Ancient · AD 50–135
Who influenced Epictetus?
Influences and legacy
Born enslaved, taught that some things are up to us and most things are not.
Epictetus was influenced by Zeno of Citium and Musonius Rufus, and went on to influence Marcus Aurelius and Blaise Pascal. That is 4 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: William Sonmans / Michael Burghers, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Epictetus?
Epictetus was born a slave in Hierapolis in Phrygia, studied Stoicism in Rome under Musonius Rufus and began teaching after he was freed. When Domitian expelled the philosophers from Rome, he founded a school in Nicopolis in north-western Greece.
For him philosophy was a way of life. External events are beyond our control and should be met calmly; our own actions are not, and we can govern them through self-discipline. He wrote nothing himself: his pupil Arrian recorded his teaching in the Discourses and the Enchiridion, and these influenced Marcus Aurelius, Pascal and Montesquieu.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Epictetus?
2 direct influences on this map, earliest first.
- Zeno of Citium c. 334–262 BC
- Musonius Rufus AD 20–101
Who did Epictetus influence?
2 thinkers on this map draw directly on Epictetus.
- Marcus Aurelius AD 121–180
- Blaise Pascal 1623–1662
The line of teachers behind Epictetus
The longest documented line of influence ending at Epictetus runs 8 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.
Two steps away from Epictetus
Indirect influences
- Through Zeno of Citium: Diogenes of Sinope, Crates of Thebes
The second generation
- Through Blaise Pascal: Søren Kierkegaard
Contemporaries of Epictetus
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Epictetus, with no direct line between them.
- Plutarch AD 46–119
Epictetus by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 2
- Direct followers
- 2
- Thinkers upstream
- 11
- Thinkers downstream
- 27
- Wikipedia languages
- 70 — #30 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Epic
Schools and lineages
- Stoics: Zeno of Citium, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius
Questions about Epictetus
- Who influenced Epictetus?
- Zeno of Citium and Musonius Rufus.
- Who did Epictetus influence?
- Marcus Aurelius and Blaise Pascal.
- When did Epictetus live?
- AD 50–135. The map files Epictetus under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Epictetus card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Epictetus in 70 languages, which makes it an Epic card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More ancient philosophers
- Confucius 551–479 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC
- Laozi c. 6th c. BC
- Cicero 106–43 BC
- Thales of Miletus c. 624–546 BC