Meditations — passage 234

188 NOTES reference in the Meditations, and the vigour of his expression (e.g. 11.15: 'It should be written on your forehead, immediately clear in the tone of your voice and the light of your eyes . . . ' ; 3.12: 'a heroic truthfulness in all that you say and mean'), it is clear that Marcus had a passionate, and perhaps unfashionable, love of truth and regarded truthfulness/honesty as one of the defining virtues of the good man (see, for example, 3.6.1,4.49.2, 10.8, 11.1.3, 12.15). When Marcus was seventeen, the emperor Hadrian, playing on his name Marcus Annius Verus ('the true'), nicknamed him 'Verissimus' ('the most truthful') - which imperial recognition of an early character trait may well have been an effective spur to its future maintenance. Marcus himself attributes his 'love of truth' to the influence of Severus (1.14.1), and admires Antoninus Pius for not keeping 'many matters secret to himself (1.16.7). Marcus gives robust expression to this life-long conviction in 6.21: 'I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone.' Truth and justice (as here by the implication of their negatives) are fre- quently presented as the two essentials of the good life: see for example 6.47 ('In this world there is only one thing of value, to live out your life in truth and justice'), 3.16.2, 12.3.1, 12.29 ('The salvation of one's life lies in . . . applying one's whole soul to doing right and speaking the truth'). A terse summary in 12.17: 'If it is not right, don't do it: if it is not true, don't say it.' For Marcus' insistence on sincerity see note on 11.19. See also 2.17.2, 4.33, 12.1. Closest to the present passage is 2.16: 'The soul of a man harms itself... whenever it dissimulates, doing or saying anything feigned or false.' For Marcus on veracity see further Brunt, pp. 8-10. 9.1.3 For Marcus on pleasure and pain see notes on 8.10 and 7.33 respectively. The apparent problem of the wicked flourishing like a green bay-tree is easily resolved theologically (see 2.11) and by a proper understanding of 'indifferents', as in 9.1.4-5 below. An allied theme is the glad acceptance of one's lot: see note on 5.8. 9.1.4-5 For 'indifferents' see notes on 2.11.4, 5.12, and 5.20. 9.1.5 generative powers . . . successive regeneration: See note on 2.3. 9.2 The familiar image of life as a banquet (see, for example, Horace, Satires, 1.1.119, Lucretius 3.938) is given a characteristic twist by Marcus: for him life is a sickening banquet. depart the company of men: On suicide, here implied, see note on 3.1. plague: Marcus probably has in mind the disastrous infection