Thread by @DonJRobertson

Here's a quick thread about how we know when The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius was written because although generally people get this right sometimes they're way off with the dates...

First of all, a note of caution, we don't know for certain that the whole text was composed around the same time, but I think it probably was. Marcus was a diligent student of philosophy and rhetoric and enjoyed writing. I doubt he'd have taken many years over these notes.

He mentions waiting for a baby to emerge from his wife's womb. Faustina's last child is believed to have been born 170 CE, so if taken literally this part is from 169/170 CE.

He mentions many deaths, and praises his wife, without any hint that she's also passed, in book one, which is believed to have been written last. She died in 175 CE, suggesting the book was most likely finished before that date.

He mentions enough time has passed that it would be absurd for mourners to still be weeping by the casket of his brother Lucius Verus, who died in 169 CE. So that part was probably written 170 CE or later.

He mentions writing part at the Roman fortress of Carnuntum and across the Danube, by the River Gran, which is near the fortress of Aquincum. So during the Marcomannic War. Archeologists have unearthed a praetorian's gravestone dated 171 CE from Carnuntum.

This makes it virtually certain Marcus was stationed at Carnuntum in 171 CE, so part of The Meditations could have been written around this time, or slightly earlier. The war moved east to Aquincum later.

Marcus was thought to be dying in the winter of 174/175, which precipitated the civil war. He seems to mention ill but nothing about the civil war in the text. So it's likely he finished writing The Meditations around this time or earlier.

I've probably missed something but basically, a bunch of circumstantial evidence points, roughly, toward it having been written sometime between early 170 CE and late 174 CE, which happens to coincide with the Roman counter-offensive during the First Marcomannic War.

It also immediately follows the death of Marcus' main Stoic tutor, Junius Rusticus, which I believe may have been the event that caused Marcus to begin writing The Meditations.