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 9 · II.9.8.1–II.9.8.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 341 of 516

Book II Chapter 9 · II.9.8.1–II.9.8.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 678

Μουσωνίου

II.9.8.1

Πάντες, ἔφη, φύσει πεφύκαμεν οὕτως, ὥστε ζῆν ἀναμαρτήτως καὶ καλῶς, οὐχ ὁ μὲν ἡμῶν ὁ δ’ οὔ· καὶ τούτου μέγα τεκμήριον ὅτι πᾶσιν ὁμοίως οἱ νομοθέται καὶ προστάττουσιν ἃ χρὴ ποιεῖν καὶ ἀπαγορεύουσιν ἃ μὴ χρή, οὐχ ὑπεξαιρούμενοι οὐδένα τῶν ἀπειθούντων ἢ τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων, ὥστε ἀτιμώρητον εἶναι οὐ νέον, οὐ πρεσβύτην, οὐκ ἰσχυρόν, οὐκ ἀσθενῆ, οὐχ ὁντιναοῦν.

Μουσωνίου — συνέχεια

II.9.8.2

Καίτοι ἐχρῆν, εἰ ὅλον ἐπείσακτον τὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἦν, καὶ μηδὲν αὐτοῦ φύσει ἡμῖν μετῆν, ὥσπερ οὐδ’ ἐν τοῖς ὑπὸ τὰς ἄλλας τέχνας οὖσιν ἔργοις οὐδεὶς ἀπαιτεῖται εἶναι ἀναμάρτητος, μὴ μεμαθηκὼς τὴν τέχνην, οὕτως μηδ’ ἐν τοῖς κατὰ τὸν βίον μηδένα ἀπαιτεῖσθαι εἶναι ἀναμάρτητον, ὅστις ἀρετὴν μὴ ἐξέμαθεν, ἐπείπερ ἀρετὴ μόνη ποιεῖ μὴ ἁμαρτάνειν ἐν βίῳ.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 9

p. 679

Musonius

II.9.8.1

All of us, he said, have a natural constitution that enables us to live without wrongdoing and nobly; it is not that one of us can and another cannot.⁹⁵³ Strong evidence for this is that lawmakers prescribe what everyone must do and prohibit what they must not do, equally for all. They exempt none of those who disobey or do wrong from punishment: neither young nor old, strong nor weak, nor anyone whatsoever.⁹⁵⁴

Musonius continued

II.9.8.2

Yet if virtue were something brought in wholly from outside, with no share in it belonging to us by nature, the following ought to hold: just as no one is expected to be free from error in the work of the other arts without having learned the art, so no one who had not learned virtue ought to be expected to be free from wrongdoing in the conduct of life.⁹⁵⁵ For virtue alone makes one avoid wrongdoing in life.⁹⁵⁶

953.The heading names Musonius; Hense’s 1905 collection numbers this discourse 2, whereas the anthology locator here remains II.9.8. The reporting verb ἔφη, he said, preserves the form of a recorded teaching. The opening asserts a shared natural capacity to live well; it does not say that everyone already possesses fully developed virtue.

954.Ἀναμαρτήτως means without error or wrongdoing. The reference to laws emphasizes wrongdoing here; the following comparisons extend the language of error to practical skills. The lawmakers’ universal demands are offered as evidence for the capacity asserted in the opening.

955.Ἐπείσακτος means introduced or brought in from outside. This is a conditional argument: if virtue were entirely acquired without any natural basis, an untrained person should be excused as in other arts. It is not a denial that virtue requires learning and practice.

956.Τέχνη denotes an art or trained skill. The passage moves between errors in skilled work and wrongdoing in life, using the same family of words, ἁμαρτάνω and ἀναμάρτητος. Virtue is presented as what enables right conduct, while the question concerns its natural basis.

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.