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.7.19.5–II.7.19.6

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Facing Pages · Branch 234 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.19.5–II.7.19.6

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Ancient Greek

p. 464

Τέλη καὶ οὐ τέλη

II.7.19.5

Ἄλλη διαίρεσις· τῶν καθ’ αὑτὰ ἀγαθῶν τὰ μὲν εἶναι τέλη, τὰ δὲ οὐ τέλη· οἷον δικαιοσύνην μὲν καὶ ἀρετὴν καὶ ὑγίειαν τέλη καὶ ἁπλῶς ὅσα ἐκ τῶν καθ’ ἕκαστα γενομένων κεκεφαλαιωμένα ὑπάρχειν, ὥσπερ τὴν ὑγίειαν, οὐ μὴν τό γε ὑγιεινὸν οὐδὲ τὴν θεραπείαν τοῦ κάμνοντος. Εὐφυΐαν δὲ καὶ ἀναμνήσεις καὶ μαθήσεις οὐ τέλη.

Ἀγαθὰ παντὶ καὶ κατὰ χρῆσιν

II.7.19.6

Ἄλλη διαίρεσις· τῶν τελῶν τὰ μὲν παντὶ ἀγαθὰ εἶναι, τὰ δ’ οὐ παντί. Τὴν μὲν ἀρετὴν καὶ φρόνησιν παντὶ ἀγαθά, ὅτῳ γὰρ ἂν παραγένηται ὠφελεῖν· πλοῦτον δὲ καὶ ἀρχὰς καὶ δυνάμεις οὐ παντὶ ὁπωσοῦν ἀγαθά, καθ’ ὅσον ἀφώρισται τὸ εἶναι ἀγαθὰ τῇ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἀνδρὸς χρήσει. Φαίνεσθαι δὲ ταῦτα καὶ ζητεῖν καὶ χρωμένους ὠφελεῖν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 465

Ends and Things That Are Not Ends

II.7.19.5

Another division: of goods in themselves, some are ends and others are not ends. Justice, virtue, and health are ends, as are, generally, all things constituted as a sum of particular results, as health is.⁶¹⁶ But what is conducive to health is not an end, nor is treatment of the sick person. Natural aptitude, recollections, and acts of learning are not ends.⁶¹⁷

Goods for Everyone and Goods Depending on Use

II.7.19.6

Another division: among ends, some are good for everyone, and others are not good for everyone. Virtue and practical wisdom are good for everyone, since they benefit anyone in whom they occur. But wealth, offices, and powers are not good for just anyone, since their being good is determined by the good man’s use of them.⁶¹⁸ Apparently these are also to be sought and benefit their users.⁶¹⁹

616.Κεκεφαλαιωμένα suggests things summed up or brought together as a whole from particular results. Health illustrates such an outcome. The comparison distinguishes an end from what contributes toward it; the Greek remains compressed, and the English does not supply an additional example or a new definition of virtue.

617.The contrast retains τὸ ὑγιεινόν, what is healthful or conducive to health, and θεραπεία, treatment. The final list preserves all three items: εὐφυΐα, natural aptitude; ἀναμνήσεις, recollections; and μαθήσεις, acts of learning. Their exclusion from ends does not exclude them from the wider class of goods in themselves introduced at the start of the paragraph.

618.Wachsmuth prints τῶν τελῶν, among ends; his apparatus records alternatives including τελικῶν and ἀγαθῶν, but they are not adopted here. The qualification ὁπωσοῦν rules out indiscriminate benefit from wealth, offices, and powers. Their goodness is related to the good person’s use. The clause about virtue and practical wisdom expressly says that they benefit whoever possesses them.

619.The final clause is irregular. Wachsmuth prints active ζητεῖν, “to seek,” and his apparatus records several repairs, including a passive and formulations meaning that these things ought to be sought. The English gives that likely sense while retaining the printed Greek; “are to be sought” is an interpretation of the construction, not a passive printed by Wachsmuth. The second claim, benefit to users, leads into the following distinction between good and bad use.

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.