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.7.11i.1–II.7.11i.2

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11i.1–II.7.11i.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 326

Ἀγαθὰ ὠφελήματα καὶ βλάμματα

II.7.11i.1

Τῶν τε ἀγαθῶν μηδενὸς μετέχειν τοὺς φαύλους, ἐπειδὴ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἀρετή ἐστιν ἢ τὸ μετέχον ἀρετῆς· τά τε παρακείμενα τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς, ἅπερ ἐστὶν ὧν χρή, ὠφελήματα ὄντα, μόνοις τοῖς σπουδαίοις συμβαίνειν· καθάπερ καὶ τὰ παρακείμενα τοῖς κακοῖς, ἅπερ ἐστὶν ὧν οὐ χρή, μόνοις τοῖς κακοῖς· βλάμματα γὰρ εἶναι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τοὺς μὲν ἀγαθοὺς ἀβλαβεῖς πάντας εἶναι κατ’ ἀμφότερα, οὔτε βλάπτειν οἵους τε ὄντας οὔτε βλάπτεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ φαύλους κατὰ τοὐναντίον.

Ἀληθὴς πλοῦτος καὶ ἐλευθερία

II.7.11i.2

Τὸν δὲ κατ’ ἀλήθειαν πλοῦτον ἀγαθὸν εἶναι λέγουσι, καὶ τὴν κατ’ ἀλήθειαν πενίαν κακόν. Καὶ τὴν μὲν κατ’ ἀλήθειαν ἐλευθερίαν ἀγαθόν, τὴν δὲ κατ’ ἀλήθειαν δουλείαν κακόν. Δι’ ὃ δὴ καὶ τὸν σπουδαῖον εἶναι μόνον πλούσιον καὶ ἐλεύθερον, τὸν δὲ φαῦλον τοὐναντίον πένητα, τῶν εἰς τὸ πλουτεῖν ἀφορμῶν ὑστερημένον καὶ δοῦλον διὰ τὴν ὑποπτωτικὴν ἐν αὐτῷ διάθεσιν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 327

Goods Benefits and Harms

II.7.11i.1

Base people participate in none of the goods, since the good is virtue or what participates in virtue. The things corresponding to goods, which belong among the things one should do, are benefits and occur only to virtuous people. Likewise, the things corresponding to evils, which belong among the things one should not do, occur only to the bad, for they are harms.⁴²⁷ Hence all good people are free from harm in both senses, being capable neither of harming nor of being harmed; base people are the opposite.⁴²⁸

True Wealth and Freedom

II.7.11i.2

They say that true wealth is a good and true poverty an evil; true freedom a good and true slavery an evil. Hence only the virtuous person is rich and free; the base person, on the contrary, is poor, lacking the resources for being rich, and a slave because of the submissive disposition within him.⁴²⁹

427.The compressed ὧν χρή and ὧν οὐ χρή are rendered through what one should and should not do, in continuity with the goods/benefits distinction at II.7.11f. The goods are virtue and what participates in it; the corresponding benefits and harms belong to the account of activity.

428.Ἀβλαβής includes both causing no harm and suffering none, as the source immediately explains. The claim uses “harm” in this moral account; it does not deny the possibility of bodily damage, loss of property, or other dispreferred events. Compare the classifications of indifferents at II.7.7–7e.

429.The repeated κατ’ ἀλήθειαν, “truly” or “in truth,” marks the sense in which wealth and freedom are being claimed as goods. The closing explanation locates slavery in a disposition, διάθεσις. These ethical uses should not be confused with the ordinary holdings or legal status of particular people. Ὑποπτωτική describes susceptibility to submission; “resources” renders ἀφορμαί without reducing them to money.

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.