ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations and considers its status as a work of philosophy. It presents the Meditations as a private notebook, never intended for publication, in which Marcus engaged in a series of written exercises aimed at self-examination. In particular, these exercises were aimed at assimilating and digesting key philosophical principles. Central to this process was the practice of paying close attention to principles at all times. This activity is then placed within the wider context of the Stoic conception of philosophy as an art of living, understood in analogy with medicine as involving two distinct stages: first a grasp of theoretical principles, followed by training aimed at digesting those principles. It is argued that the Meditations ought to be read as text focused on the second stage of such an education. In this context the notion a spiritual exercise is introduced and its use by Musonius Rufus and Seneca is examined; then some specific spiritual exercises in the Meditations are discussed.
