Ancient · AD 121–180
Who influenced Marcus Aurelius?
Influences
Emperor and Stoic whose private notebooks became the Meditations.
Marcus Aurelius was influenced by Epictetus. That is 1 line of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: Daniel Martin, CC BY-SA 4.0 See the whole map
Who was Marcus Aurelius?
Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher, the last of the Five Good Emperors and the last ruler of the Pax Romana. Adopted by Antoninus Pius as heir, he studied Greek and Latin under tutors such as Herodes Atticus and Fronto and took the throne together with his adoptive brother Lucius Verus.
His reign was full of war, against Parthia in the East and against the Marcomanni, Quadi and Iazyges on the Danube, and the Antonine Plague killed millions across the empire. His Meditations are one of the most important sources for our understanding of ancient Stoicism and have been admired by writers and rulers for centuries.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Marcus Aurelius?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Epictetus AD 50–135
The line of teachers behind Marcus Aurelius
The longest documented line of influence ending at Marcus Aurelius runs 9 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.
Two steps away from Marcus Aurelius
Indirect influences
- Through Epictetus: Zeno of Citium, Musonius Rufus
Contemporaries of Marcus Aurelius
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Marcus Aurelius, with no direct line between them.
- Irenaeus c. 130–202
Marcus Aurelius by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 0
- Thinkers upstream
- 12
- Thinkers downstream
- 0
- Wikipedia languages
- 114 — #9 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Legendary
Schools and lineages
- Stoics: Zeno of Citium, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius
Questions about Marcus Aurelius
- Who influenced Marcus Aurelius?
- Epictetus.
- Who did Marcus Aurelius influence?
- No later thinker on this map is recorded as drawing directly on Marcus Aurelius.
- When did Marcus Aurelius live?
- AD 121–180. The map files Marcus Aurelius under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Marcus Aurelius card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Marcus Aurelius in 114 languages, which makes it a Legendary card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More ancient philosophers
- Confucius 551–479 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC
- Laozi c. 6th c. BC
- Cicero 106–43 BC
- Thales of Miletus c. 624–546 BC