11/27/2023 0 Comments Aurelius queriousDiognetus, his tutor: not to busy self about trifling things, endure freedom of speech, learn philosophy, write dialogues in youth.Governor: no partisan games endurance of labor, to want little, to work with my own hands, and not to meddle with other people’s affairs, and not to be ready to listen to slander.Great-grandfather: not to have frequented public schools, and to have good teachers at home.Mother: piety and beneficence and abstinence, not only from evil deeds, but from evil thoughts and further simplicity in the way of living, far removed from the habits of the rich.Grandfather Verus: good morals and the government of my temper.Virtues learned from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations: I have included a summary below of the virtues and the virtuous from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. his philosophy teachers Apollonius Maximus (Claudius, not the Gladiator!) Sextus-the grandson of Plutarch Alexander the Platonic, and Catulus.Following his family, he lists the virtues he learned from: Marcus Aurelius begins his list with immediate family members: his father, grandfather, mother, great-grandfather and brother Severus. However, I fail daily.Īs I was reading over his list of virtues and the list of those who have taught or shown examples of certain virtues, I reflected on my own life: who has modeled certain virtues in my life? When I think of these virtues, whose face comes to mind:Ĭomitas (humour), clementia (mercy), dignitas (dignity), firmatas (tenacity), frugalitas (frugalness), gravitas (gravity), honestas (respectability), humanitas (humanity), industria (industriousness), pietas (dutifulness), prudential (prudence), salubritas (wholesomeness), severitas (sternness), veritas (truthfulness)ĭo I live these virtues? Could my name be on someone’s list of learned virtues? My daughter, my students? This was a very humbling exercise, I must say. “As a grammarian, to refrain from fault-finding and not in a reproachable way to chide those who uttered any barbarous or solecistic or strange-sounding expression but dexterously to introduce the very expression which ought to have been used (195)” (this is my favorite!). I understand fully the vital importance of: “living morally, being temperate, abstaining from evil deeds and thoughts, to want little, not to meddle with other people’s affairs, my character requiring discipline and improvement, not to be ready to slander, not to busy myself with trifling things, to look carefully after the interests of friends, ( Meditations, 193-198)etc. These virtues lie within each one of us and therefore we have no excuse not to live virtuously-or do we? As a disciple of Christ, I strive daily to live a virtuous life through Him because I am powerless alone. He lays out exactly what it means to live a virtuous life, living in accordance with Nature, and how to live the virtues fully. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, begins his Meditations with a list of virtues that he has learned from those who have influenced his life. What is a virtuous life and how does one live it? What are virtues? Who do you know that lives a virtuous life?
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