The Times of Vespasian
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Ἐπινόησον λόγου χάριν τοὺς ἐπὶ Οὐεσπασιανοῦ καιρούς, ὄψει τὰ αὐτὰ πάντα γαμοῦντας, παιδοτροφοῦντας, νοσοῦντας, ἀποθνῄσκοντας, πολεμοῦντας, ἑορτάζοντας, ἐμπορευομένους, γεωργοῦντας, κολακεύοντας, αὐθαδιζομένους, ὑποπτεύοντας, ἐπιβουλεύοντας, ἀποθανεῖν τινας εὐχομένους, γογγύζοντας ἐπὶ τοῖς παροῦσιν, ἐρῶντας, θησαυρίζοντας, ὑπατείας, βασιλείας ἐπιθυμοῦντας· οὐκοῦν ἐκεῖνος μὲν ὁ τούτων βίος οὐκέτι οὐδαμοῦ. πάλιν ἐπὶ τοὺς καιροὺς τοὺς Τραιανοῦ μετάβηθι· πάλιν τὰ αὐτὰ πάντα· τέθνηκε κἀκεῖνος ὁ βίος. ὁμοίως καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἐπιγραφὰς χρόνων καὶ ὅλων ἐθνῶν ἐπιθεώρει καὶ βλέπε, πόσοι κατενταθέντες μετὰ μικρὸν ἔπεσον καὶ ἀνελύθησαν εἰς τὰ στοιχεῖα· μάλιστα δὲ ἀναπολητέον ἐκείνους, οὓς αὐτὸς ἔγνως κενὰ σπωμένους, ἀφέντας ποιεῖν τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν κατασκευὴν καὶ τούτου ἀπρὶξ ἔχεσθαι καὶ τούτῳ ἀρκεῖσθαι. ἀναγκαῖον δὲ ὧδε τὸ μεμνῆσθαι, ὅτι καὶ ἡ ἐπιστροφὴ καθ’ ἑκάστην πρᾶξιν ἰδίαν ἀξίαν ἔχει καὶ συμμετρίαν· οὕτως γὰρ οὐκ ἀποδυσπετήσεις, ἐὰν μὴ ἐπὶ πλέον, ἢ προσῆκε, περὶ τὰ ἐλάσσω καταγίνῃ.
Call to mind, for argument’s sake, the times under Vespasian, and you will see all the same things: people marrying, raising children, falling sick, dying, making war, keeping festival, trading, farming, flattering, self-willed, suspecting, plotting, praying for some to die, grumbling at their present lot, in love, hoarding, coveting consulships and kingdoms. Well then, that life of theirs is nowhere any longer. Pass again to the times of Trajan: again all the same things; and that life too is dead. Likewise survey the other records of ages and of whole nations, and see how many, after straining every nerve, soon fell and were resolved into the elements. But above all recall those you yourself knew frantically distracted by empty things, neglecting to do what accorded with their own constitution, and to hold fast to that and be content with it. And here it is necessary to remember that the attention given to each action has its own proper worth and proportion; for so you will not lose heart, provided you do not busy yourself with lesser matters more than is fitting.
Imagine the age of Vespasian, then of Trajan: the same round of marrying, warring, scheming, coveting — and every one of those lives now nowhere. Survey whole eras and nations gone the same way. So give each act its due measure of care, and no more, and you will not wear yourself out.
Marcus runs a thought-experiment in historical perspective. Picture the reign of Vespasian, a hundred years before his own, and what do you see? Exactly what you see now: a long catalogue of human doings — marrying and burying, warring and feasting, trading and farming, flattering, scheming, coveting office and power. The rapid participles pile up precisely to flatten them: strip away the names and the dates and every age looks the same, a churn of the identical appetites. And then the refrain that empties it all: ἐκεῖνος ὁ βίος οὐκέτι οὐδαμοῦ — "that life is nowhere any more." Move on to Trajan; the same again; dead again. Whole nations leave only ἐπιγραφαί, inscriptions, name-tags on vanished epochs.
The purpose of this vast leveling is not despair but proportion, and the chapter turns sharply practical at the end. Having recalled the crowds who "strained every nerve" and fell, and especially the acquaintances Marcus himself watched σπωμένους κενά, torn this way and that "over empty things," neglecting the one task that fitted their nature — he draws the working lesson. Each action has its own ἀξία and συμμετρία, its proper worth and measure; the art is to give a thing exactly the attention it deserves and no more. That is the safeguard against ἀποδυσπέτησις, the exhausted disgust of a person who has over-invested in trifles. The panorama of dead ages is there to right the scale: seen against all that has vanished, most of what agitates us is one of "the lesser things," and knowing so lets one act without wearing oneself out.
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Meditations 4.32 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/meditations-greek/4.32/