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← ExitStobaeus, Volume II

Reading language

Book II Chapters 16–30

Chapter 16

That those who plot against others harm themselves without realizing it.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵⁰

Chapter 17

On good reputation.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵¹

Chapter 18

On public report.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵²

Chapter 19

That due measure is best.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵³

Chapter 20

That virtue is difficult to achieve, while vice is easy to practice.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵⁴

Chapter 21

That one should take no account of the judgment of those without understanding.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵⁵

Chapter 22

That hypocrisy should be cast out of the soul, since it harms both those who practice it and those toward whom it is directed.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵⁶

Chapter 23

That one should not meddle, since such conduct gives rise to envy and slander.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵⁷

Chapter 24

That when one has done wrong, regretting it is best.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵⁸

Chapter 25

On verbal abuse, which is not good.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁵⁹

Chapter 26

That in exchanges of abuse we should consider whether we have fallen into the same faults.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁶⁰

Chapter 27

On necessity in life.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁶¹

Chapter 28

That one should act at the right time.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁶²

Chapter 29

On intention: that one should not put things off haphazardly.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁶³

Chapter 30

That even suffering misfortune often proves beneficial, and especially to the foolish.

[Text missing]¹⁰⁶⁴

1050.Wachsmuth prints deest, is missing, beneath each of the following fifteen headings. The notices mark missing chapter texts, not surviving excerpts left untranslated. Here λανθάνουσι with the participle indicates that the plotters harm themselves without being aware of doing so.

1051.Εὐδοξία is favorable reputation or esteem. This heading concerns being well regarded; the next heading names φήμη, report or public talk, more generally. Neither chapter’s excerpts are present here.

1052.Φήμη can denote report, rumor, or what people say about someone. The surviving heading does not establish which examples or particular applications the missing chapter contained.

1053.Μέτρον is measure or a fitting limit. Due measure expresses the maxim’s preference for a proper measure over excess. The heading gives no author’s name, and the chapter text is missing.

1054.Δυσκατόρθωτον indicates something difficult to accomplish successfully; εὐμεταχείριστον contrasts what is readily taken up or practiced. The Greek prints these predicates in the neuter although ἀρετή and κακία are feminine.

1055.Δοκιμασία is assessment or approval; τῶν ἀσυνέτων identifies those making that assessment. Λόγον ποιεῖσθαι means to take account of something. The heading concerns the judgment made by the unwise, rather than an examination of them.

1056.Ὑπόκρισις here is pretense or dissimulation, rather than stage performance as such. The heading identifies harm to those who employ it as well as to its targets. Its chapter text is missing.

1057.Πολυπραγμονεῖν is intrusive meddling or busybodiness. The heading connects this behavior with envy and slander without specifying who feels the envy or directs the slander.

1058.Πλημμελεῖν is to err or act wrongly; μεταμελεῖσθαι is to regret what one has done. Κάλλιστον, literally finest or noblest, qualifies the act of regretting one’s own error. Only the heading is present.

1059.Λοιδορία is insulting or abusive speech. The heading evaluates it as οὐκ ἀγαθόν, not good. The missing chapter’s excerpts are not available here to develop that judgment.

1060.Λοιδορεῖσθαι can be middle, exchanging abuse, or passive, being reviled. The English leaves the speaker’s precise role in the quarrel open. The surviving heading calls for self-examination, but its missing chapter cannot clarify that role.

1061.Ἀνάγκη is necessity or constraint; κατὰ τὸν βίον places the topic in the sphere of life. The heading alone does not specify a doctrine of fate or explain what necessities the missing chapter discussed.

1062.Εὐκαίρως means at a fitting or opportune moment. The heading concerns the timing of action; its missing excerpts would have supplied the examples or arguments.

1063.The main text prints βούλεσθαι, to wish or will. The heading links intention with avoiding haphazard delay. The apparatus distinguishes another index heading about deliberating (βουλεύεσθαι), which is not substituted here. The relation between the two parts of the preserved title is compressed.

1064.Πολλάκις, often, qualifies the claim of benefit. The chapter’s explanation of how misfortune might help the foolish, those lacking good judgment, is missing along with its excerpts.