Haines’s Footnote Key

“Compare” — by far the most common abbreviation in the footnotes, introducing a cross-reference to another ancient author or another passage in the Meditations itself.

A “clause” marker used within one long, multi-idea section of the Meditations — some sections (like I.16, Marcus’s long tribute to Antoninus Pius) run to a full paragraph covering many separate points, so Haines numbers each one internally. A footnote reading “i. 16, § 9” doesn’t mean a ninth section — it means the ninth numbered clause within section 16 itself.

“In the same place” — refers back to the source just cited in the previous footnote, without repeating it.

Scilicet, “namely” or “that is to say” — clarifies who or what an ambiguous pronoun in a quoted passage refers to.

“The end” / “near the end” — a location within the work just cited, rather than an author or title.

“The beginning” / “near the beginning” — same idea as ad fin., at the other end of the work.

“The middle” / “about the middle” of the work cited.

“And following” — the citation continues for several more pages or lines past the one given.

“Page” / “pages,” in a citation to a specific printed edition rather than to the ancient work’s own internal numbering.

“Literally” — Haines offering a more word-for-word alternative to his own looser translation of a phrase.

Short for praefectus — as in praefectus urbi, “urban prefect,” a senior Roman magistrate in charge of the city of Rome, an office several people in Marcus’s circle held.

“Consul” / “suffect consul” (consul suffectus) — a replacement consul who took the office partway through the year after the original holder stepped down or died, common in the imperial period.

Adversus, “against” — part of the title of a polemical work (e.g. Sextus Empiricus’s Adversus Mathematicos, “Against the Mathematicians”).

Vita, “Life,” followed by the emperor’s name: Vit. Mar. (Life of Marcus), Vit. Pii (Life of Antoninus Pius), Vit. Ver. (Life of Lucius Verus), Vit. Cass. (Life of Avidius Cassius), and so on — each its own chapter within the single Historia Augusta collection.

Julius Capitolinus, one of six authors the Historia Augusta traditionally credits — modern scholars mostly think it’s really one person writing under six invented names, but Haines follows the traditional attribution. Capitolinus is credited with the Life of Marcus among others. See Ancient Historians & Modern Scholars.

Vulcacius Gallicanus, another of the six traditional Historia Augusta authors — credited with its Life of Avidius Cassius, the general whose brief revolt against Marcus is covered in The World of Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus himself, referred to by bare initial in Haines’s own scholarly prose (not in the translated text) — e.g. “the grandfather of M.”

“To Antoninus” / “to Caesar” / “to Verus” / “to Appian” — the addressee headings within Fronto’s own letter collection: to Marcus after his accession, when he reigned as Antoninus (Ad Antoninum Imperatorem, distinct from the letters to Antoninus Pius, which Haines cites as ad Pium), to the young Marcus while he still held the junior title Caesar rather than emperor, to Lucius Verus, and — the one name here outside Marcus’s own family — to Appian, almost certainly the historian Appian of Alexandria, a contemporary of both men. See Fronto in Names in the Text.

Page references to Samuel Naber’s 1867 edition of Fronto’s letters (e.g. “Nab. p. 96”) — the standard scholarly edition when Haines was writing.

De Feriis Alsiensibus, “On the Alsian Holidays” — one of Fronto’s individual letters, named (as many were) for its subject rather than a book number.

De Nepote Amisso, “On the Loss of a Grandson” — another individually-named Fronto letter, consoling Marcus after a grandchild’s death.

De Eloquentia, “On Eloquence” — a Fronto letter on the art of rhetoric, his own specialty as Marcus’s tutor.

Cassius Dio, the Roman senator and historian whose Roman History is one of the two main ancient narrative sources for Marcus’s reign — cited by book, chapter, and section (e.g. “Dio 71. 6, § 2”). See Ancient Historians & Modern Scholars.

A different person entirely: Dio Chrysostom, a Greek orator and philosopher active a generation before Marcus. Cited for his Orations — easy to confuse with plain “Dio” (Cassius Dio), since Haines doesn’t always spell out “Chrys.”

Epictetus, usually cited for his Discourses (bare “Epict.”) or his Manual (Enchiridion, abbreviated “Man.”), the condensed handbook version of his teaching. See Names in the Text.

Seneca the Younger, cited by individual work: Ep. (Epistulae, his letters), N.Q. (Naturales Quaestiones, Natural Questions), de Vit. Beat. (De Vita Beata, On the Happy Life), de Prov. (De Providentia, On Providence), de Clem. (De Clementia, On Mercy), and de Ben. (De Beneficiis, On Benefits).

Cicero, almost always cited for his Tusculan Disputations (Tusculanae Disputationes, “Tusc.”), a philosophical dialogue on facing death and hardship.

Plutarch, cited across several works: his essays criticizing Stoic paradoxes and contradictions (variously “Stoic. Parad.” or “adv. Stoic.”), his essay on reading poetry (“de Leg. Poet.,” De Legendis Poetis), and his Symposium (“Symp.,” sometimes called Table Talk).

Diogenes Laertius, the ancient biographer whose Lives of the Eminent Philosophers is the source for most surviving anecdotes about Socrates, the Cynics, and other philosophers Marcus cites.

Aristotle, cited by individual work: Rhet. (Rhetoric), Pol. (Politics), Eth. (the Nicomachean Ethics).

Sextus Empiricus, a later Skeptic philosopher, cited mainly for his Adversus Mathematicos (“Against the Mathematicians” — despite the name, a critique of dogmatic philosophy generally, not just mathematics).

Aulus Gellius, author of the Attic Nights (Noctes Atticae), a miscellany of anecdotes and quotations — a useful secondary source for lost sayings of Epictetus and other philosophers.

Homer, cited from either epic: the Odyssey (“Od.”) or the Iliad (“Il.”).

“Fragment” — used whenever the line quoted survives only as an isolated fragment of an otherwise lost work, common for Euripides, Aeschylus, Menander, and Pindar.

Euripides, the tragedian — several of the lines Marcus quotes survive only because he happened to copy them, per the fragment-heavy stretch discussed in the modern note at VII.35.

Aeschylus, the tragedian, cited for a handful of quoted lines and fragments.

Sophocles, the tragedian, cited occasionally alongside Aeschylus and Euripides.

Menander, the comic playwright — the source of the joke discussed in the modern note at V.12.

Horace, cited from his Satires (“Sat.”) or his Ars Poetica (“A.P.,” “The Art of Poetry”).

Lucretius, the Epicurean poet, author of De Rerum Natura — cited occasionally despite Marcus’s own Stoic (not Epicurean) commitments, usually for a shared image or phrase.

Themistius, a later Greek orator, cited for his Orations (“Orat.” or “Or.”) — a title shared with several other orators, so the name preceding it identifies the author.

Aelius Aristides, a Greek orator and near-contemporary of Marcus, cited mainly for his oration Ad Regem (“To the King,” abbreviated “ad Reg.”).

“Saint,” followed by a New Testament book: the Gospel of Matthew, Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, or Titus — all epistles attributed to St. Paul except Matthew.

The Old Testament book of Proverbs.

Justin Martyr and Tertullian, two early Christian apologists, both cited for works titled Apologia (“Apol.”) — formal defenses of Christianity addressed to Roman authorities.

Irenaeus, Lactantius, and Ignatius of Antioch — three more early Church writers Haines draws on in the same discussion.

Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian theologian, cited for his Stromata (“Strom.,” literally “Miscellanies”) — not to be confused with Marcus’s teacher’s father-in-law Athenodotus or any other “Clement.”

Eusebius of Caesarea, the early Church historian whose Ecclesiastical History preserves several documents relevant to Marcus’s actual policy toward Christians — see Note on Christians.

The Suda, a massive Byzantine encyclopedia (c. 10th century) preserving fragments and anecdotes from much earlier, otherwise-lost sources.

John Tzetzes, a 12th-century Byzantine scholar, cited for his Chiliades (“Chil.”), a sprawling verse work covering history, myth, and literary anecdote.

Stobaeus, a 5th-century anthologist whose Eclogues (“Ecl.”) preserve excerpts from many otherwise-lost Stoic and philosophical texts.

Thomas Gataker, the 17th-century English scholar whose 1652 edition and commentary on the Meditations was the standard scholarly reference for the text well into Haines’s own time.

Richard Claverhouse Jebb, a 19th-century Cambridge classicist whose editions and translations Haines cites for Aristides and Themistius.

The editor of the standard edition of Philostratus’s Lives of the Sophists, cited whenever Haines references that work by page number.

Justinian’s Digest, the sixth-century compilation of Roman legal writing — cited occasionally for points of law contemporary with, or referencing, Marcus’s own reign.