Epictetus: From Slavery to Philosophy

Epictetus (c. 50–c. 135 CE) was born into slavery in Hierapolis in Phrygia and was owned in Rome by Epaphroditus, a powerful freedman of Nero. While enslaved, he was allowed to study with Musonius Rufus. Later freed, he taught philosophy in Rome until the emperor Domitian expelled philosophers from the city around 93 CE. Epictetus then founded a school in Nicopolis, in northwestern Greece, where students, including young Roman aristocrats, came to hear him.

Like Socrates, he wrote nothing himself; his student Arrian recorded his teaching in the Discourses and summarized it in a short handbook, the Enchiridion. Epictetus' message was that freedom is inner: no one can control your judgments or choices, so even an enslaved person can be free, and an emperor can be a slave to his desires. His own life gave this teaching special force.