Marcus Aurelius was a stoic philosopher and the last of Rome’s “Five Good Emperors”.

This is a slightly complicated story. However, I find it helps to begin just by stating a few important historical facts, which I believe are partly obscured by the portrayal of events in Gladiator, although even people who have never seen that movie are often mistaken on these points.

Marcus’s journal is on my Stoic short-list, alongside Seneca’s Letters and the Enchiridion.