# Marcus Aurelius

- Id: `marcus_aurelius`
- Canonical url: `https://prokopton42.com/en/thinkers/marcus-aurelius/`
- Language: `en`
- Editorial status: `available`
- Content checksum: `9abf5fd97173cb421b4ba8378573ac3b72e298d495c8e9148d53ea0532da1230`

## Summary

Roman emperor and Stoic practitioner, Marcus Aurelius wrote private notes to keep himself steady under the weight of power.

## Overview

Marcus Aurelius died in 180 CE.

## Lifespan

```json
{
    "display": "121-180 CE",
    "era": "Hellenistic and Roman era",
    "distance": "1,846–1,905 years ago",
    "age_at_death": 59
}
```

## Intellectual tradition

```json
{
    "id": "stoicism",
    "name": "Stoicism",
    "detail": "Imperial Stoicism",
    "labels": [
        "Stoicism",
        "Imperial Stoicism"
    ]
}
```

## Historical cutoff

```json
{
    "year": 180,
    "display": "180 CE",
    "reason": "Marcus Aurelius died in 180 CE."
}
```

## Statistics

```json
{
    "works": 1,
    "passages": 487,
    "languages": [
        "en",
        "fr",
        "grc"
    ],
    "intellectual_exposures": 2,
    "typed_relationships": 6
}
```

## Attested thinker encounters

```json
[
    {
        "person_id": "fronto",
        "name": "Marcus Cornelius Fronto",
        "relationship_type": "rhetoric_teacher_and_lifelong_friend",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_refs": [
            "modern.sep.marcus_aurelius.2017",
            "modern.iep.marcus_aurelius",
            "corpus.marcus_aurelius.meditations",
            "primary.fronto.correspondence"
        ]
    },
    {
        "person_id": "junius_rusticus",
        "name": "Junius Rusticus",
        "relationship_type": "stoic_teacher_and_friend",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_refs": [
            "modern.sep.marcus_aurelius.2017",
            "modern.iep.marcus_aurelius",
            "corpus.marcus_aurelius.meditations"
        ]
    },
    {
        "person_id": "apollonius_marcus_teacher",
        "name": "Apollonius (Marcus's teacher)",
        "relationship_type": "philosophical_teacher",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_refs": [
            "corpus.marcus_aurelius.meditations",
            "ancient.historia_augusta.marcus.3"
        ]
    },
    {
        "person_id": "sextus_chaeronea",
        "name": "Sextus of Chaeronea",
        "relationship_type": "philosophical_teacher",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_refs": [
            "corpus.marcus_aurelius.meditations",
            "ancient.historia_augusta.marcus.3"
        ]
    }
]
```

## Places

```json
[
    {
        "name": "Rome",
        "period": "121-180 CE",
        "description": "Birth, education and imperial government.",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Carnuntum",
        "period": "c. 170-175 CE",
        "description": "Danubian campaign headquarters; Meditations Book II names the place.",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Sirmium",
        "period": "c. 170s CE",
        "description": "Imperial base during the Marcomannic wars.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Alexandria",
        "period": "176 CE",
        "description": "Stop on the imperial journey through the East.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Athens",
        "period": "176 CE",
        "description": "Visited on the return journey and initiated at Eleusis.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Vindobona",
        "period": "180 CE",
        "description": "Traditional place associated with his final campaign and death.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Ephesus",
        "period": "176 CE",
        "description": "Eastern return route attested in the imperial travel tradition.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060689"
    },
    {
        "name": "Smyrna",
        "period": "176 CE",
        "description": "He heard Aelius Aristides at Smyrna during the eastern journey.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060689"
    },
    {
        "name": "Eleusis",
        "period": "176 CE",
        "description": "Initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries during the return journey.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Marcus_Aurelius/2*.html"
    },
    {
        "name": "Aquileia",
        "period": "168-169 CE",
        "description": "Imperial headquarters during the northern war and plague response.",
        "confidence": "B",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/"
    }
]
```