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Book II Chapter 8

Anaximenes

For we are accustomed to call the part of human life that is hard to calculate fortune. For if we got everything right through our judgments, there would be no name for fortune.⁷⁹⁷

Epandrides

The man who prospers through himself is wise; the man who does so through fortune is blessed.⁷⁹⁸

The same author

Practical wisdom generally brings good fortune, but fortune does not produce practical wisdom.⁷⁹⁹

Thucydides from the Athenians’ Speech

Everyone may, without reproach, make good provision for their interests in the face of the greatest dangers.⁸⁰⁰

Diogenes

Diogenes said he thought he saw Fortune leaping at him and saying:

But this raging dog I cannot strike.⁸⁰¹

From Epictetus’s Handbook

Disease is a hindrance to the body, but not to choice, unless choice itself wishes it. Lameness is a hindrance to the leg, ⟨but not to choice. Say this to yourself about each thing that befalls you; for you will find it a hindrance to something else,⟩ but not to you.⁸⁰²

⟨The same author⟩

Do not seek for events to happen as you wish, but wish for events as they happen, and you will proceed smoothly.⁸⁰³

Crito the Pythagorean from On Practical Wisdom

For God fashioned the human being in this way, wishing him neither to lack the power to strive toward noble things nor, on the other hand, to do so without choice.⁸⁰⁴ For he implanted in him a principle of such a kind that it includes both the power to act and the ability to choose, so that the human being himself might be responsible for the capacity for good things and their possession, while God is responsible for the encouragement toward them and the guidance that accords with right reason.⁸⁰⁵

Crito the Pythagorean continued

And for this reason he made him rise toward heaven and the intelligible itself, and implanted in him a kind of sight, what is called intellect, by which he will see God.⁸⁰⁶ For without God it was not possible to find what is best and most beautiful, nor without intellect to see God himself, since everything mortal naturally takes root with an inborn lack of understanding. It is not God who bestows this lack of understanding, but the substance of coming to be and the choice of their own soul.⁸⁰⁷

From Plutarch, Whether Foreknowledge of Future Events Is Useful · 1

And was Nestor not foolish, begrudging sleep to the men guarding the ships and urging them:

So keep watch now, dear children, and let sleep take no one, lest we become a joy to our enemies?

We shall not become one, someone says, even if we sleep, if it is fated that the naval station will not be captured.⁸⁰⁸

Plutarch · Continuation

Who would not say to those who babble such things that perhaps all this has been fated, but co-fated with each thing is its being accomplished through these conditions, within them, in this way, and not otherwise, apart from them?⁸⁰⁹ For there is no watch kept by sleepers, nor victory for men who flee; nor can there be harvesting without sowing good, clean soil, or begetting without intercourse with a woman who is of age and has a fertile bodily constitution, or catching game in places where there is no game.⁸¹⁰

Aeschines

Surely it is not beyond a human being to be noble and good.⁸¹¹

From Epictetus’s Handbook

Remember that you are an actor in a play of whatever kind the director wishes: if short, in a short one; if long, in a long one. If he wishes ⟨you⟩ to play a beggar, see that you play that part well; likewise if your part is a lame man, a ruler, or a private citizen.⁸¹² For your task is to play the assigned role well; choosing the role belongs to someone else.⁸¹³

Epicurus

Fortune makes only a small intrusion upon the wise person; reason has managed the greatest and most decisive matters throughout life’s continuous course.⁸¹⁴

797.Δυσλόγιστον is what is difficult to reckon or calculate, rather than necessarily irrational. The counterfactual condition follows the printed κατωρθοῦμεν, if we got things right; the consequence is that the name fortune would have no place. The heading gives Anaximenes without further identification.

798.Εὖ πρήσσων means doing well or prospering. The contrast assigns wisdom to success achieved through oneself and blessedness to success through fortune. The attribution Epandrides remains as printed. Wachsmuth calls the name unknown among philosophers and records proposed identifications; the fragment does not securely identify a particular author or school.

799.The same author refers to Epandrides in the preceding heading. Ὡς τὰ πολλά means for the most part or generally, an essential limit on the first claim. Εὐτυχίη is good fortune, whereas the second clause has the broader τύχη, fortune. The Ionic forms εὐτυχίην and ποιέει remain as printed.

800.Thucydides I.75.4, in the Athenian envoys’ speech at Sparta. Ἀνεπίφθονον describes what is not subject to resentment or reproach; the infinitive explains what may be done without that reproach. The assertion belongs to the speakers’ defense of their conduct, rather than being detached from the speech as Thucydides’ own unqualified judgment.

801.The quoted verse is Iliad VIII.299. The anecdote puts a Homeric line into Fortune’s mouth: Diogenes imagines himself as the dog she cannot hit. The movement expressed by ἐνορούουσαν is difficult and has been variously emended; leaping at him follows Wachsmuth’s printed form. The account reports what Diogenes thought he saw, without converting the imagined encounter into a literal event.

802.Handbook 9. Προαίρεσις, choice, is the capacity for deliberate moral choice central to Epictetus’s account. The distinction acknowledges bodily hindrances while locating the final you in that capacity. Wachsmuth prints a long supplement drawn from the Handbook, beginning but not to choice after leg and ending hindrance to something else. It remains bracketed throughout in both languages; the final but not to you is outside it. The Greek retains θελήσῃ and σὸν as printed here.

803.Handbook 8. Wachsmuth supplies the heading the same author to separate this excerpt from the preceding one; the attribution remains bracketed. Εὐροήσεις means you will flow well or have a smooth course, the image retained in proceed smoothly. The translation follows the printed order of the second clause and does not insert the extra infinitive found in a different wording of the Handbook.

804.The heading attributes the excerpt to Crito the Pythagorean and names a work on practical wisdom; it does not cite Plato’s dialogue Crito. The Doric title φρονήσιος corresponds to φρονήσεως, practical wisdom. Other dialect forms include δηλόμενος, wishing, and ἔχεν, to have or be in a condition. The two negatives distinguish inability to strive for noble things from striving without choice; the passage rejects both conditions.

805.Ἀρχά is a principle or source of action. Τὸ δυνατόν and τὸ προαιρετόν distinguish ability from choice. The paired clauses assign responsibility to the human agent and to God: αὐτός refers to the human being, while ὁ θεός is the explicit subject of the second clause. Κατοχά is possession or holding fast, and ὀπαδήσις is guidance or leading along. The passage coordinates human responsibility with divine encouragement.

806.The printed ἀναθρῴσκοντα conveys rising or springing upward. Wachsmuth retains this unusual expression rather than replacing it with the proposed verb for looking upward. The Greek retains rejected [τὸν] before heaven; the English follows its deletion. Αὐτὸ νοατόν means the intelligible itself, not that the human being is himself intelligible. The following explanation identifies the sight in question with νόος, intellect, rather than with bodily eyesight.

807.The Doric forms θεῶ and νόω correspond to the genitives θεοῦ and νοῦ. The final ταύταν refers to ἀφροσύνα, lack of understanding; it does not refer to intellect. The text locates this deficiency in the nature of coming to be and the soul’s own choice, expressly denying that God gives it. The plural αὐτῶν, their own, follows the general reference to mortal beings; the accompanying ψυχᾶς, soul, is singular in the Greek. This is the continuation and end of excerpt 24; the added subdivision serves layout only.

808.Iliad X.192–193. Nestor exhorts the guards at the Greek ships. The objection treats the camp’s safety as fated independently of their keeping watch; the reply in the continuation challenges that independence. The opening question and the imaginary speaker’s response are stages of the argument. Wachsmuth cites this Plutarch fragment as XV.3. The numbered layout divisions here do not introduce new ancient excerpts.

809.Συγκαθείμαρται means has been co-fated: the means and conditions are included with the outcome. The reply thus rejects the inference that a fated outcome makes the corresponding action unnecessary. The repeated through these, within these, in this way, and not otherwise deliberately emphasizes those connections. Supplied ⟨τὸ⟩ is the article that makes in this way parallel to the other nominal clauses; English absorbs it into the shared construction its being accomplished.

810.The examples specify different necessary conditions: wakefulness for guarding, standing rather than fleeing for victory, sowing for harvest, intercourse and fertility for begetting, and the presence of game for hunting. The agricultural wording retains both good and clean, corresponding to ἀγαθήν and καθαράν. No claim that effort guarantees every desired outcome is added to these examples.

811.Καλὸν κἀγαθόν combines noble and good; the contraction κἀγαθόν joins καί and ἀγαθόν. Οὐκ ἄπορον means not impossible or not beyond one’s resources. Wachsmuth’s reference is to Hermann’s collection of the Socratic Aeschines, rather than to a named speech by the Athenian orator.

812.Handbook 17. Διδάσκαλος, literally teacher, is the person who trains and directs the actors. Ὑποκριτής here means actor. The roles include poverty, bodily impairment, public authority, and private station. Supplied ⟨σε⟩ is shown as ⟨you⟩. The local wording οἷον, τοῦτον ἵνα καλῶς, and the final repeated πρόσωπον remain as Wachsmuth prints them.

813.Πρόσωπον can denote a theatrical mask, character, or role. The metaphor places the quality of the performance with the actor while assigning selection of the role to another. The final ἄλλου, of someone else, does not itself name that director as god.

814.Principal Doctrine XVI, also preserved at Diogenes Laertius X.144. The claim limits fortune’s interference while assigning the greatest and most decisive matters to λογισμός, reason or rational calculation. Wachsmuth’s local text has the single perfect διῴκηκε, has managed, followed by its unusual phrase about continuous time through life. The longer sequence has managed, manages, and will manage in the Diogenes Laertius parallel is not inserted here.