Rome and Nicopolis in the First Century AD

To understand Epictetus, you need to know something about the world he lived in.

The Rome of Epictetus's lifetime was the capital of an empire that stretched from Britain to Egypt. Emperors held almost total power. A good emperor could make life steady. A bad emperor could make it dangerous. In Epictetus's early years, the emperor was Nero, who was known for cruelty and who killed himself in 68 AD after losing the support of his own soldiers. Later came the Flavians, and then Domitian, whose reign turned sharp and suspicious near its end. It was a world in which a careful person learned to watch what he said.

Slavery was woven all through Roman life. There were slaves in the fields, slaves in the workshops, and slaves in the homes of the rich. Many were taken in war. Some were born into it. Some worked in chains. Others served as tutors, secretaries, doctors, and household managers. A few, trusted by their owners, rose to positions of real power inside the emperor's own court.

Epaphroditus, the man who owned Epictetus as a boy, was one of those. He had been a slave himself, had won his freedom, and had risen to become secretary to Nero. A household like his was full of well-educated slaves, many of whom were allowed to read, to study, and even to sit under teachers of philosophy.

Philosophy itself was a risky business under the emperors. The Stoics, the school Epictetus belonged to, held that no one but the good person is truly free. Some emperors did not like the sound of that. Around 93 AD, Domitian ordered all philosophers out of the city of Rome. Epictetus was one of them.

He went east and settled in Nicopolis, a Greek town founded a century earlier to mark a famous sea battle. It sat on the western edge of Greece, far enough from the capital to be left alone, close enough for students from across the empire to reach it. He opened a school there and taught for the rest of his life.

That is the world of the Handbook. Keep it in mind as you read.