In the 6th century the Neoplatonist philosopher Simplicius wrote a huge commentary on the Enchiridion, which is more than ten times the bulk of the original text.[44] Chapter after chapter of the Enchiridion is dissected, discussed, and its lessons drawn out with a certain laboriousness.[45] Simplicius' commentary offers a distinctly Platonist vision of the world,[46] one which is often at odds with the Stoic content of the Enchiridion.[47] Sometimes Simplicius exceeds the scope of a commentary; thus his commentary on Enchiridion 27 (Simplicius ch. 35) becomes a refutation of Manichaeism.[48]
The Commentary enjoyed its own period of popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries. An English translation by George Stanhope in 1694 ran through four editions in the early 18th century.[37] Edward Gibbon remarked in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that Simplicius' Commentary on Epictetus "is preserved in the library of nations, as a classic book" unlike the commentaries on Aristotle "which have passed away with the fashion of the times."[46]
