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 31 · II.31.110b–II.31.110d

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Facing Pages · Branch 429 of 516

Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.110b–II.31.110d

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Ancient Greek

p. 854

⟨Τοῦ αὐτοῦ⟩

II.31.110b

Οὐδαμοῦ γὰρ δεινὸν ἀπειρία τῶν πάντων οὐδὲ μέγιστον κακῶν, ἀλλ’ ἡ πολυπειρία καὶ πολυμαθεία μετὰ κακῆς ἀγωγῆς γίγνεται πολὺ τούτων μείζων ζημία.

II.31.110c

Πλάτων λέγοντός ποτε Ἰσοκράτους, ὡς δίκαια ποιεῖ πολὺν μισθὸν τοῖς μαθηταῖς εἰσπραττόμενος, τοὺς μὲν γὰρ εὐφυεῖς ὠφελῶν, περὶ δὲ τοὺς ἀφυεῖς πονεῖν, «τοὐναντίον» ἔφη, «ποιεῖς, Ἰσόκρατες· περὶ μὲν γὰρ τοὺς εὐφυεῖς οὐ πονεῖς, τοὺς δὲ ἀφυεῖς οὐκ ὠφελεῖς».

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ Εὐθύφρονος

II.31.110d

Ὀρθῶς γάρ ἐστι τῶν νέων πρῶτον ἐπιμεληθῆναι, ὅπως ἔσονται ὅτι ἄριστοι, ὥσπερ γεωργὸν ἀγαθὸν τῶν νέων φυτῶν εἰκὸς πρῶτον ἐπιμεληθῆναι, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα καὶ τῶν ἄλλων.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 855

⟨From the same author⟩

II.31.110b

For inexperience in everything is nowhere a terrible thing or the greatest of evils; but wide experience and much learning, with bad upbringing, do far greater harm than these.¹²⁵¹

II.31.110c

When Isocrates once said that he was justified in charging his pupils a large fee—since he benefited the gifted and labored over the ungifted—Plato said, “You do the opposite, Isocrates: you do not labor over the gifted, and you do not benefit the ungifted.”¹²⁵²

From the same author’s Euthyphro

II.31.110d

For it is right to care first for the young, so that they may be as good as possible, just as a good farmer can be expected to care first for young plants, and then for the others too.¹²⁵³

1251.Laws VII, 819A. The supplied heading continues Plato. Ἀπειρία is inexperience; πολυπειρία and πολυμαθεία express breadth of experience and learning. The harmful combination includes κακὴ ἀγωγή, bad upbringing or guidance, rather than breadth of learning alone. The local plural τούτων, “than these,” is retained in the comparison. The excerpt does not make clear what the plural refers to.

1252.There is no separate heading: Plato is named within the anecdote as the speaker who answers Isocrates. Εὐφυεῖς and ἀφυεῖς contrast natural aptitude and its absence. The reply reverses the teacher’s two grounds for his fee, distinguishing the benefit given from the effort spent.

1253.Euthyphro 2D. This same-author heading is printed without supplement brackets and continues Plato from the preceding anecdote. The comparison repeats the priority, πρῶτον, for young people and young plants. Care for the other plants follows afterward; the final clause does not say to neglect them.

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.