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.7.20.12–II.7.20.13

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Facing Pages · Branch 244 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.20.12–II.7.20.13

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Ancient Greek

p. 484

Ὁρισμὸς τῆς ἀρετῆς

II.7.20.12

Διὸ ἔστιν ἡ ἀρετὴ ἕξις προαιρετική, ἐν μεσότητι οὖσα τῇ πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὡρισμένη λόγῳ καὶ ὡς ἂν ὁ φρόνιμος ὁρίσειεν· εἶτα παραθέμενος τινὰς συζυγίας, ἀκολούθως τῷ ὑφηγητῇ σκοπῶν ἔπειτα καθ’ ἕκαστα ἐπάγειν ἐπειράθη τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον·

Ἀρεταὶ καὶ ἐναντίαι ἕξεις

II.7.20.13

ἐλήφθησαν δὲ παραδειγμάτων χάριν αἵδε· σωφροσύνη, ἀκολασία, ἀναισθησία· πρᾳότης, ὀργιλότης, ἀναλγησία· ἀνδρεία, θρασύτης, δειλία· δικαιοσύνη * * * * * ἐλευθεριότης, ἀσωτία, ἀνελευθερία· μεγαλοψυχία, μικροψυχία, χαυνότης· μεγαλοπρέπεια, μικροπρέπεια, σαλακωνία.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 485

The Definition of Virtue

II.7.20.12

Hence virtue is a state involving choice, consisting in a mean relative to us, determined by reason and as the practically wise person would determine it.⁶⁴⁸ Then, having set out certain groupings, he followed his teacher in examining the particulars and attempted to present them in the following way.⁶⁴⁹

Virtues and Opposing States

II.7.20.13

The following were selected as examples: self-control, licentiousness, insensibility; gentleness, irascibility, callousness; courage, rashness, cowardice; justice [text missing];⁶⁵⁰ generosity, prodigality, illiberality; greatness of soul, smallness of soul, vanity;⁶⁵¹ magnificence, pettiness, ostentation.⁶⁵²

648.Ἕξις προαιρετική is a state involving choice; προαίρεσις concerns deliberate choice in this account. The definition links the mean both to reason and to the practically wise person’s judgment. Wachsmuth inserts a Latin locator to Nicomachean Ethics II.6, 1106b36–1107a2, in the printed main text. That modern locator is given here rather than treated as ancient Greek prose.

649.The report continues from the named Theophrastus, and ὑφηγητής means his teacher or guide. Wachsmuth’s second inserted locator identifies the parallel as Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics II.7, 1107a28 onward; it too is relocated to this note. Συζυγίαι are groupings or linked sets, illustrated by the virtue and its opposing extremes below. This local reference does not establish Theophrastus as the author of the whole epitome.

650.The five asterisks after justice mark a gap in Wachsmuth’s text; they do not specify five missing words. No opposing states are invented to complete the group. The first three complete groups place the virtue first. Ἀναισθησία is insensibility in desire, while ἀναλγησία is callousness or lack of feeling in the anger group.

651.Ἐλευθεριότης is generosity or liberality, ἀσωτία prodigality, and ἀνελευθερία illiberality or lack of generosity. The order of the greatness-of-soul group is preserved: μεγαλοψυχία, μικροψυχία, χαυνότης. Χαυνότης suggests puffed-up vanity. The text is not reordered to put excess before deficiency in every group.

652.Μεγαλοπρέπεια is magnificence, μικροπρέπεια pettiness, and σαλακωνία ostentation or swagger. The last group’s printed order is also retained. Wachsmuth compares Aristotle’s different word for extravagant expenditure but prints σαλακωνία here. All seven named virtues remain in the list, including justice with its following gap.

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.