Meditations VI.46

As the shows in the amphitheatre and such places grate upon thee⁵⁹ as being an everlasting repetition of the same sight, and the similarity makes the spectacle pall, such must be the effect of the whole of life. For everything above and below is ever the same and the result of the same things. How long then?

• 59.A personal touch. See Fronto’s letter to Marcus as Caesar, iv. 12: theatro libros lectitabas; ii. 6, idem theatrum, idem odium (variant reading: otium); compare ii. 10; Naber’s edition p. 34; compare Capitolinus’s Life of Marcus xv. § 1.

  Fronto’s Latin, in translation: “you used to read books in the theatre,” and “the same theatre, the same loathing,” with otium, “leisure,” as a variant for odium, “loathing.” Capitolinus records that Marcus read, listened to reports, and signed documents at the games, and was mocked for it by the crowd.