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| Uh..we think this is how he looked..or something |
Epictetus was an ancient Greek philosopher in the Stoic tradition, born a slave in Hierapolis in the year 55 AD. Life found him in Rome, where his slave master was Epaphroditus (Nero's administrative secretary). His teacher was Gaius Musonius Rufus, who was consequently a large influence on his thoughts and ideas. It was kind of a thing for Roman Emperors to banish philosophers from Rome, perhaps they created too much subversion and free-thinking for a good dictatorship to run. Gaius was eventually exiled and banished..Epictetus remained behind some years and eventually taught others himself, and then he was sent away by Emperor Domitian in 94 AD.
The main two works of Epictetus are known as the Enchiridion and Discourses. Epictetus was ultra practical and humble. He taught that how you respond to an event is what you get, you have more control than you think. He taught virtue is equal to true happiness. Another way to put his approach towards happiness would be your will meeting interpretations of your ideas, and then putting the ideas into practice Further, to live the 'good life'; master your desires, perform your duties, and learn greater clarity and awareness. That all concerns goodness and happiness and all that la-di-da graham cracker shite, but what of the other side of the coin? Evil. His idea on it was very down to earth and simple, it was not cloaked in too much symbolism of demons and the like. Evil was simply a by-product of laziness, forgetfulness, distraction and ignorance. According to Epictetus, it arrives when we lose sight of our true aim in life.
To dig deeper into his philosophy, there are various books and articles out there in the world to look at. Links to Epi's works online can be found at (among other places):
http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html
