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Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 3 · I.3.54

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Facing Pages · Branch 70 of 879

Book I Chapter 3 · I.3.54

Ancient Greek

p. 136

54 Ἐν ταὐτῷ

I.3.54

Ἀλλ’ οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνο παρετέον, ὡς, εἰ καὶ μὴ κακῶν αἴτιοι τυγχάνουσιν οἱ θεοί, τῶν γε τοιούτων ἔνια προσάπτουσί τισι καὶ περιβάλλουσιν ἀξίους σωματικαῖς τε ἐλαττώσεσι καὶ ταῖς τῶν ἐκτός, οὐ κακοηθείᾳ χρώμενοι, κἀξεπίτηδες δυσχρηστῆσαι ἄνθρωπον οἰόμενοι δεῖν, ἀλλ’ ἐν τρόπῳ κολάσεως.

Καθάπερ γὰρ λοιμοὶ καὶ αὐχμοί, ἔτι δὲ ἐπομβρίαι καὶ σεισμοὶ καὶ πᾶν τὸ τοιόνδε τὰ μὲν πολλὰ γίγνεται δι’ αἰτίας ἑτέρας τινὰς φυσικωτέρας, ἔστι δ’ ὅτε καὶ ὑπὸ θεῶν, ἐπειδὰν καιρὸς ᾖ δημοσίᾳ καὶ κοινῇ τὰ πολλῶν ἀμπλακήματα κολασθῆναι, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ πρὸς ἕνα χρῶνταί ποτε θεοὶ σωματικοῖς ⟨τε⟩ ἐλαττώμασι καὶ τοῖς ⟨τῶν⟩ ἐκτός, ⟨ἐς⟩ αὐτοῦ μέντοι κόλασιν, ἐπιστροφὴν δὲ καὶ προαίρεσιν ἀμείνω τῶν ἄλλων.

136

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 3

p. 137

54 In the same work

I.3.54

Yet this too must not be passed over: although the gods are not responsible for evils, they do attach some things of that sort to certain people and subject those who deserve it to bodily losses and losses of external goods. They do this not out of malice, or because they think they ought deliberately to harm a human being, but by way of punishment.147

For plagues and droughts, excessive rains and earthquakes, and everything of that kind mostly occur through other, more natural causes, but sometimes also through the gods, when it is time for the transgressions of many to be punished publicly and collectively. In the same way the gods sometimes employ bodily losses and losses of external goods against an individual: ⟨for⟩ his punishment, but for the correction and better choice of others.

137

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.