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.31.128.1

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.128.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 970

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Ἀγησίλαον ἐπιστολῆς

II.31.128.1

Ἀπέστειλάς μοι δεόμενος παρὰ σὲ ἰέναι, φάσκων ἐθέλειν περὶ τοῦ υἱέος συμβουλεύεσθαι, ὅπῃ τε καὶ ὅπως σῴζων τὰ Λακωνικὰ ἔθη καὶ ξενικῶν παιδευμάτων κοινωνήσει· κάμνω δὲ οὐ μετρίως κἀγώ· καὶ γὰρ τῆς ἡλικίας, ὥσπερ οἶσθα, πόρρω ἥκω καὶ οἱ ἰατροὶ εὐθυμίας πέρι φροντίζουσιν, ὡς ἐμοῦ βουλευομένου ἄλλο τι ἢ ζωὴν δικαίαν αἱρουμένου θάνατόν τε μέχρι μὴ αἰσχρός ἐστι τιμῶντος· ἀλλ’ εἰ μὲν σωζοίμεθα, ἅπερ ἐπέστειλα [διὰ στόματος] καὶ συγγινομένων ἀκούσῃ ἡμῶν· εἰ δέ τι ⟨τῶν⟩ εἰωθότων γένοιτο κακόν, τότε σοι δίδαγμα ἔστω ἡ ἐπιστολὴ φράζουσα ὑπὲρ ὧν μαθεῖν ἐβουλήθης.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 971

Attributed to Xenophon, From the Letter to Agesilaus

II.31.128.1

You sent to ask me to come to you, saying that you wished to consult about your son: by what means and in what way he might preserve Spartan customs while also sharing in foreign studies.¹⁴³¹ But I too am seriously ill. For, as you know, I have reached an advanced age, and the doctors are concerned about cheerfulness, as though I were considering something other than choosing a just life and honoring death so long as it is not shameful [construction uncertain].¹⁴³² But if we are spared, you will also hear from us, when we meet, what I have sent.¹⁴³³ If one ⟨of the⟩ usual misfortunes should occur, let the letter then be your instruction, setting out what you wished to learn.¹⁴³⁴

1431.Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, of the same author, carries forward Xenophon’s name. This letter belongs to the pseudonymous or apocryphal Xenophon letter collection; the Agesilaus letter is fragment VII in Hercher’s numbering. See Anna Marchewka, Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium 32(2) (2022), pp. 5–7, DOI 10.14746/sppgl.2022.XXXII.2.1. The numerical subdivisions and continued labels serve layout only.

1432.The text prints ζωὴν δικαίαν, a just life. The relation of βουλευομένου to the following genitive participles is not secure; the English gives a qualified construal. The qualification μέχρι μὴ αἰσχρός ἐστι, so long as it is not shameful, is retained.

1433.Wachsmuth rejects [διὰ στόματος], by word of mouth, following Usener. It remains visible in Greek but is omitted from the running English. Meeting and hearing from the writer are expressed by the remaining words.

1434.Wachsmuth prints Meineke’s supplied ⟨τῶν⟩, reflected by ⟨of the⟩. The usual misfortunes contrasts with being spared, without naming a particular outcome; the letter would provide instruction if a meeting became impossible.

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.