A SELECTION FROM THE DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS WITH THE ENCHEIRIDION
TRANSLATED BY GEORGE LONG
CONTENTS.
| EPICTETUS (BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE). |
| A SELECTION FROM THE DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS. |
| THE ENCHEIRIDION, OR MANUAL. |
EPICTETUS.
Very little is known of the life of Epictetus. It is said that he was a nativeof Hierapolis in Phrygia, a town between the Maeander and a branch of theMaeander named the Lycus. Hierapolis is mentioned in the epistle of Paul to thepeople of Colossae (Coloss. iv., 13); from which it has been concluded thatthere was a Christian church in Hierapolis in the time of the apostle. The dateof the birth of Epictetus is unknown. The only recorded fact of his early lifeis that he was a slave in Rome, and his master was Epaphroditus, a profligatefreedman of the Emperor Nero. There is a story that the master broke hisslave’s leg by torturing him; but it is better to trust to the evidence ofSimplicius, the commentator on the Encheiridion, or Manual, who says thatEpictetus was weak in body and lame from an early age. It is not said how hebecame a slave; but it has been asserted in modern times that the parents soldthe child. I have not, however, found any authority for this statement.
It may be supposed that the young slave showed intelligence, for his mastersent or permitted him to attend the lectures of C. Musonius Rufus, an eminentStoic philosopher. It may seem strange that such a master should have wished tohave his slave made into a philosopher; but Garnier, the author of a “Mémoiresur les Ouvrages d’Epictète,” explains this matter very well in a communicationto Schweighaeuser. Garnier says: “Epictetus, born at Hierapolis of Phrygia ofpoor parents, was indebted apparently for the advantages of a good education tothe whim, which was common at the end of the Republic and under the firstemperors, among the great of Rome to reckon among their numerous slavesgrammarians, poets, rhetoricians, and philosophers, in the same way as richfinanciers in these later ages have been led to form at a great cost rich andnumerous libraries. This supposition is the only one which can explain to ushow a wretched child, born as poor as Irus, had received a good education, andhow a rigid Stoic was the slave of Epaphroditus, one of the officers of theimperial guard. For we cannot suspect that it was through predilection for theStoic doctrine, and for his own use, that the confidant and the minister of thedebaucheries of Nero would have desired to possess such a slave.”
Some writers assume that Epictetus was manumitted by his master, but I can findno evidence for this statement. Epaphroditus accompanied Nero when he fled fromRome before his enemies, and he aided the miserable tyrant in killing himself.Domitian (Sueton., Domit. 14), afterwards put Epaphroditus to death for thisservice to Nero. We may conclude that Epictetus in some way obtained hisfreedom, and that he began to teach at Rome; but after the expulsion of thephilosophers from Rome by Domitian, A.D. 89, he retired to Nicopolis in Epirus,a city built by Augustus to commemorate the victory at Actium. Epictetus openeda school or lecture room at Nicopolis, where he taught till he was an old man.The time of his death is unknown. Epictetus was never married, as we learn fromLucian (Demonax, c. 55, torn, ii., ed. Hemsterh., p. 393). When Epictetus wasfinding fault with Demonax, and advising him to take a wife and beget children,for th