Maráz Borbála: Marcus Aurelius bronz császárportré a római kori Lugioból. (Pécs, 1997.)

against the barbarians attacking the Pannonian Limes at the Danube from the East. The emperor's column in Rome was erected in memory of these wars. The „philosopher-emperor" spent the greater part of his reign in military camps, parts of his „Communings" were also written „among the Quadi on the Gran" and at Carnuntum. He died in the camp at Vindobona during the campaign for defense of the border at the Danube too early to complete the pacification of the area. He was a conscientious, law-abiding emperor, manful in doing his duty. He became the ideal of the good ruler. His life and his reign fell on the period of zenith of the Roman Empire considering its political, economic and cultural achievement. It was no fault of his that the stability of the empire which had been taken for imperturbable seemed to falter in the last years of his reign due to the increase of barbarian attacks and disasters. Marcus Aurelius, the most admired emperor and stoic philosopher both in the antiquity and in modern times, is best known for his equestrian statue on Capitol Hill and his memorial column in Rome and because of his Communings with himself written in Greek. This booklet is regarded as one of the most comprehensive collection of moral views and principles of the stoic philosophy although originally it has not been intended for publication. It was written without the author having been eager for the readers' praise. Thus it was possibly unknown until 350 AD and as good as forgotten for the following five and half centuries. It became widely known and popular only in 1559 when it was published as a printed book. The „Communings" is an aphoristic collection of morals, reflections of personal nature containing the views of Marcus Aurelius about life and death, body and soul or Gods and his fellow-men. The questions dealt with by the Emperor cover the four main virtues of stoic philosophy: modesty, manliness, sobriety and justice but