Imagine you are one of a number of young men living in the Greco-Roman colony, Nicopolis, in A.D. 100. You have been sent there to study and your teacher was a Stoic philosopher, Epictetus. One of your fellow students, Arrian, decides to copy, word for word, Epictetus’ lessons. Little did you know that by doing so, Arrian would provide all of those who followed a manuscript that would be read by hundreds of thousands of people during the next 2000 years. Arrian provided posterity — including me and you, gentle reader — what has become known as Epictetus’ ‘Discourses.’ So, who was this man, Epictetus? Well, allow me to introduce you to him.
The details of his life are sketchy at best, Arrian’s ‘Discourses’ actually provide us with most of what we know. It is believed that he was born about A.D. 55 and that he died in A.D. 135. We do know that he was born a slave of a slave because Epictetus tells us so in his writings and because an ancient inscription also notes this fact. We know he was born in Hierapolis, a major Greco-Roman city located in what is now south-western Turkey. The native language there was Greek, not Latin; it was the Greek spoken by the common folk and the ‘Discourses’ are written in this common Greek (as is the Greek of the New Testament).
Epictetus referred to himself as a ‘lame old man,’ but he did not tell us about the cause or nature of his disability. We do know who his owner was; his name was Epaphroditus. He was famous for more than just being Epictetus’ owner and master. Epaphroditus was a former slave and after he achieved his freedom he served as a record keeper during Nero and Domitian’s reign. Epictetus learned a great deal about court-life. Given this experience, Epictetus came to deeply appreciate the ambiguities of power and learned to distinguish between true and counterfeit freedom.
Epaphroditus permitted Epictetus great freedom of movement; for example, Epictetus attended the lectures of Musonius Rufus who was the foremost Stoic of his time. Musonius gave lessons in applied ethics and in his ‘Discourses’ Epictetus offers us a similar focus and orientation. Both Musonius and Epictetus concentrate on ethics to the virtual exclusion of physics and logic. Ethics was to be applied to real life. Both want their students to break with traditional patterns of thinking and behaving, to reject popular morality and put conventional notions of good and bad behind them. Epictetus, in particular, seeks to inspire his students (including his ‘current’ students — you and me) into something akin to a spiritual conversion and to do so mainly by an appeal to reason.
Epictetus was granted his freedom and then devoted his life to the practice and teaching of Stoicism. Both he and his school in Nicropolis were successful; the Emperor Hadrian even came to visit him and his school and Roman nobles sent their sons to study with Epictetus. Late in life he retired, adopted a child, hired a female servant and withdrew from public life. It appears these later years provided him great contentment.
Well, gentle reader, this is what we know about Epictetus; some facts, some speculations, some suppositions. Next time we will briefly explore Epictetus as a champion of Stoicism.