Marcus Aurelius was Roman Emperor between 161 and 180AD. He was a leading practitioner of the Stoic philosophy. During his reign, he defeated the rise of the Parthian Empire in the east and put down rebellions by the Germanic tribes. His personal life was simple and contented after his marriage to the Emperor Hadrian's daughter in 145AD, and he was able to devote much of his time to his scholarly work.

George Long (1800-1879) was an English classical scholar. He took professorships at many prestigious universities, including Professor of Ancient Languages at University of Virginia, and Professor of Greek at University College London. He is best remembered as the editor of the famous Bibliotheca Classica series - the first serious attempt to produce scholarly editions of classical texts with English commentaries.