Discourses Epictetus (top 10 non fiction books of all time txt) 📖

epub:type="z3998:roman">vi 96. (John Upton.) ↩

There is some difficulty about ἀπερισπάστων here. John Upton proposed to write ἀπεριστάτων, which he explains “that which has nothing peculiar in it.” ↩

Schweighäuser translates κακορυγχα “male grunnientes”: perhaps it means “ugly-faced.” ↩

Diogenes Laërtius, Lives vi 42. ↩

The Cynic is in Epictetus the minister of religion. He must be pure, for otherwise how can he reprove vice? This is a useful lesson to those whose business it is to correct the vices of mankind. ↩

See note 421. ↩

This is quoted by Marcus Aurelius, Meditations xi 36. ↩

Epictetus in an amusing manner touches on the practice of Sophists, Rhetoricians, and others, who made addresses only to get praise. This practice of reciting prose or verse compositions was common in the time of Epictetus, as we may learn from the letters of the younger Pliny, Juvenal, Martial, and the author of the treatise de Causis corruptae eloquentiae. (John Upton.) ↩

Such were the subjects which the literary men of the day delighted in. ↩

Dion of Prusa in Bithynia was named Chrysostomus (golden-mouthed) because of his eloquence. He was a rhetorician and sophist, as the term was then understood, and was living at the same time as Epictetus. Eighty of his orations written in Greek are still extant, and some fragments of fifteen. ↩

These words are the beginning of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, i 1. The small critics disputed whether the text should be τίσι λόγοις, or τίνι λόγῳ. ↩

From the Crito of Plato, chapter 6. ↩

The rich, says John Upton, used to lend their houses for recitations, as we learn from Pliny, Epistle viii 12, and Juvenal, Satires vii 40.

Si dulcedine famae
Succensus recites, maculosas commodat aedes.

Quadratus is a Roman name. There appears to be a confusion between Socrates and Quadratus. The man says, No. Socrates would not do so: but he would do, as a man might do now. He would say on the road; I hope you will come to hear me. I don’t find anything in the notes on this passage; but it requires explanation. ↩

κατηγορία is one of Aristotle’s common terms. ↩

From Plato’s Apology of Socrates. ↩

Aulus Gellius Attic Nights v 1. Seneca, Epistle 52. (John Upton.) ↩

Cicero, De Officiis i 18: “Quae magno animo et fortiter excellenterque gesta sunt, ea nescio quomodo pleniore ore laudamus. Hino Rhetorum campus de Marathone, Salamine, Plataeis, Thermopylis, Leuctria.” ↩

See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

See book II chapter V at 26. ↩

See book III chapter XIII at 15. ↩

Homer, Odyssey i 3. ↩

Homer, Odyssey, xvii 487. ↩

ἀπέχειν. See book III chapter II at 13. Paul to the Philippians 4:18. ↩

Suetonius (Claudius, 25) says: “Peregrinae conditionis homines vetuit usurpare Romana nomina, duntaxat gentilia. Civitatem Romanam usurpantes in campo Esquilino securi percussit.” (John Upton.) ↩

This is a denunciation of the hypocrite. ↩

“Pity” perhaps means that he will suffer the perturbation of pity, when he ought not to feel it. I am not sure about the exact meaning. ↩

“What follows hath no connection with what immediately preceded; but belongs to the general subject of the chapter.” —⁠Elizabeth Carter.

“The person with whom Epictetus chiefly held this discourse, seems to have been instructed by his friends to pay his respects to some great man at Nicopolis (perhaps the procurator, book III chapter IV at 1) and to visit his house.” —⁠Johann Schweighäuser ↩

The reward of virtue is in the acts of virtue. The Stoics taught that virtue is its own reward. When I was a boy I have written this in copies, but I did not know what it meant. I know now that few people believe it; and like the man here, they inquire what reward they shall have for doing as they ought to do. A man of common sense would give no other answer than what Epictetus gives. But that will not satisfy all. The heathens must give the answer: “For what more dost thou want when thou hast done a man a service? Art thou not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it? just as if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing or the feet for walking.” —⁠Marcus Aurelius, Meditations ix 42. Compare Seneca, De Vita Beata, chapter 9. ↩

It was the custom at Athens when the court (the dicasts) had determined to convict an accused person, in some cases at least, to ask him what penalty he proposed to be inflicted on himself; but Socrates refused to do this or to allow his friends to do it, for he said that to name the penalty was the same as admitting his guilt (Xenophon, Apologia, 23). Socrates said that if he did name a proper penalty for himself, it would be that he should daily be allowed to dine in the Prytaneium (Plato, Apology, chapter 26; Cicero, De Oratore, i 54). ↩

The character of Diogenes is described very differently by Epictetus from that