  Marcus’ purpose of mentally equipping himself to deal with what comes his way explains the Meditations’ often aphoristic and sloganeering style (e.g. ‘Erase impressions!’; ‘Do nothing at random!’; ‘Those who now bury will soon be buried!’): as Marcus says, for the one who has been bitten by true doctrines even the briefest saying suffices as a reminder (hupomnêsis) of freedom from pain and fear (x.34). In i.7, Marcus speaks of reading Epictetus’ ‘hupomnêmata’; Arrian, who wrote down Epictetus’ teachings, named them  hupomnêmata,  apparently in reference to Xenophon’s Memorabilia (whose Greek title was ‘hupomnêmata’) of Socrates. Marcus’ purpose also explains why when Marcus refers to events in his life, he does not specify them in a way that would allow anyone else to identify them, and why he uses technical Stoic terminology without  explanation.[3] Marcus’ purpose also makes sense of his collecting sayings of philosophers without much scruple as to whether the philosophical system from which the sayings come is consistent with Stoicism. Finally, this purpose suggests that the reader should look for the personal faults that Marcus is trying to combat, or the correct attitude he is trying to inculcate, when he brings up some doctrine or argument, whether Stoic or not. So for example, xi.18, which begins by saying that human beings came into the world for the sake of each other and that the metaphysical alternatives are atoms or Nature (see below, 4.1), is a list of ten prescriptions against anger, a particularly consequential failing in those with power (cf. ix.42). Again, ix.28 invokes the Stoic doctrine of eternal recurrence to bring to mind the insignificance of mortal things. This suggests that despite the quotability of individual assertions in the Meditations, we should approach them by studying their ‘therapeutic’ context, that is, by asking: what moral and psychological effects is Marcus trying to achieve by saying this? When Marcus says ‘p’, he is not always simply expressing his belief that p.