**No writings of Epictetus himself are really known. His discourses were transcribed and compiled by his pupil Arrian ** (author of the Anabasis Alexandri). The main work is The Discourses, four books of which have been preserved (out of an original eight). Arrian also compiled a popular digest, ent...

**No writings of Epictetus himself are really known. His discourses were transcribed and compiled by his pupil Arrian ** (author of the Anabasis Alexandri). The main work is The Discourses, four books of which have been preserved (out of an original eight). Arrian also compiled a popular digest, entitled the Enchiridion, or Handbook. In a preface to the Discourses, addressed to Lucius Gellius, Arrian states that "whatever I heard him say I used to write down, word for word, as best I could.