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.7.11n–II.7.11o

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English Page · Branch 188 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11n–II.7.11o

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Ancient Greek

p. 372

Σοφία καὶ ἡ ταύτης διάληψις

II.7.11n

Γίνεσθαι δὲ καὶ διαλεληθότα τινὰ σοφὸν νομίζουσι κατὰ τοὺς πρώτους χρόνους οὔτε ὀρεγόμενόν τινος οὔτε νομίζειν βουλόμενον ἔν τινι τῶν ἐν τῷ βούλεσθαι εἰδικῶν ὄντων, διὰ τὸ μὴ κρίνοντι αὐτῷ παρεῖναι ὧν χρή. Οὐ μόνον δ’ ἐπὶ τῆς φρονήσεως ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων τεχνῶν τὰς τοιαύτας ἔσεσθαι διαλήψεις.

Ἰσότης καὶ διαφορὰ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων

II.7.11o

[Ἐκ] πάντων τε τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἴσων ὄντων καὶ τῶν κατορθωμάτων, καὶ τοὺς ἄφρονας ἐπίσης πάντας ἄφρονας εἶναι, τὴν αὐτὴν καὶ ἴσην ἔχοντας διάθεσιν. Ἴσων δὲ ὄντων τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, εἶναί τινας ἐν αὐτοῖς διαφοράς, καθ’ ὅσον τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν ἀπὸ σκληρᾶς καὶ δυσιάτου διαθέσεως γίνεται, τὰ δ’ οὔ.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 373

Wisdom and the Interval before Its Recognition

II.7.11n

They think that someone can become wise without realizing it, at first neither desiring anything nor believing himself to be wishing in one of the specific forms of wish, because, in his judgment, what is required is not present to him.⁴⁹⁷ Such intervals will occur not only in practical wisdom but also in the other arts.⁴⁹⁸

Equality and Difference among Errors

II.7.11o

All errors are equal, and so are correct actions; all fools too are equally foolish, having the same and an equal disposition. Yet, although errors are equal, there are some differences among them, insofar as some arise from a hardened disposition that is difficult to cure, while others do not.⁴⁹⁹

497.The printed wording after “without realizing it” is difficult. The English takes νομίζειν βουλόμενον as believing oneself to be wishing, and ἔν τινι τῶν … εἰδικῶν as referring to a specific form of wish. It takes κρίνοντι αὐτῷ as “in his judgment.” The syntax and the connection between these clauses are uncertain. Wachsmuth records proposals to delete νομίζειν or replace it with ἐπιποθεῖν, to alter the phrase about specific forms, and to change the wording about judgment and presence. None has been silently substituted for the printed Greek.

498.Διάληψις is an interval or break, here understood as the interval between acquiring wisdom and recognizing the acquisition. The extension to the other arts remains explicit. Wachsmuth compares Plutarch, On Stoic Self-Contradictions 19 and On Common Conceptions 9. In the latter, Plutarch criticizes the claim that someone can possess wisdom and happiness without yet recognizing the change. That parallel confirms the subject of the paradox without repairing this passage’s difficult wording.

499.Wachsmuth brackets the opening ἐκ for deletion; it remains visible in the Greek and is omitted in English. The passage again distinguishes equality of errors from differences among them, now through the hardened and difficult-to-cure disposition from which some arise. Compare II.7.11l for equality alongside qualitative differences. “So are correct actions” means that correct actions are equal to one another, not that errors and correct actions have equal moral value.

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.