The sources of Meditations
Where Meditations names another work or author, the harvest records the passage that does it and the chapter that passage stands in. 44 citations across 12 chapters, drawn from 39 named sources; 4 of those sources stand in the library.
19 authority 6 neutral 2 refuted 4 extended 13 endorsed Of the 44 citations in Meditations, 2 argue against their source.
the sources most drawn on
4 of 4 sources-
Plato 1 endorsed 4 citations · 6 passages
Explicitly introduced with 'From Plato' followed by a quoted question-and-answer exchange
"Do you suppose that to a mind possessed of greatness and the contemplation of all time and of all substance, human life can seem any great thing?
book seven · citation introduced with explicit attribution and quoted dialogue ¶ -
Epictetus 1 endorsed 3 citations · 6 passages
The memoirs of Epictetus are explicitly named as a text Marcus came upon and valued, treated as a source of philosophical authority.
As one kisses his child, Epictetus used to say, one should whisper within, "Perhaps tomorrow you will die.
book eleven · citation as authority ¶ -
Republic Plato 1 refuted 1 citation
Plato's Republic is named directly and its aspiration is dismissed as unrealistic, treated as a foil rather than endorsed.
Do not hope for Plato's Republic, but be content if the smallest thing goes forward, and reflect how small a matter even the outcome of that is.
book nine · citation_context ¶ -
Theophrastus 1 endorsed 1 citation
Theophrastus is named and his teaching is explicitly reported and endorsed ('Rightly, then, and in a manner worthy of philosophy, he said...').
Theophrastus speaks like a philosopher when, in comparing offences — as one might compare such things on the common view — he says that the faults committed through desire are graver than those committed through anger.
book two · identifies the cited teaching and Marcus's endorsing stance ¶
named once
35 sourcesEach stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.
- book two 2 sources
- sayings addressed to Monimus · unspecified poetic work
- book three 1 source
- teaching on withdrawal from the senses
- book four 3 sources
- doctrine of elemental transformation · saying on doing few things · unspecified poem (Athenian civic verse)
- book five 4 sources
- Prayer of the Athenians · Saying of a comic poet · Sayings about Asclepius's prescriptions · Unattributed poetic line on virtues fleeing to Olympus
- book six 4 sources
- A verse in a play · Doctrine of universal cooperation · Life and character of Antoninus · Saying about Xenocrates
- book seven 11 sources
- Doctrine that every soul is robbed of truth against its will · Fragment on anger toward things · Prayer formula invoking joy for gods and men · Saying on kingliness and slander · Saying on the endurance of pain · Verse asserting the right and the good are with me · Verse on convention and the elements · Verse on earthly and heavenly origins · Verse on life reaped like corn · Verse on the gods' neglect and its reason · Verses on magic spells against death and enduring the gale from God
- book eight 2 sources
- philosophical maxim on the rounded sphere · unspecified saying on judgment
- book nine 1 source
- unspecified sayings on sickness and natural philosophy
- book eleven 6 sources
- Middle and New Comedy · Old Comedy · sayings/precept of Socrates · teachings of the Pythagoreans · unspecified tragedy (Euripides or similar tragic corpus) · writings of the Epicureans
- book twelve 1 source
- unspecified verse on the sphere
the marks
- authority
- relied on as a source of legitimacy
- neutral
- identified or reported
- refuted
- argued against
- extended
- developed or continued
- endorsed
- agreed with
- roman
- the cited text is in the library and opens in the reader
- italic
- named by this text, not held by the library — the corpus's wanted list
- ¶
- the passage in this text that does the citing
- 7
- beside a chapter, the passages anchored there. A single citation can quote more than one passage, which is why a row carries two figures: the citations the harvest recorded, and the passages its chapters add up to.
Every count on this page is a link to the passages behind it. A name without a link is recorded but not yet paged. How the harvest reads.