Close Readings: Marcus Aurelius

‘The beautiful game has never looked more beautiful on the pitch, or more ugly off it,’ Simon Skinner writes in the latest LRB. Each World Cup seems more tainted by corruption than the last, but is that a nostalgic illusion? The second competition, held in Italy in 1934, was a po ...  Show more

Poets have always written about love, but the divorce poem is a much more recent subgenre. In this episode, Sarah and Sandeep ask if the formal processes of legal separation can be successful material for poetry, starting with a look at Milton’s prose arguments in favour of divor ...  Show more

For their final conversation Among the Ancients, Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones turn to the contradictions of the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Said by Machiavelli to be the last of the ‘five good emperors’ who ruled Rome for most of the second century CE, M ...  Show more

<div>Plato once pined for a day when philosopher kings would rule civilization. A handful of centuries later he sort of got his wish when devout Stoic Marcus Aurelius took the reins as Emperor of Rome. To see what that this thoughtful bearded hunk was all about, Connor and Dan re ...  Show more

He's known as Rome’s philosopher-emperor and faced plague, rebellion and war in the East. Yet Marcus Aurelius ruled with a pen as much as a sword, finding peace in philosophy which still inspires the world today.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Profess ...  Show more

📖 Episode Transcripts in Link Below ⬇️ Today, we’ll dive into the life and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor known as the last of the Five Good Emperors and the author of one of history’s most influential philosophical works, the Meditations. https://patreon.com/H ...  Show more