Marcus Aurelius: A Life

The life story of the renowned stoic philosopher—and the last Roman emperor who presided over the empire's golden age.

Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) is one of the great figures of antiquity who still speaks to us today, more than two thousand years after his death. His Meditations has been compared by John Stuart Mill to the Sermon on the Mount. A guide to how we should live, it remains one of the most widely read books from the classical world.

But Marcus Aurelius was much more than a philosopher. As emperor he stabilized the empire, issued numerous reform edicts, and defended the borders with success. His life itself represented the fulfillment of Plato's famous dictum that mankind will prosper only when philosophers are rulers and rulers philosophers.

Frank McLynn's Marcus Aurelius, based on all available original sources, is the definitive and most vivid biography to date of this monumental historical figure.

"That rare thing: a portrait of a figure from ancient history that manages to be both psychologically nuanced and true to the original sources." —Tom Holland, award-winning historian and author of Rubicon