＂馬庫斯．奧理略．安東尼努斯，書寫出最偉大的作品《沉思錄》，讓後世無數傳記作者以“哲學家”來代稱奧理略，是現代了解古代斯多葛哲學的重要來源。這些著作在他去世後的數世紀中受到了其他作家、哲學家、君主和政治家的高度讚揚。＂
"Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: [ˈmaːrkʊs au̯ˈreːliʊs antoːˈniːnʊs]; English: /ɔːˈriːliəs/ aw-REE-lee-əs; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.
Marcus Aurelius was the son of the praetor Marcus Annius Verus and his wife, Domitia Calvilla. He was related through marriage to the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Marcus's father died when he was three, and he was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather. After Hadrian's adoptive son, Aelius Caesar, died in 138, Hadrian adopted Marcus's uncle Antoninus Pius as his new heir. In turn, Antoninus adopted Marcus and Lucius, the son of Aelius. Hadrian died that year, and Antoninus became emperor. Now heir to the throne, Marcus studied Greek and Latin under tutors such as Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto. He married Antoninus's daughter Faustina in 145.
After Antoninus died in 161, Marcus Aurelius acceded to the throne alongside his adoptive brother, who reigned under the name Lucius Verus. Under his rule the Roman Empire witnessed heavy military conflict. In the East, the Romans fought successfully with a revitalized Parthian Empire and the rebel Kingdom of Armenia. Marcus defeated the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatian Iazyges in the Marcomannic Wars; however, these and other Germanic peoples began to represent a troubling reality for the Empire. He reduced the silver purity of the Roman currency, the denarius. The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire appears to have increased during his reign, but his involvement in this is unlikely since there is no record of early Christians in the 2nd century calling him a persecutor, and Tertullian even called Marcus a "protector of Christians". The Antonine Plague broke out in 165 or 166 and devastated the population of the Roman Empire, causing the deaths of five to ten million people. Lucius Verus may have died from the plague in 169.
Unlike some of his predecessors, Marcus chose not to adopt an heir. His children included Lucilla, who married Lucius, and Commodus, whose succession after Marcus has been a subject of debate among both contemporary and modern historians. The Column and Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius still stand in Rome, where they were erected in celebration of his military victories. Meditations, the writings of "the philosopher" – as contemporary biographers called Marcus – are a significant source of the modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy. These writings have been praised by fellow writers, philosophers, monarchs, and politicians centuries after his death.
Atticus was controversial: an enormously rich Athenian (probably the richest man in the eastern half of the empire), he was quick to anger and resented by his fellow Athenians for his patronizing manner. Atticus was an inveterate opponent of Stoicism and philosophic pretensions.He thought the Stoics' desire for apatheia was foolish: they would live a 'sluggish, enervated life', he said. In spite of the influence of Atticus, Marcus would later become a Stoic. He would not mention Herodes at all in his Meditations, in spite of the fact that they would come into contact many times over the following decades.
Fronto was highly esteemed: in the self-consciously antiquarian world of Latin letters, he was thought of as second only to Cicero, perhaps even an alternative to him. He did not care much for Atticus, though Marcus was eventually to put the pair on speaking terms. Fronto exercised a complete mastery of Latin, capable of tracing expressions through the literature, producing obscure synonyms, and challenging minor improprieties in word choice.
A significant amount of the correspondence between Fronto and Marcus has survived. The pair were very close, using intimate language such as 'Farewell my Fronto, wherever you are, my most sweet love and delight. How is it between you and me? I love you and you are not here' in their correspondence. Marcus spent time with Fronto's wife and daughter, both named Cratia, and they enjoyed light conversation.
He wrote Fronto a letter on his birthday, claiming to love him as he loved himself, and calling on the gods to ensure that every word he learnt of literature, he would learn 'from the lips of Fronto'. His prayers for Fronto's health were more than conventional, because Fronto was frequently ill; at times, he seems to be an almost constant invalid, always suffering – about one-quarter of the surviving letters deal with the man's sicknesses. Marcus asks that Fronto's pain be inflicted on himself, 'of my own accord with every kind of discomfort'.
Fronto never became Marcus's full-time teacher and continued his career as an advocate. One notorious case brought him into conflict with Atticus. Marcus pleaded with Fronto, first with 'advice', then as a 'favour', not to attack Atticus; he had already asked Atticus to refrain from making the first blows. Fronto replied that he was surprised to discover Marcus counted Atticus as a friend (perhaps Atticus was not yet Marcus's tutor), and allowed that Marcus might be correct, but nonetheless affirmed his intent to win the case by any means necessary: 'he charges are frightful and must be spoken of as frightful. Those in particular that refer to the beating and robbing I will describe so that they savour of gall and bile. If I happen to call him an uneducated little Greek it will not mean war to the death'. The outcome of the trial is unknown.
By the age of twenty-five (between April 146 and April 147), Marcus had grown disaffected with his studies in jurisprudence, and showed some signs of general malaise. His master, he writes to Fronto, was an unpleasant blowhard, and had made 'a hit at' him: 'It is easy to sit yawning next to a judge, he says, but to be a judge is noble work'. Marcus had grown tired of his exercises, of taking positions in imaginary debates. When he criticized the insincerity of conventional language, Fronto took to defend it. In any case, Marcus's formal education was now over. He had kept his teachers on good terms, following them devotedly. It 'affected his health adversely', his biographer writes, to have devoted so much effort to his studies. It was the only thing the biographer could find fault with in Marcus's entire boyhood.
Fronto had warned Marcus against the study of philosophy early on: "It is better never to have touched the teaching of philosophy ... than to have tasted it superficially, with the edge of the lips, as the saying is". He disdained philosophy and philosophers and looked down on Marcus's sessions with Apollonius of Chalcedon and others in this circle. Fronto put an uncharitable interpretation of Marcus's 'conversion to philosophy': 'In the fashion of the young, tired of boring work', Marcus had turned to philosophy to escape the constant exercises of oratorical training. Marcus kept in close touch with Fronto, but would ignore Fronto's scruples.
Apollonius may have introduced Marcus to Stoic philosophy, but Quintus Junius Rusticus would have the strongest influence on the boy. He was the man Fronto recognized as having 'wooed Marcus away' from oratory. He was older than Fronto and twenty years older than Marcus. As the grandson of Arulenus Rusticus, one of the martyrs to the tyranny of Domitian (r. 81–96), he was heir to the tradition of 'Stoic Opposition' to the 'bad emperors' of the 1st century; the true successor of Seneca (as opposed to Fronto, the false one). Marcus thanks Rusticus for teaching him 'not to be led astray into enthusiasm for rhetoric, for writing on speculative themes, for discoursing on moralizing texts...."
馬庫斯．奧理略．安東尼努斯（拉丁語：[ˈmaːrkʊs au̯ˈreːliʊs antoːˈniːnʊs]; 英語：/ɔːˈriːliəs/ aw-REE-lee-əs; 公元121年4月26日 – 180年3月17日）是從161年到180年的羅馬皇帝，也是斯多葛派哲學家。他是涅爾瓦-安東尼家族的成員，是後來所稱的五賢帝之最後一位，也是羅馬和平時期的最後一位皇帝，這是從公元前27年至180年為羅馬帝國帶來相對和平、平靜和穩定的時代。他在140年，145年和161年擔任羅馬執政官。
馬庫斯．奧理略是護民官馬庫斯．安尼烏斯．維魯斯和他的妻子，多米蒂亞．凱爾維拉的兒子。他透過婚姻關係與皇帝圖拉真和哈德良血緣相連。馬庫斯的父親在他三歲時去世，他由母親和外祖父養大。在哈德良的養子埃利烏斯·凱撒於138年去世後，哈德良采納了馬庫斯的叔叔安東尼努斯·皮烏斯作為他的新繼承人。反過來，安東尼努斯收養了馬庫斯和埃利烏斯的兒子盧修斯。哈德良在那年去世，安東尼努斯成為皇帝。作為王位繼承人的馬庫斯，師從如赫羅德·阿提庫斯和馬庫斯·科尼利烏斯·弗龍托等人學習希臘語和拉丁語。他在145年娶了安東尼努斯的女兒福斯蒂娜。
在安東尼努斯於161年去世後，馬庫斯．奧理略與其養兄共同登上王位，養兄為皇帝盧修斯．維魯斯。在他的統治下，羅馬帝國經歷了激烈的軍事衝突。在東方，羅馬人與新振興的帕提亞帝國和叛亂的亞美尼亞王國進行了成功的戰爭。馬庫斯在馬可曼尼戰爭中擊敗了馬爾科曼尼人、科瓦地人和薩爾馬特亞尤金族人；然而，這些和其他日耳曼民族開始代表著帝國面臨的一個麻煩現實。他降低了羅馬貨幣─登尼亞里烏斯的銀質。基督徒在羅馬帝國的迫害似乎在他的統治期間有所增加，但他很可能不涉及其中，因為二世紀的早期基督徒沒有記錄說他是迫害者，泰爾圖良甚至稱馬庫斯為“基督徒的保護者”。安東尼瘟疫在165年或166年爆發，導致羅馬帝國人口損失五百萬至一千萬人。盧修斯·維魯斯可能在169年死於瘟疫。
與一些前任皇帝不同，馬庫斯選擇不收養繼承人。他的孩子包括盧基拉，嫁給了盧修斯，並且康茂德，其繼承馬庫斯之後成為古代與現代歷史學家間辯論的主題。羅馬的馬庫斯·奧列留斯圓柱和騎馬像現在仍然屹立著，它們是為了慶祝他的軍事勝利而豎立的。《沉思錄》，即當時傳記作者稱呼馬庫斯的“哲學家”的著作，是現代了解古代斯多葛哲學的重要來源。這些著作在他去世後的數世紀中受到了其他作家、哲學家、君主和政治家的高度讚揚。
赫羅德·阿提克斯是一位令人爭議的雅典人，可能是帝國東半部最富有的人，他容易憤怒，因其居高臨下的態度而被其他雅典人所不滿。赫羅德是斯多葛學派的不懈反對者，他認為斯多葛主義者對無情無慾的渴望是愚蠢的：他們將會過著“遲鈍、無力的生活”。儘管阿提克斯的影響力量，馬庫斯．奧理略後來卻成為了斯多葛主義者。他在《沉思錄》中完全沒有提到赫羅德，儘管事實上他們在隨後的幾十年裡多次接觸。
馬庫斯·康尼利烏斯·弗隆托則備受尊重：在拉丁文學自覺效仿古典風格的世界中，他被認為僅次於西塞羅，甚至可能是西塞羅的替代者。他不太關心阿提克斯，儘管馬庫斯最終使這對成為了談話的對象。弗隆托對拉丁語有完全的掌握，能夠追蹤文學中的表達、產生不常見的同義詞，並挑戰字選上的輕微不妥。
弗隆托與馬庫斯之間的大量書信得以保存。這對關係非常密切，使用親密語言，如在他們的通信中說“告別我的弗隆托，無論你在哪裡，我最甜蜜的愛和喜悅。你和我之間怎麼樣？我愛你，你卻不在我身邊”。馬庫斯與弗隆托的妻子和女兒（都叫克拉蒂婭）一起度過時光，他們享受著輕鬆的交談。
他在弗隆托的生日那天給他寫了一封信，聲稱愛他如同愛自己，並呼籲諸神保證他所學到的文學，他將“從弗隆托的唇邊學習”。他為弗隆托的健康祈禱不僅僅是例行公事，因為弗隆托經常生病；有時候，他似乎幾乎是一個持續的病人，總是在受苦——大約四分之一的倖存信件涉及這個人的疾病。馬庫斯要求把弗隆托的疼痛施加在他自己身上，“我自己願意承受各種不適”。
1.
"Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ: συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ: πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν."
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. (Hays translation)
早上醒來時，請告訴自己：今天與我打交道的人會愛管閒事、忘恩負義、傲慢、不誠實、嫉妒和乖戾。他們之所以這樣，是因為他們分不清善惡。
2.
"γεγόναμεν γὰρ πρὸς συνεργίαν ὡς πόδες, ὡς χεῖρες, ὡς βλέφαρα, ὡς οἱ στοῖχοι τῶν ἄνω καὶ κάτω ὀδόντων. τὸ οὖν ἀντιπράσσειν ἀλλήλοις παρὰ φύσιν."
We are all made for mutual assistance, as the feet, the hands, and the eyelids, as the rows of the upper and under teeth, from whence it follows that clashing and opposition is perfectly unnatural.
我們生來就是為了互相幫助，就像腳、手和眼瞼，就像上排牙齒和下排牙齒一樣，由此可見，衝突和對立是完全不自然的。
3.
"This that I am, whatever it be, is mere flesh and a little breathe and the ruling Reason"
一點肉，一點呼吸，還有一個統治一切的理由－那就是自我。
4.
"There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return. (Hays translation)"
分配給你的時間是有限制的，如果你不將它用在自身，它就會消失並且永遠不會回來。
5.
"Concentrate every minute like a Roman-like a man-on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions."
如果將生命中的每一件事都當作最後一次去做，才會從虛榮的幻想中得到安息。
6.
"The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing."
最長壽的人和最短命的人，當他們臨終時，都會失去的東西是一樣的。
7.
"As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion."
對生活來說，是一場戰鬥，是異鄉的寄居；但這些在逝去後卻僅有被遺忘。
8.
"A man should be upright, not kept upright."
做人應該正直，而不是保持正直。
9.
"Respect the faculty that forms thy judgments."
尊重能力才能塑造判斷力。
10.
"Each of us lives only now, this brief instant."
我們每個人都只活在當下，一瞬之間。
11.
"The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it."
宇宙是變化，生命是觀點。
12.
"Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature."
死亡，就像時代，是自然定律的秘密。
13.
"You have a mind? —Yes. Well, why not use it?"
你有心嗎？ 是的。 那麼，為什麼不使用它呢？
14.
"You're better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve."
莫在小事上花費太多不屬於它的時間。
15.
"Πᾶν ἐφήμερον，καὶ τὸ μνημονεῦον καὶ τὸ μνημονευόμενον。"
一切都是暫時的——名與譽也是如此。
16.
"Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to."
察人之理，思賢者所忌，所執。
17.
"Τὸ τὰ ἀδύνατα διώκειν μανικόν· ἀδύνα？"
追求不可能的事是瘋狂的：壞人不可能不做這種事。
18.
"Οὐδὲν οὐδενὶ συμβαίνει ὃ οὐχὶ ἐκεῖνο πέφυκε φέρειν。"
對任何人來說，沒有什麼事情是他不能忍受的。
19.
"Art thou angry with him whose arm-pits stink? art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul? What good will this anger do thee?"
你對狐臭的人發怒？你對口臭的人發怒？這種憤怒對你有什麼好處呢？
20.
"Ἔσω βλέπε· μηδενὸς πράγματος μήτε ἡ ἰδία ποιότης μήτε ἡ ἀξία παρατρεχέτω σε."
探索深層；不要忽略一件事物的品質和價值。
21.
"The best revenge is not to be like your enemy."
最好的報復就是不要像你的敵人一樣。
22.
"Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself."
每個人的價值取決於他所從事的事情的價值。