Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
SEE AURELIUS.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Marcus Aurelius
(121-180 A.D.) The Roman Emperor who as a Stoic endowed chairs in Athens for the four great philosophical schools of the Academy, the Lyceum, The Garden and the Stoa. Aurelius’ Stoicism, tempered by his friend Fronto’s humanism, held to a rational world-order and providence as well as to a notion of probable truth rather than of the Stoic infallibilism. In the famous 12 books of Meditations, the view is prominent that death was as natural as birth and development was the end of the individual and should elicit the fear of no one. His harsh treatment of the Christians did not coincide with his mild nature which may have reflected the changed character of Stoicism brought on by the decadence of Rome.
Cf. Meditations (Eng. tr. of Ta Eis Heauton) of A. — M.F.