Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 327 of 516
Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.47.1–II.8.47.2
Ancient Greek
p. 650Ἐν ταὐτῷ
Διὰ τί οὖν παρ’ ἀξίαν αἱ διανομαὶ ἀποδίδονται; ἢ τοῦτο οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀμφισβητεῖν ὅσιον; οὐ γὰρ ἐπ’ ἄλλῳ τινὶ κεῖται, ἐπ’ αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου αἱρέσει τἀγαθά, καὶ ταῦτα ἐν τῇ προαιρέσει μόνον κυριώτατα δὴ ἀφώρισται, τὰ δ’ ἀπορούμενα παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς δι’ ἄγνοιαν ἀμφισβητεῖται. Οὐκ ἄλλη οὖν ἐπικαρπία τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐστιν ἢ αὐτὴ ἑαυτῆς.
Ἰαμβλίχου — συνέχεια
Οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ἐλαττοῦται ὅστις σπουδαῖος ἀπὸ τῆς τύχης, κρείττονα γὰρ αὐτὸν πάσης συντυχίας ἡ μεγαλοψυχία ἀπεργάζεται. Οὐδὲ γὰρ παρὰ φύσιν γίγνεται· ἐξαρκεῖ γὰρ ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀκρότης καὶ τελειότης τὴν ἀρίστην φύσιν συμπληρῶσαι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. Καὶ μὴν τά γε ἐναντία εἶναι δοκοῦντα γυμνάζει καὶ συνέχει καὶ συναύξει τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ οὐχ οἷόν ἐστι χωρὶς αὐτῶν καλοὺς κἀγαθοὺς γίγνεσθαι.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8
p. 651From the same work
Why, then, are distributions made contrary to merit? Or is it not even proper to raise this question in the first place?908 For good things depend on nothing else, but on the human being himself and his choice; it is in deliberate choice alone that these are most strictly defined. The matters that trouble most people are disputed through ignorance. Virtue, therefore, has no fruit other than itself.909
Iamblichus continued
Nor is any good person diminished by Fortune, for greatness of soul makes him superior to every circumstance.910 Nor does this occur contrary to nature: the soul’s highest excellence and perfection suffice to complete the best nature of the human being. Indeed, the very things that seem contrary train and sustain virtue and will increase it; it is impossible to become noble and good without them.911
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.47.1–II.8.47.2
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.