Epictetus' Enchiridion

Epictetus (c. 50 to 135 CE) was born into slavery in Hierapolis in Phrygia and belonged to Epaphroditus, a secretary of the emperor Nero. He studied Stoicism under Musonius Rufus, gained his freedom and taught in Rome until the emperor Domitian banished philosophers from Italy around 89 CE (some date it to 93 CE). He then set up a school at Nicopolis in Epirus in Greece. He wrote nothing himself. A student, the historian and officer Arrian, took notes on his lectures and published them as the Discourses, of which four of eight books survive, and compiled a short extract, the Enchiridion (the word means handbook, something kept at hand), around 108 CE.¹²³

The Enchiridion opens with the core Stoic division: some things are up to us, namely our judgments, impulses, desires and aversions, and others are not, such as our body, property, reputation and office. Suffering comes from treating what is not up to us as if it were. Another chapter says that people are disturbed not by things but by their opinions about things. Epictetus stresses practice over theory, and his lessons use homely examples such as a trip to the baths.²⁴

Marcus Aurelius read him closely. Christian monks adapted the handbook for their own use, and Renaissance editors printed it widely. In the twentieth century, Admiral James Stockdale, shot down over Vietnam in 1965 and held as a prisoner of war for seven years, credited Epictetus with helping him survive.¹³