Epictetus, a Greek stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Ni
cropolis in the early second century AD. His animated discussions were celebrate
d for their rhetorical wizardry and were written down by Arrian, his most famous
pupil. Together with the "Enchiridion", a manual of his main ideas, and the fra
gments collected here, "The Discourses" argue that happiness lies in learning to
perceive exactly what is in our power to change and what is not, and in embraci
ng our fate to live in harmony with god and nature.
