The great Enlightenment sceptic Edward Gibbon once claimed that the period of world history during which “the human race was most happy and prosperous” was the time between the death of Domitian in AD 96 and the accession of Commodus in AD 180. This period coincided with the end of the 200-year-long Pax Romana, and it was characterised by what Machiavelli famously described as the “five good emperors.”
The last of these was Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius was the father of Commodus, and he reigned from AD 161 to 180. His admirers in antiquity include Tertullian, the father of Latin Christianity. And whatever we make of Gibbon’s view of history, it is certainly true that Aurelius exhibits a remarkably advanced moral and religious outlook on life. His Meditations take the form of an unpublished private journal, and they offer tremendous insight into the principles of the Stoic philosophy that he sought to live by.
