ABSTRACT
Three individuals may conclude our survey and draw some threads together. Two are Stoics: Epictetus the former slave and Marcus Aurelius the Roman emperor. Epictetus, as we have seen, lays particular emphasis on the distinction between what is in our power and what is not. The Hellenistic philosophy of the last three centuries BC has been interpreted as an individualistic reaction to the decline of the city-state; concentration on the individual, and emphasis on the individual’s limitations, are even more apparent in Epictetus.
