After completing the initial listening to Marcus' journal

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the most powerful person of his time, controlled a vast empire that included modern Italy, England, Spain, France, Switzerland. Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Greece. His 21 years as Caesar were marked by a series of military campaigns to subdue hostile nations on the borders of Roman territory and a devastating plague that wiped out a fifth of the population including his brother and co-emperor whom he loved. One might expect Marcus' private journal to reveal an exalted view of himself, highlighted in tales of his exploits and extravagances, or complaints about the unending problems and responsibilities of his office and losses of friends and family members, or snide criticisms of his contemporaries. Instead, the journal consists of what the 12-Step community of our times would call a continuous "searching and fearless moral inventory." Marcus displays a constant striving to live by his high ethical standards, with emphasis on being simple, modest, strictly honest, and being indifferent to pain, sensual pleasure, fame, popularity, and material wealth. Marcus viewed suffering, obstacles, and dying as part of the natural order and refused to see them as "bad," courageously reminding himself of the transience of all things and the inevitability of his own death. Marcus considered all of humanity as one indivisible tribe and believed he had a duty to act in everyone's best interests. He was, of course, well aware of the greed, ambition, and duplicity of many powerful Romans around him, yet Marcus reminded himself repeatedly not to judge them angrily but to view them with understanding and to deal with them honestly and justly. He was a remarkable man whose writings, intended only for his own moral betterment, show that it's possible for a powerful leader to be an exemplary human being.