Discourses and Selected Writings

Epictetus was born into enslavement sometime around 50 CE in the Greek city of Hierapolis in modern-day Turkey. At an early point in his life he was brought to Rome enslaved to Epaphroditus, an imperial secretary to Nero who was himself a freedman (a formerly enslaved person who had been freed). Drawn to philosophy, he took lessons under a Roman Stoic philosopher, Musonius Rufus (c. 25-101). 

At some point, Epictetus was freed or was able to purchase his own freedom and began teaching Stoic philosophy in Rome. Epictetus was said to have walked with a limp, although sources vary as to the reason for his disability, claiming it was either due to an injury from abuse he suffered while enslaved or because of arthritis. He also adopted the child of a friend whom he raised with the help of a woman whose name has been lost, although it is unknown if the woman was simply an acquaintance or his wife or lover.

In 89, for reasons that are not entirely clear, the emperor Domitian banished all philosophers from Italy. Epictetus then relocated to the city of Nicopolis in northwest Greece. There, he established a successful school of philosophy where he would teach until his death around 135 CE.