gladiatorial combat and the brutal executions of the arena
a source of tedium (6.46); that they might be morally
wrong seems never to have occurred to him. He prides
himself on not having taken sexual advantage of his slaves,
not because it would have been harmful or unjust to them,
but because such self-indulgence would have been
damaging to his own character (1.17). There is no sign that
he ever questioned slavery as an institution. If asked, he
would no doubt have responded that “true” slavery is the
self-enslavement of the mind to emotion and desire (cf.
8.3, 9.40, 11.30); actual bodily slavery is merely a
condition to be accepted and endured, like nearsightedness
or a cold.
- A still better title might be “Memoranda,” which suggests
both the miscellaneous character of the work and
something about its intended function. Scores of entries
begin with the injunctions to “remember.. .” or “keep in
mind... ,” while the syntax of others (e.g., 12.18)
presupposes such an admonition.
- In order to stress the self-directed nature of the
Meditations I have sometimes preferred to translate these
as resolutions (“to.. .”) rather than direct commands.
- The conventional divisions and numbering go back only to
the Latin translation published by Thomas Gataker in
1652. It cannot be regarded as authoritative, and I have
