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Epictetus on chains and the will

c. 108 CE, Nicopolis. As Arrian recorded it.

Where and when

c. 108 CENicopolis

about 1,918 years ago

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Epictetus

, NicopolisAs Arrian recorded it

In plain words, ours

You will chain me? You can chain my leg. My will, not even Zeus can overpower.

But I will put you in chains. Man, what are you talking about? Me in chains? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower.

Epictetus, Discourses 1.1Translated by George Long (1877)Read the full passage (Epictetus, Discourses 1.1, opens scaife.perseus.org)

Spoken of by Marcus Aurelius, c. 170–180 CE

What was going on, our summary

Epictetus teaching at Nicopolis around 108 CE, as Arrian recorded it. He has just told how Lateranus, ordered beheaded by Nero, stretched out his neck again after a weak first blow, and asks what a person should have ready when facing death, chains or exile.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Why it matters

The Discourses, the record of the talks this comes from, hold that nothing outside us, not even Zeus, can overcome our choice, and they have been influential since they were written.

Based on Wikipedia: Discourses of Epictetus

nothing that is external of us, not even Zeus, can overcome our choice: it alone can control itself.

The Discourses have been influential since they were written.

Wikipedia, Discourses of Epictetus (opens en.wikipedia.org), as of 2026-08-12. Text CC BY-SA 4.0. Our line is checked against these sentences only.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. c. 62–65 CEabout 45 years earlier Seneca on time, the only thing we own Also about how to live well
  2. c. 108 CEThis momentEpictetus on chains and the will
  3. c. 108 CEAbout the same year Epictetus on facing death without lament Same passageMore from Epictetus
  4. c. 108 CEAbout the same year Epictetus on singing hymns to God More from Epictetus
  5. c. 108 CEAbout the same year Epictetus on Socrates and his accusers More from Epictetus
  6. c. 170–180 CEabout 67 years later Marcus Aurelius on what his mother taught Also about how to live well
  7. c. 170–180 CEabout 67 years later Marcus Aurelius on what Rusticus taught him Spoken of by Marcus Aurelius

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

Will you not stretch out your neck as Lateranus did at Rome when Nero ordered him to be beheaded? For when he had stretched out his neck, and received a feeble blow, which made him draw it in for a moment, he stretched it out again. And a little before, when he was visited by Epaphroditus, Nero’s freedman, who asked him about the cause of offence which he had given, he said, If I choose to tell anything, I will tell your master. What then should a man have in readiness in such circumstances? What else than this? What is mine, and what is not mine; and what is permitted to me, and what is not permitted to me. I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? Tell me the secret which you possess. I will not, for this is in my power.

The quote: But I will put you in chains. Man, what are you talking about? Me in chains? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower.

I will throw you into prison. My poor body, you mean. I will cut your head off. When then have I told you that my head alone cannot be cut off? These are the things which philosophers should meditate on, which they should write daily, in which they should exercise themselves. Thrasea used to say, I would rather be killed to-day than banished to-morrow. What then did Rufus say to him? If you choose death as the heavier misfortune, how great is the folly of your choice? But if, as the lighter, who has given you the choice? Will you not study to be content with that which has been given to you?

Epictetus, Discourses 1.1Translated by George Long (1877)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
c. 108 CE. Epictetus’ talks at his school in Nicopolis, as his student Arrian took them down; Arrian’s notes are usually dated to about 108 CE.
Whose words
As Arrian recorded it.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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