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Epictetus

George Long (1877)

Epictetus, a first-century Stoic philosopher born a slave and freed under Nero, taught at Rome and later Nicopolis. He wrote nothing; his disciple Arrian recorded his informal lectures as the Discourses, of which four books survive, and distilled their essence into the Encheiridion (Handbook). Together they form the most accessible statement of Roman Stoic ethics: the distinction between what is in our power (judgments, desires) and what is not (fortune, body, reputation), and the discipline of aligning will with nature and reason. This edition presents George Long's 1890 selection, long a standard English rendering.

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