How It's Used

"'The Meditations' are a unique self-exploration set in the soul of a Roman emperor, the personal devotions of a pre-Christian. They sum up the sweet melancholy of late antiquity. A philosopher might believe oblivion will overtake us all—that there is no afterlife—but because the gods will it, then it must be just. And in the face of this Void the only answer is to perform good works in the public service. Bill Clinton, we are told, keeps a copy of 'The Meditations' by his bedside. One imagines he dipped into it during Middle East peace negotiations...

"One image [from the film 'Gladiator'], however, resonates with truth: Richard Harris, playing Marcus, emaciated and white-haired at a desk in the Imperial tent, pen busy. The Meditations were written in this way, apparently between AD169 and AD175, while the Emperor conducted war along the boundaries of the Mediterranean and German worlds.

"Marcus stands at the end of the line of the so-called Five Good Emperors who ruled from AD96-180. According to Edward Gibbon, this was the time 'during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous'. In these times, he rhapsodised, 'absolute power was exercised under the guidance of virtue and wisdom'."

—Bob Carr, "A Voice From The Void," The Sydney Morning Herald, August 5, 2000.

"Hadrian was Emperor from 117AD until 138AD, ruling over one of the more peaceful periods in the turbulent history of Roman imperialism. Born in AD76 into a wealthy family in Italica, close to the city of Seville in today’s Spain, he was the third of ‘Five Good Emperors’, so-called by 18th century historian Edward Gibbon because they 'governed by absolute power, under the guidance of wisdom and virtue'.

"The emperor often consolidated Rome’s power by erecting permanent fortifications along the Empire’s border. One such was Hadrian’s Wall, built in 122AD to ward off possible invasions from Caledonian tribes. Built across northern England, it extended west from Sege-dunum at Wallsend on the River Tyne to Solway Frith, 73.5 miles (117km) in length."

—Amol Rajan, "Unearthed: a monument to the might of Hadrian," The Independent (UK), August 11, 2007.

"The Reading Room, with its enormous dome vaulting overhead, is an excellent setting, illustrating the legacy of Hadrian's pantheon in European architecture. A colossal marble head of the emperor himself greets you upon entry. It was discovered in Turkey only last year, and it was finally identified as Hadrian because of the deep creases in the ear lobes, one of the emperor's physical idiosyncrasies, which doctors now say could have been a sign of a heart condition.

"The carved face of the man who ruled over Romans from AD 117 to AD 138 is noble and grave, a fitting representation of a ruler whom Machiavelli described as the third of the five good emperors. His aquiline nose is missing, but he sports a neat, curling beard that identifies him as a lover of Hellenic aesthetics and as a trendsetter who stands apart from his clean-shaven predecessors, whose likenesses stand nearby."

—Bríd Higgins Ní Chinneideis, "A great museum with a nice city thrown in: The British Museum, in London, has finally beaten Blackpool to the title of Britain's most popular cultural attraction. Bríd Higgins Ní Chinneideis impressed by its take on history," The Irish Times, August 18, 2008.

"Archeologists have unearthed parts of a huge marble statue of Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor who was portrayed by the late Richard Harris in the film 'Gladiator'...

"Marcus Aurelius reigned from AD180 to AD161. He was one of the 'five good emperors', according to Niccolo Machiavelli, the 15th-century political theorist. Professor Marc Waelkens, from the University of Leuven in Belgium, who is leading the team, said the statue's pupils were looking upwards 'as if in deep contemplation, perfectly fitting of an emperor who was more of a philosopher than a soldier'."

—no author listed, "Top stories from around the world," The Sunday Times (UK), August 31, 2008.

Links

Related on eAlmanac
The Year of the Four Emperors
The Year of the Five Emperors
The Year of the Six Emperors

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on the Five Good Emperors