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.7.7f.1

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.7f.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 264

Τρεῖς σημασίαι τῆς ἀξίας

II.7.7f.1

Πάντα δὲ τὰ κατὰ φύσιν ἀξίαν ἔχειν καὶ πάντα τὰ παρὰ φύσιν ἀπαξίαν. Τὴν δὲ ἀξίαν λέγεσθαι τριχῶς, τήν τε δόσιν καὶ τιμὴν καθ’ αὑτὸ καὶ τὴν ἀμοιβὴν τοῦ δοκιμαστοῦ· καὶ τὴν τρίτην, ἣν ὁ Ἀντίπατρος ἐκλεκτικὴν προσαγορεύει, καθ’ ἣν διδόντων τῶν πραγμάτων τάδε τινὰ μᾶλλον ἀντὶ τῶνδε αἱρούμεθα, οἷον ὑγίειαν ἀντὶ νόσου καὶ ζωὴν ἀντὶ θανάτου καὶ πλοῦτον ἀντὶ πενίας. Κατὰ τὸ ἀνάλογον δὲ καὶ τὴν ἀπαξίαν τριχῶς φασὶ λέγεσθαι, ἀντιτιθεμένων τῶν σημαινομένων τοῖς ἐπὶ τῆς τρίτης ἀξίας εἰρημένοις.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 265

Three Senses of Value

II.7.7f.1

All things in accordance with nature have value, and all things contrary to nature have disvalue. “Value” is used in three senses: contribution and worth in itself; an exchange equivalent determined by an appraiser; and the third, which Antipater calls “selective” value. In accordance with this third sense, as circumstances allow, we choose certain things rather than others, for example health rather than disease, life rather than death, and wealth rather than poverty.³³¹ By analogy, they say that “disvalue” too is used in three senses, the meanings being opposed to what was said concerning the third sense of value.³³²

331.The compressed first expression is δόσις καὶ τιμὴ καθ’ αὑτό, “contribution and worth in itself.” The following paragraph explains δόσις and the appraiser. The third sense is explicitly attributed to Antipater and concerns selection among indifferents. “As circumstances allow” preserves διδόντων τῶν πραγμάτων; the examples do not state that health, life, or wealth must be selected under every possible condition.

332.Wachsmuth prints τρίτης, “third,” in the concluding comparison, correcting the transmitted πρώτης, “first,” recorded in his apparatus. The English retains the printed wording, including its compressed reference from the three senses of disvalue to the third sense of value. Diogenes’s following classification is not identical to Antipater’s.

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.