Hellenistic and Early Imperial Philosophy

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Book Notes

KEIMPE ALGRA

Before handing over the responsibility for the book notes section on Hellenistic philosophy to Christopher Gill, I would like to take the opportu- nity to clear away my backlog and to discuss, along with a few books that were actually sent to me recently, one or two works which I should probably have covered earlier, but which I irresponsibly kept for a later occasion. Together they make for a remarkably interesting set. I shall discuss them more or less in a backward chronological order, starting in the early Empire and ending up in the fourth century BC. Pride of place may go to Tony Long’s Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life.1 There can be little doubt that this book will constitute a major point of reference for students of Hellenistic and early Imperial philosophy for many years to come. The number of footnotes has been kept down and bibliographical and other scholarly matters have been conﬁned to appendixes at the end of the chapters. As a result this eminently readable survey of Epictetus as a philosopher, stylist, and educator will be accessible to non- scholars as well. More so indeed than Bonhöffer’s classic 19th century mono- graphs (Epiktet und die Stoa, and Die Ethik des Stoikers Epiktet) which this book will in many respects replace as the most authoritative and all-round treatment of Epictetus. One of the distinctive features of the book is the careful attention given to the structure and purpose of the Discourses and to Epictetus’ educational strategies where, by contrast, Bonhöffer’s Epiktet und die Stoa rather exclusively focused on the philosophical contents, with two (in themselves worthwhile) introductory sections on ‘Das Wesen und die Bedeutung der Philosophie’ and on ‘Die Einteilung der Philosophie’. Also typical are L.’s focus on what he calls the ‘distinctive power of Epictetus’ voice’ (p. 5) and the way he brings out the role of Socrates as Epictetus’ favoured paradigm. When it comes to these points, there is a potential drawback – one which,

1 A. A. Long, Epictetus. A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life, Oxford (Clarendon) 2002; xiv + 310 pp.; ISBN 0-19-924556-8. £ 25.00.

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incidentally, L. seems to be well aware of (pp. 68-69) – viz. that too little Stoic literature has survived to allow one to assess the extent to which Epictetus was really unique in this respect. The position of Socrates, for example, as a paradigm not only of virtue (acknowledged by L., of course) but also of dialectic ( pace L., p. 68, n. 1; a quotation from Chrysippus’ On Dialectic at Plutarch SR 1045f, already mentions Socrates as the dialectician par excellence) is attested for early Stoics as well (and see also below on the Socratism of Epictetus’ contemporary Dio Chrysostom). It is hard to deter- mine whether Epictetus’ approach would have struck contemporary Stoics as typical or particularly innovative. But even if these characteristics are not exclusively Epictetan, they are Epictetan nonetheless: L. convincingly shows how much Epictetus’ Discourses are indebted to Socrates’ insistence on self- scrutiny and living an examined life, and to what extent they appropriate and adapt Socratic dialectic. His approach here is certainly original and refresh- ing, and it pays off. The ﬁrst four chapters offer a clear and knowledgeable introduction to Epictetus, the Discourses and their context. Chapter 5 offers full translations plus discussion of two short discourses (I, 20 and IV, 9). The remaining chapters are organized thematically (‘Natures: Divine, Human, Animal’; ‘From Theology to Ethics’; ‘Autonomy and Integrity’; ‘Appropriate Actions and Feelings’). The Epilogue, ﬁnally, gives a well-researched overview of the most important stages in Epictetus’ afterlife in Europe and America. Together these chapters offer a detailed, well-documented and often original account of Epictetus and his philosophical importance. In a sense Epictetus presents us with a curious case. On the one hand the Discourses strike us as sincere, at times alluring, and often beautiful attempts to preach Stoicism as a way of life. On the other hand many readers will tend to agree that sometimes what they actually prescribe is, to quote Jonathan Barnes (Logic and the Imperial Stoa, Leiden 1997, 25) ‘both humanly impossible and morally disgusting’. Though not insensitive to the more repellent aspects, L., in focusing on Epictetus’ educational strategy and on his sincere Socratic commitment, charitably high- lights the more appealing side, thus proving himself the most persuasive advo- cate Epictetus could have wished for. Epictetus is taken to have left Rome as a result of the emperor Domitian’s decision – in the early nineties (the precise date is controversial) – to remove all philosophers from the city, and even from the whole of Italy (a decision taken mainly for political reasons, in the wake of the condemnation and exe- cution of Junius Priscus who had openly praised two allegedly subversive Stoics, Thrasea Paetus and his own father Helvidius Priscus). Some ten years earlier another one-time pupil of Musonius Rufus, Dio of Prusa, later also known as Dio Chrysostom, had undergone a similar fate. Although recently some good work has been published on this philosopher-rhetorician of the Second Sophistic, the collection Dio Chrysostom. Politics, Letters and Philosophy, edited by