Epictetus

Greek Stoic philosopher (c. 50–135 AD), born a slave in Hierapolis, in present-day Turkey, owned in Rome by Epaphroditus, an influential freedman who had been secretary to the emperor Nero, and who, despite Epictetus's servile status, allowed him to study Stoic philosophy under the teaching of Musonius Rufus, one of the great Roman Stoics of the first century. Once manumitted, Epictetus taught philosophy in Rome until the emperor Domitian expelled all philosophers from the city around AD 93, at which point he moved to Nicopolis, in Greece, where he founded his own school, which achieved considerable prestige and attracted students from across the Empire, including the future emperor Hadrian. Epictetus himself wrote no works: all his thought has reached us thanks to his pupil Arrian, who transcribed his oral lessons into the eight books of the Discourses (of which only four survive complete) and into the brief and extraordinarily influential Enchiridion (Handbook), a compendium of practical maxims summarising the essence of Stoic ethics in its most accessible form, which exerted enormous influence across the centuries, from the earliest Christians to modern soldiers and rulers. The core of Epictetus's philosophy is the fundamental distinction between what is up to us (eph' hēmin) — our judgements, desires, aversions and actions — and what is not up to us — the body, property, reputation, and in general everything controlled by external forces — a distinction from which his central ethical counsel derives: to concentrate all attention and moral effort exclusively on what is up to us, since this is the sole path to inner freedom and imperturbability in the face of external circumstances, however adverse. This philosophy, forged by someone who had personally experienced slavery and possibly a permanent lameness caused by a former master, conveys an existential authority unusual among Stoic philosophers of aristocratic tradition, and its message of inner resilience in the face of external adversity continues to resonate in contemporary cognitive-behavioural therapy and in movements of renewed popular interest in Stoicism.

4 works

• A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
• The Enchiridion
• The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of Cleanthes
• The Teaching of Epictetus