Nicopolis

We know he has been to Troas.

And in Titus 3:12, he talks about spending the winter in Nicopolis, which is right about where that G is in Greece, on the west coast of Greece.

I think before I said that it was in Croatia.

I was way off.

Croatia is way up north.

But right about here, maybe a little north of that G in Greece, right about there is gonna be where Nicopolis is.

So we get kind of an idea of some of Paul's travels.

He goes to Crete, he goes to the west coast of Greece, and he goes, he seems to go back to Ephesus.

Until the Emperor Domitian, who mistrusted philosophers and thought them a danger to his power, banished them from the city.

The writer Aulus Gellius mentions Epictetus among those affected, and the old teacher, with no money, no family, and his bad leg, crossed the sea and settled in Nicopolis, a city on the western coast of Greece that Augustus had founded to celebrate his victory at Actium.

There he lived on, next to nothing.

He tells us himself that one night someone stole the iron lamp he kept beside his little household altar, and instead of being angry with the thief, he thought, tomorrow you'll find an earthenware one.

Then for the next year, Paul apparently goes on a whirlwind missionary tour that we don't have documented in the Book of Acts.

We know from the Book of Titus that he at least goes to Nicopolis on the west coast of Greece.

Church tradition says he might have gone to Spain, which he definitely wanted to do in the Book of Romans.

But he does some things, and then at some point he gets arrested again.

We're waiting for this trial by Caesar," and end of book.

Like, that strongly suggests that Luke is writing while they're waiting for the trial, and then Luke gets to that point and is like, "Well, I'm kind of done.

I guess it's time to release the book." And so that would place, assuming Paul dies in sixty-four and he spends sixty-three on mission, for instance, in the city of Nicopolis, we know from the Book of Titus, and he is in house arrest in sixty-two, that's when Acts is written.

And so Luke would have been written probably fifty-nine, sixty, sixty-one, sixty-two, somewhere in that range, which puts Matthew and Mark in the late fifties.

At some point in those years, Epictetus was given his freedom.

He began teaching philosophy in Rome, and when the Emperor Domitian expelled the philosophers from the city, he left for Nicopolis on the coast of Greece and opened a small school there.

Young men from wealthy families all over the empire came to that school.

One of them, Arrian, took notes on everything the master said.

Does anyone stop me going with a smile, in good spirits and at peace?" He knew what he was talking about because he too was driven out of Rome.

He had to leave his city, his students, the life he had built.

And instead of spending years lamenting it, he opened a school in Nicopolis that became more famous than anything he had done in Rome.

What seemed like the end was the beginning of his most important work.

It could be written today, some of the things he's talking about.

You know, he may have been removed, you know, through the exile, you know, domition to, uh, to Nicopolis, but, uh, you know, people like Arrian came and-

Yeah, sure

... did his lectures.

And this is another rule of a Stoic.

The young man arrived in Nicopolis on a windy afternoon.

He came from a wealthy city in Asia, the son of an important family, with fine clothes, a fine education, and a temper everyone knew about.

One word out of place was enough to set him off.

It happened at the market, in the middle of the morning.

A merchant, seeing him so well-dressed, mocked him in front of everyone.

He called him a rich boy, imitated him, told him that in Nicopolis perfume didn't buy respect.

People laughed, and the young man felt that hot wave he knew so well rising from his stomach to his face.

Perhaps I shall find it someday.

But how strange that I should have been four days in a boat with those who possess this faith and from whom I might have learnt a precious lesson had we spoken sooner on the subject." "But here we are at Nicopolis," said someone, interrupting.

Is this the first time you have seen the Turks? What a miserable, dirty race! A solemn warning to all men to have only one wife.

Those in the long coats and the red tarbushes are the civilized Turks.

We may conclude that Epictetus in some way obtained his freedom, and that he began to teach at Rome.

But after the expulsion of the philosophers from Rome by Domitian, AD 89, he retired to Nicopolis in Epirus, a city built by Augustus to commemorate the victory at Actium.

Epictetus opened a school or lecture room at Nicopolis, where he taught till he was an old man.

The time of his death is unknown.

Epictetus was never married, as we learn from Lucian.

Do you then stand by those who read them and say to such persons, it is I whose name is written there? And if you can now be present on all such occasions, what will you do when you are dead? My name will remain.

Write it on a stone and it will remain.

But come what remembrance of you will there be beyond Nicopolis.

And then Paul gives some final instructions in Titus 3, verse 12 here.

When I send Artemis and Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me in Nicopolis, because I have decided to spend the winter there.

Diligently help Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey so that they will lack nothing.

Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works for pressing needs so that they will not be unfruitful.