# Epictetus — Meditations character guide

> Epictetus in Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0000-book-i

## Snapshot

The Stoic teacher whose lectures, preserved by a student, supply Marcus with the vocabulary of what is and isn't in our power.

## Who they are

Epictetus wrote nothing himself; his words survive through Arrian's notes, and through Marcus, who absorbed them as working tools rather than quotations. The recurring insistence that only judgment and will are ours — not reputation, health, or length of life — runs through the passages Marcus returns to. He matters because he gives Marcus the practical grammar for the self-examination the whole book performs.

## Relationships

### [Marcus Aurelius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/characters/marcus_aurelius)

_psychological_

Epictetus's Stoic teachings profoundly influenced Marcus Aurelius's philosophy, though they never met; Marcus internalized his writings as a guiding voice.

### [Antoninus Pius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/characters/antoninus_pius)

_psychological_

Antoninus Pius respected Epictetus's philosophy, though Epictetus died before Antoninus became emperor.

### [Marcus Aurelius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/characters/marcus_aurelius)

_psychological_

Epictetus's Stoic teachings profoundly influenced Marcus Aurelius's philosophy, though they never met; Marcus internalized his writings as a guiding voice.

## In the story

### [Book IV: The Inner Citadel and the Cosmic Web](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/chapters/book-iv)

Quoted for the saying 'Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse.'

### [Book VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/chapters/book-vii)

Referenced indirectly through the Stoic principle that every soul is involuntarily deprived of truth.

### [Book IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/chapters/book-ix)

Mentioned as an example of maintaining philosophical discourse during illness.

### [Book XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/chapters/book-xii)

Influence on the Stoic principles of controlling opinion and focusing on what is within one's power.

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/chapters/endnotes)

Stoic philosopher whose teachings were preserved by Arrian and studied by Marcus through Rusticus.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/meditations_se/characters/epictetus
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