Epictetus was born into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece for the rest of his life.
22 Facts About Epictetus
2.
Epictetus's teachings were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses and Enchiridion.
3.
Epictetus taught that philosophy is a way of life and not simply a theoretical discipline.
4.
Epictetus was born around AD 50, presumably at Hierapolis, Phrygia.
5.
Epictetus spent his youth in Rome as a slave to Epaphroditus, a wealthy freedman and secretary to Nero.
6.
Early in life, Epictetus acquired a passion for philosophy and, with the permission of his wealthy master, he studied Stoic philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
7.
Epictetus obtained his freedom sometime after the death of Nero in AD 68, and he began to teach philosophy in Rome.
8.
Around AD 93, when the Roman emperor Domitian banished all philosophers from the city, Epictetus moved to Nicopolis in Epirus, Greece, where he founded a school of philosophy.
9.
Epictetus lived a life of great simplicity, with few possessions.
10.
Epictetus lived alone for a long time, but in his old age, he adopted a friend's child who otherwise would have been left to die and raised him with the aid of a woman.
11.
Epictetus maintains that the foundation of all philosophy is self-knowledge; that is, the conviction of our ignorance and gullibility ought to be the first subject of our study.
12.
Epictetus teaches that the preconceptions of good and evil are common to all.
13.
Epictetus appears in a 2nd or 3rd century Dialogue between the Emperor Hadrian and Epictetus the Philosopher.
14.
The philosophy of Epictetus influenced the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who cites Epictetus in his Meditations.
15.
The philosophy of Epictetus plays a key role in the 1998 novel A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe.
16.
Epictetus is mentioned in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: in the fifth chapter of the novel the protagonist Stephen Dedalus discusses Epictetus's famous lamp with a dean of his college.
17.
Epictetus is mentioned briefly in Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger, and is referred to by Theodore Dreiser in his novel Sister Carrie.
18.
Epictetus is referred to, but not mentioned by name, in Matthew Arnold's sonnet "To a Friend".
19.
No, no, said Epictetus, I do not use in my almsgiving to bestow farthings.
20.
Epictetus was introduced to his works while at Stanford University.
21.
Grief is the most offensive; Epictetus considered the suffering of grief an act of evil.
22.
Psychologist Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, credited Epictetus with providing a foundation for his system of psychotherapy.