4 ms·
A better (if more time consuming) option is to learn Latin and read it in the original.
by vlowther 12y ago
A better (if more time consuming) option is to learn Latin and read it in the original.
- WallWextra 12y agoWeren't they written in greek?
- bshimmin 12y agoThey were. But hey, learning Latin would give you the ability to read Lucretius in the original, and his "De Rerum Natura" is quite an interesting contrast to the Stoicism of "Meditations".
- jeangenie 12y agoDefinitely Latin. By the time Aurelius was emperor the Greeks had already been overtaken by the Romans. Edit: Incidentally, a simple Google would've shown it was written in Greek: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations Never trust people on the internet, even yourself.
- mhartl 12y agoThe Romans conquered the Greeks politically, but culturally the influence went mainly in the other direction, and in fact the Meditations (per my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8580261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8580261) were written in Greek.
- xaritas 12y agoAs Horace wrote around 14 BC: Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio. - Ep. II.i.156 "Greece, once conquered, herself conquered the artless victor, and planted the banner of civilization in the farmlands of Rome." I have translated freely and taken considerable license. By Aurelius' time, familiarity with Greek for the ruling classes was a given; as a matter of preference, it is a more supple language and probably more comfortable to use for putting abstract reasoning to words.
- peterfirefly 12y agoDefinitely Greek.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jfmercer 12y agoMarcus Aurelius wrote the Meditations in Greek, which was the language of philosophy in the ancient Mediterranean. It was not uncommon at the time for wealthy Romans to have Greek slave-teachers ("pedagoges") instruct their children in the Greek language, as well as other subjects.
- mhartl 12y agoI once had the same thought, only to discover (as another commenter speculated) that Marcus wrote the Meditations in the common (Koine) Greek of the day. [1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations
- dllthomas 12y agoPretending you'd written "Greek"... Then you'd only be getting one translation - yours. With the amount of context that goes into a good translation, I'm not actually certain it's better for something like this that's more philosophical than artistic.