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ROME'S wicked emperor, Nero, had been dead a hundred years when there came to the throne a new emperor named Marcus Aurelius. He was just as good as Nero was bad. Many people think he was one of the noblest and greatest men who ever lived.
At this time most of the Romans had very little religion of any sort. They were not Christians, but neither did they put much faith in their own gods—Jupiter and Juno and the rest. They honored them because they had been brought up to honor them and because they thought that if they didn't honor them, they might have bad luck. So they took no chances.
But instead of believing in such gods, many other Romans followed the teachings of some wise man, or philosopher, and tried to obey the rules that he had made.
About 300 B.C. a Greek philosopher named Zeno had taught a philosophy called Stoicism. His ideas became popular, and a century later they spread to Rome. Many Romans liked Stoicism because it taught good behavior, wisdom, and strength to suffer hardship and pain. Seneca, the teacher whom Nero killed, became a Stoic and wrote about Stoicism.
A hundred years later, along came the emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was a Stoic, too, and he needed to be, for he had a hard and difficult life. He wrote down his thoughts, now called his Meditations. He didn't intend to have his thoughts published; he just wrote them down to remind himself how he ought to think and behave.
Here are some of the ideas that Marcus Aurelius believed in:
• I must calmly endure pain and suffering.
• I must put up with everything that happens, no matter how bad it may seem. Whatever happens has been caused by God, and God is good. Therefore everything that happens is good.
• I must always do my duty.
• I must not seek pleasure.
• Good behavior is the best thing in life.
• I must obey the laws of God.
• All men are brothers, and I must treat everyone as well as if he were my brother.
Marcus Aurelius was a good Stoic. He followed his own rules, and he always did what he thought was his duty. He was kind to people, was good to the poor, and managed to get rid of much of the cruelty and brutality in the gladiators' shows.
Even today, people—thousands of them—read Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Some of his sayings sound almost as though they come from the Bible. Even today, too, people who bear pain and hardship without a murmur are described as stoic.
One of Marcus Aurelius's rules was “Forgive your enemies.” Though Marcus Aurelius was not a Christian, nevertheless he was more moral in the way he acted than some of the later emperors who wereChristians!
Like many people who are very good themselves, Marcus Aurelius was unable to bring up his son to be good. Commodus, his son, was just as bad as his father was good. When the son grew up and was able to choose for himself and do as he pleased, he forgot all about doing his duty and behaving well and obeying the laws of God. Instead, Commodus's one thought was pleasure, and the worst kind of pleasure at that. Commodus forgot his father's ideas about being kind to others and treating them like brothers. He thought only of giving himself a good time.
Commodus was an athlete and had beautiful muscles and a handsome figure,of which he was so proud that he had a statue made of himself. The statue showed him as the strong and muscular god Hercules. Commodus made the people worship him as if he were this god. Just to show off his muscles and muscular ability, he himself took part in prizefights. He poisoned or killed anyone who found fault with or criticized him. He led a wild and dissipated life, but at last he met the end that he deserved. Many attempts to kill him failed, but finally he was strangled to death by a wrestler.
Pleasure! For Commodus, pleasure meant feasting too much and drinking too much and going to wild all-night parties. But there are other kinds of pleasure, good kinds, and Commodus had nothing to do with them.
About the same time as Zeno, there lived another Greek wise man, or philosopher, named Epicurus. His ideas, too, became popular in Rome, and thousands followed his teachings. The Epicureans—the followers of Epicurus—thought that the highest good was pleasure, but the pleasure must be of the right kind.
Here are a few of the pleasures that the Epicureans considered good:
• Being honest and truthful
• Being just to others.
• Friendship with good people
• Simple, clean living.
• Freedom from superstition
• Freedom from fear.
• Quiet study.
• Calmness.
Any pleasure that causes pain, thought the Epicureans, is not really a pleasure—not at all. How much happier Commodus would have been if he had followed the ideas of Epicurus instead of his own wild, selfish ideas.
在邪恶的罗马皇帝尼禄死了一百多年后，有个名叫马可•奥勒留的新皇帝登上了皇位。与尼禄的邪恶正相反，他非常善良。很多人认为他是历史上最高贵、最伟大的人物之一。
在这个时期，大多数罗马人没有什么宗教信仰。他们不是基督徒，但是对他们自己的神灵——朱庇特、朱诺和其他神灵也没有多少信仰。罗马人敬奉这些神灵只是因为他们从小就被家里教育要这样，还有就是因为他们认为如果不敬奉这些神灵，就会遭厄运。所以，他们只是不想冒险而已。
尽管很多罗马人不信仰神灵，却很听从某位智者或哲学家的教导，并且尽量遵从他们所定的规则。
大约公元前300年，一位名叫芝诺的希腊哲学家讲授的一种哲学叫“斯多葛哲学”。他的思想逐渐流行起来，一个世纪后传播到了罗马。很多罗马人喜欢斯多葛哲学，因为它教给人们良好的品行、智慧和承受困苦的力量。尼禄杀死的那个老师塞内加成了一名斯多葛派人，还写了关于斯多葛哲学的著作。
又过了一百年，马可•奥勒留皇帝出现了。他也是个斯多葛派人，他需要成为这样的人，因为他过过一段非常艰难困苦的生活。他还把自己的思想写下来，这些文字现在称为《沉思录》。他本不打算把自己的想法公开发表，写下来只是为了提醒自己应该怎样去思考和行事。
下面就是马可•奥勒留所信奉的一些思想：
•我必须平静地承受痛苦和苦难。
• 我必须忍受发生的一切，不管它看起来多么糟糕。所有发生的事情都是上帝造成的，而上帝是善的。因此，所有发生的一切都是有益的。
•我必须始终如一竭尽己任。
•我不能寻欢作乐。
•行为端正是生活中最好的事。
•我必须遵守上帝的法规。
•所有人都是我的兄弟姐妹，我对待他们都要像对待自己的兄弟姐妹一样。
马可•奥勒留真诚地按照斯多葛哲学生活。他凡事都遵循自己的原则，只要他认为是自己责任的事，他都坚持去做。他对人友善，对穷人仁慈，还设法禁止角斗士表演中很多残忍和野蛮的行为。
即使今天，人们还在阅读马可•奥勒留的《沉思录》
——它有成千上万的读者。书中的一些言论听起来几乎像是出自《圣经》。甚至现在，那些承受苦难而毫无怨言的人还被说成像斯多葛派人那样坚忍克制。
马可•奥勒留的原则之一是“宽恕你的敌人”。尽管马可•奥勒留不是基督徒，但在待人处世方面他比后来一些“身为”基督徒的皇帝更有道德。
很多人自身都很有修养，却教育不好后代，马可•奥勒留和他们一样，未能把自己的儿子培养成一个好人。马可•奥勒留善良、隐忍，而他的儿子康茂德却正好相反，邪恶、放荡。当这个孩子长大成人，有了选择和自主能力的时候，他把什么履行义务、行为端正和遵从上帝的法规等统统抛在了脑后。相反，康茂德唯一的念头就是享乐，而且是最堕落的享乐。康茂德忘记了他父亲所持有的要对他人友好、要像对待亲兄弟那样与他们相处的观念。他一心只想着尽情享乐。
康茂德是个运动健将，有强健的肌肉和优美的体形，对此他非常骄傲，甚至还让人为自己做了一个雕像。这座雕像展示了他那有如大力神赫拉克勒斯般的强壮身体。康茂德要人们像崇拜大力神一样崇拜他。为了炫耀肌肉的健美和力量，他去参加角斗比赛。凡是有人挑他的过错或批评他，他都会把这个人毒死或杀掉。他过着放荡不羁的生活，不过最终他还是得到了他应得的下场。很多刺杀他的计划都没有成功，但最后他却被一个摔跤手给勒死了。
啊，快乐！对于康茂德来说，快乐就意味着尽情吃喝，整夜纵情狂欢。但人世间还有其他快乐，有益身心的快乐，康茂德却一点儿也没体验过。
大约与芝诺同一时期，还有一位希腊的智者，或者说是哲学家，名叫伊壁鸠鲁。他的思想后来在罗马也广受欢迎，成千上万的人相信并接受他的学说。伊壁鸠鲁的门徒——那些崇奉伊壁鸠鲁的人——认为，最高的善就是快乐，但是这种快乐必须符合正确的标准。
下面是伊壁鸠鲁门徒们一些看作善的快乐观：
•为人诚实、坦率
•对他人公正
•和好人交朋友
•过简朴、清白的生活•不迷信盲从
•没有恐惧
•安静地学习
•保持冷静
伊壁鸠鲁的门徒认为，任何造成痛苦的快乐都不是真正的快乐——丝毫不是。如果康茂德听从伊壁鸠鲁的观念，而不是他自己那种放纵、自私的想法，那他会多么幸福啊！