Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 7 · II.7.6–II.7.6a.1

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 121 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.6–II.7.6a.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 238

Ἀρετὴ καὶ εὐδαιμονία κατὰ φύσιν

II.7.6

Τοῦ δὲ ἀνθρώπου ὄντος ζῴου λογικοῦ θνητοῦ, φύσει πολιτικοῦ, φασὶ καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν πᾶσαν τὴν περὶ ἄνθρωπον καὶ τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ζωὴν ἀκόλουθον ὑπάρχειν καὶ ὁμολογουμένην φύσει.

Ζήνωνος καὶ Κλεάνθους ὅροι τοῦ τέλους

II.7.6a.1

Τὸ δὲ τέλος ὁ μὲν Ζήνων οὕτως ἀπέδωκε· ‘τὸ ὁμολογουμένως ζῆν’· τοῦτο δ’ ἐστὶ καθ’ ἕνα λόγον καὶ σύμφωνον ζῆν, ὡς τῶν μαχομένως ζώντων κακοδαιμονούντων. Οἱ δὲ μετὰ τοῦτον προσδιαρθροῦντες οὕτως ἐξέφερον ‘ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν’ ὑπολαβόντες ἔλαττον εἶναι κατηγόρημα τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ Ζήνωνος ῥηθέν. Κλεάνθης γὰρ πρῶτος διαδεξάμενος αὐτοῦ τὴν αἵρεσιν προσέθηκε ‘τῇ φύσει’ καὶ οὕτως ἀπέδωκε· ‘τέλος ἐστὶ τὸ ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν’.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 239

Virtue and Happiness in Accordance with Nature

II.7.6

Since a human being is a mortal rational animal, social by nature, they say that all human virtue and happiness are a life of consistency and agreement with nature.²⁸⁷

Zeno and Cleanthes on the End

II.7.6a.1

Zeno defined the end thus: “to live in agreement.” This means living according to a single, harmonious rational principle, since those who live in conflict are unhappy.²⁸⁸ Those after him made the formulation more explicit: “to live in agreement with nature,” taking the predicate stated by Zeno to be incomplete. For Cleanthes, the first to succeed him in the school, added “with nature” and defined it thus: “The end is to live in agreement with nature.”²⁸⁹

287.Πολιτικός describes the human being as social or fitted for civic life. The compressed sentence predicates a consistent life, in agreement with nature, of human virtue and happiness. It does not introduce bodily health, wealth, or success as additional requirements for happiness. The following formulations explain the agreement in different ways.

288.The first formula is simply ὁμολογουμένως ζῆν, “to live in agreement.” “With nature” is not silently inserted into Zeno’s words. The explanatory λόγος is rendered “rational principle”; ἕνα and σύμφωνον qualify its unity and harmony. The opposing condition is living in conflict, μαχομένως, not merely disagreement in conversation.

289.The account explicitly attributes the addition τῇ φύσει to Cleanthes and presents it as making an incomplete predicate more explicit. This is the history given by the source. Compare Diogenes Laertius VII.87, whose report associates the fuller formula with Zeno; that parallel has not replaced the wording or attribution printed here.

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.

Rights

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.