Special Guest Blogger: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

I have noticed many of the Roman Emperors writing here were as crazy as a box of frogs but not all of us were a grape short of an orgy, i was guided by the principles of philosophy as practiced by the best of the Greek Philosophers and i became one of only five great Roman Emperors and as there were about 70 of us, it shows just how crap the other 65 were. 
I was born into an established Roman family, but not the royal lineage so as a young man i enjoyed all the usual teenage things such as wrestling and hunting but i did have a passion for learning and when i wasn't grabbing someone in a headlock, i would spend time reading philosopher Epictetus which got me noticed by Emperor Hadrian.
You know someone once said: 'The person who has not taken pleasure in a book must be intolerably stupid' and boy was Rome run by many leaders who had obviously never taken pleasure in a book apart from ones that comes with crayons so when the childless Hadrian was nearing death he had to pick a successor and he chose a Senator called Antoninus Pius on the condition that he adopted me so once Antonious's time came, i would be properly prepared and i worked alongside my adopted father while learning the ways of government and continued my philosophical studies.
In 161 Antoninus died and i became the Emperor of the Roman Empire, the most powerful position in the world at the time, and immediately i had to deal with wars with Barbarian tribes, the rise of Christianity as well as the plague bought back from our troops in Syria.
There was an early challenge for my position after hearing a rumor that i was deathly ill, Avidius Cassius claimed the title of emperor for himself so i traveled to the East to slap him around but before i got there he had been murdered by his own soldiers so my wife and i decided to make the most of it and toured the eastern provinces with my wife but that didn't turn out quite so well as she died of the plague on the trip.
There is a reason the adage that power corrupts has been repeated throughout history as it unfortunately tends to be true but i tried to rule with wisdom and virtue and would write reminders to myself to avoid temptation and not be a dick but it was  very stressful dealing with daily life as a leader of one of the most powerful empires in human history but i would remind myself that my role was all about self-restraint, duty, self-discipline, personal ethics, humility and respect for others.
My diary writings would give myself advice on how to make good on the responsibilities and obligations of my position such as 'Focus on what you can do, and not what you can't and 'There is nothing you can do about the past or future, you can only influence the present'.
I named my son as my successor when i grew ill and one of my last entries before dying was 'when the longest and the shortest-lived of us come to die, their loss is precisely equal' so if when you die people say 'you know what, they were a nice person' and not 'you know what, they were a massive halfwit' then i would suggest it represents a successful time while you were here.