Lessons from History. Marcus Aurelius 4.32

Marcus recommends taking a long view of history, seeing how our arts and intentions play out over multiple generations, in an arena that eludes effective control. Give nature her due, and be at peace in the knowledge that her bounty will eventually include many who forget you, no matter who or what you were. Stoic virtue is not ultimately a matter of personal renown.

Ἐπινόησον λόγου χάριν τοὺς ἐπὶ Οὐεσπασιανοῦ καιρούς, ὄψει τὰ αὐτὰ πάντα· γαμοῦντας, παιδοτροφοῦντας, νοσοῦντας, ἀποθνῄσκοντας, πολεμοῦντας, ἑορτάζοντας, ἐμπορευομένους, γεωργοῦντας, κολακεύοντας, αὐθαδιζομένους, ὑποπτεύοντας, ἐπιβουλεύοντας, ἀποθανεῖν τινας εὐχομένους, γογγύζοντας ἐπὶ τοῖς παροῦσιν, ἐρῶντας, θησαυρίζοντας, ὑπατείας, βασιλείας ἐπιθυμοῦντας· οὐκοῦν ἐκεῖνος μὲν ὁ τούτων βίος οὐκ ἔτι οὐδαμοῦ.

πάλιν ἐπὶ τοὺς καιροὺς τοὺς Τραιανοῦ μετάβηθι· πάλιν τὰ αὐτὰ πάντα· τέθνηκε κἀκεῖνος ὁ βίος. ὁμοίως καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἐπιγραφὰς χρόνων καὶ ὅλων ἐθνῶν ἐπιθεώρει καὶ βλέπε, πόσοι κατενταθέντες μετὰ μικρὸν ἔπεσον καὶ ἀνελύθησαν εἰς τὰ στοιχεῖα· μάλιστα δὲ ἀναπολητέον ἐκείνους, οὓς αὐτὸς ἔγνως κενὰ σπωμένους, ἀφέντας ποιεῖν τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν κατασκευὴν καὶ τούτου ἀπρὶξ ἔχεσθαι καὶ τούτῳ ἀρκεῖσθαι. ἀναγκαῖον δὲ ὧδε τὸ μεμνῆσθαι, ὅτι καὶ ἡ ἐπιστροφὴ καθ’ ἑκάστην πρᾶξιν ἰδίαν ἀξίαν ἔχει καὶ συμμετρίαν· οὕτως γὰρ οὐκ ἀποδυσπετήσεις, ἐὰν μὴ ἐπὶ πλέον ἢ προσῆκε περὶ τὰ ἐλάσσω καταγίνῃ.

For a strong dose of rational thought, apply your mind to the era of Vespasian (†). Behold that all things then are the same as we find them now: people then went about getting married, getting children, getting ill, dying, making war, making feast, making trade, farming and flattering, daring and doubting one another, plotting and praying that others might die, grumbling about the present decline, falling in love, hoarding treasure, longing for kingdoms and consulates. And yet the life of those folk is nowhere today.

Now shift your mind's eye to the times of Trajan (‡). Again you see all the same things. And that life too is dead. From here take into your gaze all the monuments and memories left of other ages and whole nations, as many as have fallen and gone to dust in a moment, releasing to the elements the life they once clutched so hard. Consider especially those whose final spasms you have seen: remember how they struggled in vain, unable to realize their plan for immortality, incapable of warding all foes or keeping every stronghold safe. Here it is necessary to remind yourself that every action sows the seeds of its reversal: in due time, it will unmake all that it has made, expressing in its dissolution the same harmony it held while it was building. Keeping this perspective, you will avoid despair, unless you become unduly invested in trivial matters.

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(†) Titus Flavius Vespasianus (9-79 CE) was emperor of Rome about a century before Marcus. His rise to power began humbly: his father's family were freeborn citizens of Falacrinae, and until his generation they held no significant offices in the city of Rome. His mother Vespasia Polla, on the other hand, had a brother in the senate, and her sons went into Roman public service. Vespasian had a career that took him from Rome to Britain and then to Judea, where the collapse of Nero's authority (69 CE) found him leading a triumphant army with his son Titus. They managed to defeat other would-be princes as effectively as they had the Jewish rebels, founding the Flavian dynasty that preceded the Antonines (among whom we find Marcus).

(‡) Caesar Nerva Trajanus (53-117 CE) was perhaps the most renowned emperor of all the Antonine dynasty, called optimus princeps by the senate. He was born and bred in Spain (Hispania Baetica), in a family of Roman colonists, and came to power through the military, where he served with distinction until the assassination of Domitian, Vespasian's most ill-favored son. Marcus Cocceius Nerva, appointed to lead Rome in the wake of that disaster, made Trajan his heir to placate the soldiers. As emperor, Trajan left enduring monuments in the city (including the Forum, Market, and Column that bear his name) and extended Roman frontiers farther than any ruler before or after, waging war with the Nabataeans, the Dacians, and the Parthians. His adopted heir, Hadrian, whom some thought to be his lover, inherited the task of organizing these boundaries when Trajan took ill and died rather suddenly in Cilicia, in the city of Selinus.