Epictetus
Ancient philosophyEpictetus (50–125 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He spent his childhood in Rome as a slave, before being freed. He opened a Stoic school in Nicopolis, a Greek city. He left no writings, but his pupils passed on lecture notes — a series of aphorisms that make up the famous Enchiridion. He shows how one can achieve freedom and happiness by focusing only on what lies within one's own control.
On this page dedicated to Epictetus, discover summaries of his works, a bibliography, videos, and a detailed biography.
The works of Epictetus Summarised on This Site
Enchiridion
In this work, Epictetus presents the Stoic principles that enable us to achieve freedom, and beyond that, happiness
Bibliography
To discover this author's thought in greater depth, these books will be useful:
A. A. Long, Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
Keith Seddon, Epictetus' Handbook and the Tablet of Cebes: Guides to Stoic Living, Routledge, 2005
Scott Aikin and William O. Stephens, Epictetus's Encheiridion: A New Translation and Guide to Stoic Ethics, London: Bloomsbury, 2023
Theodore Scaltsas, Andrew S. Mason (ed.), The Philosophy of Epictetus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007
Ryan Holiday; Stephen Hanselman (2020). Lives of the Stoics. New York: Portfolio/Penguin
Recommended Videos
Conferences, symposia, radio broadcasts... here are 5 videos that will help you better understand Epictetus' thought.
To choose your video from the list, click below on the drop-down menu icon at top right:
Biography: Life of Epictetus
Epictetus was born around 50 AD in Phrygia, probably in Hierapolis, located in present-day Turkey. He was sold into slavery and taken to Rome. His master, Epaphroditus, had himself once been a slave — freed by Emperor Nero.
Epaphroditus was a man of singular stupidity and cruelty. He once sold a slave he deemed worthless — only for that same man to become a favourite of Nero and rise to a position of influence. Epaphroditus, now a frequent visitor to the palace, found himself courting the very person he had once cast aside.
With Epictetus, he proved no less cruel. This gradually taught Epictetus to despise pain and rise above it. Limping, ill, enslaved, he transcended his suffering through sheer force of thought, until he attained the serenity that lies at the very heart of Stoicism.
So, when his master amused himself by twisting his sick leg, Epictetus said to him: It will break
. When it did, instead of crying out in pain, he simply remarked: I warned you
.
Epictetus was introduced to Stoicism by attending the lectures of Musonius Rufus. Rufus taught him the fundamentals of this doctrine, founded a few centuries earlier by Zeno of Citium.
Released from slavery, most likely upon his master's death, he turned fully to philosophy and pursued the Stoic teaching he had until then only glimpsed.
In 90 AD, the emperor Domitian issued an edict banning philosophy. He viewed Stoic philosophy with suspicion, seeing its influence on his opponents as a source of dissent and sedition.
Philosophers were expelled from Italy, having become unwelcome there.
Epictetus moved to Nicopolis of Epirus in western Greece. There he lived in poverty for the rest of his life, with his wife and an adopted child. He opened a Stoic school in the town, which soon gained a wide reputation and earned the admiration of the new emperor, Hadrian, himself.
Epictetus died in 135 AD in Nicopolis of Epirus, shortly before Marcus Aurelius came to power. It seems that he passed on his teaching to Junius Rusticus, who himself became the tutor of Marcus Aurelius and conveyed this inheritance to him.
Thus it was from a former slave that the emperor received, indirectly, this doctrine as his inheritance — a reminder that Stoicism transcends social boundaries.
Epictetus favoured oral teaching. He wrote nothing down, but his lectures were recorded by a disciple, Arrian, in two works: the Discourses and the famous Enchiridion.