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 31 · II.31.38–II.31.39

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.38–II.31.39

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Ancient Greek

p. 786

Αἰλιανοῦ

II.31.38

Σωκράτης ὁ γενναῖος ᾐτιᾶτο τῶν πατέρων ἐκείνους, ὅσοι ⟨μὴ⟩ παιδεύσαντες αὑτῶν τοὺς υἱεῖς, εἶτα ἀπορούμενοι ἦγον ἐπὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς τοὺς νεανίσκους καὶ ἔκρινον αὐτοῖς ἀχαριστίας, ὅτι οὐ τρέφονται ὑπ’ αὐτῶν· εἶπε γὰρ ἀδύνατον ἀξιοῦν τοὺς πατέρας, μὴ γὰρ οἵους τε εἶναι τοὺς μὴ μαθόντας τὰ δίκαια ποιεῖν αὐτά.

Ἀντιφῶντος

II.31.39

Πρῶτον, οἶμαι, τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἐστὶ παίδευσις· ὅταν γάρ τις πράγματος κἂν ὁτουοῦν τὴν ἀρχὴν ὀρθῶς ποιήσηται, εἰκὸς καὶ τὴν τελευτὴν ὀρθῶς γίγνεσθαι· καὶ γὰρ τῇ γῇ οἷον ἄν τις τὸ σπέρμα ἐναρόσῃ, τοιαῦτα καὶ τὰ ἔκφορα δεῖ προσδοκᾶν· καὶ ἐν νέῳ σώματι ὅταν τις τὴν παίδευσιν γενναίαν ἐναρόσῃ, ζῇ τοῦτο καὶ θάλλει διὰ παντὸς τοῦ βίου, καὶ αὐτὸ οὔτε ὄμβρος οὔτε ἀνομβρία ἀφαιρεῖται.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 787

Aelian

II.31.38

The noble Socrates used to reproach those fathers who, ⟨not⟩ having educated their own sons, later, when in need, brought the young men before the magistrates and prosecuted them for ingratitude because they were not being supported by them.¹¹⁴⁰ For he said that the fathers were demanding the impossible: people who had not learned what is just could not do it.¹¹⁴¹

Antiphon

II.31.39

Education, I think, comes first in human affairs. For whenever one makes a correct beginning in any undertaking whatsoever, the ending too is likely to turn out correctly.¹¹⁴² For whatever kind of seed one sows in the earth, one must expect a corresponding kind of produce. And whenever one sows a noble education in a young body, it lives and flourishes throughout life, and neither rain nor drought takes it away.¹¹⁴³

1140.Wachsmuth identifies this as fragment 4 of Aelian’s Various History in the Teubner edition he cites. The main text calls Socrates γενναῖος, noble or high-minded; the proposed replacement Athenian is not adopted. The supplied negative ⟨μή⟩ is represented by ⟨not⟩. Its presence is essential: the complaint concerns fathers who failed to educate their sons.

1141.The fathers bring the charge, and they are the people seeking support from the sons. Τρέφεσθαι here is to be maintained or supported; the young men are accused of ingratitude. The concluding reason treats learning what is just as preparation for doing it. The story does not identify a particular prosecution or provide the text of a law.

1142.The heading gives Antiphon’s name without a work title or details sufficient to identify which writer of that name is intended. The phrases I think and likely qualify the priority given to education and the expectation that a good beginning brings a good end.

1143.In the second sowing image the young body receives education as soil receives seed. The neuter pronouns τοῦτο and αὐτό are rendered it, maintaining the image of what is sown. Rain and drought threaten ordinary crops; here the image makes sound education a lasting possession.

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.