70 Trmisactionx. 



absurd. M. Antoninus, in his " Meditations " (I., 7). says : — 

 " I owe to Rusticus that I read the commentaries of Epictetus 

 which he communicated to me out of his own library." He also 

 quotes from his " Discourses " several times. The only 

 acquaintance the Antonines could have had with the philosopher 

 was with his books, and there is no evidence that the elder 

 Antonine had any knowledge even of them. The popularity of 

 this philosopher is attested by Origen (lib. VI. adversus 

 Celsum) : — "Therefore we can see that Plato is in the hands of 

 those who are esteemed learned ; but Epictetus is admired by the 

 ordinary folk, and by those who have a desire of impi-oving, since 

 they feel that they become better from his discourses." These 

 are all the materials which we have for a life of Epictetus. He 

 was born about the middle of the first century at Hierapolis, in 

 Phrygia, about five miles north of Laodicea, between the 

 Majander and its branch the Lycus. It is mentioned by St. 

 Paul in Colossians IV., 13, as the seat of a Christian Church. 

 It has been conjectured that the parents of Epictetus were poor, 

 and that they sold their boy into slavery. But whether this 

 w^ere so or not, one of the few facts we know of him is that he 

 was a slave in Rome, and that his master was the notorious 

 Epaphroditus. This man was a favourite freedman of Nero 

 mentioned by Tacitus (Annals XV., 55). He is called by 

 Suetonius a libellis, the officer whose duty it was to receive 

 petitions. He was one of the four men who accompanied Nero 

 in his flight, and he it was who assisted him to commit suicide 

 (Suetonius' "Life of Nero," 49 ch.). For this service to his lord, he 

 was many years after put to death by Domitian (Suetonius' " Life 

 of Domitian," 14 — Dio Cassius 67, 14). It has been erroneously 

 supposed by some that he was identical with the Epaphroditus 

 whom St. Paul in Philippians IL, 25, calls " my brother and 

 fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister 

 to my need." He has also been identified with the Epaphroditus 

 to whom Josephus dedicated his works ; but this is impossible, as 

 the latter Epaphroditus was alive and in office under Trajan. 

 Grotius sajs he was a freedman and procurator of that emperor. 

 We do not know much about Epaphroditus, the secretary of Nero, 

 and the master of Epictetus. He seems to have placed his slave 

 under the tuition of one or more philosophers at Rome, as we find 

 that Epictetus attended the lectures of Musonius Rufus, a famous 

 Stoic philosopher. Some interesting remarks were communicated 



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