his own time. Portions of two books (7 and 11) consist
simply of quotations. Some entries appear to be rough drafts
for others; several of the raw quotations from tragedies in
Book 7 are incorporated in the much more polished
Meditations 11.6. The significance of some entries remains
completely obscure. Few critics have known what to make of
notes like “Character: dark, womanish, obstinate” (4.28) or
“They don’t realize how much is included in stealing,
sowing, buying.. .” (3.15).
The entries also differ considerably in the degree of
artistry they display. Some entries are little more than
Marcus’s notes or reminders to himself—the philosophical
equivalent of “Phone Dr. re appt. Tues.?” But others are
highly literary. Marcus wrote as a man trained in the
rhetorical techniques of the second century. His thoughts
naturally took on the impress of his training and intellectual
milieu even when he was writing for himself alone.
The shorter entries often display an interest in wordplay
and a striving for epigrammatic brevity that recalls both the
ingenuity of the rhetorical schools and the paradoxical
compression of Heraclitus:
Does the sun try to do the rain’s work? Or Asclepius Demeter’s? (6.43)
Evil: the same old thing. (7.1)