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.7.11d.2–II.7.11d.3

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Facing Pages · Branch 154 of 516

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

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Ancient Greek

p. 304

Οἰκονομικὴ καὶ χρηματιστική

II.7.11d.2

Οἰκονομικὸν δ’ εἶναι μόνον λέγουσι τὸν σπουδαῖον καὶ ἀγαθὸν οἰκονόμον, ἔτι δὲ χρηματιστικόν. Τὴν μὲν γὰρ οἰκονομικὴν εἶναι θεωρητικὴν ἕξιν καὶ πρακτικὴν τῶν οἴκῳ συμφερόντων· τὴν δ’ οἰκονομίαν διάταξιν περὶ ἀναλωμάτων καὶ ἔργων καὶ κτήσεως ἐπιμέλειαν καὶ τῶν κατ’ ἀγρὸν ἐργαζομένων· τὴν δὲ χρηματιστικὴν ἐμπειρίαν περιποιήσεως χρημάτων ἀφ’ ὧν δέον καὶ ἕξιν ὁμολογουμένως ἀναστρέφεσθαι ποιοῦσαν ἐν συναγωγῇ χρημάτων καὶ τηρήσει καὶ ἀναλώσει πρὸς εὐπορίαν·

Χρηματισμὸς καὶ ὁ σπουδαῖος

II.7.11d.3

τὸ δὲ χρηματίζεσθαί τινες μὲν μέσον εἶπον εἶναι, τινὲς δὲ ἀστεῖον. Φαῦλον δὲ μηδένα προστάτην ἀγαθὸν οἴκου γίνεσθαι, μηδὲ δύνασθαι οἰκίαν εὖ οἰκονομουμένην παρασχεῖν. Μόνον δὲ τὸν σπουδαῖον ἄνδρα χρηματιστικὸν εἶναι, γινώσκοντα ἀφ’ ὧν χρηματιστέον καὶ πότε καὶ πῶς καὶ μέχρι πότε.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 305

Household Management and Acquiring Money

II.7.11d.2

They say that only the virtuous person is skilled in household management and a good household manager, and also skilled in acquiring money. For the art of household management is a state concerned with the theory and practice of what benefits a household. Household management itself is the ordering of expenditure and work, and care of property and of those working in the fields.³⁹⁵ The art of acquiring money is expertise in obtaining money from the sources one ought, and a state that makes one act consistently in collecting, preserving, and spending money with a view to having ample resources.³⁹⁶

Acquiring Money and the Virtuous Person

II.7.11d.3

Some said that acquiring money is intermediate, others that it is morally excellent.³⁹⁷ No base person becomes a good head of a household or can provide a well-managed home. Only the virtuous man is skilled in acquiring money, knowing from what sources it is to be acquired, when, how, and until when.³⁹⁸

395.Οἰκονομική names the art or capacity, whereas οἰκονομία names the management or arrangement itself. The household includes property, work, and agricultural workers, not merely a private spending budget. The source does not specify the workers’ legal status in this sentence.

396.Χρηματιστική concerns acquiring and managing money from proper sources, not obtaining the greatest possible sum by any means. Ὁμολογουμένως retains the ethical sense of acting consistently; εὐπορία is ample resources or means. Wealth remains an indifferent in the earlier account; the present claim concerns the agent’s expertise and conduct.

397.The report records a difference of classification and leaves the speakers unnamed. Μέσον is “intermediate,” while ἀστεῖον is “morally excellent” here. The disagreement is retained rather than resolved by making all acquisition of money virtuous.

398.The final knowledge includes limits of source, timing, manner, and duration. “Until when” preserves μέχρι πότε; the text does not simply endorse continued accumulation. The strong claim that only the virtuous person has the expertise is part of the account’s ethical use of skill.

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.