Epictetus

In brief

Epictetus was a Greek Stoic teacher of the first and early second centuries CE.[3] The evidence for his life is limited and comes through later accounts.[3] He was enslaved in Rome, eventually became free and taught at Nicopolis after philosophers were expelled from Italy under Domitian.[3] His importance does not rest on biography alone: his surviving teaching gives a forceful account of how judgement and action relate to freedom.[3]

Life

Epictetus was born at Hierapolis in Asia Minor and spent part of his life enslaved by Epaphroditus, an administrator associated with Nero’s court.[3] After gaining freedom he taught in Rome and later established a school at Nicopolis.[3] The dates and some personal details remain uncertain.[3] The familiar story that his master deliberately broke his leg is not established by the strongest available evidence, so this page does not repeat it as fact.[3]

What survives

The Discourses are attributed to Arrian, who says he recorded Epictetus’ teaching; the collection we have contains four books, while more existed in antiquity.[3] The shorter Enchiridion is an abridged handbook drawn from that teaching and can give a compressed view of his philosophy.[3] Epictetus repeatedly examines impressions, assent and prohairesis, the capacity for practical choice.[3] His concern is not merely to comfort students but to make their judgements answerable to reason.[3]

In the tradition

Epictetus was taught by Musonius Rufus and became an influential source for Marcus Aurelius.[1][3][4] His style is dialogic: he challenges students, tests their assumptions and connects philosophical claims to concrete conduct.[1][3][4] The works are not a modern self-help manual, and the well-known distinction between what is up to us and what is not belongs within a broader Stoic account of virtue and responsibility.[1][3][4]

Further reading

Read the Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Epictetus and the Enchiridion in translation.

Sources

[1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism — Stoicism — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [3] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epictetus — Epictetus — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [4] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius — Marcus Aurelius — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy