Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitStobaeus, Volume I

Reading language

Ancient contents - Book II

Ancient contents · Book II

The second book comprises forty-six chapters. It discusses, first:

1. On those who interpret divine things, and how the truth of intelligible things in their substance is beyond human comprehension.

2. Then, on dialectic.

3. And on rhetoric.

4. And on speech and letters.

5. On the art of poetry.

6. On the character of the ancients.²⁰⁹⁵

7-13 · Ethics, agency, philosophy, and piety

7. On the ethical branch of philosophy.

8. On what is up to us.

9. That no one is willingly bad.

10. What a philosopher ought to be like.

11. That one should revere the divine.

12. That the higher power helps the pious and just.

13. On divination.²⁰⁹⁶

14-20 · Character, reputation, and virtue

14. That one should greatly value the company of the wise, but avoid the base and uneducated.

15. On seeming and being, and that one should judge a person by character, not by words.

16. That those who plot against others unwittingly harm themselves.

17. On good repute.

18. On report.

19. That moderation is best.

20. That virtue is difficult to attain, but vice easy to practice.²⁰⁹⁷

21-26 · Judgment, hypocrisy, and abuse

21. That one should disregard the judgment of those who lack understanding.

22. That hypocrisy should be banished from the soul, since it harms both those who practice it and those toward whom it is practiced.

23. That one should not meddle, for such conduct causes envy and slander.

24. That repentance for one’s wrongdoing is best.

25. On abuse, and that it is not a good thing.

26. That in an exchange of abuse we should consider whether we ourselves have fallen into the same faults.²⁰⁹⁸

27-31 · Necessity, opportunity, and education

27. On necessity in life.

28. That one must act at the right time.

29. On wishing, and that one must not put things off at random.

30. That misfortune often proves beneficial, especially to the foolish.

31. On upbringing and education.²⁰⁹⁹

32-36 · Friendship and its limits

32. That friendship among good people is a most beautiful thing.

33. That similarity of character produces friendship.

34. That one should not neglect friends in misfortune and danger.

35. That one should not join friends in wrongdoing.

36. On true and unreliable friends.²¹⁰⁰

37-41 · Reconciliation, true friends, and enemies

37. That one should be quick to reconcile with friends, bearing their faults more easily by forgetting past wrongs.

38. That in misfortune we recognize which of our friends are true.

39. Precepts on friendship.

40. On enmity and how one should behave toward enemies.

41. On how one can benefit from enemies.²¹⁰¹

42-46 · Giving, repayment, and ingratitude

42. On conferring benefits.

43. That a favor is greater when given at the right time.

44. On returning benefits.

45. That one should neither benefit the wicked nor accept benefits from them.

46. And last, on ingratitude.²¹⁰²

End of the second book’s outline

With these, the chapters of the second book also come to an end.²¹⁰³

2095.The Greek gives the count as six and forty. Intelligible things are objects of understanding, contrasted in Book I with objects of sense perception. Letters can encompass written learning; charaktēr means a distinguishing character or style. The brief heading on the ancients leaves its precise scope unstated.

2096.What is up to us is a formulation of the question of agency and responsibility. To kreitton, literally what is stronger or better, denotes the higher divine power. Wachsmuth marks chapters 10-46 as missing from the books, while noting parallels for some subjects in other collections. The outline survives even where the corresponding text does not.

2097.Eudoxia is good repute; phēmē is report, what is said publicly, and may concern rumor or reputation. The adjacent headings keep these distinct. Metron means a measure or due limit, hence moderation. The claim about virtue and vice describes their relative difficulty; it is one of the propositions around which the collection was arranged.

2098.Hypokrisis here is pretense or hypocrisy; polypragmonein is meddling in other people’s affairs. Loidoreisthai can refer to exchanging abuse or being reviled. The English uses the broader exchange of abuse in chapter 26; the heading’s point is to examine one’s own possible faults. The missing excerpts cannot resolve the precise situation intended.

2099.Chapter 29 prints boulesthai, to wish or will, not bouleuesthai, to deliberate. The awkward connection between wishing and postponement is retained. Agōgē and paideia distinguish upbringing or training from education more broadly. The editor records a Laurentian parallel for the educational material despite its loss from the books.

2100.The sequence values good character and similarity in friendship, requires loyalty in danger, and limits that loyalty where friends act unjustly. Kalon, rendered beautiful in chapter 32, also carries the sense of morally fine or noble. Gnēsios marks a true or genuine friend, opposed here to one who cannot be relied upon.

2101.Amnēstia means forgetting past wrongs; it is used here of reconciliation between friends, not necessarily a formal public amnesty. Misfortune tests friendship, while the headings on enemies consider both one’s conduct toward them and the possibility of gaining some benefit from them.

2102.Euergetein is doing good or conferring benefits, and anteuergetein is doing good in return. Charis can mean a favor or gratitude; in chapter 43 it is the favor given. These headings connect the value of a benefit with its timing, the recipient’s character, and the response it receives.

2103.The short closing phrase has no expressed verb. Come to an end makes its function in the sequence explicit; the Greek is retained without supplementation.