Marcus Aurelius Audiobooks

A Roman emperor writing to himself: Meditations remains Stoicism's plainest text

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.3/5 average

2 listener ratings

Who is Marcus Aurelius?

Marcus Aurelius (121 to 180 AD) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death and, far more unusually for a man in that job, a serious Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers remembered as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, the long stretch of relative peace and stability the Roman Empire enjoyed. His father died when he was three, leaving him to be raised by his mother and grandfather; he was adopted into the imperial succession, tutored in Greek and Latin by scholars including Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto, and married to the emperor Antoninus’s daughter Faustina.

His reign was anything but serene: war in the East against a revitalised Parthian Empire, the grinding Marcomannic Wars against the Marcomanni, Quadi and Iazyges, and the Antonine Plague, which killed millions across the empire. He ruled first alongside his adoptive brother Lucius Verus and was succeeded by his son Commodus; his column and equestrian statue still stand in Rome.

Marcus Aurelius in audiobooks

His claim on modern listeners rests on a single book: Meditations, the writings that remain one of the most important sources we have for understanding ancient Stoic philosophy, praised by writers, philosophers, monarchs and politicians for centuries after his death. It has the tone of a man advising himself rather than performing for an audience – which is precisely why it still sounds so honest read aloud.

In audio, Meditations earns a place on any UK commute: short, aphoristic passages suit listening in stolen minutes, and the counsel – on mortality, temper, duty and the smallness of most irritations – lands with a directness few modern self-help recordings can match. This is philosophy written by a man running an empire through war and plague, not theorising from a safe distance.