The Works of Epictetus: Discourses, Enchiridion, and Fragments

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

Elizabeth Carter’s version of Epictetus has outlived every other English prose translation of its day and has admirably held its ground with readers. While Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher. has had a series of English versions, the complete works of Epictetus have had only this one, reproduced in four different editions. Even regarding the "Enchiridion," or Manual—of which there had been at least five different versions in England before her time (two of which had passed through six editions each)—I am not aware that any later translation has been printed there. The main reason for this is undoubtedly that, at that date, there was absolutely no similar work produced in England of such high quality.

Thomas Taylor An English translator of Greek philosophical works. indeed grudgingly says that this translation "is as good as a person ignorant of philosophy can be supposed to make." See his translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book III, Chapter 3, note. But