Read Discourses by email.
Lecture notes from a man born into slavery.
The lecture notes of a man born into slavery who became Rome's most bracing teacher — taken down word for word by his student Arrian, who insists he never meant them to be published. Ninety-five short talks on freedom, fear, grief, and what is actually up to you.
Four or five minutes a day, and each installment stands alone.
Three months from now, you will have read Epictetus.
100 installments, one an email
- First published
- c. 108 AD
- Translation
- George Long
- Installments
- 100
- Each installment
- 4–5 min
How long it takes
- Words
- 117,789
- Reading time
- 8 hours 11 minutes
- At 5 minutes a day
- 3 months
- At 10 minutes a day
- 7 weeks
- At 20 minutes a day
- 4 weeks
At 240 words a minute, the average for adult silent reading. Use your own speed
Why read Discourses?
Epictetus never wrote anything. He was born a slave, was lamed by his master, was freed, was banished from Rome by an emperor, and taught in exile in Greece — and everything we have of him exists because a student sat in the room and took it down. What survives is not a treatise but a classroom: interruptions, sarcasm, students being told exactly where their reasoning went soft.
That makes the Discourses the least abstract philosophy in the canon. Marcus Aurelius kept a copy and echoes it constantly; read Epictetus first and Meditations turns into a man doing the homework. Where Seneca advises a friend by letter and Marcus argues with himself at night, Epictetus is talking directly at you, and he is not especially gentle about it.
Each chapter is a self-contained talk, so each arrives whole — one chapter, one email, the way the room heard it. Only three chapters in the entire book run long enough to split. No recaps, because none are needed: nothing carries over.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to read the Discourses?
About eight and a half hours straight through (117,789 words). By email it's 100 daily installments of 4–5 minutes — finished in about three and a half months.
Should I read this or Meditations first?
Either works, but Epictetus is the teacher and Marcus is the student. Marcus kept the Discourses close and quotes them almost by reflex, so reading Epictetus first turns Meditations from a book of maxims into a record of someone practicing what he was taught.
Which translation is this?
George Long's classic public-domain translation, in the carefully typeset Standard Ebooks edition — the same translator behind our Meditations, so the two books read in one voice.
Do the installments break mid-chapter?
Almost never. Ninety-two of the ninety-five chapters arrive complete in a single email. Only the three longest are split — About Freedom into three parts, About Cynism and one long chapter of Book III into two each — and every part is numbered, so you always know where you are.
Do I need to read it in order?
No. Arrian recorded the talks roughly as they happened, and each stands alone. Miss a day and nothing is lost — which is why there are no recaps.
How does it arrive?
One email a day at the hour you pick — morning, lunch, or evening. Free. Unsubscribe or pause from any installment.
George Long translation, Standard Ebooks edition, public domain. Texts from Standard Ebooks and Project Gutenberg editions. Not affiliated with either.