Last year I had the pleasure of stumbling across a book that is exceedingly rare in its form – it was a journal and memoir of sorts from one of Rome’s most successful emperors, Marcus Aurelius, who reigned during the Pax Romana (a long period of peace in Rome) and was hailed as the last good emperor of the period. In his book, he wrestles with concepts such as mortality and righteousness, imparting much of the knowledge he’s accumulated as an emperor and Stoic. If anything, this book really showed me that the human experience is truly universal and transcends the passage of time. I found myself relating as a modern day Asian-Australian girl to the insights of a long deceased Roman emperor in more ways than one. Below, I’ve summarised some of the key lessons this exceptional piece of literature has taught me.
IN TRANSIT; 