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.7.13.9–II.7.13.10

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English Page · Branch 199 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.13.9–II.7.13.10

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Ancient Greek

p. 394

Ἐκλογὴ καὶ τὰ καθήκοντα

II.7.13.9

Τὰς γὰρ πράξεις ἀπό τε τῆς τῶν κατὰ φύσιν ἐκλογῆς καὶ τῆς ἀπεκλογῆς τῶν παρὰ φύσιν τὰς ἀρχὰς ἔχειν συμβέβηκε καὶ τὰ λεγόμενα καθήκοντα· δι’ ὃ καὶ τάς τε κατορθώσεις καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἐν τούτοις καὶ περὶ ταῦτα γίνεσθαι. Σχεδὸν γὰρ τὴν ὅλην τῆς αἱρέσεως ὑπογραφὴν ἀπὸ τούτων ὡρμῆσθαι, καθάπερ ἐπιδείξω διὰ βραχυτάτων.

Τέκνα δι’ ἑαυτὰ αἱρετά

II.7.13.10

Ὅτι γὰρ οὐ μόνον αἱρετὰ τὰ τέκνα τοῖς γενναμένοις ἐστὶ διὰ τὰς χρείας, ἀλλὰ καὶ δι’ ἑαυτά, γνώριμον ἐκ τῆς ἐναργείας. Οὐδένα γοῦν οὕτως ὠμὸν εἶναι καὶ θηριώδη τὴν φύσιν, ὃς οὐκ ἂν σπουδάζοι μετὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ τελευτὴν εὐδαιμονεῖν τὰ τέκνα καὶ καλῶς ἔτι διάγειν, μᾶλλον ἢ τοὐναντίον. Ἀπὸ ταύτης γοῦν τῆς φιλοστοργίας καὶ διαθήκας τελευτᾶν μέλλοντας τίθεσθαι καὶ τῶν ἔτι κυοφορουμένων φροντίζειν, ἐπιτρόπους ἀπολείποντας καὶ κηδεμόνας καὶ τοῖς φιλτάτοις παρατιθεμένους καὶ παρακαλοῦντας ἐπικουρεῖν αὐτοῖς καὶ τινας μὴν ἀποθνῄσκουσι τοῖς τέκνοις συναποθνῄσκειν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 395

Selection and Appropriate Actions

II.7.13.9

Actions and what are called appropriate actions have their beginnings in the selection of things in accordance with nature and the rejection of things contrary to nature. Hence successful actions and errors occur among and concern these things. For almost the whole outline of the school takes its starting point from them, as I shall show very briefly.⁵²⁷

Children Valued for Their Own Sakes

II.7.13.10

That children are choiceworthy to their parents not only for their usefulness but also for their own sakes is known from plain experience. No one, surely, is so cruel and beastlike by nature that he would not care that, after his own death, his children should be happy and continue to live well, rather than the contrary.⁵²⁸ From this parental affection, those about to die make wills and care even for children still in the womb. They leave guardians and protectors, entrust the children to their dearest friends, and ask them to give assistance. Some, indeed, die along with their children when the children die.⁵²⁹

527.Ἀπεκλογή is rejection, paired with selection. Καθήκοντα, κατορθώσεις, and ἁμαρτίαι retain the vocabulary of appropriate actions, successful actions, and errors that also appeared in the Stoic account. Wachsmuth calls attention to that overlap. Αἵρεσις in “the school” means the philosophical school or position, rather than an individual act of choosing. The first-person promise belongs to the epitome’s speaker.

528.The argument contrasts usefulness to parents with the children’s own worth, using concern for their future after the parent’s death as evidence. Wachsmuth’s printed ἔτι διάγειν is rendered “continue to live”; his apparatus identifies it as his correction of the transmitted ἐπανάγειν and records Meineke’s alternative ἐπιδιάγειν. The English follows the printed correction.

529.Φιλοστοργία is affectionate attachment, here parental affection. The subjects of making wills and leaving guardians are the parents approaching death; the final clause instead concerns some parents dying when their children die. The passage reports that extremity of affection as evidence. It does not state a cause or method of death, and the translation supplies none. Wachsmuth compares Cicero, On Ends III.65 for the concern extending beyond the parent’s life.

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.