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.7.26.1–II.7.26.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 266 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.26.1–II.7.26.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 528

Οἰκονομικὸν καὶ πολιτικόν

II.7.26.1

Διωρισμένων δ’ ἱκανῶς τῶν περὶ τὰς ἀρετὰς καὶ σχεδὸν τῶν πλείστων ἀνειλημμένων κεφαλαίων τοῦ ἠθικοῦ τόπου, ἀναγκαῖον ἐφεξῆς καὶ περὶ τοῦ οἰκονομικοῦ τε καὶ πολιτικοῦ διελθεῖν, ἐπειδὴ φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον ἄνθρωπος.

Πρώτη κοινωνία

II.7.26.2

Πολιτεία δὲ πρώτη σύνοδος ἀνδρὸς καὶ γυναικὸς κατὰ νόμον ἐπὶ τέκνων γεννήσει καὶ βίου κοινωνίᾳ. Τοῦτο δὲ προσονομάζεται μὲν οἶκος, ἀρχὴ δὲ πόλεώς ἐστι· περὶ οὗ δὴ καὶ λεκτέον.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 529

Household Management and Politics

II.7.26.1

The matters concerning the virtues have been adequately distinguished, and almost all the main topics of ethics have been taken up. It is necessary next to discuss household management and politics as well,⁷²⁹ since a human being is by nature a political animal.⁷³⁰

The First Community

II.7.26.2

The first political community is the union of a man and a woman according to law, for the begetting of children and the sharing of life.⁷³¹ This is called a household, and is the beginning of a city; we must therefore speak of it.⁷³²

729.Οἰκονομικόν concerns the management of an οἶκος, a household, rather than a modern national economy. Πολιτικόν concerns the πόλις, the city as a political community. Section 26 has no separate summary heading. Its final numerical subdivisions and descriptive labels serve layout only; the exposition is continuous.

730.Πολιτικὸν ζῷον is a political animal, an animal naturally belonging to a city or political community. Wachsmuth compares Aristotle, Politics I.2, 1253a2–3. The statement links the preceding ethical exposition to common life; it does not reduce political activity to the pursuit of office.

731.Πολιτεία here denotes a political community or association; later in this section it denotes a constitution or form of government. The source prints κατὰ νόμον, according to law, not according to nature. Both stated purposes, children and a shared life, remain.

732.Οἶκος means the household constituted by its members and common life, not merely its building. Calling it the beginning of a city prepares the account of the growth from households to villages and cities.

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.