240 EPICTETUS
the good life, we must go through three stages. First, we must order our desires and
overcome our fears. Next, we must perform our duties—in whatever role fate has
given us. Finally, we must think clearly and judge accurately. Only then will we
gain inner tranquility.
Despite Emperor Domitian’s condemnation, Stoicism had a special appeal to
the Roman mind. The Romans were not much interested in the speculative and
theoretical content of Zeno’s early Stoa. Instead, in the austere moral emphasis
of Epictetus, with his concomitant stress on self-control and superiority to pain,
the Romans found an ideal for the wise man, whereas the Stoic description of
natural law provided a basis for Roman law. One might say that the pillars
of republican Rome tended to be Stoical, even if some Romans had never heard
of Stoicism.
For general introductions to the Stoics, see E. Vernon Arnold,Roman Stoicism
(1911; reprinted New York: Humanities Press, 1958); L. Edelstein,The Meaning
of Stoicism(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966); John M. Rist,Stoic
Philosophy(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969); F.H. Sandbach,The
Stoics(New York: Norton, 1975); Margaret E. Reeser,The Nature of Man in Early
Stoic Philosophy(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989); and Brad Inwood, ed.,
The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics(Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2003). For comparisons between Stoicism and other Hellenistic schools, see
R.M. Wenley,Stoicism and Its Influence(1924; reprinted New York: Cooper
Square, 1963); Edwin R. Bevan,Stoics and Sceptics(Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1913); and R.D. Hicks,Stoic and Epicurean(1910; reprinted New York: Russell,
1962). For collections of essays consult A.A. Long, ed.,Problems in Stoicism
(London: Athlone Press, 1971); J.M. Rist, ed.,The Stoics(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1978); A.A. Long, ed.,Stoic Studies(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996); and Steven K. Strange and Jack Zupko, eds.,Stoicism:
Traditions and Transformations(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
For volumes specifically on Epictetus, see John Bonforte,The Philosophy of
Epictetus(New York: Philosophical Library, 1955) and William O. Stephens,
Stoic Ethics: Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom(London: Continuum, 2007).
Iason Xenakis,Epictetus: Philosopher-Therapist(The Hague, Netherlands:
Martinus Nijhoff, 1969), makes an interesting application of Epictetus; while
W.A. Oldfather,Contributions Towards a Bibliography of Epictetus(Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1927; supplement, 1952), furnishes a bibliography.
For a study of Epictetus’ star pupil, see Philip A. Stadter,Arrian of Nicomedia
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980).
