Greek philosophers
Epictetus
Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher who was born in 55 AD in Hierapolis (in Phrygia - today's Pamukkale in Turkey) and died in 135 AD in Nicopolis. He spent most of his life in Rome. From there he went into exile in Nicopolis, where he died.
Epictetus spent his youth as a slave to Epaphroditus (former secretary to the emperor Nero) and studied Stoic philosophy under the tutor Musonius Rufus. He had a limp from his youth, and it is not known for certain whether his master broke his leg or had some disease.
In 89 AD he was given his freedom and, along with other philosophers, was banished from Rome and all of Italy. He settled at Nicopolis in Epirus, where he founded a successful school of philosophy. The most famous pupil of this school was the historian Flavius Arrianus, who entered the service of the emperor Hadrian. Epictetus read to his pupils from the writings of the ancient Stoics and then they debated them together. The topic was mostly ethics.
Epictetus likened his school to a hospital where people come to be healed. Here, too, they seek happiness in vain because they are in the wrong place. They do not know that only virtue is good and vice is bad. We cannot control wealth, health and honors, so they are indifferent in terms of a happy life.