelius succeeded in repelling the Parthian invasion of Syria in 166, but Rome was again forced into battle in 167 by the Germanic tribes on the Rhine-Danube frontier. He returned to Rome intermittently during the German campaign to undertake legal and administrative reforms but he was back on the northern frontier in 176 hoping to extend the boundaries of the empire north-eastwards of the Wisła river. He died of the plague in Vindobona (now Vienna) on March 17, 180, before he could begin his invasion.

Take a few minutes now to read The Meditations By Marcus Aurelius.

Diarist of the day: Virginia Woolf, 15 February 1915

"We both went up to London this afternoon L[eonard, her husband] to the Library, and I to ramble about the West End, picking up clothes. I am really in rags. It is very amusing. With age too one is less afraid of the superb shop women. These great shops are like fairies' palaces now. I swept about in Debenham's and Marshall's and so on, buying, as I thought, with great discretion. The shop women are often very charming, in spite of their serpentine coils of black hair. Then I had tea, and rambled along to Charing Cross in the dark, making up phrases and incidents to write about. Which is, I expect, the way one gets killed. I bought a ten and elevenpenny blue dress, in which I sit at this moment."