Two cities. Marcus Aurelius 6.44

Marcus lays out his own approach to life, one that finds good by recourse to communal standards (evident in religion, and in shared human and animal interaction). What is not good for the community he inhabits he categorically rejects as good for himself. This reveals a conception of good that will not work in most modern environs (which presume a level of autonomy in the individual self that is largely alien to antiquity, not just Marcus: philosophers intent upon individual ethics, as opposed to communal, were seen as strange, mad, even dangerous; this is one of the problems Athens has with Socrates).

Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐβουλεύσαντο περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐμοὶ συμβῆναι ὀφειλόντων οἱ θεοί, καλῶς ἐβουλεύσαντο· ἄβουλον γὰρ θεὸν οὐδὲ ἐπινοῆσαι ῥᾴδιον, κακοποιῆσαι δέ με διὰ τίνα αἰτίαν ἔμελλον ὁρμᾶν; τί γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἢ τῷ κοινῷ, οὗ μάλιστα προνοοῦνται, ἐκ τούτου περιεγένετο; εἰ δὲ μὴ ἐβουλεύσαντο κατ’ ἰδίαν περὶ ἐμοῦ, περί γε τῶν κοινῶν πάντως ἐβουλεύσαντο, οἷς κατ’ ἐπακολούθησιν καὶ ταῦτα συμβαίνοντα ἀσπάζεσθαι καὶ στέργειν ὀφείλω.

Εἰ δ’ ἄρα περὶ μηδενὸς βουλεύονται (πιστεύειν μὲν οὐχ ὅσιον ἢ μηδὲ θύωμεν μηδὲ εὐχώμεθα μηδὲ ὀμνύωμεν μηδὲ τὰ ἄλλα πράσσωμεν ἃ παρ’ ἕκαστα ὡς πρὸς παρόντας καὶ συμβιοῦντας τοὺς θεοὺς πράσσομεν), εἰ δ’ ἄρα περὶ μηδενὸς τῶν καθ’ ἡμᾶς βουλεύονται, ἐμοὶ μὲν ἔξεστι περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ βουλεύεσθαι, ἐμοὶ δέ ἐστι σκέψις περὶ τοῦ συμφέροντος. συμφέρει δὲ ἑκάστῳ τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ κατασκευὴν καὶ φύσιν, ἡ δὲ ἐμὴ φύσις λογικὴ καὶ πολιτική. Πόλις καὶ πατρὶς ὡς μὲν Ἀντωνίνῳ μοι ἡ Ῥώμη, ὡς δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ ὁ κόσμος. τὰ ταῖς πόλεσιν οὖν ταύταις ὠφέλιμα μόνα ἐστί μοι ἀγαθά.

If ever the gods were making plans for me, and for the events that should befall me, they would plan well and nobly. For it is not easy to conceive a god incapable of planning, and why ever would they wish to harm me? What advantage would they get from doing me ill? What benefit would my injury offer to the common good, which they provide for most of all? And if the gods were not making private plans for me, still they would contrive universally for the common good, so it follows that I ought to greet events gladly, and with love.

But suppose they make no plans at all. It is not pious then, or credible, to trust that we would sacrifice, or pray, or swear solemn oaths, or do any of the things we do as though the gods were present and living amongst us. But still, though they make no provision for anything of ours, I will yet find occasion to make plans for myself. I will have to look into things, seeking what is needful. Every living being needs something in keeping with its condition and nature. My own nature is rational and political, so that is what I need. Rome is the home I keep as an Antoninus. As a man, I inhabit the world. Only what is good for these two cities, Rome and the world, is good for me.