European empires. Which will be the next empire to fall, the next to rise?
The interest in reading Marcus Aurelius’s
Meditations
, the book I am sending you this time, lies as much in their content as in the knowledge of who wrote them. European history has got us used to seeing one monarch after another reach the throne for no reason other than direct filial relation, with talent and ability playing no role. Thus the unending line of mediocre personalities—to put it charitably—who came to rule and mismanage so many European nations. This was not Marcus Aurelius’s route to power. Although he inherited the throne from Emperor Antoninus Pius, he was not Pius’s biological son.
Nor was he elected. He was rather selected. Roman emperors did pass on their emperorship to their sons, but this linkage was rarely directly biological. They instead designated their successors by a system that was authoritarian yet flexible: adoption. Marcus Aurelius became emperor as a result of being adopted by the reigning emperor. Each emperor chose whom he wanted as his successor from among the many capable and competing members of Rome’s diverse elite class. Members of that class were often related, but they still had to prove themselves if they wanted to move up in the world.
In that, Roman society was much like the modern democracies of today, with an educated, principled elite that sought to perpetuate the system and, with it, itself. The Rome of then, in some ways, doesn’t seem so different from the Ottawa, Washington or London of today. After the alien abyss, frankly, that is much European history, with the Europeans thinking and behaving in ways that are close to unfathomable by contemporary standards, it is a surprise to see, nearly two thousand years ago, a people who thought and fought and squabbled and had principles which they squandered, and so on—why, a people seemingly just like us. Hence the endless interest of Roman history.
So Marcus Aurelius was a man of great ability selected to be Roman emperor. In other words, he was a politician, and, like you, a busy one; he spent much of his time battling barbarian hordes on the frontiers of the empire. But at the same time, he was a thinking man—with a penchant for philosophy—who put his thoughts down on the page. He was a writer.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic and some of his pronouncements are on the gloomy side: “Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you,” is a fairly typical pronouncement of his. There is much madein these meditations on the ephemerality of the body, of fame, of empires, of pretty well everything. Over and over, Marcus Aurelius exhorts himself to higher standards of thinking and behaving. It’s bracing, salutary stuff. In many ways, it’s the perfect book for you, Mr. Harper. A practical book on thinking, being and acting by a philosopher-king.
It’s also not the sort of book one reads right through from page 1 to page 163. It has no continuous narrative or developing argument. The
Meditations
are rather self-contained musings divided into twelve books, each book divided into numbered points that range in length from a single sentence to a few paragraphs. The book lends itself to being dipped into at random. My suggestion is that each time you open and read it, you put a dot next to the meditations you read. That way, over time, you will read all of them.
Yours truly,
Yann Martel
M ARCUS A URELIUS (121–180 CE ) wrote his
Meditations
in Greek while on military campaigns during 170–180 CE . In them, he stresses the importance of government service, duty, endurance, abstinence, surrendering to Providence and achieving detachment from things beyond one’s control.
BOOK 23:
ARTISTS AND MODELS
BY ANAÏS NIN
February
18, 2008
To Stephen Harper,
Prime Minister of Canada,
Hot stuff,
From a Canadian writer,
With best wishes,
Yann Martel
Dear Mr. Harper,
Valentine’s Day was just a few
The interest in reading Marcus Aurelius’s
Meditations
, the book I am sending you this time, lies as much in their content as in the knowledge of who wrote them. European history has got us used to seeing one monarch after another reach the throne for no reason other than direct filial relation, with talent and ability playing no role. Thus the unending line of mediocre personalities—to put it charitably—who came to rule and mismanage so many European nations. This was not Marcus Aurelius’s route to power. Although he inherited the throne from Emperor Antoninus Pius, he was not Pius’s biological son.
Nor was he elected. He was rather selected. Roman emperors did pass on their emperorship to their sons, but this linkage was rarely directly biological. They instead designated their successors by a system that was authoritarian yet flexible: adoption. Marcus Aurelius became emperor as a result of being adopted by the reigning emperor. Each emperor chose whom he wanted as his successor from among the many capable and competing members of Rome’s diverse elite class. Members of that class were often related, but they still had to prove themselves if they wanted to move up in the world.
In that, Roman society was much like the modern democracies of today, with an educated, principled elite that sought to perpetuate the system and, with it, itself. The Rome of then, in some ways, doesn’t seem so different from the Ottawa, Washington or London of today. After the alien abyss, frankly, that is much European history, with the Europeans thinking and behaving in ways that are close to unfathomable by contemporary standards, it is a surprise to see, nearly two thousand years ago, a people who thought and fought and squabbled and had principles which they squandered, and so on—why, a people seemingly just like us. Hence the endless interest of Roman history.
So Marcus Aurelius was a man of great ability selected to be Roman emperor. In other words, he was a politician, and, like you, a busy one; he spent much of his time battling barbarian hordes on the frontiers of the empire. But at the same time, he was a thinking man—with a penchant for philosophy—who put his thoughts down on the page. He was a writer.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic and some of his pronouncements are on the gloomy side: “Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you,” is a fairly typical pronouncement of his. There is much madein these meditations on the ephemerality of the body, of fame, of empires, of pretty well everything. Over and over, Marcus Aurelius exhorts himself to higher standards of thinking and behaving. It’s bracing, salutary stuff. In many ways, it’s the perfect book for you, Mr. Harper. A practical book on thinking, being and acting by a philosopher-king.
It’s also not the sort of book one reads right through from page 1 to page 163. It has no continuous narrative or developing argument. The
Meditations
are rather self-contained musings divided into twelve books, each book divided into numbered points that range in length from a single sentence to a few paragraphs. The book lends itself to being dipped into at random. My suggestion is that each time you open and read it, you put a dot next to the meditations you read. That way, over time, you will read all of them.
Yours truly,
Yann Martel
M ARCUS A URELIUS (121–180 CE ) wrote his
Meditations
in Greek while on military campaigns during 170–180 CE . In them, he stresses the importance of government service, duty, endurance, abstinence, surrendering to Providence and achieving detachment from things beyond one’s control.
BOOK 23:
ARTISTS AND MODELS
BY ANAÏS NIN
February
18, 2008
To Stephen Harper,
Prime Minister of Canada,
Hot stuff,
From a Canadian writer,
With best wishes,
Yann Martel
Dear Mr. Harper,
Valentine’s Day was just a few
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