Epictetus

Epictetus (?50-?120 CE), one of the great Stoic philosophers of Classical Antiquity, is best known for the brief account of Stoic ethics contained in his Manual (or Handbook) (Ἐγχειρίδιον, Encheiridion). 'Epictetus' is pronounced with the stress on the penultimate syllable - e-pik-TEE-ters, IPA: /,ɛpɪk'tiːtəs/; and Encheiridion is pronounced with the 'ch' as 'k' and the stress on the third syllable - en-ky-RI-di-ern, IPA: /ɛnkaɪɪrɪdɪən/.

Epictetus was born in Hierapolis (modern Pammukale) in Central Asia Minor, but grew up in Rome as a slave in the household of Epaphroditus, a high-ranking official in the imperial civil service and one of the personal secretaries of the emperor Nero (reigned 54-68 CE) and, later, of the emperor Domitian (reigned 81-96). Epaphroditus, recognising Epictetus' exceptional ability, allowed him to attend the lectures of the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus, and when Epictetus was given his freedom, he too began to teach philosophy in Rome. In 89 the emperor Domitian, fearful of conspiracies against himself, banished a number of prominent senators and expelled from Rome all the teachers of philosophy, whom he suspected of having Republican sympathies. Epictetus travelled to Nicopolis in the northwest of Greece, where he continued to teach philosophy for the rest of his life, attracting many distinguished pupils, among them the general and historian Arrian (Flavius Arrianus), whose Anabasis deals with the life and conquests of Alexander the Great. Epictetus himself published nothing, and it was Arrian who after Epictetus' death was responsible for the publication of the Encheiridion and the Discourses (Διατριβαί, Diatribai), which are an account of Epictetus' lectures, and of which four books have survived.

In his lectures Epictetus concentrated on Stoic moral philosophy and had little to say about other branches of philosophy, such as logic and metaphysics. This is reflected in the Encheiridion, which focusses on the fundamental Stoic beliefs that moral virtue is the only true good; that happiness (or human well-being) consists in living well (i.e., as a morally good person would live); and that since living well is a matter of having the right intentions and doing one's best to act in accordance with them, living well, and therefore happiness, is always 'up to us', i.e., always within our power. The Encheiridion has a clear practical purpose: it is written to help its readers to live as good Stoics should, and, being no more than 20 pages in length, is sufficiently compact to be a vade mecum, i.e., to be carried on one's person and consulted when necessary. As such, the Encheiridion has had great influence, not least on one of its earliest readers, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161-180), the author of the no less influential Meditations.

Etymological note: the Greek word ἐγχειρίδιον (encheiridion) is a compound of the words ἐν (en, in) and χείρ (cheir, hand): it literally means 'a little something to be held in the hand' and was applied to little daggers as well as little books.