The Authentic Influence of Stoic Philosophy on the Life and Principate of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Abstract

<p>This thesis is an investigation into whether the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, is entitled to be considered an authentic adherent of Stoic philosophy, and whether this philosophy, as presented in the work now called the <i>Meditations</i>, can reasonably be considered to have been very influential in his life and principate. </p> <p>The thesis at the outset (chapter 1) attempts to determine the validity of the notion of an individual who was not a professor of philosophy, or an ascetic teacher, attempting to live a committed “philosophical life,” and to what extent this conception had cogency and credibility for any individual in antiquity, let alone an individual ruling a vast empire. An examination throughout various sections of the thesis chapters of some of the longestablished and most up-to-date modern scholarship of the various aspects of what Stoicism was by the mid-second century C.E., and whether it had changed very much from the Hellenistic period, was important in determining what a philosophical life actually might be for a Stoic of that time. The thesis addresses (chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5) some of the major critics and defenders of Marcus Aurelius’ authenticity in attempting to live a philosophical life, as well as his technical knowledge and understanding of the philosophy to which he adhered throughout his life. Moreover, the thesis will attempt to address (chapters 4-6 and 8) the putative problem of how Marcus was able to reconcile his attitude to a supposed rational and providential cosmos in a less than perfect lived reality, and the perceptions of his hypocrisy in regard to Stoic cosmopolitan ethics and Roman militarism, as well as a desire for fame and glory.</p> <p>The thesis examines (in various sections of chapters 3 to 7) how the central doctrines of the Stoics are utilized in the philosophical language of the <i>Meditations</i> and tries to determine whether Marcus Aurelius was cognisant of the need for a profound working knowledge of these interrelated philosophical components and how their “practical living” integration into the Stoic adherent’s life (particularly in terms of one making philosophical “progress” to wisdom) was of vital importance. It concludes that Marcus was completely aware of this as an authentic and educated Stoic, and that this is demonstrated in the acute cognisance of his place in God’s providentially determined cosmos of rational agents, and in his assiduous desire for justice (δικαιοσύνη) in the fulfilment of the perceived duties of his particular role (ὑπόθεσις) as emperor. The final task has been to align as much as possible (in chapters 6, 7 and especially 8) Marcus’ attitude – really the only thing, as a Stoic, he doubtless believed was genuinely ‘up to him’ – to selected aspects of his activity in his role as an emperor, attempting to follow what he conceived as the guiding “right reason” of God, but also the “best-practice” rational example of his “good” imperial predecessors, with various aspects of the philosophical and psychological-motivational evidence cited and discussed throughout the various chapters of the thesis.</p> <p>By investigating the material in his philosophical writings and positioning it within the broader context of the extant earlier Stoic literary work, indeed going back to the foundations of the school, the thesis concludes that not only was Marcus Aurelius a serious philosopher who was far more adept in, and committed to, the precepts of the Stoa than his critics have given him credit for, it also argues that his philosophy was a constant and genuine influence on him as a man who was for nearly twenty years the most powerful person in the Roman Empire.</p>