ABSTRACT
Marcus Aurelius, one of the great Roman emperors, wrote his Meditations during the last phase of his life (around 170). A remarkable fact, which has remained almost unknown, is that Aurelius chose to write his Meditations in Greek, instead of in Latin. But then, Marcus Aurelius was a classical scholar. Even to the uninitiated reader, the writings of Marcus Aurelius offer clear, succinct and profound insights into a variety of fields, which, among others, include ethics, politics, psychology, cosmology, theology, the nature of human relationships and spirituality. One is dazzled, awed, by his classical scholarship. Upon reading the book one experiences the excitement at discovering what, in contemporary terms, would be referred to as an extraordinary book on counselling. Marcus Aurelius does not attempt to counsel anyone in particular. He counsels himself. The book is written in the form of aphorisms, a style which has found several imitators, notable among them being Nietzsche in the nineteenth century. Aurelius, through an exchange of letters, also seeks counsel from Fronto, who was 25 years older than he and whom he looked upon as his master (Rutherford 1990).
