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.7.11m.5–II.7.11m.6

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Facing Pages · Branch 179 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11m.5–II.7.11m.6

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Ancient Greek

p. 354

Φιλία καὶ ὁμόνοια

II.7.11m.5

Ἐν μόνοις τε τοῖς σοφοῖς ἀπολείπουσι φιλίαν, ἐπεὶ ἐν μόνοις τούτοις ὁμόνοια γίνεται περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον· τὴν δ’ ὁμόνοιαν εἶναι κοινῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐπιστήμην. Φιλίαν γὰρ ἀληθινὴν καὶ μὴ ψευδώνυμον ἀδύνατον χωρὶς πίστεως καὶ βεβαιότητος ὑπάρχειν· ἐν δὲ τοῖς φαύλοις, ἀπίστοις καὶ ἀβεβαίοις οὖσι καὶ δόγματα πολεμικὰ κεκτημένοις, οὐκ εἶναι φιλίαν, ἑτέρας δέ τινας ἐπιπλοκὰς καὶ συνδέσεις ἔξωθεν ἀνάγκαις καὶ δόξαις κατεχομένας γίνεσθαι. Φασὶ δὲ καὶ τὸ ἀγαπᾶν καὶ τὸ ἀσπάζεσθαι καὶ τὸ φιλεῖν μόνων εἶναι σπουδαίων.

Μόνος ὁ σοφὸς βασιλεύς

II.7.11m.6

Καὶ μόνον εἶναι τὸν σοφὸν βασιλέα τε καὶ βασιλικόν, τῶν δὲ φαύλων μηδένα· τὴν γὰρ βασιλείαν ἀρχὴν ἀνυπεύθυνον εἶναι καὶ τὴν ἀνωτάτω καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ πάσαις.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 355

Friendship and Concord

II.7.11m.5

They reserve friendship for the wise alone, since among them alone is there concord about the affairs of life; concord is knowledge of common goods.⁴⁷⁰ For true friendship, deserving its name, cannot exist without trust and constancy. Among base people, who are untrustworthy and inconstant and possess hostile beliefs, there is no friendship; instead, there arise other entanglements and connections, held together from outside by necessities and opinions. They also say that cherishing, welcoming, and loving belong to the virtuous alone.⁴⁷¹

Only the Wise Person Is King

II.7.11m.6

Only the wise person is king and kingly; no base person is. For kingship is rule that answers to no higher authority, the highest rule and the one set over all the others.⁴⁷²

470.The restriction concerns friendship in the strict sense defined here through concord, trust, and constancy. Compare the accounts of friendship and concord at II.7.5l and II.7.11b. Κοινῶν ἀγαθῶν means common or shared goods; the definition is knowledge, not merely agreement of feeling.

471.The distinction between true friendship and other connections is explicit. Ἔξωθεν, “from outside,” qualifies what holds the latter together. The final three verbs, ἀγαπᾶν, ἀσπάζεσθαι, and φιλεῖν, are rendered separately as cherishing, welcoming, and loving; the passage does not assign them later theological classifications of love.

472.The text distinguishes being βασιλεύς, a king, from being βασιλικός, kingly or fitted to rule. Ἀνυπεύθυνος is unaccountable or not subject to being called to account. “Answers to no higher authority” expresses its place in the hierarchy of rule specified here. This definition belongs to the ethical claim that only the wise person is properly king.

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.