The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius, translated by George Long

One hears the term Roman Emperor, and at once the very bad ones come to mind: Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and Commodus, among others. But not all the emperors were dissolute, arrogant, or insane. Marcus Aurelius remains as a proximate incarnation of those qualities Plato had written about in The Republic as belonging to the best of leaders: Marcus Aurelius was, in fact, a philosopher-king. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, comprised of twelve books, set forth the great man’s thoughts and musings on the judgment of himself and others in accord with those principles of stoicism that look to nature for truths, imminent and transcendent. Unlike so many of his predecessors and unlike his son, Commodus, Marcus Aurelius actually concerned himself with the moral imperative of goodness and reflected often on what it meant to be a good man. “Alone of the emperors,” wrote the historian Herodian, “he gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life.” The meditations are the written manifestation of Aurelian thought, set down in passages as short as a sentence, as long as an extended paragraph. The effect is cumulative and, even without favorable contrast to the persecuting emperors, Nero and Domitian, Marcus Aurelius distinguished himself as a philosopher, a thinker and a writer, as well as a man of military might and strategic skill. (Summary by Michael Hogan)

Product Details

Read by: Multiple readers
Length: 6 hours 50 minutes
Type: Collaborative
Media: MP3 CD
Package: DVD Case
Catalog No.: DB-1073
EAN: 0684758936424
List Price: $9.99

Credits

Production

Book Coordinator: ML Cohen
Meta Coordinator: Kirsten Ferreri

Artwork

Cover: Photo of bust of Marcus Aurelius in Glyptothek, Munich, Room 11 by Bibi Saint-Pol, 2007.
DVD Inset:  Photo of Buste cuirassé de Marc Aurèle âgé marble sculpture  at L'Image et le Pouvoir : le siècle des Antonins, Musée Saint-Raymond, by Pierre-Selim, 2012.
DVD Insert:  Marble portrait bust of Marcus Aurelius. Roman, Antonine period, 161-180 AD. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Recordings

About MP3 Audio

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The Recordings

These recordings were made using the author’s original published work, which is in the public domain. The readings were recorded by members of Librivox.org, which has generously made the recordings available to the public domain. While Librivox condones the sale and distribution of these recordings, it is not associated with the management or operations of MP3 Audiobook Classics. The audio files have been lightly edited and have been engineered using professional audio tools for maximum sonic quality. We spend considerable time and effort to ensure the recordings are free of noise, equalized for maximum listener pleasure, and that tracks are leveled and normalized to provide a consistent listening experience.

Table of Contents

Track Section Reader Length
01 00 - Introduction Aegist 2:32
02 01 - His First Book I - XVI Kevin McAsh 16:11
03 02 - The Second Book I - XV Kevin McAsh 13:38
04 03 - The Third Book I - XVII Aegist 17:25
05 04 - The Fourth Book I - XLIII Davyobrian 28:32
06 05 - The Fifth Book I - XXX Cicoree 32:22
07 06 - The Sixth Book I - LIV ontheroad 27:28
08 07 - The Seventh Book I - XLIV davyobrian 32:14
09 08 - The Eighth Book I - LVIII D. S. Harvey 31:05
10 09 - The Ninth Book I - XLIII Fr. Richard Zeile of Detroit 32:24
11 10 - The Tenth Book I - XXXVIII ML Cohen 28:12
12 11 - The Eleventh Book I - XXXI Leon Mire 25:32
13 12 - The Twelfth Book I - XXVII Leon Mire 22:42
14 13 - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Leon Mire 42:42
15 14 - The Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius ML Cohen 57:28

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