ARRIAN TO LUCIUS GELLIUS

I neither composed the Discourses of Epictetus Epictetus (c. 50–135 AD) was a famous Stoic philosopher who was born a slave. He never wrote his own books; his teachings were preserved by his student, Arrian. in the usual way such works are written, nor did I publish them myself. Instead, whatever thoughts I heard from his own mouth, I tried to write down in his exact words as much as possible. I preserved them as personal records of his way of thinking and his frankness of speech original: "freedom of speech"; this refers to parrhesia, the Stoic practice of speaking truth boldly and candidly..

These Discourses are the kind of thing one person would naturally say to another spontaneously original: "extempore"; spoken in the moment without formal preparation. from his own thoughts; they are not the kind of text someone would prepare to be read by a large audience later. Nevertheless, I do not know how they have been made public without my permission or knowledge.

But it matters little to me if I do not seem like a skilled writer. It matters even less to Epictetus if anyone looks down on his Discourses, because it was very clear—even while he was speaking—that his only goal was to inspire his listeners toward virtue original: "virtue"; in Stoicism, virtue is the highest good and involves living in accordance with reason and nature.. If these writings achieve that one result, they have in