A classic for lockdown: "Meditations", The Annotated Edition, By Marcus Aurelius, Translated, Introduced, and Edited by Robin Waterfield.

Every now and then, NetGalley throws me a golden opportunity, and this must be one of them. I have always been  curious about the "Meditations" and now I've had the chance to peruse them. When talking about the modern translation of a classic it is always difficult to know who you should be reviewing, the original writer or the translator? There is a little problem regarding the former, of course, who am I to criticise the writings of Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, 16th emperor of Rome and aspiring Stoic philosopher? 

Well no one, so there you go, especially where it seems that these writings were never intended for publication anyway, but to act as a sort of personal comp sheet of Marcus's lifelong quest for personal self-improvement. What I would say is that I do not think it is appropriate to read the jottings in one sitting, but rather as the writer wrote them, that is to say dipping in and out of them, and attempting to digest the ideas he sets out.

As to the second, I am a translator myself, albeit not a literary translator, so it is therefore almost duty that I should say something about this translation. Since I'm not an expert in ancient Greek, I cannot judge the quality of translation as such but what I can say is that Robin Waterfield makes the "Meditations" extremely accessible to the 21st-century reader, both in the simplicity of the language he uses, and the explanatory notes.  Occasionally the language is a little too modern, for example, I personally found the use of the term "control centre" too anachronistic. 

The notes however are fantastic, both in terms of explanation and contextualisation. So we have Marcus's complex family history and how he got to be Caesar of Rome, in full detail  but also some very nice references to our life today. For example, there is mention of Covid-19, given that much of Marcus's reign was characterised by a horrible epidemic, probably smallpox, which for all their advances the Romans were in no position to address and which they therefore simply had to leave burn its way through the population. In fact, this background may explain Marcus's attempts to be a better person and establish a philosophical approach to his own life and the lives of those around him. A personal favourite is a mention of Marcus's son and heir, Commodus, "But little that Commodus did as Emperor would have pleased his father. He seems to have been as unpleasant and unstable a character as he was portrayed in the 2000 film Gladiator."

In conclusion, I can thoroughly recommend this version of the "Meditations", I think there must be few books more appropriate to take with you during lockdown.