Marcus Aurelius was, of course, an incredible man. He endured more than most people. He had more power than most people—and wore it more lightly. He did more work on himself than most people, understood people, and himself, better than most people.

Was he perfect though? Of course not. No one is.

In Lonesome Dove, the Texas Ranger Captain Woodrow Call seems almost superhuman, especially to the young cowboy Newt. Newt worships the ground the man walks on, believing he isn’t like the rest of them. And in a sense, he isn’t. The Captain can ride further and faster, is more principled, less afraid, tougher than everyone on the Plains.

We know Marcus Aurelius made mistakes. We know he paid lip service to admitting error in Meditations, to not continuing in error just because you began in one. But how good was he in practice? It’s less clear. He was wrong about his son Commodus for example. Was he too proud to admit this? Here, or elsewhere, did he have trouble owning that he was just like everyone else? That he could screw up? That he had human urges and human flaws? We hope so but we don’t know.

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