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.7.6e.2–II.7.6e.3

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Facing Pages · Branch 125 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.6e.2–II.7.6e.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 246

Εὐδαιμονία καὶ τὸ τυχεῖν αὐτῆς

II.7.6e.2

Κέχρηται δὲ καὶ Κλεάνθης τῷ ὅρῳ τούτῳ ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ συγγράμμασι καὶ ὁ Χρύσιππος καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τούτων πάντες, τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν εἶναι λέγοντες οὐχ ἑτέραν τοῦ εὐδαίμονος βίου, καίτοι γε λέγοντες, τὴν μὲν εὐδαιμονίαν σκοπὸν ἐκκεῖσθαι, τέλος δ’ εἶναι τὸ τυχεῖν τῆς εὐδαιμονίας, ὅπερ ταὐτὸν εἶναι τῷ εὐδαιμονεῖν.

Τὸ κατὰ φύσιν καὶ τὸ κατ’ ἀρετὴν ζῆν

II.7.6e.3

Δῆλον οὖν ἐκ τούτων, ὅτι ἰσοδυναμεῖ ‘τὸ κατὰ φύσιν ζῆν’ καὶ ‘τὸ καλῶς ζῆν’ καὶ ‘τὸ εὖ ζῆν’ καὶ πάλιν ‘τὸ καλὸν κἀγαθὸν’ καὶ ‘ἡ ἀρετὴ καὶ τὸ μέτοχον ἀρετῆς’· καὶ ὅτι πᾶν ἀγαθὸν καλόν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ πᾶν αἰσχρὸν κακόν· δι’ ὃ καὶ τὸ Στωϊκὸν τέλος ἴσον δύνασθαι τῷ κατ’ ἀρετὴν βίῳ.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 247

Happiness and Its Attainment

II.7.6e.2

Cleanthes too used this definition in his own writings, as did Chrysippus and all their successors. They say that happiness is no different from the happy life, although they also say that happiness is set before one as the target, while the end is attaining happiness, which is the same as being happy.³⁰²

Living in Accordance with Nature and Virtue

II.7.6e.3

It is therefore clear from these points that “living in accordance with nature,” “living nobly,” and “living well” are equivalent; and likewise “the noble and good” and “virtue and what participates in virtue.”³⁰³ Every good is noble, and similarly every shameful thing is evil. Hence the Stoic end is equivalent to the life in accordance with virtue.³⁰⁴

302.The source distinguishes happiness as the target from attaining it as the end, while identifying attainment with being happy. Καίτοι γε marks the qualification, retained as “although.” The English preserves the distinction without treating it as a second, competing definition of the happy life. Compare the earlier formulation of target and attainment at II.7.3c.

303.The paired expressions distinguish virtue from what participates in virtue, rather than identifying virtue alone with every instance of good. The printed κἀγαθόν contracts καὶ ἀγαθόν. The English follows this source’s formulation and keeps the ethical sense of καλόν, “noble,” visible beside “good.”

304.The printed assertion is “every shameful thing is evil,” πᾶν αἰσχρὸν κακόν. It has not been silently reversed to “every evil is shameful.” The conclusion is an equivalence in meaning between the Stoic end and the life in accordance with virtue, expressed by ἴσον δύνασθαι.

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.