Discourses
Four surviving books of lecture notes from the classroom of Epictetus. Longer, rougher and funnier than the handbook.
What, then, is to be done? To make the best of what is in our power, and take the rest as it naturally happens.
Epictetus, Discourses, I.1, after Elizabeth Carter
What it is
The classroom of Epictetus as one student heard it. Where the Enchiridion gives the conclusions, the Discourses give the arguments, the examples, the interruptions and the jokes. They are the closest thing we have to hearing a Stoic teach.
Where to start
Read the Enchiridion first. Then open Book I and read the chapters whose titles catch you; they are self contained. I.1 (on what is in our power), I.18 (that we should not be angry with those who err), II.5 (how greatness of mind may go with carefulness), III.23 (against those who lecture for display) and IV.1 (on freedom, the longest and the best) are the usual choices.
Which translation
Robin Hard (Oxford World’s Classics, 2014) is complete, modern and cheap, and includes the Enchiridion and the fragments. W. A. Oldfather’s Loeb (1925 to 1928) is public domain in the United States and has the Greek facing. George Long’s 1877 translation is free everywhere and readable.
After this
A. A. Long’s Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life is the scholarly companion. The Meditations quote Epictetus more than any other author.