80 XXVII. IN HOW MANY WAYS APPEARANCES EXIST, AND WHAT XXVIII. THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO BE ANGRY WITH MEN; AND 83 87 BOOK II. I. THAT CONFIDENCE (COURAGE) IS NOT INCONSISTENT 97 II. OF TRANQUILLITY (FREEDOM FROM PERTURBATION). 103 V. HOW MAGNANIMITY IS CONSISTENT WITH CARE VII. HOW WE OUGHT TO USE DIVINATION VIII. WHAT IS THE NATURE ( ovoía) OF THE GOOD . 118 . X. HOW WE MAY DISCOVER THE DUTIES OF LIFE FROM 123 XI. WHAT THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY IS XV. TO OR AGAINST THOSE WHO OBSTINATELY PERSIST IN WHAT THEY HAVE DETERMINED 144 XVI. THAT WE DO NOT STRIVE TO USE OUR OPINIONS XVII. HOW WE MUST ADAPT PRECONCEPTIONS TO PARTICULAR XVIII. HOW WE SHOULD STRUGGLE AGAINST APPEARANCES XXIV. TO (OR AGAINST) A PERSON WHO WAS ONE OF THOSE XXV. THAT LOGIC IS NECESSARY XXVI. WHAT IS THE PROPERTY OF ERROR BOOK III. 182 188 192 II. IN WHAT A MAN OUGHT TO BE EXERCISED WHO HAS III. WHAT IS THE MATTER ON WHICH A GOOD MAN SHOULD IV. AGAINST A PERSON WHO SHOWED HIS PARTIZANSHIP IN V. AGAINST THOSE WHO ON ACCOUNT OF SICKNESS GO VII. TO THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FREE CITIES WHO VIII. How WE MUST EXERCISE OURSELVES AGAINST APPEAR- IX. TO A CERTAIN RHETORICIAN WHO WAS GOING UP TO X. IN WHAT MANNER WE OUGHT TO BEAR SICKNESS 240 XIII. WHAT SOLITUDE IS, AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON A XV. THAT WE OUGHT TO PROCEED WITH CIRCUMSPECTION XVI. THAT WE OUGHT WITH CAUTION TO XVIII. THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO BE DISTURBED BY ANY XIX. WHAT IS THE CONDITION OF A COMMON KIND OF MAN CHAP. XX. THAT WE CAN DERIVE ADVANTAGE FROM ALL EXTERNAL PAGR 241 XXI. AGAINST THOSE WHO READILY COME TO THE PROFES- 244 XXIII. TO THOSE WHO READ AND DISCUSS FOR THE SAKE OF XXIV. THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO BE MOVED BY A DESIRE OF XXV. TO THOSE WHO FALL OFF (DESIST) FROM THEIR PURPOSE XXVI. TO THOSE WHO FEAR WANT IV. TO THOSE WHO ARE DESIROUS OF PASSING LIFE IN V. AGAINST THE QUARRELSOME AND FEROCIOUS VI. AGAINST THOSE WHO LAMENT OVER BEING PITIED VIII. AGAINST THOSE WHO HASTILY RUSH INTO THE PHILO- IX. TO A PERSON WHO HAD BEEN CHANGED TO A CHAR- X. WHAT THINGS WE OUGHT TO DESPISE AND 322 324 325 XIII. AGAINST OR TO THOSE WHO READILY TELL THEIR OWN EPICTETUS. VERY little is known of the life of Epictetus. It is said that he was a native of Hierapolis in Phrygia, a town between the Maeander and a branch of the Maeander named the Lycus. Hierapolis is mentioned in the epistle of Paul to the people of Colossae (Coloss. iv. 13); from which it has been concluded that there was a Christian church in Hierapolis in the time of the apostle. The date of the birth of Epictetus is unknown. The only recorded fact of his early life is that he was a slave in Rome, and his master was Epaphroditus, a profligate freedman of the emperor Nero. There is a story that the master broke his slave's leg by torturing him; but it is better to trust to the evidence of Simplicius, the commentator on the Encheiridion or Manual, who says that Epictetus was weak in body and lame from an early age. It is not said how he became a slave; but it has been asserted in modern times that the parents sold the child. I have not, however, found any authority for this statement. It may be supposed that the young slave showed intelligence, for his master sent or permitted him to attend the lectures of C. Musonius Rufus, an eminent Stoic philosopher. It may seem strange that such a master should have wished to have his slave made into a philosopher; but Garnier, the author of a Mémoire sur les ouvrages d'Epictète, explains this matter very well in a communication to Schweighaeuser Garnier says: "Epictetus, borr. at Hierapolis of Phrygia of poor parents, was indebted apparently for the advantages of a good education to the whim, which was common at the end of the Republic and under the first emperors, among the great of Rome to reckon among their numerous slaves Grammarians, Poets, Rhetoricians, and Philosophers, in the same way as rich financiers in these later ages have been led to form at a great cost rich and numerous libraries. This supposition is the only one which can explain to us, how a wretched child, born as poor as Irus, had received a good education, and how a rigid Stoic was the slave of Epaphroditus, one of the officers of the Imperial guard. For we cannot suspect that it was through predilection for the Stoic doctrine and for his own use, that the confidant and the minister of the debaucheries of Nero would have desired to possess such a slave." Some writers assume that Epictetus was manumitted by his master; but I can find no evidence for this statement. Epaphroditus accompanied Nero when he fled from Rome before his enemies, and he aided the miserable tyrant in killing himself. Domitian (Sueton. Domit. 14) afterwards put Epaphroditus to death for this service to Nero. We may conclude that Epictetus in some way obtained his freedom, and that he began to teach at Rome; but after the expulsion of the philosophers 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 opened a 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 from Lucian (Demonax, c. 55, Tom. ii. ed. Hemsterh. p. 393). When Epictetus was finding fault with Demonax and advising him to take a wife and beget children, for this also, as Epictetus said, was a philosopher's duty, to 1 Lucian's 'Life of the Philosopher Demonax.' |