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.7.11k.1–II.7.11k.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 170 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11k.1–II.7.11k.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 336

Ἀγροικία καὶ ἀγριότης

II.7.11k.1

Φασὶ δὲ καὶ ἄγροικον εἶναι πάντα φαῦλον· τὴν γὰρ ἀγροικίαν ἀπειρίαν εἶναι τῶν κατὰ πόλιν ἐθῶν καὶ νόμων· ᾗ πάντα φαῦλον ἔνοχον ὑπάρχειν. εἶναι δὲ καὶ ἄγριον, ἐναντιωτικὸν ὄντα τῇ κατὰ νόμον διεξαγωγῇ καὶ θηριώδη καὶ βλαπτικὸν ἄνθρωπον.

Τυραννικὸς καὶ ἀχάριστος

II.7.11k.2

Τὸν δ’ αὐτὸν τοῦτον καὶ ἀνήμερον ὑπάρχειν καὶ τυραννικόν, οὕτως διακείμενον ὥστε δεσποτικὰ ποιεῖν, ἔτι δὲ ὠμὰ καὶ βίαια καὶ παράνομα καιρῶν ἐπιλαμβανόμενον. Εἶναι δὲ καὶ ἀχάριστον, οὔτε πρὸς ἀνταπόδοσιν χάριτος οἰκείως ἔχοντα οὔτε πρὸς μετάδοσιν διὰ τὸ μήτε κοινῶς τι ποιεῖν μήτε φιλικῶς μήτ’ ἀμελετήτως.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 337

Rusticity and Wildness

II.7.11k.1

They also say that every base person is rustic. For rusticity is inexperience of a city’s customs and laws, a condition to which every base person is subject.⁴⁴¹ He is also wild, being opposed to the conduct of life according to law, a beastlike and harmful human being.⁴⁴²

Tyrannical and Ungrateful

II.7.11k.2

This same person is also untamed and tyrannical, disposed to act as a despot and, when opportunities arise, to do cruel, violent, and unlawful things.⁴⁴³ He is also ungrateful, being properly disposed neither toward returning a favor nor toward sharing, because he does nothing for the common good, in friendship, or in an unstudied manner.⁴⁴⁴

441.Ἀγροικία, “rusticity,” is defined through civic customs and laws, rather than by residence in the countryside. Wachsmuth prints Meineke’s relative ᾗ, “to which,” where the apparatus records ἢ, “or.” Its antecedent is rusticity, the condition to which the base person is subject.

442.The source distinguishes ἄγροικος, “rustic,” from ἄγριος, “wild,” and proceeds through opposition to lawful conduct to being beastlike and harmful. The preceding account defines law as right reason, II.7.11i.5. These are predicates of the ethical type described here, not a claim that rural inhabitants are inherently vicious.

443.Καιρῶν ἐπιλαμβανόμενον retains the qualification of seizing opportunities; the claim describes a disposition and its exercise when occasion offers. “Tyrannical” does not require the person to hold the office of tyrant.

444.Wachsmuth prints ἀμελετήτως, associated with lack of rehearsal or studied effort, although his apparatus records other readings and conjectures. “In an unstudied manner” understands it here as uncontrived action, alongside acting for the common good and in friendship. The interpretation is uncertain; the printed word has not been silently replaced by a conjecture meaning “carefully.” Μετάδοσις is sharing, distinct from returning a favor.

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.