The Philosopher Emperor
Aug 7, 2006
Despite the turmoil caused by plague and war during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, his was a life strictly guided by philosophy. He has been largely associated with the idea of stoicism (perhaps most simply defined as a dedication to logic), but his own surviving works indicate a general intellectual devotion rather than strict adherence to a single thought process. Regardless, in the words of Edward Gibbon?s ?Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,? Marcus Aurelius is accurately described as the ?philosophic monarch? and may be the most relevant example of such in human history…
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