En contraste con ambos, Epicteto enseñaba la filosofía estoica como doctrina y como forma de vida. El Enquiridión es un resumen del estoicismo teórico y aplicado.

Epictetus was the son of a woman slave, born between 50 and 60 A.D. at Hieropolis in Phrygia. We do not know how he came to Rome. He was there as slave to one of Nero’s distinguished freedmen who served as the Emperor’s secretary.

While still in service, Epictetus took courses with Musonius Rufus, the fashionable Stoic philosopher, who was impressed by the sincere and dynamic personality of the young slave and trained him to be a Stoic philosopher.

Epictetus became a free man and began teaching philosophy on street corners, in the market, but he was not successful. During the rule of Domitian, Epictetus with many other philosophers was exiled from Rome, probably between 89 and 92 A.D.

He went to Nicopolis, across Actium in Epirus, where he conducted his own school. He was so well regarded and highly esteemed that he established the reputation of the place as the town of Epictetus’ school.

Students came from Athens and Rome to attend his classes.
Private citizens came to ask his advice and guidance.

Some of his students returned to their homes to enter the traditional careers to which they were socially obligated. Others assumed the philosophic way of life in order to escape into the sphere of Stoic freedom.

Entre los estudiantes había un joven romano, Flavio Arriano, que tomó clases en Nicópolis cuando Epicteto ya era anciano. Flavio, nacido en el año 108 d. C., fue uno de los íntimos de Adriano, quien lo nombró