The World in Miniature. Marcus Aurelius 6.36
Marcus
Aurelius draws a little picture of the world, which he imagines as a
kind of living giant. Its ruling principle is a mind that orders
movement in a kind of dance that all things follow, including things
we regard as evil; but these things also have their place, Marcus
says, and contribute ultimately to the wonder and awe and order of
the world, which for him is divine.
Ἡ
Ἀσία, ἡ Εὐρώπη γωνίαι τοῦ κόσμου· πᾶν
πέλαγος σταγὼν τοῦ κόσμου· Ἄθως
βωλάριον τοῦ κόσμου· πᾶν τὸ ἐνεστὼς
τοῦ χρόνου στιγμὴ τοῦ αἰῶνος. πάντα
μικρά, εὔτρεπτα, ἐναφανιζόμενα.
Πάντα
ἐκεῖθεν ἔρχεται, ἀπ’ ἐκείνου τοῦ
κοινοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ ὁρμήσαντα ἢ κατ’
ἐπακολούθησιν. καὶ τὸ χάσμα οὖν τοῦ
λέοντος καὶ τὸ δηλητήριον καὶ πᾶσα
κακουργία, ὡς ἄκανθα, ὡς βόρβορος,
ἐκείνων ἐπιγεννήματα τῶν σεμνῶν καὶ
καλῶν. μὴ οὖν αὐτὰ ἀλλότρια τούτου
οὗ σέβεις φαντάζου, ἀλλὰ τὴν πάντων
πηγὴν ἐπιλογίζου.
Asia
and Europe: these are corners of the world, and every sea its drop
of blood. Athos (†) is just a little speck on it. Each moment
taken from time marks the end of its life. All its things are small,
easily altered, vanishing even as they appear.
All
things come from the world, starting directly from its ruling
principle, or following this ruler as consequences. So even the
gaping maw of the lion, and poison, and every sort of
wickedness—biting thorns and stinking mire—are consequences of
what is noble and holy. Do not imagine that the evils you witness are
foreign to the world's splendor that you worship; remember the source
of all things instead.
---
(†)
A large mountain on the easternmost edge of the Chalcidice, a
peninsula jutting into the Aegean sea from the European side. The
peninsula was settled by colonists from Chalcis and Eretria already
in the eighth century BCE, and by Marcus' time there was a
Roman colony there, too: the old Macedonian city of Cassandreia,
built on the site of the even older Potidaea, renamed Colonia
Iulia Augusta Cassandrensis in
honor of its latest Roman founder, Caesar's heir.