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 2 · II.2.10–II.2.12

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Facing Pages · Branch 32 of 516

Book II Chapter 2 · II.2.10–II.2.12

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Ancient Greek

p. 60

Εὐήνου

II.2.10

Πολλοῖς ἀντιλέγειν μὲν ἔθος περὶ παντὸς ὁμοίως, ὀρθῶς δ’ ἀντιλέγειν οὐκέτι τοῦτ’ ἐν ἔθει. καὶ πρὸς μὲν τούτους ἀρκεῖ λόγος εἷς ὁ παλαιός· “σοὶ μὲν ταῦτα δοκοῦντ’ ἔστω, ἐμοὶ δὲ τάδε.”

Ἀρκεσίλαος

II.2.11

Ἀρκεσίλαος ὁ φιλόσοφος ἔφη, Τοὺς διαλεκτικοὺς ἐοικέναι τοῖς ψηφοπαίκταις, οἵ τινες χαριέντως παραλογίζονται.

Ζήνωνος

II.2.12

Ζήνων τὰς τῶν διαλεκτικῶν τέχνας εἴκαζε τοῖς δικαίοις μέτροις οὐ πυρὸν οὐδ’ ἄλλο τι τῶν σπουδαίων μετροῦσιν, ἀλλ’ ἄχυρα καὶ κόπρια.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 2

p. 61

Evenus

II.2.10

Many make a habit of contradicting on every matter alike; contradicting rightly, however, is not their habit. For these people a single old saying is enough: “Let those be your opinions, and these mine.”⁷³

Arcesilaus

II.2.11

The philosopher Arcesilaus said that dialecticians resemble conjurers with pebbles, who deceive with cleverness.⁷⁴

Zeno

II.2.12

Zeno compared the arts of dialecticians to accurate measures used to measure neither wheat nor anything else of value, but chaff and dung.⁷⁵

73.The repeated ἀντιλέγειν distinguishes habitual contradiction from justified disagreement. The closing saying offers a way to leave an unproductive dispute; in context it need not imply that every opinion is equally true.

74.Ψηφοπαῖκται are performers of tricks with pebbles or counters. The comparison concerns ingenious deception, not simply skill at a board game. Παραλογίζονται can describe misleading someone by false reasoning as well as cheating or trickery; the analogy transfers the conjurer’s sleight of hand to argument.

75.“Accurate” follows the printed δικαίοις, describing measures that give a fair or proper quantity. The comparison allows correctness in the instrument while denying value to what it measures. It does not say that the dialecticians’ methods are necessarily inaccurate.

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.