In one sense, he’s about as unlike you as is even possible. He was born to a rich family, 18 centuries ago. Then he was selected by a dying and childless king to succeed him, made part of a chain of adoptions that would make him the most powerful man in the world 23 years later. He was worshiped as a god. He also buried nine children. He led an enormous army. He had the power of life and death over millions of subjects. He was a high priest in a time of primitive cults.

Marcus Aurelius was not like you at all. How could he have been? The past is a foreign country, they say and Marcus Aurelius existed in a remote, exotic corner thousands of years ago. He was not like you at all.

Yet…yet…

This was a guy who struggled to get out of bed early. This was a guy who loved his wife and also had to deal with gossip that she was unfaithful. This was a guy that loved to go hunting and horseback riding. He enjoyed plays and poetry. He got mad about stuff. He liked playing pranks. He had close friends and mentors.

We can tell from Meditations that Marcus Aurelius was also just like us. David Hernández de la Fuente, a Spanish classist and translator of Marcus Aurelius (and awesome recent podcast guest, listen here), says that the man’s writings reveal a picture of a man with “two voices coexisting: one that doubted and suffered, while the other acted as a teacher, offering comfort and certainties.” Marcus Aurelius was a guy with the same inner dialogue as us, the same struggles as us, the same battles as us.

This was a very different man from a very different time…and yet he was still essentially human, still essentially us. He has so much to teach us. He shouldn’t be relatable, yet somehow, through the peculiarities of Meditations (as we said recently), he somehow is. It’s a remarkable twist of fate, and also a very timeless thing.