contain philosophical precepts, are not the work of the real,
but of a false Juvenal, a Declamator. Still the verses exist,
and were written by somebody who was acquainted with the Stoic
doctrines.


The best two expounders of the later Stoical philosophy were a Greek
slave and a Roman emperor. Epictetus, a Phrygian Greek, was brought to
Rome, we know not how, but he was there the slave and afterwards the
freedman of an unworthy master, Epaphroditus by name, himself a freedman
and a favorite of Nero. Epictetus may have been a hearer of C. Musonius
Rufus, while he was still a slave, but he could hardly have been a
teacher before he was made free. He was one of the philosophers whom
Domitian's order banished from Rome. He retired to Nicopolis in Epirus,
and he may have died there. Like other great teachers he wrote nothing,
and we are indebted to his grateful pupil Arrian for what we have of
Epictetus' discourses. Arrian wrote eight books of the discourses of
Epictetus, of which only four remain and some fragments. We have also
from Arrian's hand the small Enchiridion or Manual of the chief precepts
of Epictetus. This is a valuable commentary on the Enchiridion by
Simplicius, who lived in the time of the emperor Justinian.[A]

[A] There is a complete edition of Arrian's Epictetus with the
commentary of Simplicius by J. Schweighaeuser, 6 vols. 8vo.
1799, 1800. There is also an English translation of Epictetus
by Mrs. Carter.

Antoninus in his first book (i. 7), in which he gratefully commemorates
his obligations to his teachers, says that he was made acquainted by
Junius Rusticus with the discourses of Epictetus, whom he mentions also