Just because Marcus saw the “pleasures” that ensnared Lucius as empty and superficial doesn’t mean there was no joy in his own life. We shouldn’t be fooled by the gravity of The Meditations, which consists of semiformal exercises, into thinking that the author had a gloomy personality. His private letters prove that Marcus was a good-humored and surprisingly affectionate man who spent his youth enjoying a wide variety of sports and hobbies. He liked painting, boxing, wrestling, running, fowling, and boar hunting, and the Historia Augusta adds that he was very skilled at playing various ball
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