When Seneca was an advisor to Nero, he served alongside an aide named Epaphroditus, the owner of a slave named…Epictetus.

Yet between Seneca, who was the richest man in Rome, Epaphroditus, who was one of the most powerful men in Rome, and the slave…the slave was the most free.

How could that possibly be?

Seneca himself would say that to be free is to belong to yourself. It is to be in charge of your mind, your will, your self. To be free from pointless obligations, other people’s expectations, materialism, the slavery of cravings or aspirations. “Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power,” Seneca said.

Epictetus got front row seats to Nero slowly buying and trapping Seneca in a gilded cage (in the end, Seneca couldn’t even quit his job without permission). He saw people contorting themselves to get on Nero’s good side. He saw all the limitations and constraints that come with money and power. He saw how the chain of jobs that needed to be held for years in order to get ahead narrowed the choices of those who aspired to get ahead. He saw how people were unable to walk away from a job they hated because they were walled in by big houses and fancy titles. And he was horrified by what he saw. “It is better to starve to death in a calm and confident state of mind,” he would say, “than to live anxiously amidst abundance.”

“Freedom is the prize we are working for,” Seneca wrote, “not being a slave to anything—not to compulsion, not to chance events.” Then he said, “show me a man who isn’t a slave.” One is a slave to money. Another to work. Another to fear. Another to whatever everyone else is doing. Another to alcohol, to cigarettes, soda, material possessions, bad habits, followers on social media, anchors on cable news.

Here on the 4th of July, the celebration of America’s Declaration of Independence, before you head off to BBQs and eat hotdogs, you should think about this. Are you free? Do you belong to yourself? Are you in charge of yourself? Do you have yourself in your own power? Or are you held in the captivity of someone or something else? Of work? Of money? Of your mortgage? Of your social media followers? Of your anxieties and aspirations?

Sober up. You’re a slave! Epictetus would know. That’s why he reminds us: “No man is free who is not master of himself.”

If you want to learn about true freedom, if you want to learn how to become the master of yourself, there is no one better to learn from than Epictetus. Which is why we’ve spent the last year and a half working on  The Girl Who Would Be Free, an illustrated and timeless fable about the journey of Epictetus from a slave to the ultimate symbol of true freedom. Imagine being born a slave. Imagine what it would take to not only survive slavery, but to go on to become one of the most influential philosophers of all time. How did Epictetus do it? Read The Girl Who Would Be Free!