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ultimately modern, ideal of realizing individual excellence, he claimed that it is not
only possible but one’s duty to realize one’s true self.
This newfound concern with individual character received a remarkable
development in the thought of Epictetus (55?-135? c.e.), who began as a student
in Rome but returned to Greece to teach. Basic to his view was attention to the
distinction between what a person can and cannot control. A person cannot con-
trol his initial character or his external circumstances, he said, but can control
how he responds to them, in particular, whether he lives in accordance with
them. In stressing the importance of playing well the hand that fate has dealt
you, he was among the first to highlight the importance of will. “Remember,” he
wrote, “that you are an actor in a play.” You did not write the play or determine
your part in it. Your job is to play your part well. If your part is “to act a poor
man you must act the part with all your powers; and so if your part be a cripple
or a magistrate or a plain man. For your business is to act the character that is
given you and act it well.”3 And this only should be the object of your pride, not
what you have been given by nature, but how you have responded to whatever
you have been given.
To illustrate this point, Epictetus tells with favor the story of Priscus Helvidius,
a senator, who was ordered by Emperor Vespasian not to come into the Senate.
Priscus answered:
“You can forbid me to be a senator; but as long as I am a senator
I must come in.” Vespasian: “Come in, then, and be silent.” Priscus: “Question
me not and I will be silent.” Vespasian: “But I am bound to question you.” Priscus:
“And I am bound to say what seems right to me.” Exasperated, Vespasian threat-
ened to kill Priscus, if he talked in the Senate. Priscus calmly replied, “When did
I tell you, that I am immortal? You will do your part and I mine. It is yours to
kill, mine to die without making a fuss: yours to banish, mine to go into exile
without groaning.”
As in all Stoic philosophy, there is a strong element of resignation in Epictetus’s
view. In this part of what he wrote, social role is preeminent. However, he also
emphasizes individualism by recognizing that because character varies from per-
son to person, what it is to live in accord with nature also varies. For some, he
claims, the way to live in accordance with nature is simply to follow the herd, for
others to distinguish themselves. If you are the former type, then “you ought to
think how you can be like other men,” for “just as one thread” in a tunic “does not
wish to have something special to distinguish it from the rest,” so you too should
not wish to have something special. However, if you are the latter type of person,
it is as if you wish to be “the purple [thread], that touch of brilliance that gives
distinction and beauty to the rest.” For such a person, it would be a grave mistake
to follow the herd—he would “no longer be the purple.” Epictetus concludes,