answer conversation between Hadrian and Epictetus. There was a Rhetorician of the same period called Secundus of Athens, mentioned by Philostratus. Whether he could be the same person as this Secundus is unknown. Reception The oldest evidence for the existence of the Greek biography is a papyrus fragment from the 3rd Century. The complete text is only found in a single manuscript from the 11th Century, the other Greek manuscripts contain only the questions and answers. Willelmus Medicus, later a monk at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, brought the complete manuscript from Constantinople to France in 1167. He made a Latin translation (Vita Secundi Philosophi), which became popular, as numerous copies show. An abridged version of this translation was placed by Vincent of Beauvais into his popular encyclopedia Speculum Historiale in the 13th century. In the early 14th Century, the Liber de Vita et Moribus Philosophorum, which was a popular biographical presentation of ancient non-Christian spiritual life, dedicated a chapter to Secundus. He was so well known that his bust with a quote (the response to the question "What is God?") was carved in the Gothic choir stalls of Ulm Minster. The popularity of the material in the Middle Ages was connected, among other things, with the fact that Secundus's readiness to die reminded readers at that time of the attitude of Christian martyrs. Late medieval translations of the Latin text of the biography include: two German, two Spanish, six French, an Icelandic, and four Italian versions. Some translations are very free, as partial elements of larger works. The popularity of the work in the Middle Ages, is also testified by translations in other languages: Syriac, Armenian, Arabic, and Ethiopic. Notes References Ben Edwin Perry, (1964), Secundus, The Silent Philosopher: The Greek Life of Secundus, critically edited and restored so far as possible, together with translations of the Greek and Oriental versions, the Latin and Oriental texts, and a study of the tradition. American Philological Association Philological Monographs. Ben Edwin Perry, (1998), Secundus: The Silent Philosopher, in William Hansen (editor), Anthology of Ancient Greek Popular Literature. Indiana University Press. Further reading Brock, S. P., (1978), "Secundus the Silent Philosopher: Some Notes on the Syriac Tradition," Rheinishes Museum für Philologie, Neue Folge, 121. Bd., H. 1, 94–100. Overwien, Oliver. "Secundus the Silent Philosopher in the Ancient and Eastern Tradition." Fictional Storytelling in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond. Brill, 2016. 338-364. Sumner,