Epaphroditos

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Epaphroditos or Epaphroditus was a freedman and secretary of the Roman emperor Nero. He reportedly helped the emperor commit suicide on June 9, 68. He was banished and later executed by Domitian for failing to save Nero's life.

In Ancient Rome former slaves could themselves own slaves; the philosopher Epictetus was Epaphroditus's freedman.

He is probably not the same person as the Epaphroditus to whom Josephus dedicated his Antiquities of the Jews, who was probably a freedman of the emperor Trajan,[1][2][3][4][5] or the Epaphroditus mentioned by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians in the New Testament.[6]

His name originates from the Greek language and means "loving" in the sense of being devoted to Aphrodite. The Romans often gave slaves of Greek origins illustrious names from Greek mythology and culture, for example Claudius's freedman Narcissus, Nero's freedman Polyclitus and Antonia Minor's freedwoman Caenis.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Tacitus, Annals, xv. 55.
  2. ^ Suetonius, Life of Nero, 49; Life of Domitian, 14.
  3. ^ Dio Cassius, lxiii. 27, 29; lxvii. 14.
  4. ^ Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus, i. 26.
  5. ^ Sudas, under word Επίκτητος.
  6. ^ St. Paul, Epistle to the Philippians, New Testament, ii. 25, iv. 18.

[edit] References

William Smith (ed.) (1870), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol 2 p. 24

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