Abstract
The way in which Epictetus received the cynical inheritance is particularly interesting, not merely because he is the only one of the Stoics whose extensive and famous discourse on Cynicism is preserved, but above all because of the complex device through which he succeeds in giving a fundamental place to Cynicism in the Stoic worldview, while at the same time placing rigid limits on its propagation and impact on the social body. This device works by hermeneutically remodeling the cynical character, which does not consist of softening him, of smoothing his asperities or ignoring his impudence, as some have argued, but rather in highlighting his radical exceptionality, his extreme singularity, which is precisely what allows him, and even demands of him, a behavior that would be unacceptable for the rest of mortals. The aim of this paper will be, precisely, to point out and explain these properly Epictetian strategies of reception of Cynicism and to understand its philosophical and ideological function in the Roman context.
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