Epictetus is referred to as a child of slaves and is said to have been born in Hierapolis of Phrygia (Izmit, today's Turkey), hence the nickname Ierapolites. On arriving in Rome, he was bought by Epaphroditus, who was a freedman of Nero. Epictetus was a victim of Epaphroditus. The latter put his leg in a manganese and tightened it, to make him lose his stoicism and cry out. "You'll break my leg," Epictetus warned him, but Epaphroditus kept on tightening it until the harm was done. "Didn't I tell you you'd break my leg?" was all Epictetus had to say. During this period he seems to have attended the philosophy lessons of Muses Roufus, and summed up his philosophy in the words "anechou and anechou" (in modern Greek: "To have patience and endurance"). When he subsequently became a freedman, he settled for a time in Rome, where he lived in a hut that was always kept open. Because of a decree of Domitian in 93, all philosophers were expelled from Italy and Epictetus was forced to leave Rome and go to Nicopolis in Epirus (Preveza Prefecture), where he founded a philosophical school. Among his students was the historian and prefect of Cappadocia, Flavius Arrian of Nicomedia, who collected his speeches, of which only the first four books survive. He then drew from them a collection of thoughts known as the "Handbook of Epictetus".

Please note: This audiobook is in Greek.