A comprehensive biography of Marcus Aurelius, giving a good background of the times. It is a very scholarly work, rather than an introductory book on the emperor. You do have to plough your way through this book. I thought I had a good command of English, but found I often had to check the dictionary for obscure words used unnecessarily by the author (e.g. autarky, sept, soteriology, etc.) Why use “ambuscade” or “thaumaturge” when ambush or magician would have been equally relevant?