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.7.26.18–II.7.26.19

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.26.18–II.7.26.19

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Ancient Greek

p. 546

Διόρθωσις καὶ διανομὴ τῶν ἔργων

II.7.26.18

Πολιτικοῦ δ’ ἀνδρὸς ἔργον εἶναι καὶ τὸ διορθῶσαι πολιτείαν, ὃ πολὺ χαλεπώτερον φαίνεσθαι τοῦ κτίσαι· καὶ τὸ διανεῖμαι τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸ μὲν πρὸς τὰ ἀναγκαῖα, τὸ δὲ πρὸς τὰ σπουδαῖα. Δημιουργοὺς μὲν γὰρ καὶ θῆτας καὶ γεωργοὺς καὶ ἐμπόρους πρὸς τὸ ἀναγκαῖον, ὑπηρέτας γὰρ εἶναι τοῖς πολιτικοῖς τούτους· τὸ δὲ μάχιμον πᾶν καὶ βουλευτικὸν κυριώτερον εἶναι διὰ τὸ ἀρετῆς ἐπιμελεῖσθαι καὶ περὶ τὰ καλὰ σπουδάζειν.

Ἡλικίαι καὶ πολιτικὰ ἔργα

II.7.26.19

Τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν πρεσβύτερον προβουλεύειν, τὸ δὲ γεραρώτερον θεραπεύειν τὸ θεῖον, τὸ δὲ νέον ἁπάντων προπολεμεῖν. Ταύτην δ’ ἀρχαίαν εἶναι πάνυ τὴν διάταξιν, Αἰγυπτίων πρώτων καταστησαμένων.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 547

Reform and the Division of Work

II.7.26.18

The work of a statesman also includes correcting a constitution, which seems much harder than founding one, and dividing the multitude of people, some for necessary tasks and others for excellent ones.⁷⁶⁶ Craftsmen, hired laborers, farmers, and merchants serve what is necessary, for these are assistants to those engaged in civic life.⁷⁶⁷ The whole fighting and deliberating element has greater authority, because it attends to virtue and devotes itself to noble things.⁷⁶⁸

Age Groups and Civic Functions

II.7.26.19

Of these, the older element deliberates in advance, the more elderly serves the divine, and the young fights in the forefront for all.⁷⁶⁹ This arrangement is very ancient, the Egyptians having first established it.⁷⁷⁰

766.Διορθῶσαι is to correct or set right, contrasted with κτίσαι, to found. The comparative much harder and the qualification seems both remain. The division that follows distinguishes necessities from σπουδαῖα, excellent or serious pursuits, within the account’s hierarchy of civic work.

767.Δημιουργοί are craftsmen or artisans here; the same word’s cosmological use for a divine maker, demiourgos, is not relevant to this occupational list. Θῆτες are hired laborers, distinct from the δοῦλοι, slaves, named earlier. Farmers and merchants complete the four groups. Τοῖς πολιτικοῖς is dative: these groups serve those engaged in civic life.

768.Κυριώτερον means more authoritative or possessing greater control. The account privileges the fighting and deliberating element on the stated ground of its concern for virtue and noble pursuits. This is its claim about a political hierarchy; the translation does not treat the other occupations as outside the city’s population. The printed πᾶν, whole, remains.

769.The three age descriptions remain distinct: πρεσβύτερον, older; γεραρώτερον, more elderly or venerable; and νέον, young. Προβουλεύειν is to deliberate beforehand, and προπολεμεῖν to fight in front or in defense of others. Θεραπεύειν τὸ θεῖον concerns religious service or worship.

770.The assertion that Egyptians first established this arrangement belongs to the ancient exposition. Wachsmuth compares Politics VII.10, 1329b1–4. It is not presented as an independently demonstrated chronology of the origins of civic institutions.

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.