The Debts

The people of Book One, each keyed to the entry where Marcus names his debt.

1Verus His grandfather, three times consul and prefect of Rome	Good nature, and a held temper.
2His Father Marcus Annius Verus, who died when Marcus was a boy	A sense of honor and a man’s strength, known mostly through reputation.
3His Mother Domitia Lucilla	Reverence for the gods, open hands, and a life kept simple, a long way from the way the rich live.
4His Great-Grandfather Catilius Severus	Good teachers at home instead of the public schools, and that on education you never skimp.
5His Tutor Unnamed in the text	No sides at the races; hard work, few needs, your own business minded.
6Diognetus His master in painting	No empty pursuits, no faith in charlatans; the hard cot, and the Greek discipline.
7Rusticus Junius Rusticus, Stoic, twice consul	That his character needed work, and the notebooks of Epictetus, the Discourses, lent from Rusticus’s own library.
8Apollonius Of Chalcedon, Stoic philosopher	Standing on one’s own; reason only; the same man in sharp pain, in loss, in long sickness.
9Sextus Of Chaeronea, nephew of Plutarch	Living in line with nature; dignity with nothing put on; learning worn without display.
10Alexander The grammarian	Never pounce on a man’s slip; work the right form into your own reply instead.
11Fronto Marcus Cornelius Fronto, his master in rhetoric	What spite, deceit, and hypocrisy go with a tyrant’s power.
12Alexander The Platonist	Never plead busyness — not often, never without need — to dodge what you owe the people around you.
13Catulus Cinna Catulus, Stoic	Never brush off a friend’s complaint; speak warmly of your teachers.
14Severus Probably Claudius Severus, whose family married into his	Love of family, truth, and justice, and the picture of a state with one law covering everyone.
15Maximus Claudius Maximus, Stoic, proconsul	Self-mastery, swept off course by nothing; good cheer in everything, sickness included.
16Antoninus Antoninus Pius, emperor — the father who adopted him	Gentleness that stands unshaken behind a decision; no taste for honors; the longest debt in the book.
1717 the gods	Last and largest: that everything good in him — family, teachers, friends, the life itself — arrived as a gift.

The ledger as printed. Each debt is keyed to its entry in Book One.