Epictetus, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
A small correction first: I was not banished. I left. Domitian's edict expelled philosophers from Rome and Italy — that is the political fact.1 But consider what it means to say a man is "banished." If what you mean is that Caesar stripped something from me that was mine, you have already made the error philosophy exists to correct. Rome was never mine.
The school at Nicopolis is not a consolation prize. When the emperor says, lay aside your laticlava, you lay it aside. Lay aside this also — the toga. You are now naked. And still, at a man's command, I can throw away my poor body itself: do I then fear him?2 The man who can be stripped of everything and still asks "what have you actually taken from me?" is not a man who has been defeated by an edict.
Diogenes, sent as a scout ahead of us, reported back that death is no evil, that fame is the noise of madmen, that to sleep on bare ground is the softest bed.3 That is the report worth trusting. The scout who comes running back crying that Rome is terrible, exile is terrible, the emperor is near — send him away. He is useless to us.4 What did I take with me when I left? What is mine. The rest belonged to others all along.
The emperor (Domitian) says, Lay aside your lati-clave... in the time of Domitian philosophers were banished from Rome and Italy by a Senatusconsultum... Epictetus, as Gellius says, went from Rome to Nicopolis in Epirus, where he opened a school.Discourses with the Encheiridion and Fragments
when, at a man's command, I can throw away my poor body; do I still fear him?Discourses with the Encheiridion and Fragments
He says that death is no evil, for neither is it base: he says that fame (reputation) is the noise of madmen... to be naked is better than any purple robe, and to sleep on the bare ground is the softest bed.Discourses with the Encheiridion and Fragments
if you should come and tell us, Fearful is the state of affairs at Rome, terrible is death, terrible is exile... we shall answer, Be gone, prophesy for yourself; we have committed only one fault, that we sent such a scout.Discourses with the Encheiridion and Fragments