Meditations(Τ?ε???αυτ?ν,Taeisheauton,literally"thoughts/writingsaddressedtohimself")isaseriesofpersonalwritingsbyMarcusAurelius,RomanEmperor161–180CE,settingforthhisideasonStoicphilosophy.MarcusAureliuswrotethe12booksoftheMeditationsin"highly-educated"KoineGreek[1]asasourceforhisownguidanceandself-improvement.ItispossiblethatlargeportionsoftheworkwerewrittenatSirmium,wherehespentmuchtimeplanningmilitarycampaignsfrom170to180.SomeofitwaswrittenwhilehewaspositionedatAquincumoncampaigninPannonia,becauseinternalnotestellusthatthesecondbookwaswrittenwhenhewascampaigningagainsttheQuadiontheriverGranova(modern-dayHron)andthethirdbookwaswrittenatCarnuntum.Itisnotclearthatheeverintendedthewritingstobepublished,sothetitleMeditationsisbutoneofseveralcommonlyassignedtothecollection.Thesewritingstaketheformofquotationsvaryinginlengthfromonesentencetolongparagraphs.Hisstoicideasofteninvolveavoidingindulgenceinsensoryaffections,askillwhich,hesays,willfreeamanfromthepainsandpleasuresofthematerialworld.Heclaimsthattheo
