《沉思录·卷七·痛苦与忍受》第49条
Consider the past,--such great changes of political supremacies; thou mayest foresee also the things which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of the things which take place now; accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more wilt thou see?
注释摘要
历史在奥勒留眼中几乎褪去了时间的外衣。他在这里提出的不是一个抽象的历史哲学命题，而是一种直接的直观练习：你只要认真看过足够多的政治权力的更替，你就会发现，未来将要发生的，在形态上与过去已经发生的别无二致。他所说的“形式相同”和“不可能偏离现在的秩序”，建立在整个斯多葛宇宙观之上：宇宙由同一团原初之火、同一个遍在的logos所渗透和安排，万物的生灭不过是这同…