"One of the most important Stoic philosophers is Epictetus. Epictetus (c. 50 - 135 CE) was a Greek enslaved person who established an important school of Stoic philosophy in Rome. Epictetus is appreciated for his clear, good-humored way of explaining difficult ideas and his focus on daily life rather than metaphysics. This may be because he did not write down his lectures and discourses, as Marcus and Seneca did-rather, he delivered them aloud and they were carefully recorded by his students. Thus we should not refer to them as "writings" but as "works." The complete oeuvre consists of his popular handbook on virtue (enchiridion), also known as "The Art of Living," a set of discourses, and a number of fragments. This set of translations, framed by an introduction and notes, is geared expressly to general readers and students, though it will be enormously helpful to scholars as well"--

Portrait

Epictetus (c. 50-135CE) was a Greek stoic philosopher. Robin Waterfield is an independent scholar and translator living in southern Greece. In addition to thirty volumes of translations of works of Greek literature, he is the author of numerous books, ranging from children's fiction to Greek history, most recently The Making of a King, also published by the University of Chicago Press.