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.7.11g.4–II.7.11g.5

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Facing Pages · Branch 162 of 516

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

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Ancient Greek

p. 320

Ἀναγκάζεσθαι βιάζεσθαι καὶ ἐξαπατᾶσθαι

II.7.11g.4

Παρ’ ὃ καὶ οὔτε ἀναγκάζεται ὑπό τινος οὔτε ἀναγκάζει τινά, οὔτε κωλύεται οὔτε κωλύει, οὔτε βιάζεται ὑπό τινος οὔτ’ αὐτὸς βιάζει τινά, οὔτε δεσπόζει οὔτε δεσπόζεται, οὔτε κακοποιεῖ τινα οὔτ’ αὐτὸς κακοποιεῖται, οὔτε κακοῖς περιπίπτει ⟨οὔτ’ ἄλλον ποιεῖ κακοῖς περιπίπτειν⟩, οὔτ’ ἐξαπατᾶται οὔτε ἐξαπατᾷ ἄλλον, οὔτε διαψεύδεται οὔτε ἀγνοεῖ οὔτε λανθάνει ἑαυτὸν οὔτε καθόλου ψεῦδος ὑπολαμβάνει·

Μακαριότης καὶ ἱκανότητες τοῦ σοφοῦ

II.7.11g.5

εὐδαίμων δ’ ἐστὶ μάλιστα καὶ εὐτυχὴς καὶ μακάριος καὶ ὄλβιος καὶ εὐσεβὴς καὶ θεοφιλὴς καὶ ἀξιωματικός, βασιλικός τε καὶ στρατηγικὸς καὶ πολιτικὸς καὶ οἰκονομικὸς καὶ χρηματιστικός. Τοὺς δὲ φαύλους ἅπαντα τούτοις ἐναντία ἔχειν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 321

Compulsion Force and Deception

II.7.11g.4

For this reason he is neither compelled by anyone nor compels anyone, is neither hindered nor hinders, is neither forced by anyone nor himself forces anyone, neither acts as master nor is mastered, neither does evil to anyone nor suffers evil himself, neither falls into evils ⟨nor causes another to fall into evils⟩.⁴¹⁹ He is neither deceived nor deceives another, neither mistaken nor ignorant, neither unaware of himself nor, in general, believes anything false.⁴²⁰

Blessedness and the Wise Person’s Capacities

II.7.11g.5

He is supremely happy, fortunate, blessed, prosperous, pious, loved by the gods, and of high standing; fitted for kingship, generalship, and public affairs, and skilled in household management and acquiring money.⁴²¹ Base people possess all the opposite qualities.⁴²²

419.The supplied clause “nor causes another to fall into evils” is Meineke’s addition, printed by Wachsmuth. The reciprocal claims belong to this account of the virtuous person’s ethical invulnerability. In particular, “evils” retains the strict moral vocabulary developed earlier; the wording is not a claim that a wise body cannot be physically restrained or injured. The translation nevertheless preserves the source’s categorical assertions.

420.Διαψεύδεται is “is mistaken,” distinct from deliberately deceiving another, ἐξαπατᾷ. Wachsmuth records a proposal to insert an additional active verb before it but does not print that addition; the Greek and English follow his text. The final clause broadens the series to holding a false belief in general.

421.The series retains the separate terms εὐδαίμων, εὐτυχής, μακάριος, and ὄλβιος rather than compressing them into a single “happy.” Ἀξιωματικός concerns standing or dignity here, not the logical proposition. The following adjectives express capacities: their presence does not say that the wise person actually holds each office. The next passage explicitly distinguishes disposition from actual exercise of rule.

422.Οἰκονομικός and χρηματιστικός resume the skills defined at II.7.11d.2–3. The contrast with the base is the source’s comprehensive ethical contrast. “Prosperous” in this series should be read with the subsequent distinction between true wealth and ordinary possessions at II.7.11i.2.

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.