AThe Annals

Epictetus

50 – 135 · Greece · Philosophy

Enslaved teacher whose Discourses fixed the dichotomy of control at the heart of Stoic practice.

Index entry

Epictetus is currently a short index entry. The research desk can draft the full profile — achievements, works, living legacy and what is documented about the family line.

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Continuity of ideas

Who shaped Epictetus, and who they shaped

Inherited from1

  • Zeno of Citium

    334 BCE – 262 BCE · Philosophy

    The Stoa's doctrine of what is and is not 'up to us' reaches Epictetus as the core of the Discourses.

Passed the work to2

  • Albert Camus

    1913 – 1960 · Literature, Philosophy

    Camus's absurd hero holds the Stoic posture — lucid consent to a world indifferent to us.

  • Marcus Aurelius

    121 – 180 · Philosophy, Literature

    Marcus copies out Epictetus in the Meditations; the Handbook is his working manual of rule.

Sources and references

Numbered markers in the text above point to the entries below. Each links to a primary document, archival collection or scholarly reference where the claim about Epictetus can be checked.

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