So, if you know anything about me, you should know I love Black Sails. Since this book is an important part of a major plot point in the show, I decided to read it, and I'm glad I did.
The version of this book I got (Penguin) has an introduction that gives a lot of information about the background of Marcus Aurelius and these writings, I only read about half of it before I got bored and skipped to the part of the book I actually cared about, the meditations of Marcus Aurelius. This book was really interesting to me, partly/mostly due to the nature of the writings. Marcus Aureilius wasn't arguing with himself, or writing for an audience, these were his personal thoughts, his journal so to speak. Most, if not all, of it is reminding himself of who he wants to be, the principals he wants to hold himself to, and how he wants to interact with the world around him. He is said to have been a stoic, and the writings would support that assumption. A lot of the writings were about keeping his emotions and feelings in check, maintaining rationality. I found a lot of the writings to be relatable to my own internal thought processes, and it was very grounding to be presented with the fact that people almost 2000 years ago thought about a lot of the same things as we do now, though a lot has changed too, but the principals remain the same.
Personally, the thing that stuck out to me the most was the separation of himself from people that aren't making a concerted effort to maintain rationality, he views them as merely ignorant, he doesn't dehumanize them, he, in fact, makes a concerted effort to humanize everyone he comes into contact with, as part of his principals. I personally wonder how he reconciled war with those principals, as, to me, it would seem like murder would be in direct conflict with his principals.
The reason that particular thing stuck out to me is that, even before encountering this work, it was something I have made a great effort to implement in my own life, the radical humanization of every human life, keeping in mind that people have their own issues and things that are occupying their minds, their own responsibilities and stresses, their own experiences, and, for me, as an autistic person, remembering those things doesn't come naturally to me, my brain assumes everyone has the same experience and thought processes as myself, and so I have to make a concerted effort to humanize people. I think seeing that that is an experience even one person almost 2000 years ago shares with me made me feel a bit more normal.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to others, even though it is relatively short, the content isn't relevant to most people, though if you enjoy philosophy I would recommend it.