Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 49 · I.49.27.1–I.49.27.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 559 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.27.1–I.49.27.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 1114

27.1 · Αἰσάρας

I.49.27.1

Αἰσάρας Πυθαγορείου Λευκανᾶς ἐκ τοῦ Περὶ ἀνθρώπω φύσιος.

Φύσις ἀνθρώπω κανών μοι δοκεῖ νόμω τε καὶ δίκας ἦμεν καὶ οἴκω τε καὶ πόλιος. Ἴχνια γὰρ ἐν αὐτῷ στιβαζόμενος εὕροιτό κά τις καὶ μαστευόμενος· νόμος γὰρ ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ δίκα ἁ τᾶς ψυχᾶς ἐστι διακόσμασις. Τριχθαδία γὰρ ὑπάρχοισα ἐπὶ τριχθαδίοις ἔργοις συνέστακε· γνώμαν καὶ φρόνασιν ἐργαζόμενος ⟨ὁ νόος⟩ καὶ ἀλκὰν καὶ ⟨ὁρμὰν ἁ⟩ θύμωσις καὶ ἔρωτα καὶ φιλοφροσύναν ἁ ἐπιθυμία.

27.2

I.49.27.2

Καὶ οὕτω συντέτακται ταῦτα ποτ᾽ ἄλλαλα πάντα, ὥστε αὐτᾶς τὸ μὲν κράτιστον ἀγέεσθαι, τὸ δὲ χέρειον ἄρχεσθαι, τὸ δὲ μέσον μέσαν ἐπέχεν τάξιν, καὶ ἄρχεν καὶ ἄρχεσθαι. Ταῦτα δ᾽ οὕτως ἐμάσατο κατὰ λόγον ὁ θεὸς ἔν τε ἐκτυπώσι καὶ ἐξεργασίᾳ τῶ ἀνθρωπίνω σκάνεος, ὅτι μόνον ἄνθρωπον ἐνοάσατο νόμω τε καὶ δίκας ἐπιδέκτορα γενέσθαι καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο τῶν θνατῶν ζῴων.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1115

27.1 · Aesara: human nature and justice

I.49.27.1

From On Human Nature by Aesara, the Pythagorean woman of Lucania.¹³⁸³

Human nature seems to me to be the standard of law and justice, for both household and city. By tracking and seeking within the human being, one could discover their traces; for the ordering of the soul within the human being is law and justice. Being threefold, the soul is constituted for threefold functions: judgment and prudence are produced by ⟨intellect⟩; strength and ⟨impulse, by the⟩ spirited power; and love and goodwill, by desire.¹³⁸⁴

27.2 · The order of the soul’s powers

I.49.27.2

All these are so ordered in relation to one another that the soul’s best element leads, the inferior is ruled, and the middle occupies a middle rank, both ruling and being ruled. God devised these things in this rational order when shaping and fashioning the human frame, because he intended the human being alone, and no other mortal creature, to be receptive of law and justice.¹³⁸⁵

1383.The edited heading identifies a woman from Lucania; Wachsmuth discusses the attribution and its variant forms in the apparatus. The translation follows that heading without adding a date or biography. Doric forms such as anthrōpō, “of a human being,” hēmen, “to be,” and psychas, “of the soul,” are retained in Greek, with ordinary modern English opposite.

1384.Kanōn is a standard or measure. The argument looks for law and justice in the soul’s own ordering, diakosmāsis. Noos, “intellect,” thymōsis, the spirited power, and epithymia, “desire,” have distinct functions. The edition supplies “intellect” and the words “impulse, the”; the corresponding English remains marked, with “by” making the parallel construction readable.

1385.The hierarchy concerns the soul’s functions: intellect leads, the spirited power occupies the middle, and desire is governed. “Leads” follows the intended sense of the unusual printed ageesthai; the apparatus questions that form while retaining it. Skanos, “frame,” denotes the bodily structure. The claim about human beings alone receiving law and justice belongs to the excerpt’s argument.

About This Reading Edition

Stobaeus gathered Greek philosophy and poetry for his son Septimius. Volume I presents the dedication testimony, On Arithmetic, Book I through chapter 60, and the ancient contents of all four books. This complete bilingual edition includes an introduction and 2,117 explanatory notes.

Historical Text and Translation

The Greek follows Curt Wachsmuth’s 1884 Volume I, checked against the supplied scan. Gaps, lost-chapter headings, and uncertain attributions remain visible. Chapter 2 includes a labeled proposed reconstruction. The appendix outlines Books I–IV; the full texts of Books II–IV are outside this volume. Reader pages preserve the companion PDF’s numbering.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the Greek. Prose and verse retain their distinct forms, with mixed passages preserving their quoted verse. Every passage is paired with its Greek and identified by the edition’s reference number. All 2,117 notes remain linked to their passages, with continuous numbering across the introduction and text.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 printing are in the public domain. The independent English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The complete supplied edition is available as PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown. The PDF retains the fixed page locations used by the companion lexicon.