Social change?

[Epictetus]

Hmmm. That corresponds to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161 - 180). He seems to have legislated safeguards for personal freedoms and the manumission of slaves. He ordered free newborns to be named quickly and registered, perhaps as a way to safeguard a freeman being claimed as a slave. He also gave new legislation on guardians to protect youngsters and worked on the state support for poor children (I believe started by Trajan). Marcus attended rigidly to the administration of justice and the law courts.

Perhaps this "social change" is basically relatively more personal freedom?

This kind of matches what he himself wrote:

It was through [Severus] that I... conceived of a society of equal laws, governed by equality of status and of speech, and of rulers who respect the liberty of their subjects above all else.

Mediatations 1, 14.