The two volumes of this work provide the first comprehensive interpretation of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. The central thesis is that a particular combination of form and content is characteristic of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. He wrote the earliest extant self-dialogue, whereby the composition of the mainly contemplative text can at the same time be a kind of Stoic philosophical practice. Volume 1 analyses general characteristics of form and their philosophical significance. Volume 2 analyses the themes, terms and arguments in analogy to the Stoic division of the philosophy.