Etext of Meditations,

There is probably no more romantic story of a book in the history of literature than that of the volume known as the 'Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.' It is merely the commonplace book or diary of a Roman emperor (121-180 A.D.), who at the end of a very busy and troublous reign, just when worries were thickest, jotted down all the serious thoughts that came to him with regard to the meaning of life and the way it should be lived.