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.7.7f.2–II.7.7f.3

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 135 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.7f.2–II.7.7f.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 266

Διογένους περὶ δόσεως καὶ δοκιμαστοῦ

II.7.7f.2

Τὴν δὲ δόσιν φησὶν ὁ Διογένης κρίσιν εἶναι, ἐφ’ ὅσον κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶν ἢ ἐφ’ ὅσον χρείαν τῇ φύσει παρέχεται. Τὸ δὲ δοκιμαστόν, οὐχ ὡς λέγεται τὰ πράγματα δοκιμαστὰ παραλαμβάνεσθαι, ἀλλ’ ὡς δοκιμαστὴν φαμεν εἶναι τὸν τὰ πράγματα δοκιμάζοντα· τῆς οὖν ἀμοιβῆς τὸν τοιοῦτόν φησι δοκιμαστὴν εἶναι.

Ἀξία καὶ τὸ ἐπιβάλλον ἑκάστῳ

II.7.7f.3

Καὶ ταύτας μὲν τὰς δύο ἀξίας καθ’ ἃς λέγομέν τινα τῇ ἀξίᾳ προῆχθαι, τρίτην δέ φησιν εἶναι, καθ’ ἣν φαμεν ἀξίωμά τινα ἔχειν καὶ ἀξίαν, ἥπερ περὶ ἀδιάφορα οὐ γίνεται, ἀλλὰ περὶ μόνα τὰ σπουδαῖα. Χρῆσθαι δ’ ἡμᾶς φησιν ἐνίοτε τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς ἀξίας ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐπιβάλλοντος· ὡς ἐν τῷ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ὅρῳ παρείληπται, ὅταν λέγηται εἶναι ἕξις ἀπονεμητικὴ τοῦ κατ’ ἀξίαν ἑκάστῳ· ἔστι γὰρ οἷον τοῦ ἐπιβάλλοντος ἑκάστῳ.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 267

Diogenes on Contribution and the Appraiser

II.7.7f.2

Diogenes says that contribution is an assessment of how far something is in accordance with nature or of how far it provides a service to nature.³³³ “Appraiser” is to be understood, not in the sense in which things are said to be approved, but as we call the person who tests things an appraiser. He says, then, that such a person appraises the exchange equivalent.³³⁴

Value and What Is Due to Each

II.7.7f.3

These are the two senses of value in accordance with which we say that certain things have been advanced in value. He says there is a third, in accordance with which we say that someone has standing and worth; this does not concern indifferent things, but only things of moral excellence.³³⁵ He says that we sometimes use the word “value” for what is due, as in the definition of justice, when it is called a state that distributes to each according to worth. For this means, as it were, what is due to each.³³⁶

333.Diogenes is the Stoic Diogenes of Babylon. The text defines δόσις through κρίσις, an assessment or judgment, and relates it to naturalness and service to nature. The awkwardness of the terminology is not removed by replacing this definition with the different threefold account in Diogenes Laertius VII.105.

334.The explanation distinguishes the person who tests or assesses, δοκιμαστής, from the adjective δοκιμαστός applied to an approved or tested thing. It thus explains the personal sense of the preceding genitive τοῦ δοκιμαστοῦ. Ἀμοιβή concerns an equivalent in exchange here, rather than an emotional reward or moral recompense.

335.The singular “he says” continues the report of Diogenes. His third sense concerns moral worth, whereas Antipater’s preceding third sense concerned selection among indifferents. Both reports remain distinct. Ἀξίωμα here is standing or dignity, not the logical “proposition” encountered below at II.7.9b.

336.Ἐπιβάλλον is what falls to or is due to someone. The closing sentence explains the use of ἀξία in the definition of justice rather than introducing a further preferred indifferent. Compare the earlier discussion of justice at II.7.5b1 and the related definition in the Platonic Definitions, 411E, cited in Wachsmuth’s apparatus.

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.