an Attic law term, denoting an only daughter and heiress, who was obliged to marry her next of kin. See **EPIDICASIA**.

**EPICETETUS**, a celebrated Stoic philosopher who flourished in the first century of the Christian era, was born at Hierapolis in Phrygia. The date of his birth is not precisely ascertained. He was the slave of Epaphroditus, one of Nero's freedmen and favourites, during the last years of that emperor's reign; but had obtained his freedom previous to the publication of the edict of Domitian which ordered the expulsion of the philosophers from Rome, and compelled him to retire to Nicopolis. From Spartan, it would seem that he afterwards returned to Rome, and was a favourite at the court of Hadrian; and from an expression of Themistius, it has been inferred that he was alive even in the age of the Antonines. It is more probable, however, that he died at Nicopolis; and Aulus Gellius speaks of him as dead previous to the accession of the first Antonine. Of the moral character of Epictetus many interesting illustrations have been handed down to us. The anecdote related of him by Origen shows him to have given early indications of remarkable fortitude and equanimity. When his master one day amused himself by twisting his leg, Epictetus mildly warned him that he would break it, and when it was actually broken by his violence, the youthful Stoic calmly remarked, "Did I not tell you that you would do so?" For a considerable part of his life he dwelt alone in a miserable hut without any furniture except a bed and a lamp; but afterwards, for the sake of a poor foundling he had taken home, he was induced to hire an attendant. During his meditations his lamp was one day stolen; but Epictetus calmly remarked, that if the thief came back he would "disappoint him, for instead of an iron lamp he would only find an earthen one!" This earthen lamp was sold at his death for three thousand drachmae. From his pupil Arrian, we learn that Epictetus studied philosophy at first under a Stoic teacher called Musonius Ruins; and it is from him also that we derive our knowledge of his doctrines. From the high tone which everywhere pervades his ethical system, some have been induced to believe that he was acquainted with Christianity. Whatever foundation there be for such a supposition, it is at least certain that in the maxims of Epictetus we find the nearest approach to Christian morality. Discarding altogether the physical speculations of Cleanthes, and purging his system from the unearthly and cynical elements of previous Stoicism—such as its repulsive doctrine in regard to suicide—he based all morality on the observance of the maxim, "bear and forbear;" and this rule he held ought to be observed, not in a spirit of proud self-sufficiency, but under the influence of a firm belief in the existence of a supreme moral governor, directing for benevolent purposes all the events of human life. Epictetus himself does not seem to have committed any of his principles to writing, although Suidas affirms that he wrote much which is now lost. Arrian, his most distinguished pupil, seems to have made a careful compilation of his discourses, and we still possess four books of his work on the philosophy of Epictetus, besides the *Encheiridion*, which contains, in short compass, his leading ethical principles. The best edition is that of Schweighäuser, *Epictetæ philosophicæ monumenta*, Gr. Lat. 6 vols. 8vo.