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.7–II.7.11i.8

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Facing Pages · Branch 168 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11i.7–II.7.11i.8

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Ancient Greek

p. 332

Ὀρθὴ χρῆσις καὶ μεταμέλεια

II.7.11i.7

Πάντα τε εὖ ποιεῖ ὁ νοῦν ἔχων, καὶ γὰρ φρονίμως καὶ ἐγκρατῶς καὶ κοσμίως καὶ εὐτάκτως ταῖς περὶ τὸν βίον ἐμπειρίαις χρώμενος συνεχῶς. ὁ δὲ φαῦλος, ἄπειρος ὢν τῆς ὀρθῆς χρήσεως, πάντα κακῶς ποιεῖ καθ’ ἣν ἔχει διάθεσιν ἐνεργῶν, εὐμετάπτωτος ὢν καὶ παρ’ ἕκαστα μεταμελείᾳ συνεχόμενος. Εἶναι δὲ τὴν μεταμέλειαν λύπην ἐπὶ πεπραγμένοις ὡς παρ’ αὑτοῦ ἡμαρτημένοις, κακοδαιμονικόν τι πάθος ψυχῆς καὶ στασιῶδες· ἐφ’ ὅσον γὰρ ἄχθεται τοῖς συμβεβηκόσιν ὁ ἐν ταῖς μεταμελείαις ὤν, ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἀγανακτεῖ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ὡς αἴτιον γεγονότα τούτων·

Τιμὴ καὶ γέρας ἀρετῆς

II.7.11i.8

δι’ ὃ καὶ ἄτιμον εἶναι πάντα φαῦλον, μήτε τιμῆς ἄξιον ὄντα μήτε τίμιον ὑπάρχοντα. Τὴν γὰρ τιμὴν εἶναι γέρας ἀξίουσιν, τὸ δὲ γέρας ἆθλον ἀρετῆς εὐεργετικῆς. Τὸ οὖν ἀρετῆς ἀμέτοχον ἄτιμον δικαίως λέγεσθαι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 333

Right Use and Regret

II.7.11i.7

The person of understanding does everything well, continually employing his experience in the affairs of life wisely, with self-control, decorously, and in good order. The base person, inexperienced in right use, does everything badly, acting according to his disposition; he is easily swayed and beset by regret at every turn.⁴³⁵ Regret is distress over things done as errors of one’s own, an unhappy and divided passion of the soul. For to the extent that a person in regret is troubled by what has happened, he is indignant with himself as having caused it.⁴³⁶

Honor and the Reward of Virtue

II.7.11i.8

Hence every base person is also without honor, being neither worthy of honor nor honorable. For they hold that honor is a reward, and a reward a prize for beneficent virtue. What has no share in virtue is therefore rightly called without honor.⁴³⁷

435.The source again locates doing well in the manner of using experience. Εὐμετάπτωτος describes being easily changed or swayed. Ἐγκρατῶς, “with self-control,” remains distinct from the earlier σωφρόνως, “temperately.” The generalized contrast is the account’s own, not a judgment about every skill possessed by an ordinary person.

436.Μεταμέλεια is classified as λύπη, distress, and thus as a passion in the account already given at II.7.10. The definition concerns distress at one’s own errors and anger against oneself. It does not expressly identify every recognition or correction of a past mistake with this passion. Στασιῶδες conveys inner division or conflict. Wachsmuth prints the reflexive αὑτοῦ in the definition.

437.Ἄτιμος, τιμῆς ἄξιος, and τίμιος form a linked series concerning honor, its desert, and honorable standing. “Without honor” preserves that relation without introducing the narrower legal meaning of civic disfranchisement. Wachsmuth prints εὐεργετικῆς, “beneficent,” qualifying virtue, despite recording an alternative εὐεργετικῶν in the 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.