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.7.15.1

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Facing Pages · Branch 215 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.15.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 426

Ἀρετὴ καὶ ἀρίστη διάθεσις

II.7.15.1

[Περὶ ἀρετῆς.]

Ἀρετὴν δ’ ὠνομάσθαι τὴν ἀρίστην διάθεσιν ἢ καθ’ ἣν ἄριστα διάκειται τὸ ἔχον. Τοῦτο δ’ ἐκ τῆς ἐπαγωγῆς δῆλον· σκυτοτόμου γὰρ ἀρετὴν λέγεσθαι καθ’ ἣν ἀποτελεῖν ἄριστον ὑπόδημα δύναται, καὶ οἰκοδόμου καθ’ ἣν ἄριστα διάκειται πρὸς οἰκοδόμησιν οἰκίας καλῆς. Ὅτι μὲν τὸ ἄριστα διατιθέναι ἐστὶν ἀρετῆς, ὁμολογούμενόν ἐστι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 427

Virtue and the Best Disposition

II.7.15.1

Virtue is the name given to the best disposition, or to that by which its possessor is in the best condition.⁵⁶⁶ This is clear from induction: a shoemaker’s excellence is said to be that by which he can produce the best shoe, and a builder’s that by which he is best disposed to build a fine house. That disposing something in the best way belongs to excellence is agreed.⁵⁶⁷

566.The rejected heading reads “On virtue.” Wachsmuth brackets it as one of the later summary headings discussed in the note to II.7.14.1. It remains in the Greek and is translated here rather than incorporated into the English main text. Διάθεσις is disposition or condition, as elsewhere in the edition. The alternative formulation introduced by ἢ, “or,” is retained.

567.Ἀρετή is the common Greek term rendered “virtue” in the ethical definition and “excellence” in the examples of crafts. The shoemaker and builder illustrate being well disposed for a particular function. Ἐπαγωγή is induction, the move through such examples toward the general account. The final active διατιθέναι concerns disposing something well; it is not silently replaced by the passive διάκεισθαι of the opening. Wachsmuth compares Eudemian Ethics II.1, 1218b37–1219a2, and Nicomachean Ethics II.5, 1106a14–24.

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.