Meditations: Penguin Classics Audiobook (Free)

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This Penguin Classic is conducted by Richard Armitage, star of Peter Jackson’sThe Hobbit trilogy and also known for his roles in Ocean’s 8 and Spooks. This definitive documenting includes an Introduction by Diskin Clay.

Originally written only for his personal consumption, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations has become a key text in the understanding of Roman Stoic philosophy. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with records by Martin Hammond and an intro by about Meditations: Penguin Classics Diskin Clay.

Written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a wide variety of interesting spiritual reflections and exercises created as the first choice struggled to comprehend himself and make sense of the universe. Spanning from question and despair to conviction and exaltation, they cover such different topics as the issue of virtue, individual rationality, the type of the gods and Aurelius’s personal emotions. But as the Meditations were composed to supply personal consolation, in developing his beliefs Marcus also developed one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a series of wise and useful aphorisms that have been consulted and respected by statesmen, thinkers and ordinary readers for almost two thousand years.

Martin Hammond’s new translation fully expresses the intimacy and eloquence of the initial work, with complete notes elucidating the text. This model also contains an intro by Diskin Clay, exploring the nature and advancement of the Meditations, a chronology, additional reading and complete indexes.

Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus (121-80) was adopted with the emperor Antoninus Pius and succeeded him in 161, (while joint emperor with adoptive brother Lucius Verus). He ruled by itself from 169, and spent a lot of his reign in placing down numerous rebellions, and was a persecutor of Christians. His fame rest, most importantly, on his Meditations, a series of reflections, strongly affected by Epictetus, which represent a Stoic lifestyle. He was succeeded by his organic son, thus closing the period from the adoptive emperors.