The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote down his thoughts between 170 and 180. He was a late Stoic Philosopher and this one of the few examples of this type of literature that exists today. The book is written as personal notes to himself and his thesis is that one can obtain inner calm irrespective of outer adversity. The text considers good and evil, solidarity, adversity and inner freedom. It is a book that offers wisdom, comfort and inspiration. As well as the thought, this edition contains a biographical sketch and summary of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, a number of illustrations and both an index and index of terms.

The philosophical thoughts of Emperor Marcus Aurelius are presented here in a superb reprint, brimming with the intellect and sincerity of the author. Known for his tolerance and benevolence, Marcus Aurelius was the only Emperor to tolerate satire of his own character. As a ruler he was renowned for sound judgment, respected for both his military successes and for his wise, measured governance. Such deeds were derived from his education; a lifelong admirer of the Greek philosophers, Aurelius developed his own, unique interpretation of Stoicism which is encapsulated in this text. Though Aurelius was the final of the `Five Good Emperors', the precepts of his Meditations would be consulted by rulers - Roman and otherwise - for millennia to follow. While Rome experienced decline and chaos, its historians and scholars remembered Marcus Aurelius as a pinnacle of competence.

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote down his thoughts between 170 and 180. He was a late Stoic Philosopher and this one of the few examples of this type of literature that exists today. The book is written as personal notes to himself and his thesis is that one can obtain inner calm irrespective of outer adversity. The text considers good and evil, solidarity, adversity and inner freedom. It is a book that offers wisdom, comfort and inspiration. As well as the thought, this edition contains a biographical sketch and summary of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, a number of illustrations and both an index and index of terms.

These forty-one tales written in the second century AD by Greek author Antoninus Liberalis and translated from the Greek for the first time, offer an unusual insight into the preoccupations and legends of antiquity. These tales are quirky, exciting and sometimes disturbing. Many have relevance for modern as well as classical understanding of psychology and the imagination. Each story is usefully provided with full annotation and commentary.

Legends which told of the transformation of men and women, heroes and nymphs, into animals, stars, plants, fountains and rocks, were widespread and of deep significance for people in the classical world. This collection of 41 Greek myths and legends by Antoninus Liberalis, here translated into English for the first time, is a unique source of such tales. The manner of the narrative, laconic as well as picaresque, adds relish to their oddity. The variant of the story of Cephalus and Procris where the heroine practices sex therapy on King Minos, the transformation of the arrogant musician Cerambus into a champing beetle, the change of Hylas into an echo that rang through real communities and landscapes for over a millenium, the numerous consequences of rape, incest, mockery or heedlessness: all these offer food for psychological speculation as well as for narrative pleasure. Many of the tales would have startled Freud or puzzled Jung. The commentary, which is fuller than that usually supplied with most translations, furnishes parallels and explanatory materials to help those who wish to follow a tale through its numerous contexts and ramifications. This book should be of interest to

Volume I of a two-volume scholarly edition of the Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus by A.S.L. Farquharson. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with a translation, an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Volume II of a two-volume scholarly edition of the Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus by A.S.L. Farquharson. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with a translation, an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

The permanent building societies of England grew from humble beginnings as a multitude of small and localized institutions in the nineteenth century to become the dominant players in the house mortgage market by the inter-war period. Throughout the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the movement cultivated an image of being a champion of home ownership for the working classes, but housing historians have questioned whether building societies really lived up to this claim. This study fills a major gap in the historiography of the movement by investigating the class profile of building society members, and how the design of different building societies affected their accessibility, efficiency, and risk-taking practices between 1880 and 1939. These themes are explored using case studies of several building societies from this period and drawing upon extensive archival records. The Building Society Promise shows that building societies did lend to working-class households before the First and Second World Wars, with some societies showing a greater commitment to working-class home ownership than others. What ultimately affected the outreach of individual societies was the quality of information they possessed, which in turn was largely determined by the types of agency networks they used to find and select borrowers. The phenomenal growth of some of these institutions in the inter-war period, however, and the ensuing competition which emerged between them, brought about profound changes in their firm structure which impaired their ability to reach out to lower-income households as efficiently as before. The findings of this research are relevant to both past and present debates about the optimal design of financial institutions in overcoming social exclusion in credit markets, and the deleterious effects that firm growth, market competition, and managerial self-interest can have on their performance and stability.