Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

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 8 · II.8.17–II.8.20

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 284 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.17–II.8.20

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Ancient Greek

p. 564

Ἀναξιμένους

II.8.17

Τὸ γὰρ δυσλόγιστον τοῦ βίου τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τύχην προσαγορεύειν εἰώθαμεν. Εἰ γὰρ ταῖς γνώμαις πάντα κατωρθοῦμεν, ὄνομα τῆς τύχης οὐκ ἂν ἦν.

Ἐπανδρίδου

II.8.18

Φρόνιμος ὁ δι’ ἑαυτὸν εὖ πρήσσων, ὁ δὲ διὰ τὴν τύχην μακάριος.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ

II.8.19

Φρόνησις εὐτυχίην ὡς τὰ πολλὰ χαρίζεται, τύχη δὲ φρόνησιν οὐ ποιέει.

Θουκυδίδου δημηγορίας Ἀθηναίων

II.8.20

Πᾶσι δὲ ἀνεπίφθονον τὰ ξυμφέροντα τῶν μεγίστων πέρι κινδύνων εὖ τίθεσθαι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 565

Anaximenes

II.8.17

For we are accustomed to call the part of human life that is hard to calculate fortune. For if we got everything right through our judgments, there would be no name for fortune.⁷⁹⁷

Epandrides

II.8.18

The man who prospers through himself is wise; the man who does so through fortune is blessed.⁷⁹⁸

The same author

II.8.19

Practical wisdom generally brings good fortune, but fortune does not produce practical wisdom.⁷⁹⁹

Thucydides from the Athenians’ Speech

II.8.20

Everyone may, without reproach, make good provision for their interests in the face of the greatest dangers.⁸⁰⁰

797.Δυσλόγιστον is what is difficult to reckon or calculate, rather than necessarily irrational. The counterfactual condition follows the printed κατωρθοῦμεν, if we got things right; the consequence is that the name fortune would have no place. The heading gives Anaximenes without further identification.

798.Εὖ πρήσσων means doing well or prospering. The contrast assigns wisdom to success achieved through oneself and blessedness to success through fortune. The attribution Epandrides remains as printed. Wachsmuth calls the name unknown among philosophers and records proposed identifications; the fragment does not securely identify a particular author or school.

799.The same author refers to Epandrides in the preceding heading. Ὡς τὰ πολλά means for the most part or generally, an essential limit on the first claim. Εὐτυχίη is good fortune, whereas the second clause has the broader τύχη, fortune. The Ionic forms εὐτυχίην and ποιέει remain as printed.

800.Thucydides I.75.4, in the Athenian envoys’ speech at Sparta. Ἀνεπίφθονον describes what is not subject to resentment or reproach; the infinitive explains what may be done without that reproach. The assertion belongs to the speakers’ defense of their conduct, rather than being detached from the speech as Thucydides’ own unqualified judgment.

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.