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.4–II.7.11d.5

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Facing Pages · Branch 155 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11d.4–II.7.11d.5

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Ancient Greek

p. 306

Συγγνώμη καὶ ἰδία κακία

II.7.11d.4

Φασὶ ⟨δὲ⟩ μηδὲ συγγνώμην ἔχειν ⟨μηδενὶ τὸν νοῦν ἔχοντα· τοῦ γὰρ αὐτοῦ συγγνώμην τε ἔχειν⟩ καὶ νομίζειν τὸν ἡμαρτηκότα μὴ παρ’ αὑτὸν ἡμαρτηκέναι, πάντων ἁμαρτανόντων παρὰ τὴν ἰδίαν κακίαν· διὸ καὶ δεόντως λέγεσθαι τὸ μηδὲ συγγνώμην ἔχειν τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν.

Ἐπιείκεια καὶ κόλασις

II.7.11d.5

Οὐκ ἐπιεικῆ δέ φασιν εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα, τὸν γὰρ ἐπιεικῆ παραιτητικὸν εἶναι τῆς κατ’ ἀξίαν κολάσεως καὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ εἶναι ἐπιεικῆ τε εἶναι καὶ ὑπολαμβάνειν τὰς ἐκ τοῦ νόμου τεταγμένας κολάσεις τοῖς ἀδικοῦσι σκληροτέρας εἶναι καὶ τὸ ἡγεῖσθαι παρὰ τὴν ἀξίαν ἀπονέμειν τὰς κολάσεις τὸν νομοθέτην.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 307

Pardon and One’s Own Vice

II.7.11d.4

They say ⟨further⟩ that pardon is not granted ⟨to anyone by a person who has understanding; for it belongs to the same person both to grant pardon⟩ and to think that the person who erred did not err through his own fault, whereas all who err do so through their own vice. Hence the refusal to grant pardon to those who err is appropriately stated.³⁹⁹

Leniency and Punishment

II.7.11d.5

They say that the good man is not lenient. For the lenient person seeks to set aside punishment according to desert; being lenient, supposing that the punishments prescribed by law for wrongdoers are too harsh, and thinking that the lawgiver assigns punishments contrary to desert belong to the same person.⁴⁰⁰

399.The supplied δέ and the larger supplied passage remain bracketed. Wachsmuth restores the latter from the parallel Florilegium passage, as his apparatus explains. Συγγνώμη is pardon or allowance for an offense. The argument links granting it with judging that the offender’s error was not due to himself, then rejects that judgment by locating error in the offender’s own vice. The following paragraph turns to leniency in punishment.

400.Ἐπιεικής is “lenient” in the particular definition given here: setting aside punishment according to desert, κατ’ ἀξίαν. The paragraph argues against this leniency through its judgment about the lawgiver’s penalties. Compare Diogenes Laertius VII.123. “According to desert” preserves the role of what is due; the text has not been rewritten as a recommendation to impose the greatest possible penalty.

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.