Epictetus: There IS a handbook for life
The 1800-year-old handbook for a “tranquil flow of life”
When we go through troubled times and we are faced with dilemmas, we are often consoled with the cliché “well, there’s no handbook for life.”
Except that there is. It was written in the second century and has been read as an accessible guide to living a good life ever since.
The book is called The Enchiridion, which literally means “handbook”. It contains fifty-three chapters of advice for living; making the most out of the best times, and enduring the worst of times. The book is a compendium of the teachings of Epictetus, one of the best known Stoic philosophers from the Roman era.
Epictetus was born into slavery in around 55 C.E. in modern day Turkey. He was brought to Rome to serve in the household of a wealthy secretary to Nero. Epictetus is barely a name, it actually means “acquired” or “property”.
Slaves had no rights in ancient Rome, they could be beaten, raped or killed by their owners with impunity. Their identities were often erased with generic — and frankly degrading — names like “property” (Epictetus) or “useful” (Onesimus).
While most slaves lived short lives of misery in hard labour, a minority of slaves had the relative luck of being…
