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 8 · II.8.26–II.8.28

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Facing Pages · Branch 289 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.26–II.8.28

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Ancient Greek

p. 574

Αἰσχίνου

II.8.26

Ἀνθρώπῳ δέ τοι οὐκ ἄπορον καλὸν κἀγαθὸν εἶναι.

Ἐκ τοῦ Ἐπικτήτου Ἐγχειριδίου

II.8.27

Μέμνησο ὅτι ὑποκριτὴς εἶ δράματος, οἷον ἂν θέλῃ ὁ διδάσκαλος· ἂν βραχὺ, βραχέος· ἂν μακρὸν, μακροῦ· ἂν πτωχὸν ὑποκρίνασθαί ⟨σε⟩ θέλῃ, τοῦτον ἵνα καλῶς ὑποκρίνῃ· ἂν χωλὸν, ἂν ἄρχοντα, ἂν ἰδιώτην. Σὸν γάρ ἐστι τὸ δοθὲν πρόσωπον ὑποκρίνασθαι καλῶς, ἐκλέξασθαι δὲ τὸ πρόσωπον ἄλλου.

Ἐπικούρου

II.8.28

Βραχεῖα σοφῷ τύχη παρεμπίπτει, τὰ δὲ μέγιστα καὶ κυριώτατα λογισμὸς διῴκηκε κατὰ τὸν βίον συνεχῆ χρόνον.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 575

Aeschines

II.8.26

Surely it is not beyond a human being to be noble and good.⁸¹¹

From Epictetus’s Handbook

II.8.27

Remember that you are an actor in a play of whatever kind the director wishes: if short, in a short one; if long, in a long one. If he wishes ⟨you⟩ to play a beggar, see that you play that part well; likewise if your part is a lame man, a ruler, or a private citizen.⁸¹² For your task is to play the assigned role well; choosing the role belongs to someone else.⁸¹³

Epicurus

II.8.28

Fortune makes only a small intrusion upon the wise person; reason has managed the greatest and most decisive matters throughout life’s continuous course.⁸¹⁴

811.Καλὸν κἀγαθόν combines noble and good; the contraction κἀγαθόν joins καί and ἀγαθόν. Οὐκ ἄπορον means not impossible or not beyond one’s resources. Wachsmuth’s reference is to Hermann’s collection of the Socratic Aeschines, rather than to a named speech by the Athenian orator.

812.Handbook 17. Διδάσκαλος, literally teacher, is the person who trains and directs the actors. Ὑποκριτής here means actor. The roles include poverty, bodily impairment, public authority, and private station. Supplied ⟨σε⟩ is shown as ⟨you⟩. The local wording οἷον, τοῦτον ἵνα καλῶς, and the final repeated πρόσωπον remain as Wachsmuth prints them.

813.Πρόσωπον can denote a theatrical mask, character, or role. The metaphor places the quality of the performance with the actor while assigning selection of the role to another. The final ἄλλου, of someone else, does not itself name that director as god.

814.Principal Doctrine XVI, also preserved at Diogenes Laertius X.144. The claim limits fortune’s interference while assigning the greatest and most decisive matters to λογισμός, reason or rational calculation. Wachsmuth’s local text has the single perfect διῴκηκε, has managed, followed by its unusual phrase about continuous time through life. The longer sequence has managed, manages, and will manage in the Diogenes Laertius parallel is not inserted here.

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.