At Vindobona

Yesterday was the 1,834th anniversary of the death of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius who passed away at the age of 58 in 180AD at Vindobona (modern-day Vienna) on the banks of the Danube River.  Writing a half-century later, the historian Cassius Dio lamented that as of that date "our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust" and the day was chosen by Edward Gibbon as the starting point for The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire.

Marcus Aurelius is the emperor portrayed by Richard Harris in the opening scenes of the movie Gladiator.  As the movie describes, his son Commodus succeeded him and was a disaster, ending eighty years of stability under the prior four emperors, and meeting his end by being strangled in his bath twelve years after the death of his father.  Apart from that the rest of the movie is historical fantasy though Harris and Russell Crowe (who seems to have imbibed the essence of classical Stoicism) contribute great performances.


Marcus Aurelius spent much of his reign fighting barbarian incursions along the Danube, finally achieving victory, and imposing a series of peace settlements just before his death.  While on campaign he wrote a collection of notes in the form of reminders to himself which were later compiled and are known today as Meditations.  Some excerpts:

A man should be upright, not kept upright.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?

If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be.  Be one.     

Sounds kind of like Yoda with better syntax.