The short answer: for most readers, the best translation of Meditations is Gregory Hays’s, published by Modern Library. It is short, modern and easy to read in small pieces, which is how Marcus wrote it. Choose Martin Hammond’s Penguin Classics edition if you want fuller notes, and Robin Waterfield’s annotated edition if you want help on every page.
Which Meditations translation should you buy?
Meditations is a private notebook, not a treatise. Marcus Aurelius wrote it in Greek for himself while he ruled Rome, so a good translation should sound like a person talking to himself, not like a lecture. That is the main thing that separates the editions below.
The editions, one by one
Gregory Hays: the best first read
Hays teaches classics at the University of Virginia, and his Modern Library version was the first new English translation in decades when it appeared in 2002. It is plain and direct, and the short entries read like notes to self. On Reddit, readers name it when someone asks what to read.
For a gift, Modern Library also sells the Hays hardcover, which the listing shows with a newer foreword by Ryan Holiday. Watch out for other paperbacks that use Hays’s name on a different cover: buy the Modern Library edition.
Martin Hammond: the careful Penguin
Hammond, a former Head Master of Tonbridge School, has also translated Homer’s Iliad for Penguin. His Penguin Classics edition comes with an introduction by Diskin Clay, explanatory notes, a chronology and indexes of names and quotations. Amazon reviewers praise the endnotes; one felt the wording at times makes Marcus sound a little Christian. It suits a reader who wants to know what each line refers to.
Penguin Classics Hardcover: the gift edition
The same Hammond translation comes in the Penguin Classics Hardcover series, with a cover by Coralie Bickford-Smith and 416 pages. It is the copy to give, or to keep on a desk.
To give all three Stoics at once, the Major Works of the Stoics box set pairs Hammond’s Meditations with Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic and Epictetus’s Discourses and Selected Writings, all in Penguin hardcovers.
Robin Waterfield: the annotated edition
Waterfield is a British classical scholar who has also translated Plato’s Republic and Herodotus. His Basic Books edition puts the notes at the foot of each page, so you never have to flip to the back, and Amazon reviewers single out the long introduction. The welcome post on r/Stoicism names Waterfield’s translation as the one to read first.
Robin Hard: Meditations with the letters
Oxford World’s Classics prints Robin Hard’s translation with an introduction and notes by Christopher Gill, plus a selection of letters between Marcus and his tutor Fronto. The letters show the young man behind the emperor, which no other edition here includes.
Listen to it
Meditations is short, so the audiobooks run only four to six hours, and the entries suit a commute or a walk.
- Martin Hammond’s translation, read by Richard Armitage. Unabridged, 6 hours 18 minutes, from Penguin Classics, with the Diskin Clay introduction. Listen on Audible.
- Gregory Hays’s translation, read by Roger Davis. Unabridged, 4 hours 35 minutes, from Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Listen on Audible.
- George Long’s translation, revised and read by Duncan Steen. Unabridged, 5 hours 9 minutes, from Naxos AudioBooks. Listen on Audible.
New Audible members can usually try a membership free, which is an easy way to start one of these before you buy a print copy. See Audible membership options.
Common questions
What is the best translation of Meditations for beginners?
Gregory Hays’s Modern Library edition. It is plain modern English, and Reddit readers recommend it to people asking where to start.
Is Hays or Hammond better?
Hays is easier and more conversational. Hammond is closer in tone to a scholarly edition and has far more notes. If you plan to listen, Hammond has the Richard Armitage recording.
Is the George Long translation worth reading?
Long’s 19th-century version is free in the public domain and still widely quoted, but its English is old-fashioned. Many cheap paperbacks reprint it under new titles, so check the translator before you buy.
Is Meditations hard to read?
Not in a modern translation. The book is a set of short notes, so you can read a page at a time and stop. An annotated edition such as Waterfield’s helps when Marcus mentions people or ideas you do not know.
What should I read after Meditations?
The r/Stoicism reading list points to Seneca’s Letters next. Epictetus is the third great Stoic, and the Penguin Stoics box set gives you all three in one gift.
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