Robert F. Dobbin (editor) - Epictetus: Discourses, Book 1 (Clarendon Later Ancient Philosophers)

Series editors: Jonathan Barnes, University of Geneva and A. A. Long, University of California, Berkeley

Epictetus' Discourses are a key source for ancient Stoicism, one of the richest and most influential schools of thought in Western philosophy. They not only represent the Stoicism of Epictetus' own time (first/second century AD), but also reflect the teachings of such early Stoics as Zeno and Chrysippus, whose writings are largely lost. The first of the four books of the Discourses is philosophically the richest: it focuses primarily on ethics and moral psychology, but also touches on issues of logic, epistemology, science, and rhetoric. Other notable schools of ancient thought, including Epicureanism, the Sceptics, and the Cynics, are discussed.

Robert Dobbin presents a new translation into clear modern English of this important work, together with the first full-scale commentary on the work since the eighteenth century. Each of the thirty discourses that make up Book I is introduced and summarized; then the arguments are examined in detail. The general introduction gives background information about Epictetus' life, the intellectual context of the work, the style of the discourses, and the history of the text.: bibliography surveys the literature. The volume serves as a guide to Epictetus' thought as a whole.

Robert Dobbin is a publisher and independent scholar based in Berkeley, California.

Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by

ROBERT F. DOBBIN

For my father

Epictetus has historically been one of the most widely read philosophers. He also attracted a good deal of attention from scholars in the early modern era. But in our century he has been much less studied. That, fortunately, is beginning to change, as the revival of interest in later Greek philosophy has caught up with him and again made him the focus of scholarly activity. Although Epictetus might regard this improvement in his academic fortunes a bit cynically, given his insistence that philosophy should be practised, not just read, my hook is nevertheless intended to further the trend and assist others in rehabilitating this recently neglected author.

I:pictetus wrote for the public, which accounts for his traditional popularity. The Discourses are not dull treatises, but sermons (or `diatribes') enlivened with all the resources that ancient rhetoric had at its command. In this respect they resemble the work of other philosophers of the early Empire such as Dio Chrvsostom and Maximus of Tyre. Like their work, the Discourses benefit, I think, from a commentary that is not just philosophical but philological as well. The appearance of this volume in the Clarendon Later Ancient Philosophers series ensures that the philosophical will predominate, which I think is the right emphasis in any case. But I have tried to furnish the literary or cultural background to certain passages, and I hope readers looking for purely philosophical edification will know enough in such places to skim.

I wish to thank Jonathan Barnes and 'T'ony Long, the editors of the series, for their comments on earlier drafts of the book. I owe a particular debt to 'T'ony for his help over the years, and for fostering my research into Epictetus. Christopher Gill read the whole book as it neared completion, and made many suggestions for improvement. I also received valuable help from David Sedley, Benson Mates, Daniel Warren, and Menachem Luz. John Strohmeier has been a friend and a supporter of the work from the beginning. My thanks to all of them. My greatest thanks are due to my father, to whom the book is dedicated.

R. F. I).

Berkeley, August 1997

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I

DK H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (3 vols., 6th edn., Berlin, 1951-2).

EK L. Edelstein and I. G. Kidd (eds.), Posidonius (2 vols., Cambridge, 1972, 1988).

Guthrie W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy (6 vols., Cambridge, 1962-81).

LS A. A. Long and D. N. Sedley (eds.), The Hellenistic Philosophers (2 vols., Cambridge, 1987). References such as LS 34G indicate a specific passage in their collection; LS 2. 207, however, designates a volume and page number, and refers to the editors' comment on the passage.

PIR2 Prosopographia Imperii Romani (2nd edn., Berlin and Leipzig, 1933)

SVF H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (4 vols., Leipzig, 1905-23). Citations of the form SVF 3. 92 indicate the volume number, followed by the number of the fragment. Citations such as SVF 2. 333. 29-30 indicate the volume, followed by the page, then the line number(s).

By that time he had evidently gained his freedom. Nicopolis was a city founded by the emperor Augustus on the Bay of Actium in north-west Greece (Epirus), to commemorate his victory over Antony. It is the site of the Discourses, and there is no evidence that E ever returned to Rome or settled anywhere else.

As the letter can be dated to around io8, we evidently have a terminus post quem for E's death.

Whatever his relations with the emperor-and the condescension shown philosophers by the good ruler, which Hadrian preeminently represented, is too much of an ancient topos for this tradition to be completely trustworthy-it is not impossible that E was at least alive during his reign. At 3. 13. 9, he alludes to the pax Romana, with which Hadrian especially was associated.

This is certainly consistent with the available evidence. But in view of the lateness of these sources, and the evident unreliability of some, I would prefer a simple floruit of AD c.i io. Anything more precise is misleading. If we are to associate E with contemporary events, it is most important for our purposes to focus on those that influenced his thought. Of particular importance in this connection is the resistance that certain Stoics offered the Roman emperors in the second half of the first century AD. See the references at i. 1. 18-32, 1. 2. 19-24, and 1. 25. 22 to the opposition of Helvidius Priscus and others to Nero, Vespasian, and Domitian. The physical force that these tyrants represented served as a correlative to the Stoic concept of fate, and helped shape E's doctrine that moral character is the only thing within our power. This background of conflict also helps to account for the embattled nature of his philosophy.

E, moreover, seems devoted to the old Stoics. At I. 4. 3 r he praises Chrysippus as one `who has discovered and illuminated the truth and brought it forth for all men'-a tribute that recalls Lucretius' praise of Epicurus at De Rerum Natura, 5. 13-i9, and seems to reflect the same exclusive attachment to him as Epicureans had to their own founder. When he refers to `the philosophers' (as at i. 18. i), he almost always means the Stoics, as if they were the only ones worthy of the name.