I Am John, I am Paul by Mark Tedesco

This historical novel is a first-person account by the titular John of his adult life in the Ancient Roman Empire in the fourth century. The subtitle of the book is A Story of Two Soldiers in Ancient Rome, because John recounts much about the life of his friend and fellow soldier Paul, too. The story is focused on John's spiritual growth while doing his duty as a son, brother, soldier and friend, but that doesn't mean there isn't any action in the story. There is plenty, and it involves the royal family at times!

The writing is smooth, literate, and professionally edited, reminiscent of classic historical fiction set in the Roman era. The reader is not loaded down with details, but what is referenced is always spot on historically, showing that much research and learning was done by the author in preparation for telling the story. He even includes some interesting notes on elements of the story, which is based on the martyrs John and Paul of Rome, and mentions his main sources, for readers who are interested in furthering their study of the history.

Several Roman emperors rule during the course of the story. Constantine is probably the one that most readers will recognize, since he is closely associated with the Christian faith. He was the first Roman emperor to be of the Christian faith, the cult of Christos as it was called. Under Constantine, the cult was allowed to freely co-exist with the faiths that worshiped pagan gods and the emperors as gods.

I found it refreshing that the author alluded to many of the ancient faith myths that were incorporated over time into the fledgling religion. As historians have explained for centuries, certain iconic elements from the beliefs that were present and studied in the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, Egypt, were adopted by followers of emerging faiths, including the cult of Christos. Even the early leaders of the newer faiths encouraged the adoption of those iconic elements. I won't go into them here, but there are many books on the subject for those interested.

After retiring from soldiering, John and Paul turn away from the Ancient Persian cult of Mithras, that was favored by the military, to the cult of Christos, to find “a more joyful way of living”. The feeling of belonging, and the classless, egalitarian organization of the Christos followers appeal to the men. They then experience a growth in compassion for their fellow man, followed by altruistic efforts to relieve the suffering of others.

The steps depicted in their conversion are convincing, and give an idea of how the cult of Christos spread, and of how it forced the brutal Roman society with its institutionalized sadism, to face up to its lack of humanity. Some elements of the early cult and of Roman society may surprise readers, but they are based on fact, such as the easily recognizable Eucharist service by the cult followers, and the societal acceptance of same-sex relationships.

The cult and John and Paul are threatened when Justinian becomes emperor, later called Julian the Apostate for his attacks on Christianity. It is Emperor Julian who brings about the end of John and Paul's life story, when the emperor unleashes a backlash against the new faith that he blames for Rome's misfortunes.

Julian was on the wrong side of history, as we now know, but there were many in Ancient Rome who agreed with his belief that the lack of sacrifices to the ancient gods had brought down a retaliation by the neglected gods. The story is a gentle reminder that there will always be a faction of society that depict change and minority beliefs as destructive forces.

The faction resists advancements in thought and human understanding, and blame those advancements for any and every thing they dislike, or makes them feel uncomfortable. The book is a reminder that our progress from primitive, violent society to enlightened, peace-loving society was one of starts and stops because of those foot-dragging elements.

Sadly, that struggle is played out today in our globe of dispirit societies forced to co-exist, and dispirit elements within societies that struggle to co-exist. The message of the book is really the old one, that a house divided cannot stand, so consensus and tolerance must be achieved to survive and move forward.

The last chapter of the story is from the perspective of John's sister, Fulvia. In it she recounts things that she can't possibly know, but I overlooked that anomaly because I enjoyed the rest of the book so much, and it was done to provide the reader with closure.

Readers may be interested in researching the Basilica of Saints John and Paul on Rome's Caelian Hill, since it was the inspiration for this author's book. If you follow the links out from the article, you'll read about the inspirations for many of the sights and characters in this novel.

Here is a virtual tour of the Case Romane del Celio, the Roman houses excavated under the Basilica of Saints John and Paul, said to be their home that was also their burial place, and then converted into a place of worship (the images on this page are from there).

Here is the book's description:

"Adventure, intrigue, faith, commitment, love and hate and everything between! Mark Tedesco has done it again, fashioning what is arguably his best work yet! He entices you on a phenomenal journey into the fascinating lives of two 4th century Roman soldiers, John and Paul, in a tale of loyalty and love that grabs you by the throat from the very first sentence and holds you spellbound, gasping for air as you're swept from chapter to chapter with barely a moment to breathe. An unbelievable marriage of fact and fiction that will leave you applauding or appalled but never bored or indifferent. A must read!"
-Tony McEwing, KTTV News

And here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds by Peter Adamson

The subtitle of this book is A History of Philosophy without any gaps, Volume 2.  It is the book form of a podcast available on-line.  In the book you will learn about:

• Hellenistic Philosophy,
• Pagan Philosophy in the Roman Empire, and
• (Judeo) Christian Philosophy in the Roman Empire.

The book is divided into those three parts, but has many overlaps.  Included for eager students are Notes, a Bibliography, an Index (in the print edition) and a Further Reading list.

In this volume one meets the Skeptics, Epicurus, Stoics... all sorts of curious characters, including Plotinus, Augustine and Philo of Alexandria, and even Moses of Old Testament (Torah) fame.  The author tries to engage the reader, often using popular culture references or questions.

"Do you like a nice garden?  Do you enjoy the company of friends?  Do you believe the world is made of tiny particles, which you call atoms?  Do you trust the evidence of your senses?  Do you find politics tiresome, and raise a skeptical eyebrow at those who live in fear of God?  If your answer to these questions is "yes", then you might want to consider becoming an Epicurean."

The religious philosophers were concerned with what all philosophers are concerned with:  ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philology, the mind, and even political philosophy such as how society should best be governed. 

A direct line is drawn from Moses to Plato to Aristotle to the Stoics to Neo-Platonism to Judeo-Christian thought.  All those thinkers stress the need to turn away from the pleasure of the body (our animalistic nature) and turn toward virtue and a faithfulness to God (our divine nature).  One must be aware of both our higher and lower natures, and integrate the two as a whole person, self plus soul.

The author has more books in the works, and plans to cover in his works all 2500 years of western philosophical thought, without any gaps.

• Pre-Socratics
• Plato and Aristotle
• Hellenistic period philosophers
• Roman era thinkers
• Judeo-Christian thinkers
• Ancient philosophies preserved by Muslims, then Christian monks, leading to
• Byzantine and Renaissance thought and philosophy
• The Enlightenment
• Modern and Post-Modern thought and philosophy

The author aims to educate anyone who wants to know about the history of philosophy, through his podcasts, and with the books.  His style is approachable and knowledgeable.  He lightens the text with humor when possible. 

So if you are interested in learning the history of thoughts on how we should live, and what is the nature of man, truth, language and knowledge, this might be a book for you, together with Book 1 which covers Classical Philosophy, namely Plato and Aristotle.

I've read other philosophy books, and attended university lectures on philosophy, so I have some basis of comparison when judging this book.  To me, it reads like a really fun philosophy professor's lecture notes. 

The professor is modern minded, including two subjects professors of history and philosophy often skip when talking about the ancients:  pervasive slavery and the negligible role of women in the paternalistic societies.  I would have like to have seen more mention of the institutional sadism of the societies in which these philosophers lived, another subject often overlooked.

From the book's description:

Peter Adamson's History of Philosophy without any gaps series of podcasts is one of the most ambitious educational works on the web. It aims to do nothing less than take listeners through the entire history of philosophy 'without any gaps'. It assumes no prior knowledge making it ideal for beginners.  This is the second volume to make these witty, and highly accessible, podcasts available in book form.

Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds offers a tour through a period of eight hundred years when some of the most influential of all schools of thought were formed. From the counter-cultural witticisms of Diogenes the Cynic to the political philosophy of Augustine, the book gathers together all aspects of later ancient thought in a way that is a pleasure to read.

Peter Adamson offers an accessible, humorous tour through a period of eight hundred years when some of the most influential of all schools of thought were formed: from the third century BC to the sixth century AD.

He introduces us to Cynics and Skeptics, Epicureans and Stoics, emperors and slaves, and traces the development of Christian and Jewish philosophy and of ancient science.  Chapters are devoted to such major figures as Epicurus, Lucretius, Cicero, Seneca,Plotinus, and Augustine.  But in keeping with the motto of the series, the story is told without any gaps, providing an in-depth look at less familiar topics that remains suitable for the general reader.  

For instance, there are chapters on the fascinating but relatively obscure Cyrenaic philosophical school, on pagan philosophical figures like Porphyry and Iamblichus, and extensive coverage of the Greek and Latin Christian Fathers who are at best peripheral in most surveys of ancient philosophy.  A major theme of the book is in fact the competition between pagan and Christian philosophy in this period, and the Jewish tradition also appears in the shape of Philo of Alexandria.

Ancient science is also considered, with chapters on ancient medicine and the interaction between philosophy and astronomy.  Considerable attention is paid also to the wider historical context, for instance by looking at the ascetic movement in Christianity and how it drew on ideas from Hellenic philosophy.  

From the counter-cultural witticisms of Diogenes the Cynic to the subtle skepticism of Sextus Empiricus, from the irreverent atheism of the Epicureans to the ambitious metaphysical speculation of Neoplatonism, from the ethical teachings of Marcus Aurelius to the political philosophy of Augustine, the book gathers together all aspects of later ancient thought in an accessible and entertaining way.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

You can visit the History of Philosophy website at King's College London to learn more about the podcasts and about Book 1 and future books.

How Dante Can Save Your Life by Rod Dreher

The subtitle of this memoirs/self-help book is The Life-Changing Wisdom of History's Greatest Poem (Dante's Divine Comedy).  The author offers an engaging read about his midlife crisis and how Dante's masterpiece helped him through it, along with help from his pastor, his therapist, his down-to-earth wife, and his supportive and accepting friends.

The book is presented as an inspirational text for those who might be tempted to make their own Dante pilgrimage, a journey of self-discovery and self-realization, by way of atonement and renewed motivation to lead a decent life.  To be honest, I felt it could just as effectively have been written as a straight memoirs, and the self-help aspect left for readers to discover on their own if they felt the need.

In the author's words:

This medieval masterpiece, perhaps the greatest poem ever written, reached me when I thought I was unreachable, and lit the way out of a dark wood of depression, confusion, and a stress-related auto-immune disease that, had it persisted, would have dangerously degraded my health.

The memoirs is in four parts:

1. Part I - From the Garden to the Dark Wood
2. Part II - Inferno, or Why you are Broken
3. Part III - Purgatorio, or How to be Healed
4. Part IV - Paradiso, or The Way Things Ought to Be

It is said that all of life is in the Commedia divina, as the Divine Comedy is known in its original Italian.  The epic poem can be read on many levels:  as a fantastical adventure, as a religious tract, as a philosophical treatise, or as the author uses it as a guide to how to live a moral life.  Some have even conjectured that one reason Dante wrote it was to take revenge on his enemies.

What is the poem about?  In the author's words:

Dante's tale is a fantasy about a lost man who finds his way back to life after walking through the pits of hell, climbing up the mountain of purgatory, and ascending to the heights of Heaven.  But it's really a story about real life and the incredible journey of our lives, yours and mine.

The family travails that trigger the author's crisis are not unique, especially if you have watched the TV sitcom Fraser which dealt with the father-son and the sibling dynamics, but that does not lessen the author's suffering, nor should it lessen our compassion for his suffering, and for his family's suffering. 

From his descriptions in the book, one can deduce that he is an erudite intellectual, curious about the world and the world of ideas, and he is fact and reality addicted.  His immediate family are tradition-based, change-averse, narrow-minded fantasists; like many insecure and fearful people, they prefer the world they imagine to exist, to the world that really does exists.

Given those differences, conflict was inevitable. 

If a person like the author is placed, either by birth or by choice, among people like his described family, he will most certainly be harassed and ostracized until he either kills himself, gets killed, or leaves to maintain his sanity and health.  That is the way it has always been and it is probably the way it will always be.

Inexplicably, the author chooses to return to that environment, and to remain in it even when his sanity and health falters.  He puts the well-being of his wife and children at risk in a stubborn (and selfish?) attempt to understand why the poor treatment he receives leaves him disoriented and disappointed. 

As a writer, the author had often advocated a return to small, religion and tradition-based communities.  I suspect much of his disorientation and disappointment was at the poor reception he received when he took his own advice and moved back to just such a community.  He had certainly romanticized the community of his youth, because the reality of it seemed to shock him to the core.    

The author's journey back to physical and mental health came from meditation through prayer, guided self-analysis, and through his own intelligence by using Dante's Divine Comedy as bibliotherapy, which produced joy in him through the intellectual stimulation it provided. 

 

I have my doubts about the author's ability to stay healthy in the narrow-minded community in which he has chosen to live.  His emotional, sensitive, over-intellectualizing, mystical, highly moral, and at times monomaniacal character is not well-suited to the severe, defensive, rural society he calls home.  And I suspect that the publication of this book will not improve his place in the eyes of his extended family and small community.

What carried me through this challenging book was the fluid, engaging writing that linked together extracts from Dante's poem with biographical sections, and with discourses on philosophy and theology.  The author has a talent for explaining thoughts, feelings, conundrums, faith, loss, conflicts and characters concisely, with a seemingly effortless prose style that is a joy to read.       

From the book's description:

The opening lines of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri launched Rod Dreher on a journey that rescued him from exile and saved his life.  Dreher found that the medieval poem offered him a surprisingly practical way of solving modern problems.

Following the death of his little sister and the publication of his New York Times bestselling memoir The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Dreher found himself living in the small community of Starhill, Louisiana where he grew up.  But instead of the fellowship he hoped to find, he discovered that fault lines within his family had deepened.  Dreher spiraled into depression and a stress-related autoimmune disease.  Doctors told Dreher that if he didn’t find inner peace, he would destroy his health.  Soon after, he came across The Divine Comedy in a bookstore and was enchanted by its first lines, which seemed to describe his own condition.

In the months that followed Dante helped Dreher understand the mistakes and mistaken beliefs that had torn him down and showed him that he had the power to change his life.  Dreher knows firsthand the solace and strength that can be found in Dante’s great work, and distills its wisdom for those who are lost in the dark wood of depression, struggling with failure (or success), wrestling with a crisis of faith, alienated from their families or communities, or otherwise enduring the sense of exile that is the human condition.

Inspiring, revelatory, and packed with penetrating spiritual, moral, and psychological insights How Dante Can Save Your Life is a book for people, both religious and secular, who find themselves searching for meaning and healing.  Dante told his patron that he wrote his poem to bring readers from misery to happiness.  It worked for Rod Dreher.  Dante saved Rod Dreher’s life—and in this book, Dreher shows you how Dante can save yours.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

I have a page about Dante's masterpiece on my Italian Culture website, Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, which includes many of the illustrations that the author includes in his book, and which I use on this review page.  I also have links to free editions of Dante's poem in both Italian and English.

Direct link to my Dante page

Please visit the author's Facebook page.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

When Saint Francis Saved the Church by Jon M. Sweeney

The meaty subtitle of When Saint Francis Saved the Church is How a Converted Medieval Troubadour Created a Spiritual Vision for the Ages.  True to the book's title, this is not a biography of St. Francis of Assisi. 

This book looks at why medieval St. Francis is relevant in today's world.  And the book answers the question:  What did St. Francis do that was different than his contemporaries that made his teachings still studied today?

St. Francis of Assisi is in the news lately, due to the new pope's choosing "Francis" ("Francesco") as his papal name, in honor of the humble saint.  That humility and devotion to the poor and victimized is at the heart of Pope Francis's ministry.

The author uses a conversational tone of writing.  The book almost reads like an infomercial at points, and certainly reads like a text with accompanying slides for a presentation, which it turns out was an early form of the book.

Part One - A New Look at Francis sells the reader on reading history books.  The author stresses that:

"well-meaning Christians almost killed the faith eight hundred years ago" and 

"Franics of Assisi saw it coming and turned everything around".   

Francis of Assisi was one of the "signal figures who are catalysts for rapid change".

The underlying thesis of the book is posed as a question:

Is it too bold to suggest that another Francis may just be saving the Church again in the twenty-first century? 

The author refers to Pope Francis, who told the Cardinals who elected him that if we value institutions over seeking the real goals of the Christina life, then things go wrong.  If the Catholic Church is more concerned with its money and property and avoiding lawsuits, then it will ignore the suffering of the people they are there to consul.  The new Pope wants to reformed the church from within.

Pope Francis cannot work change in the institutions of the Catholic church without the help of the Catholic faithful.  That is the role this book aims to fulfill.  The book is a gentle call to arms in support of the Pope's efforts to emulate St. Francis's humanistic teachings and examples.

Part Two - Six Ways Francis Quietly Created a Spiritual Vision for the Ages examines Francis's humanistic views and actions relating to:  friendship (all-inclusive), others (open to outsiders), poverty (humility and moderation), spirituality (in daily life), gentleness (to all God's creatures), death (as a stage of life),

Part Three - Why Francis Matters Right Now is a look at how Francis can inspire people to goodness and faith through emulation of his humanistic views and actions.

The extensive Further Reading section is a gift to those interested in expanding their knowledge of St. Francis of Assisi, and further exploring the ideas of the author.

From the book's description:

In When Saint Francis Saved the Church, popular historian Jon Sweeney presents an intriguing portrait of Francis beyond the readily familiar stories and images.

In the tradition of Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization, Sweeney reveals how the saint became a hinge in the history of the Christian faith and shows how in just fourteen years—from 1205 to 1219—the unconventional and stumbling wisdom of a converted troubadour changed the Church.

Sweeney outlines Francis’s revolutionary approach to friendship, “the other” (people at the margins), poverty, spirituality, care (for people, creatures, and the natural world), and death.  

This vibrant book presents the unsullied life and message of Francis in its essential details, offering a sweeping, informative, remarkable look at how Francis and his movement quite literally saved the Christian faith—and continues to offer a spiritual vision with contemporary relevance.

When Saint Francis Saved the Church is published by Ave Maria Press.

Founded in 1865 at Notre Dame, Indiana, Ave Maria Press, a ministry of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is a Catholic publishing company that serves the spiritual and formative needs of the Church and its schools, institutions, and ministers; Christian individuals and families; and others seeking spiritual nourishment.

In the tradition of Holy Cross, we are committed, as educators in the faith, to helping people know, love, and serve God and to spreading the gospel of Jesus through books and other resources.

Direct link to the book at AMP

Never been to Assisi, Italy?  Here are six quite minutes of sightseeing in and around the town and basilica.

Here is a direct link to When Saint Francis Saved the Church at Amazon.com:

The author has other books in print, several of which have to do with St. Francis and/or St. Clare.  Here are some of them at Amazon.com:

I review other books by this author on this site:
Sweeney - The Complete Francis of Assisi by Jon M. Sweeney
Sweeney - The Enthusiast by Jon M. Sweeney

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (b.1265 - d.1321), Florence, Italy's most famous son, lived during turbulent times.  Europe was in the process, sometimes the violent process, of deciding how much influence the church should have in running matters of state. 

Today's Europe is secular, meaning that church and state are separate, and rarely interfere with each other, and refrain from dictating to each other.  Secular states allow for greater religious diversity and greater personal liberty than religious states.  But that was anything but the case during Dante's time.

Dante believed in God, and in secularism.  He was persecuted for his secular beliefs by banishment from his beloved nation-state of Florence.  So Dante, in exile, sought solace in his religious beliefs:  he wrote The Divine Comedy.

Imagine you had been slighted by many of your friends, defeated by your enemies, and was made victim to the machinations of corrupt leaders and civil servants.  Now imagine, what your revenge might be.

Dante was not a violent man, so his revenge was not bloody.  Dante was a writer, so his revenge took the form of a book, The Divine Comedy, in verse that would both entertain and educate readers, and malign those responsible for his situation.

If Dante's book were solely rants against his enemies, it would never have stood the test of time.  In fact, the parts of The Divine Comedy in which he mentions by name the leaders and rich of his day, wallowing in Hell or Purgatory, are least accessible to us today.  We don't know who these people are, so we miss the joke.  (However, what a wonderful revenge, to make these people, for eternity, examples of Hell's and Purgatory's torments!)

But by making The Divine Comedy a detailed description of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and detailing the sins and qualities that land us in each of these zones of the netherworld, Dante ensured that his tale would appeal to readers forever.

It's immensely fun, and delightfully satisfying, to read an imaginative account of where your own enemies might end up, and how they'll suffer eternal damnation for what they've done to you during your lifetime.  In fact, the most entertaining section of The Divine Comedy is Hell!

Dante encourages us to behave better in life, just in case his imaginings are anywhere near the truth of what becomes of us after death.  Just like religions themselves, Dante, by illustrating the Christian view of afterlife, gives us hope of rewards after death for self-restraint during life.  Justice comes to all, even if a bit late, and it lasts for eternity.

To top all that off, Dante accomplished another goal of his, one that he had cherished for a long time.  He strongly believed that beautiful literature could be written in the daily language of Florentines.  So he wrote The Divine Comedy in ordinary Italian, rather than in the preferred Latin.  The book's success did wonders for raising the respect level of the Italian language.

Amazingly, Dante's Italian is very readable to student's of today's Italian.  It is not like the middle-English literature written in the 1300s, or even like Shakespearean English from the 1600s.  Dante's Italian is accessible, especially when accompanied, side-by-side, by an English translation.

But remember, there are scholars who study The Divine Comedy all their scholarly lives.  There are books published yearly interpreting everything from Dante's use of numbers, names, places, stars, words, smells, sounds, light, dark, literary figures--oh, you get the picture.

But that doesn't mean the average reader cannot enjoy The Divine Comedy.  Take my advice:  kick anyone who tries to tell you The Divine Comedy is too complex, or that you need an accompanying explanatory book ten times the length of the poem.  If you enjoy your first read of Dante's entertaining story, you can always consult those books later.

Here are the famous first lines in Italian and English:

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
che' la diritta via era smarrita.

My advice would be to start with the parts that interest you the most.  For most people, that would be Hell.  Those wonderful levels of Hell Dante describes with various sinners and their punishments that fit their crimes, are full of juicy, gory details.

For the entire text, on-line, English next to Italian, visit my Dante page at Italophiles.com (Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site), my Italian culture site.  I also include many amazing illustrations by Dore, and links to several on-line resources about Dante.

You can download a free e-book of The Divine Comedy from Project Gutenberg, the grand-daddy of free e-book websites.

Direct link to The Divine Comedy free e-books

Direct link to free e-books of Dante's Vision of Hell with 65 illustrations by Gustave Dore'

Here is a sampling of paperback books of The Divine Comedy available at Amazon.com, including two dual-language editions.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

 

Marcus Aurelius is the fifth of the so-called “five good emperors” that preceded the decline of the Roman Empire.  He was hand picked, carefully educated, and trained for his position.  He studied at the right hand of his predecessor, Antoninus Pius, a follower of the Stoicists, a philosophical group that advocated moderation and self-control.  So it is no surprise that Marcus Aurelius knew how to perform his job and carried out his duties with diligence, which he did from 161 to 180 A.D.

Marcus Aurelius was a man who was blessed, or cursed, depending on your point of view, with a self-reflective nature.  And like self-reflective people, he strove to become a better person.  He recorded his self-reflective journey on paper in his personal diary, his Meditations, which were published after his death with the title To Himself, an ironic title considering they were written for him alone and yet published for all the world to read.

 

While sometimes called a treatise on the stoic life, the writings of Marcus Aurelius are more a diary of his reflections while on campaigns to defend fringes of the Roman Empire from invasion by enemy hordes.  Marcus Aurelius was, unique for a reflective person, also a man of action when necessary, successfully defending the Empire during his years as Emperor from 161 to 180 A.D. from revolts in the East and enemy tribes in the North.

While, to me, much of the Meditations reads as a drunken or drug induced rant by a tired and life-weary man, they have their moments of interest.  An interesting note:  they were written in Greek, the language of the educated at the time.  Only much later did Latin take up that role, usurped eventually by English, as attested to by the scientific and academic journal preference for English.

To read more about Marcus Aurelius as an Emperor of Rome, visit Italophiles.com (Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site), my website about Italian culture.  My Marcus Aurelius page has lots more information about Marcus's son, the Roman Christians, and excerpts from the book.

 

The Limitations of Self-reflection for Self-improvement

 

Other self-reflective people have found inspiration in Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations.  They should, however, also look at the book for a better understanding of the limitations of self-reflection as a tool for self-improvement.

 

If the person wishing to become a better person is closed off to external ideas and looks only within or to those within their trusted circle, the ideas they consider for self-criticism and self-improvement can be too limited to make them a truly good person.

 

This was the case with Marcus Aurelius.  He accepted the ideas of the superstitious peoples of his time.  He condoned, and at times more than condoned, the persecution of the minority Christians in the superstitious hope of bettering the lives of the majority pagan citizens.

 

Marcus Aurelius’s complicity with this mass-murder shows that self-reflection without enlightened thought can get a person only so far.  It would take the Enlightenment and it’s descendent, Liberal Humanism, to bring humanity to a higher moral level.

 

Some points, key to the Stoic Philosophy, are repeated throughout the twelve Books that make up the Meditations.

• Reason must rule the body; logic must be used to determine the truth, by first collecting differing ideas and then testing them against the facts to see which hold firm, and re-evaluating them as new facts become available.
• Live according to nature, which means accepting that we are all a part of God’s universe with a bit of God in all of us, called our soul, and we must try to behave as God-like as possible to honor our soul and God, and the most God-like behavior is to work for the common good.
• It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being; the ethics of our lives, how we put to use the truths we determine, define who we are and we are in control of our choices and behavior; the highest good is a virtuous life and that can be achieved by living in moderation.
• Death can come at any moment so be prepared for it; this is a common sentiment in those faraway times (and sadly for many still today) with poor healthcare, irregular diets, poor storage and preservation of food, and frequent violence; Marcus Aurelius certainly thought of it more than others because he suffered poor health all his life, dying at the age of 59 from a long and painful illness.
• Use self-reflection to purify your soul and find truth and right; review each day your actions and reactions to others and ask yourself if you behaved as you should, then resolve to improve your behavior the next day; also keep good thoughts, as thoughts predetermine our actions.
• Fame is fleeting so one should not seek it, and if one has it, don’t court it or indulge in it, or place too high a value on it, because it has so little real value in the big scheme of things; as Emperor, one can imagine his position gained him many wannabe sycophants, and it seems clear that Marcus Aurelius shunned them; he is famous for appointing worthy advisers and military and civic leaders.

Free e-book versions are available from Project Gutenberg, the grand-daddy of all free e-book websites.

Direct link to the free e-books

Paperback editions are available from Amazon.com.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

The Prince and The Discourses by Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli (b.1467-d.1527) has gotten a bad rap.  He is not an amoral despot-maker and early spin-doctor.  He is a Renaissance-era political scientist and historian.  And that famous adjective, Machiavellian, is described in at least one Italian dictionary as:  'The mistaken utilitarian interpretation of Machiavelli's writings'.

His famous, or infamous, book Il Principe - The Prince is not really “Despotry for Dummies”, but an expert description of the efficient functioning of a Principality, which was in those times, actually, from the beginning of human city-dwelling 10,000 years ago, the primary form of political governance.

 

The Realities of Machiavelli’s Era

 

For us today, The Prince may seem cynical and amoral, a detailed plan for separating morality from politics, the ultimate real politick.  But our era’s interest in social progress, moral actions by governments, and the improvement of the human condition for everyone on the planet, are, sadly, relatively new interests.

 

Political rulers in Machiavelli’s time had to take territory, defend it, repress local peoples, protect supply lines to garrisons in occupied lands, subdue local leaders, and fend off other Princes who wanted to steal it all away. 

These Princes were not prince-charmings or in any way similar to today’s show-princes of Europe.  They were brutal, cunning, deceitful warriors who used every means possible to do whatever was necessary to maintain control in their territories.

Here is a quote from The Prince discussing the problems of a prince who has only recently taken over by force a territory:

In this way you have enemies in all those whom you have injured in seizing that principality, and you are not able to keep those friends who put you there because of your not being able to satisfy them in the way they expected, and you cannot take strong measures against them, feeling bound to them. For, although one may be very strong in armed forces, yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the natives. 

To better understand Machiavelli and the realities of his era in terms of today’s world, one needs an understanding of democracies and republics both liberal and illiberal.  These words have taken on popular meanings, but as I’m writing about Political Science, I’m using their Political Science meanings here. 

For those who are curious, I explain those meanings briefly at Italophiles.com (Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site) on my Machiavelli Page.

 

Machiavelli and his Republican Ideal

 

The entire intellectual life of Machiavelli was shaped by his dedication to the republican ideal.  When the Medici, the Princes who ruled Florence, were expelled by a revolution in 1494, Machiavelli became a diplomatic representative of the new Florentine Republic. But when the revolt against the Medici was over by 1512, and the Princes returned to power, Machiavelli was jailed and tortured, and then released into exile.

 

In exile he wrote The Prince, a spare book of less than 100 pages.  As one of his translators, W. K. Marriott, writes, the work contains truths as applicable today just as they were yesterday.  And he offers these as examples.

• Men are still the dupes of their simplicity and greed...  
• The cloak of religion still conceals the vices... 
• Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be--and are ruined.
• In politics there are no perfectly safe courses; prudence consists in choosing the least dangerous ones.
• Although crimes may win an empire, they do not win glory.
• Necessary wars are just wars.
• The arms of a nation are hallowed when it has no other resource but to fight.

But what most people don’t realize is that Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a companion piece to Discorsi sulla prima deca di Tito Livio - Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius.  Livy was a prolific Ancient Roman historian.  The Discourses was the major work of the two books; a comprehensive book of several hundred pages in three volumes describing and lauding Ancient Rome’s republican era.

 

In The Discourses, Machiavelli describes where Rome went wrong, where it went right, and how it should have dealt with both internal and external threats.  And in his later book, Istoria Fiorentine - The History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy, he again lauds republican principles.  He saw them as the way forward for an increasingly enlightened mankind.  Republics also offered a continuity and stability that principalities do not offer, often collapsing upon the death of the Prince.

 

The Discourses speak more to us today than The Prince.  The section titles alone tell you that it would be a valuable read for today’s world leaders.  If you doubt this, look below, where I’ve put a link to the The Discourses' at an Adelaide University site in Australia where you can read the section on-line if you wish.

Machiavelli ends The History of Florence by stating that if it takes a despotic Prince to unite Italy, then so be it, but that he would wish that the government of a united Italy would embrace a representative government.  This is hardly a Machiavellian desire, as the adjective is used today.

Niccolò Machiavelli would surely be shocked to learn that in this day and age he’s viewed, because of The Prince, as the master-class teacher of tyranny, the writer of do-it-yourself despotry, the tutor to totalitarian governments, the most inhumane and unenlightened form of government ever known to man!

Free e-book versions of The Prince and The Discourses are available from Project Gutenberg, the grand-daddy of free e-book sites on the internet.

Direct link to The Prince free e-books

Direct link to The Discourses free e-books

You can view The Discourses headings on-line, and read themon-line via Adelaide University

There are also paperbacks of The Prince and The Discourses available from Amazon.com.

The BBC made this interesting documentary about Machiavelli:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.