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.7.11g.2–II.7.11g.3

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English Page · Branch 161 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11g.2–II.7.11g.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 318

Δύο γένη τῶν ἀνθρώπων

II.7.11g.2

Ἀρέσκει γὰρ τῷ τε Ζήνωνι καὶ τοῖς ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ Στωικοῖς φιλοσόφοις δύο γένη τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἶναι, τὸ μὲν τῶν σπουδαίων, τὸ δὲ τῶν φαύλων· καὶ τὸ μὲν τῶν σπουδαίων διὰ παντὸς τοῦ βίου χρῆσθαι ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, τὸ δὲ τῶν φαύλων ταῖς κακίαις· ὅθεν τὸ μὲν ἀεὶ κατορθοῦν ἐν ἅπασιν οἷς προστίθεται, τὸ δὲ ἁμαρτάνειν. Καὶ τὸν μὲν σπουδαῖον ταῖς περὶ τὸν βίον ἐμπειρίαις χρώμενον ἐν τοῖς πραττομένοις ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ πάντ’ εὖ ποιεῖν, καθάπερ φρονίμως καὶ σωφρόνως καὶ κατὰ τὰς ἄλλας ἀρετάς· τὸν δὲ φαῦλον κατὰ τοὐναντίον κακῶς.

Μέγεθος ὕψος καὶ ἰσχύς

II.7.11g.3

Καὶ τὸν μὲν σπουδαῖον μέγαν εἶναι καὶ ἁδρὸν καὶ ὑψηλὸν καὶ ἰσχυρόν. Μέγαν μέν, ὅτι δύναται ἐφικνεῖσθαι τῶν κατὰ προαίρεσιν ὄντων αὐτῷ καὶ προκειμένων· ἁδρὸν δέ, ὅτι ἐστὶν ηὐξημένος πάντοθεν· ὑψηλὸν δ’, ὅτι μετείληφε τοῦ ἐπιβάλλοντος ὕψους ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ καὶ σοφῷ· καὶ ἰσχυρὸν δ’, ὅτι τὴν ἐπιβάλλουσαν ἰσχὺν περιπεποίηται, ἀήττητος ὢν καὶ ἀκαταγώνιστος.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 319

Two Kinds of Human Beings

II.7.11g.2

For Zeno and the Stoic philosophers who follow him hold that there are two kinds of human beings, the virtuous and the base. Throughout life the virtuous employ the virtues, and the base the vices. Hence the former always act correctly in everything they undertake, while the latter err.⁴¹⁶ The virtuous person, employing his experience in the affairs of life, does everything well in his actions—that is, wisely, temperately, and in accordance with the other virtues; the base person, on the contrary, does things badly.⁴¹⁷

Greatness Height and Strength

II.7.11g.3

The virtuous person is great, fully grown, lofty, and strong. Great, because he can reach the things that accord with his choice and lie before him; fully grown, because he has grown in every direction; lofty, because he possesses the height befitting a noble and wise man; and strong, because he has acquired the strength befitting him, being undefeated and unconquerable.⁴¹⁸

416.Κατορθοῦν and ἁμαρτάνειν resume correct action and error at II.7.11a. The distinction concerns the ethical character of action; it does not guarantee attainment of every external object one undertakes to pursue.

417.The explanation “wisely, temperately, and in accordance with the other virtues” specifies the sense of doing everything well. Compare the qualification of ordinary activities by virtue at II.7.11e. The English retains the reference to experience in the affairs of life, rather than reducing the claim to abstract knowledge alone.

418.The explanations give these descriptions an ethical sense rather than referring to bodily dimensions. Ἁδρός is “fully grown” or mature; the following ηὐξημένος sustains the growth image. Κατὰ προαίρεσιν retains the reference to choice, without importing a further technical definition of προαίρεσις from another author. “Befitting” renders the repeated ἐπιβάλλων.

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.