unintelligible phrase, which some scholars interpret as a reference to “an
oracle.”
“we need the help.. .”: Apparently a quotation, but not from any
surviving work.- On the River Gran, Among the Quadi: The notation is transmitted at the end
of Book 1, but is more likely to belong here. The Gran (or Hron) is a
tributary of the Danube flowing through modern-day Slovakia. The
Quadi were a Suebian tribe in the Morava River valley, subdued during
the Marcomannic Wars of the early 170s.
2.2 Throw away... right now: These words are deleted or transposed
elsewhere by some editors.
2.10 the ones committed out of desire are worse: Strictly speaking, this
assessment is in conflict with Stoic doctrine, which holds that there are
no degrees of wrongness; all wrong actions are equally wrong and it
makes no sense to speak of one as being “worse” than another.
2.13 “delving into.. .”: A line from the lyric poet Pindar (frg. 282), quoted also
by Plato, Theaetetus 173e.
- In Carnuntum: Transmitted at the end of Book 2, but probably meant to head
Book 3. Carnuntum was a fortress on the Danube which housed the
Legio XIV Gemina and served as the seat of the governor of Upper
Pannonia. Marcus is known to have been in the area in 172 and 173.
3.3 Chaldaeans: The Chaldaeans (Babylonians) had a special reputation as
astrologers.
Democritus: Apparently an error for another pre-Socratic philosopher,
Pherecydes, who was said to have been eaten by worms. (Democritus’s
name was often coupled with that of Heraclitus, which may explain
Marcus’s slip here.)
Socrates: The “vermin” who killed Socrates are the Athenians who