The Dialogue between the Emperor Hadrian and Epictetus the Philosopher (Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti Philosophi) is a Latin language question-and-answer dialogue composed by an anonymous author in the 2nd or 3rd century. It consists of a short, fictional conversation between Emperor Hadrian and the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. In its earliest form it consists of seventy-three questions on matters of wisdom and natural phenomena posed by Hadrian and answered by Epictetus.
The work was a popular one throughout the Middle Ages and there were many Christianised adaptations including an Enfant Sage dialogue from France in which the conversation takes place between Hadrian and a three-year-old child called Epitus, and an Ypotis poem from England in which the child is revealed to be Christ.
We offer today to our readers the English translation of the Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti Philosophi, edited by Henry Meigs and published in the literary magazine The Knickerbocker in August 1857.