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.7.20.19

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Facing Pages · Branch 248 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.20.19

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Ancient Greek

p. 492

Ἠθικαὶ ἀρεταὶ καὶ φρόνησις

II.7.20.19

Τοιοῦτο μὲν τὸ τῶν ἠθικῶν ἀρετῶν εἶδος παθητικὸν καὶ κατὰ μεσότητα θεωρούμενον, ὃ δὴ καὶ τὴν ἀντακολουθίαν ἔχει ⟨τῇ φρονήσει⟩, πλὴν οὐχ ὁμοίως ἀλλ’ ἡ μὲν φρόνησις ταῖς ἠθικαῖς κατὰ τὸ ἴδιον, αὗται δ’ ἐκείνῃ κατὰ συμβεβηκός. ὁ μὲν γὰρ δίκαιός ἐστι καὶ φρόνιμος, ὁ γὰρ τοιόσδε αὐτὸν λόγος εἰδοποιεῖ· οὐ μὴν ὁ φρόνιμος καὶ δίκαιος κατὰ τὸ ἴδιον, ἀλλ’ ὅτι τῶν καλῶν κἀγαθῶν κοινῶς πρακτικός, φαύλου δ’ οὐδενός.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 493

Ethical Virtues and Practical Wisdom

II.7.20.19

Such is the form of the ethical virtues: concerned with passions and considered in terms of a mean. It also has a relation of reciprocal accompaniment ⟨with practical wisdom⟩, though not in the same way: practical wisdom accompanies the ethical virtues in its own distinctive character, while they accompany it incidentally.⁶⁶¹ For the just person is also practically wise, since reason of this kind gives him his form. Yet the practically wise person is not also just by virtue of practical wisdom’s own distinctive character, but because he is, in general, disposed to do what is noble and good and nothing base.⁶⁶²

661.The supplied τῇ φρονήσει remains bracketed in both languages. Παθητικόν means concerned with passions here; it does not make virtue itself a passion. Ἀντακολουθία is reciprocal accompaniment or implication. The following contrast distinguishes κατὰ τὸ ἴδιον, in respect of a thing’s distinctive character, from κατὰ συμβεβηκός, incidentally. The asymmetry in how the qualities accompany one another is preserved.

662.Εἰδοποιεῖ means gives form or determines the kind of thing someone is; reason of this kind makes the just person what he is. The second sentence does not simply deny that the practically wise person is just. It distinguishes the basis on which justice belongs to him: his general disposition to do noble and good things rather than the distinctive account of practical wisdom alone. The final exclusion of every base thing remains explicit.

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.