Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 104 of 516
Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5b8
Ancient Greek
p. 204Ἀρετὴ καὶ κακία
Ἀρετῆς δὲ καὶ κακίας οὐδὲν εἶναι μεταξύ. Πάντας γὰρ ἀνθρώπους ἀφορμὰς ἔχειν ἐκ φύσεως πρὸς ἀρετήν, καὶ οἱονεὶ τὸν τῶν ἡμιαμβείων λόγον ἔχειν κατὰ τὸν Κλεάνθην· ὅθεν ἀτελεῖς μὲν ὄντας εἶναι φαύλους, τελειωθέντας δὲ σπουδαίους.
Φασὶ δὲ καὶ πάντα ποιεῖν τὸν σοφὸν ⟨κατὰ⟩ πάσας τὰς ἀρετάς. Πᾶσαν γὰρ πρᾶξιν τελείαν αὐτοῦ εἶναι, διὸ καὶ μηδεμιᾶς ἀπολελείφθαι ἀρετῆς.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7
p. 205Virtue and Vice
There is nothing intermediate between virtue and vice. For all human beings have natural starting points toward virtue and, according to Cleanthes, are, as it were, like half-lines of iambic verse. Hence, while incomplete they are base, but when brought to completion they are virtuous.235
They also say that the wise person does everything ⟨in accordance with⟩ all the virtues. Every action of his is complete, and therefore falls short of no virtue.236
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5b8
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.
Historical Text and Translation
Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
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Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.