Book Review: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The Meditations is a philosophical potpourri of paragraphs by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180). The reader can see his world view thanks to recurring themes and ideas.

He believes that the world is guided by a rational principle which makes everything work out for the best. He refers to this principle as Nature or World-Nature or Providence. The way to human happiness is to act in accord with this overarching rational principle, mostly by humbly striving for the well-being of self and others. Justice is the central virtue; equanimity is the central emotional state. If someone does something against you, becoming angry or vengeful is counterproductive. It may work out for the best in spite of your immediate judgement. Even if they did commit a bad act, they probably acted out of ignorance and need pity and correction rather than scorn and retribution. We are all part of the larger community and should help each other to achieve the best for that community. The good of the community is good for all its members.

Change is constant, so expecting things to remain the same forever is contrary to the rational principle of Nature. Hardships and even death are a natural process that should not be resisted. When a person recognizes change as the fundamental principle by which Nature acts, that person accepts the course of life (long or short) granted to them and works zealously to improve the world about them. Thus they work in harmony with nature.

Marcus Aurelius's philosophy is a prime example of Stoicism, perhaps its greatest expression. Parts of it resonate with Christianity quite well, though he seems unaware of the then-fledgling religion. His emphasis on personal excellence and on forbearance in the face of evil is a model for human behavior. His idea that we should all be working together to improve mankind is also admirable if not often imitated. Some parts are less resonant with Christianity, especially how universal providence seems more like pantheism (the idea that God is in all things and all things are part of Him) than the Christian understanding of Providence.

For those interested in Stoicism or in the heights to which human reason can ascend, this is a fascinating read.

More Roman Bits of York, England

2000 years ago the current town of York was an immense Roman fort called Eboracum. It was founded in AD 71 and continued to be expanded and maintained for 340 years. Amazingly, some bits of the fort still exist today as well as other examples of the town's Roman heritage.

Map of the Roman fort

Bootham Bar is a medieval wall gate that stands right over the ruins of the northwestern gate of the Roman fort. The foundations are just below ground level. The road from here led north to Hadrian's Wall and Scotland beyond.

Bootham Bar/Northwest Gate

One extant wall dates back to AD 300 and was built by Emperor Constantius Chlorus who died in York in 306.

Ancient wall

Constantius was the father of Constantine the Great, who has a statue just outside York Minster. Constantine was crowned emperor in York so naturally he is remembered fondly.

Constantine the Great

Front view

Check out the cool shoes!

Nearby is a column that dates back to Roman times as well.

Roman column

On the wall walk I saw the foundations of the eastern corner tower of the Roman fort. The towers originally stood 8 meters high (just over 26 feet).

Eastern corner tower foundations

Lincoln's Roman Past is Still Present

We went to Lincoln, UK, for an overnight trip New Year's weekend, so you'll get the usual castle and cathedral posts. But first, let's follow a trail of the surviving Roman ruins strewn about the city. I did the first part of the tour during the children's nap time. It was a cold and rainy New Year's Day, so many pictures didn't come out. But I'll show you what I've got.

Current view from the East Gate

The tour starts near the Lincoln Cathedral at the ruins of the old east gate of the Upper City's defenses. When the Romans first settled in Lincoln, they naturally fortified the high ground to provide the best defensive area. The original gate was built of wood in the 80s AD. The current ruins are of the stone gate built in the early 200s.

Those wooden timbers in the middle mark where the original gate was located.

Further up the street in a quiet neighborhood is part of the north wall that served as a water tank fed from the aqueducts.

The bath houses weren't far away back in the day; now it's just houses

Further on is the Newport Arch dating from the 200s. It is still used by pedestrians and motor vehicles and is in amazing shape. I was delighted to walk through and see it from both sides. And to find some cover from the rain! Next time we go to Lincoln, Jacob will surely love to go through this gate when he is awake it it is drier outside.

Cars on left, pedestrians down to the right. That's the resident's car parked on the far right!

The "outside" side of the gate, still in use

Walking a ways to the west and south, I came upon the "mint wall" which is quite large and extensive. It was part of the Roman basilica, which was used as the town hall before the Christians began using the term (and some of the buildings) for major churches.

Only guarded by a chain rope!

Further south was the outline of the 4th century church St. Paul in the Bail (Bail is the name of the street) and of the old Roman well. The rain was particularly aggressive here, so no pictures came out. I will say the outline of the church foundations had an unfortunate similarity to the "free throw" area marking of a basketball court--a big rectangle with a half-circle on the end.

Further on I came to the West Gate of Lincoln Castle, where the original west gate of the Roman fortifications is buried underneath the Norman gate into the castle.

West Gate of Lincoln Castle

The original Roman gate was discovered when the owner of the pub not visible on the left wanted to put in a garden out back. He dug near the walls of the castle and discovered the old Roman entrance. He was then prosecuted for endangering the King's defenses and had to fill it back in.

The tour continued around the castle and would have ended with the Medieval Bishop's Palace just south of the Cathedral. I knew that this English Heritage site was closed for the holiday and I wouldn't be able to get in, so I returned to my car. I was getting fairly soaked by the rain, so it was good to end early.

Back at the hotel, I discovered that Lucy never took her nap, naughty girl! We tried to go out to dinner but hardly anything was open. Most of the pubs were serving just drinks not food. We went back to the restaurant at our hotel for a fine dinner before returning to our rooms for a good night's sleep.

Hadrian's Wall: Housesteads Roman Fort

To celebrate Labor Day weekend, we went on a trip to see Hadrian's Wall, the number one labor project of 122 AD in Britain.

The project began under Roman Emperor Hadrian. The intent of the wall isn't quite clear. Most think it was to protect against the Pict barbarians to the north, though some claim it was just a project to keep the soldiers busy or to establish a definite and secure border. The wall ran from Newcastle on the east coast to Carlisle on the west coast. Small forts were built every Roman mile with two smaller turrets evenly spaced inbetween. Twelve large forts were built along the wall as well.

The most complete ruins of a large fort is Housesteads Roman Fort, owned by the National Trust but managed by English Heritage. It's estimated that 800 to 1000 soldiers were quartered there through the 300 years of its use. Historians and archeologists are not sure why the Romans left, though most likely they just abandoned it for what we would now call "budget cuts" in the early 400s. Clearly they didn't succumb to a barbarian onslaught or anything spectacular like that. No physical evidence supports that.

The fort itself is a standard square-shaped fort with gates in the middle of each wall. Barracks, headquarters, a commander's house, a hospital, and granaries are all in evidence. The fort also supported a small town to the south, with the sort of shops, taverns, and homes for families that spring up around soldiers needing to spend their hard earned pay. Not much of the town remains today.

model of fort and town in the museum, behind some glass, unfortunately

Our visit was mostly delightful. The children enjoyed climbing all over the ruins of the fort. Jacob thought it was a big stone maze and scrabbled all over the place. Lucy did likewise. The views were pretty spectacular, though the cloudiness eventually turned to rain. We started to head back down the hill.

Jacob stands on a rock and avoids sheep droppings along the way

Windy days make for crazy hair

Mommy and Lucy on the rocks

Enjoying the remains of the fort

Jacob shows the way out of the maze!

Lucy at the granaries

Lucy on the lookout for Picts at the north gate

Hadrian's Wall continuing off to the east

Jacob had a fairly major meltdown as we were leaving. He wanted to stay and play on the fort but we wouldn't let him. We wound up carrying him down the half mile path to the car park. When I was carrying him, he kept insisting that I couldn't carry him all the way down, though he wanted me to. With such motivation, I did get him all the way to the car. He still wasn't happy. We had a snack in the car and headed off to Hexham to see their abbey and have dinner.

Chester, England

On our way home from Conwy and Holywell, we stopped in the city of Chester. It has quite a few attractions to justify a stop.

A busy, charming city!

Shopping is plentiful. I am tempted to say they have twice as much shopping as other cities, but that is because more than one street features a second level of stores above the street level shops. I present as evidence exhibit A:

We were impressed, but not enough to buy anything

The town also has a nice cathedral, though we did not tour it because of time constraints and admission charges (I think that's tacky for functioning houses of worship). Jacob did insist on his favorite stop, the potty. It was very nice and gave some of the rest of us a chance to peruse items in the gift shop (no charge to get in there!). We did see several aspects:

Outside view from the city wall

The cafeteria was also open to the public and had this recent stained glass

Another attraction is the Roman Aqueducts and the city walls, upon which visitors may walk around the town. We walked over quite a few of these, stopping for pictures at the arch built to honor Queen Victoria's 1897 60th anniversary:

Lucy almost missed the photo op, you can see her concern!

Best view of the aqueduct!

The Romans also had gardens and two amphitheaters here in Chester, though they built the second larger amphitheater on top of the older amphitheater. We enjoyed visiting that, though we read that they didn't run plays (not the style of entertainment) or have gladiator contests (too expensive for the fringes of the empire). Most likely they just threw condemned men to ferocious beasts.

Jacob sees the amphitheater from the wall

Posing in the amphitheater

Theaters usually have hotels nearby, right?

We also enjoyed the gardens and caught part of another group's tour. We saw how they used to heat the houses in the floor using a hypocaust. Under the floor was an area where slaves kept hot coals burning so that the building would be quite warm, especially in chilly, damp British weather. Some old Roman was quite nice enough to explain it.

The gardens (and tour group) from the city wall

Hypocaustic heat!

Classically dressed guide explains it all to the yellow backpack crowd

We didn't stay too long but got a nice flavor of the area. We also got some ice cream to fortify us for the drive home, which had very nice flavors indeed. I had a banoffee pie milkshake that was tasty but more milky than I expect from a shake. It got us home, though.