The stoic slave: Epictetus

Almost 2000 years ago, in the Hierapolis (Turkey), there was born a little boy with a terrible luck. He was born to be a slave and he was not even given a name. They called him Epictetus, a Greek word which means the acquired one. His master then broke Epictetus’s leg for his pleasure and this made Epictetus suffer for the rest of his life. But why do I want to introduce this person and what can we learn from him?

If we compare today to 20 years ago, now we have access to more knowledge, technology has made great progress and many innovations have changed our life for the better. Despite this great improvement, people are still struggling with some problems that people 2000 years ago dealt with.

Epictetus who worked as a slave in the court of a roman emperor noticed that while he was a slave, he was freer than many of the powerful men and women in that court. They had chained themselves with power and ambition. Seeking pleasure, they were easily distracted or wounded by minor offenses. Epictetus saw all these and decided not to live such an absurd life. This realization gave him the motivation to educate himself by following Rufus’s teachings, a stoic philosopher.

After years, when his master died and he was free, Epictetus became a teacher himself in Rome. He influenced and mentored a lot of great leaders such as Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor.

Amongst all his wisdom and life lessons, the most important thing that we learn from Epictetus is the ability to find and live a good life anywhere and anytime. There is no formula for living a good life, but by understanding the essence of his sayings we can see that we have a lot in common and we can fix those problems in our lives.

“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.”

He encourages us to first distinguish what is in our control and what is not, so that then we emphasize mainly where we have our influence and ignore the rest. Doing so helps us to not get angry and stay calm when external events occur. He says people are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

“Immediately prescribe some character and form of conduce to yourself, which you may keep both alone and in company.”

As said by Epictetus it is important to first dream of a true character and then take baby steps every day. He understood that we are living mostly on our habits and encouraged his students to reflect on their routines. Then to build the personality, change whatever is needed. Although this sounds basic and obvious it matters a lot in the sense of living a good life.

Coming back to today, we can see that many people are living the same way as the roman court members live. While striving for dopamine through various ways this makes them easily distracted and so not living a content life. It must be mentioned that we cannot change other people's way of life, and this is not our purpose to judge others. However, knowing about these common desires in human nature can help us to avoid the pitfalls. Remember that “only the educated are free”.