Stoic teacher concerned with judgment, choice and how to live with others. His teachings survive through Arrian; the short Enchiridion is a guide into a larger discussion.
Page 276 · printed citation: Epictetus · subject: Will
Complete signed selection 211; printed byline: Epictetus; New York: Dodge Publishing Company, 1901
Complete signed selection 303; printed byline: Epictetus; New York: Dodge Publishing Company, 1901
Complete signed selection 58; printed byline: Epictetus; Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1911; printed copyright 1907
Complete signed selection 326; printed byline: Epictetus; Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1911; printed copyright 1907
Life and writing
Epictetus taught Stoic philosophy after gaining freedom from slavery. He later established a school at Nicopolis. His account of ethical life asks people to examine the judgments through which they respond to events, while taking their responsibilities toward others seriously. The surviving teaching has a practical setting: a student must learn to use an idea in conduct, rather than merely repeat it.
Arrian preserved the Discourses associated with Epictetus’s teaching. The Enchiridion condenses that material into a shorter handbook, so a brief instruction can lose some of the reasoning supplied by the longer discussions. The linked reading edition uses Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s English translation. It is related reading; it does not establish the translation or exact wording of every anthology passage on this page.
Begin with the selected passages about judgment and gradual growth, then read an entire numbered section of the handbook. Ask what response the passage invites and what responsibilities remain. Life years stay uncertain here: the reference places his birth in the 50s CE and death around 135, rather than giving two exact years. The archive’s circa-60 coordinate comes from its anthology, not a date of composition. The linked translation and anthology wording can differ.
Subjects to explore
Editorial reading connections, distinct from the archive’s word matching.
Original agent-assisted editorial profile, checked 2026-10-05. No human review is recorded. Life dates remain uncertain; no lifespan or quotation composition date is inferred.
Limited original paraphrase of teaching, approximate life dates and transmission through Arrian; no article text or modern translation reproduced. Reference checked 2026-10-05.
Catalogue confirms Epictetus, translator Thomas Wentworth Higginson and US public-domain notice; automatic summary not used as biographical evidence. Reference checked 2026-10-05.