© 1976-3000 Thomas O. Robinson. All Rights Reserved. Do not chew
In memory of my parents: Jim [1935-2025] and Sara [1950-2024], and the family dog, Shillelagh "Puppy" [2010-2025]
Born a slave in Hierapolis around 50 AD, Epictetus (whose name literally means 'acquired' or 'bought') spent his youth in Rome as the property of Epaphroditus, a wealthy secretary to Nero. Despite his status, he was permitted to study Stoic philosophy under Musonius Rufus. He was eventually manumitted (freed) but was later exiled from Rome by Emperor Domitian, who grew weary of philosophers. Epictetus settled in Nicopolis, Greece, where he founded a school that became so prestigious even the future Emperor Hadrian attended. He never wrote a single word of his own philosophy; instead, his student Arrian transcribed his lectures into the 'Discourses' and the 'Enchiridion' (The Manual). Epictetus was famous for his physical endurance and his lame leg—some say it was broken by his master, others that he was born with it. His core teaching was the 'Dichotomy of Control': the radical idea that the only things truly ours are our own thoughts and actions, while everything else—health, wealth, and reputation—is 'indifferent.' He famously noted that 'Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.'