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.7.26.12–II.7.26.13

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English Page · Branch 272 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.26.12–II.7.26.13

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Ancient Greek

p. 540

Ὀρθαὶ πολιτεῖαι καὶ παρεκβάσεις

II.7.26.12

Ἄρχειν δ’ ἀναγκαῖον τῶν πόλεων ἢ ἕνα ἢ ὀλίγους ἢ πάντας. Τούτων δ’ ἕκαστον ὀρθῶς ἢ φαύλως ἔχειν· Ὀρθῶς μέν, ὅταν οἱ ἄρχοντες τοῦ κοινῇ συμφέροντος στοχάζωνται· φαύλως δέ, ὅταν τοῦ ἰδίου. Τὸ δὲ φαῦλον παρέκβασιν εἶναι τοῦ ὀρθοῦ. Βασιλείαν μὲν οὖν καὶ ἀριστοκρατίαν καὶ δημοκρατίαν ἐφίεσθαι τοῦ ὀρθοῦ· τυραννίδα δὲ καὶ ὀλιγαρχίαν καὶ ὀχλοκρατίαν τοῦ φαύλου.

Μικτὴ πολιτεία καὶ μεταβολή

II.7.26.13

Γίνεσθαι δέ τινα καὶ μικτὴν ἐκ τῶν ὀρθῶν πολιτειῶν ἀρίστην. Μεταβάλλειν δὲ τὰς πολιτείας πολλάκις πρὸς τὸ ἄμεινον καὶ τὸ χεῖρον. Καθόλου δ’ ἀρίστην εἶναι πολιτείαν τὴν κατ’ ἀρετὴν διακεκοσμημένην, χειρίστην δὲ τὴν κατὰ κακίαν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 541

Correct Constitutions and Their Deviations

II.7.26.12

Cities must be ruled by either one person, a few, or all. Each arrangement is either correct or bad: correct when the rulers aim at the common advantage, bad when they aim at their own. The bad is a deviation from the correct.⁷⁵⁴ Kingship, aristocracy, and democracy accordingly aim at what is correct; tyranny, oligarchy, and mob rule at what is bad.⁷⁵⁵

Mixed Government and Constitutional Change

II.7.26.13

There also comes to be a certain best constitution mixed from the correct forms of government.⁷⁵⁶ Constitutions often change for the better and for the worse. In general, the best constitution is that ordered according to virtue, and the worst that ordered according to vice.⁷⁵⁷

754.The numerical distinction, one, few, or all, is separate from the criterion of common or private advantage. Παρέκβασις is a deviation from the correct form. The account’s classification cannot therefore be inferred from the number of rulers alone.

755.The local epitome places δημοκρατία, democracy, among correct forms and ὀχλοκρατία, mob rule, among bad forms. In Politics III.7, Aristotle instead names πολιτεία as the correct rule of many and δημοκρατία as its deviation. Wachsmuth notes that difference. This translation preserves the epitome’s own six names and their classification.

756.The feminine μικτήν and ἀρίστην imply πολιτείαν, constitution. The mixed form is constituted from the correct forms already named. The passage gives no particular institutional mixture or historical example, and none is added.

757.Both directions of change remain, improvement and deterioration. The general criterion is an ordering according to virtue or vice, linking the political discussion with the preceding ethical exposition. No necessary progression toward a better constitution is asserted.

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.