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.7.11p–II.7.11q

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Facing Pages · Branch 189 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11p–II.7.11q

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 374

Διαφοραὶ τῶν σπουδαίων

II.7.11p

Καὶ τῶν σπουδαίων δὲ ἄλλους ἄλλων προτρεπτικωτέρους γίγνεσθαι καὶ πειστικωτέρους, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἀγχινουστέρους κατὰ τὰ μέσα τὰ ἐμπεριλαμβανόμενα τῶν ἐπιτάσεων συμβαινουσῶν.

Εὐτεκνία εὐγηρία καὶ εὐθανασία

II.7.11q

Εὐτεκνεῖν δὲ μόνον τὸν ἀστεῖον, οὔ τι μὴν πάντα ἀστεῖα τέκνα ἔχοντα, δεῖν γὰρ τὸν εὐτεκνοῦντα χρήσασθαι αὐτοῖς ὡς τοιούτοις. Εὐγηρεῖν τε μόνον καὶ εὐθανατεῖν τὸν σπουδαῖον· εὐγηρεῖν γὰρ εἶναι τὸ μετὰ ποιοῦ γήρως διεξάγειν κατ’ ἀρετήν, εὐθανατεῖν δὲ τὸ μετὰ ποιοῦ θανάτου κατ’ ἀρετὴν τελευτᾶν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 375

Differences among the Virtuous

II.7.11p

Some virtuous people are more effective at exhortation and persuasion than others, and also quicker witted, as intensifications occur in the intermediate qualities involved.⁵⁰⁰

Children Old Age and Dying Well

II.7.11q

Only the morally excellent person is blessed in his children, though not simply by having children who are all excellent; for one who is blessed in his children must make use of them as such.⁵⁰¹ Only the virtuous person ages well and dies well. For aging well is passing through an old age of a certain quality in accordance with virtue; dying well is ending one’s life in accordance with virtue with a death of a certain quality.⁵⁰²

500.The comparative forms retain differences in exhortation, persuasion, and quickness of mind among the virtuous themselves. The compressed qualification places the intensifications in τὰ μέσα, intermediate things, here understood as the qualities involved. It does not say that one virtuous person possesses more virtue than another. The participle ἐμπεριλαμβανόμενα is rendered “involved”; the exact scope of what is included is not further specified in the source.

501.Εὐτεκνεῖν means being fortunate or blessed in one’s children. The clause οὔ τι μὴν … ἔχοντα is compressed. The English interprets it as denying that possession of excellent children is by itself sufficient, in light of the following requirement to use them as such; “simply” makes that interpretation explicit. The Greek has no separate word meaning “merely.” Χρήσασθαι is use or dealings with them; the source gives no further example of the conduct intended.

502.The repeated ποιοῦ, “of a certain quality,” qualifies both old age and death. Both definitions expressly require accordance with virtue. Εὐθανατεῖν means dying well here; the sentence does not specify a method of death. The three claims concern how a person lives with children, old age, and death under the ethical definitions being reported.

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.