Carnuntum

Tuna sınırında bir Roma lejyoner kalesi. Marcus Aurelius, Kendime Düşünceler'i yazarken yıllarını burada geçirdi.

Carnuntum stood on the south bank of the Danube in what is now Austria, a legionary fortress guarding the empire's edge. Beyond the river were the Marcomanni, the Quadi, and decades of border war. Marcus Aurelius arrived here in 170 CE to command the campaign personally. The winters were long and the work was administrative and brutal. Somewhere in this camp — in a tent or a prefect's quarters — he wrote portions of what we call the Meditations, private notes reminding himself how to think and how to endure. The book was never meant for publication. It reads like a man talking himself back from despair. Carnuntum is now an archaeological park. The ruins of the amphitheater remain. The manuscripts of the Meditations survive in two medieval copies.