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.7.24.1–II.7.24.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 253 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.24.1–II.7.24.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 502

Βίος μετ’ ἀρετῆς καὶ πολιτικαὶ πράξεις

II.7.24.1

Βίον δ’ αἱρήσεσθαι τὸν σπουδαῖον τὸν μετ’ ἀρετῆς, εἴτ’ ἐφ’ ἡγεμονίας ποτὲ γένοιτο, τῶν καιρῶν αὐτὸν προαγαγόντων, εἴτε τινὶ βασιλεῖ δέοι συμβιοῦν εἴτε καὶ νομοθετεῖν ἢ ἄλλως πολιτεύεσθαι.

Δημοτικὴ θεωρητικὴ καὶ παιδευτικὴ διαγωγή

II.7.24.2

Τούτων δὲ μὴ τυγχάνοντα πρὸς τὸ δημοτικὸν τραπήσεσθαι σχῆμα διαγωγῆς ἢ τὸ θεωρητικὸν ἢ μέσον ⟨τὸ⟩ παιδευτικόν. Προαιρήσεσθαι μὲν γὰρ καὶ πράττειν καὶ θεωρεῖν τὰ καλά.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 503

A Life with Virtue and Public Activity

II.7.24.1

The virtuous person will choose a life with virtue,⁶⁷⁹ whether he ever comes into a position of leadership because circumstances have brought him forward, whether he must live with a king, or whether he must legislate or take part in public life in some other way.⁶⁸⁰

Civic Contemplative and Educational Ways of Life

II.7.24.2

If none of these opportunities falls to him, he will turn to an ordinary citizen’s way of life, or the contemplative one, or the intermediate educational one.⁶⁸¹ For he will choose both to do and to contemplate noble things.⁶⁸²

679.Σπουδαῖος is the virtuous or excellent person. The governing choice is a life with virtue, not the unconditional pursuit of a particular office. Section 24 has no separate summary heading in the source. Its final numerical subdivisions and their descriptive labels are added for layout only.

680.The alternatives remain conditional. Ἡγεμονία is leadership or command, with circumstances bringing the person forward. Συμβιοῦν is to live with someone: the text does not expressly name an office as royal adviser. Legislating and other participation in public life complete the list.

681.Δημοτικὸν σχῆμα διαγωγῆς is understood here as an ordinary citizen’s way of life, following the preceding roles in leadership, royal company, and legislation. It need not designate life under a democratic constitution. Wachsmuth’s supplied article ⟨τὸ⟩ before παιδευτικόν is retained in Greek and absorbed into the English construction. The educational way is called intermediate without a further definition here.

682.Both doing and contemplating noble things are chosen. This first list is civic, contemplative, and intermediate educational; the later list in II.7.24.6 is practical, contemplative, and combined. Their different wording is retained rather than making them identical.

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.