Influence[edit]

Philosophy[edit]
Marcus Aurelius[edit]
The philosophy of Epictetus was an influence on the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121 to
AD 180) whose reign was marked by wars with the resurgent Parthia in western Asia and against
the Germanic tribes in Europe. Aurelius quotes from Epictetus repeatedly in his own
work, Meditations, written during his campaigns in central Europe. [64]
Simplicius of Cilicia[edit]
In the sixth century, the Neoplatonist philosopher Simplicius, who was persecuted for his pagan
beliefs during the reign of Justinian, wrote an extant commentary on the Enchiridion. At the end of
the commentary Simplicius wrote: "Nor does my writing this commentary prove beneficial to others
only, for I myself have already found great advantage from it, by the agreeable diversion it has given
me, in a season of trouble and public calamity." [65]
Bernard Stiegler[edit]
When Bernard Stiegler was imprisoned for five years for armed robbery in France, he assembled an
"ensemble of disciplines," which he called (in reference to Epictetus) his melete. This ensemble
amounted to a practice of reading and writing that Stiegler derived from the writings of Epictetus.
This led to his transformation, and upon being released from incarceration he became a professional
philosopher. Stiegler tells the story of this transformation in his book, Acting Out.[66]

Literature[edit]
The philosophy of Epictetus plays a key role in the 1998 novel by Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full. This
was in part the outcome of discussions Wolfe had with James Stockdale (see below). The character
Conrad, who through a series of mishaps finds himself in jail, and accidentally gets a copy of
the Enchiridion of Epictetus, the Stoic’s manual, finds a philosophy that strengthens him to endure
the brutality of the jail environment. He experiences Joseph Campbell's 'hero's journey' call to action
and becomes a strong, honorable, undefeatable protagonist. The importance of Epictetus' Stoicism
for Stockdale, its role in A Man in Full, and its significance in Ridley Scott's Gladiator is discussed by
William O. Stephens in The Rebirth of Stoicism?.[67]
Mohun Biswas, in the novel A House for Mr Biswas (1961), by V.S. Naipaul, is pleased to think
himself a follower of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius; the irony is that he never actually behaves as a
Stoic.
"Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it cannot" is the
theme of Disturbances in the Field (1983), by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Lydia, the central character,
turns often to The Golden Sayings of Epictetus—the latter being a modern selection from the
writings of Epictetus, compiled and translated by Hastings Crossley.
A line from the Enchiridion is used as a title quotation in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, which translates to, "Not things, but opinions about things, trouble
men."[68] The quotation alludes to a theme of the novel about how the suffering of many of its
characters (above all Walter Shandy) is the result of the opinions and assumptions they make about
reality. This is similar to Shakespeare's "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
so." (Hamlet: Act 2, Scene 2), and John Milton's "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a
heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
Epictetus is mentioned in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: in the fifth chapter
of the novel the protagonist Stephen Daedalus discusses Epictetus's famous lamp with a dean of his
college.[69] Epictetus also is mentioned briefly in Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger, and is referred
to by Theodore Dreiser in his novel Sister Carrie. Both the longevity of Epictetus's life and his
philosophy are alluded to in John Berryman's poem, "Of Suicide."
Epictetus is referred to, but not mentioned by name, in Matthew Arnold's sonnet "To a Friend".
Arnold provides three historical personalities as his inspiration and support in difficult times
(Epictetus is preceded by Homer and succeeded by Sophocles):
Much he, whose friendship I not long since won,
That halting slave, who in Nicopolis
Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son
Cleared Rome of what most shamed him.[70]
François Rabelais[edit]
In the Chapter XXX of François Rabelais' Pantagruel (c.1532), Pantagruel's tutor Epistemon had his
head cut off after a battle. After he had his head reattached and was brought back to life, he
recounts his experience of the damned in hell:
Their estate and condition of living is but only changed after a very strange manner;
...After this manner, those that had been great lords and ladies here, got but a poor scurvy wretched
living there below. And, on the contrary, the philosophers and others, who in this world had been
altogether indigent and wanting, were great lords there in their turn.
...I saw Epictetus there, most gallantly apparelled after the French fashion, sitting under a pleasant
arbour, with store of handsome gentlewomen, frolicking, drinking, dancing, and making good cheer,
with abundance of crowns of the sun. Above the lattice were written these verses for his device:
To leap and dance, to sport and play,
And drink good wine both white and brown,
Or nothing else do all the day
But tell bags full of many a crown.
When he saw me, he invited me to drink with him very courteously, and I being willing to be
entreated, we tippled and chopined together most theologically. In the meantime came Cyrus to beg
one farthing of him for the honour of Mercury, therewith to buy a few onions for his supper. No, no,
said Epictetus, I do not use in my almsgiving to bestow farthings. Hold, thou varlet, there's a crown
for thee; be an honest man."