A new Translation, with an Introduction, by Gregory Hays the modern library

Democritus: Apparently an error for another pre-Socratic philosopher,
Pherecydes, who was said to have been eaten by worms. (Democritus’s
name was often coupled with that of Heraclitus, which may explain
Marcus’s slip here.)
Socrates: The “vermin” who killed Socrates are the Athenians who

---

prosecuted and condemned him.
3.6 as Socrates used to say: It is not clear whether Marcus is alluding to a
specific passage (perhaps Plato, Phaedo 83a–b) or merely to a general
impression of Socratic doctrine.
3.14 your Brief Comments: Evidently collections of anecdotes and/or quotations
put together by Marcus himself for his own use, like parts of the extant
Meditations.
3.15 They don’t realize . . . : The significance of this entry (particularly the last
phrase) is unclear.
3.16 people who do < . . . >: It seems clear that something is missing from the
text, perhaps deliberately omitted by a prudish copyist.
4.3 to ward off all < . . . >: The missing word must be something like “anxiety.”
“The world is nothing but change . . .”: Democritus frg. B 115.
4.18 < . . . > not to be distracted: The text as transmitted includes the words
“good,” “black character,” and “suspicion,” but no coherent sense can
be made of them.
4.19 You’re out of step . . . : The text of this sentence is disturbed and the
translation correspondingly uncertain.
4.23 The poet: Aristophanes frg. 112.
4.24 “If you seek tranquillity . . .”: Democritus frg. B 3.
4.30 A philosopher without clothes . . . : If the text is sound it is not easy to
interpret convincingly. The rendering here (which differs from most
previous versions) represents my best guess at the sense, but is far from
certain.
4.33 Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Dentatus:  Heroes of the Roman Republic (see

---

the Index of Persons). Only Camillus was well known; the others may
have been purposely chosen for their obscurity.
“unknown, unasked-for”: Homer, Odyssey 1.242.
4.41 “A little wisp of soul . . .”: Epictetus frg. 26 (presumably from one of the
lost books of the Discourses).
4.46 “When earth dies . . .”: Heraclitus frg. B 76.
“Those who have forgotten . . .”: idem. frg. B 71.
“They are at odds . . .”: idem. frg. B 72.
“they find alien . . .”: idem. frg. B 73.
“Our words and actions . . .”: idem. frg. B 74.
4.48 Helike, Pompeii, Herculaneum: Helike was a Greek city destroyed by an
earthquake and tidal wave in 373 
B.C.
Pompeii and its neighbor city
Herculaneum were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 
A.D.
79.
4.49a It’s unfortunate:  It has been plausibly suggested that this entry is a
quotation from a lost section of Epictetus’s Discourses.
4. 50 Caedicianus, Fabius, Julian, Lepidus: With the possible exception of
Caedicianus and Lepidus (see the Index of Persons), none of these
figures can be identified.
5 . 8 “the doctor”: Literally, “Asclepius.” Patients sleeping in his temple
sometimes had dream visions of the god and received suggestions for
treatment from him. But the name might simply indicate a human
physician.
5.10 a pervert: The Greek word (used also in 6.34) is a contemptuous term
referring to the passive partner in homosexual intercourse; it has no

---

exact English equivalent (“pervert,” although overly broad, at least has
the right tone). Marcus is probably using it as a generalized term of
abuse.
5.12 “so many goods . . .”: Proverbial: the rich man owns “so many goods he
has no place to shit.” The saying is at least as old as the fourth-century
B.C.
comic poet Menander, who quotes it in the surviving fragments of
his play The Apparition.
5.29 If the smoke makes me cough: The metaphor is drawn from Epictetus,