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.31.114–II.31.116

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Facing Pages · Branch 445 of 516

Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.114–II.31.116

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Ancient Greek

p. 886

Ἐκ τῶν Σερήνου

II.31.114

Παρ’ Εὐκλείδῃ τις ἀρξάμενος γεωμετρεῖν, ὡς τὸ πρῶτον θεώρημα ἔμαθεν, ἤρετο τὸν Εὐκλείδην· «τί δέ μοι πλέον ἔσται ταῦτα μαθόντι;», καὶ ὁ Εὐκλείδης τὸν παῖδα καλέσας «δός», ἔφη, «αὐτῷ τριώβολον, ἐπειδὴ δεῖ αὐτῷ ἐξ ὧν μανθάνει κερδαίνειν».

II.31.115

Μέναιχμον τὸν γεωμέτρην Ἀλέξανδρος ἠξίου συντόμως αὐτῷ παραδοῦναι τὴν γεωμετρίαν· ὁ δὲ «ὦ βασιλεῦ», εἶπε, «κατὰ μὲν τὴν χώραν ὁδοί εἰσιν ἰδιωτικαὶ καὶ βασιλικαί, ἐν δὲ τῇ γεωμετρίᾳ πᾶσίν ἐστιν ὁδὸς μία».

Ἐκ τῶν Σερήνου

II.31.116

Ἡράκλειτος μὲν ἔλεγε πολυμάθειαν νοῦν μὴ ἐμποιεῖν· Ἀνάξαρχος δὲ πολυμάθειαν κάρτα μὲν ὠφελεῖν, κάρτα δὲ βλάπτειν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 887

From Serenus

II.31.114

Someone who had begun studying geometry with Euclid, after learning the first theorem, asked him, “What more will I gain from learning these things?” Euclid called the boy and said,¹²⁹³ “Give him three obols, since he must make a profit from what he learns.”¹²⁹⁴

II.31.115

Alexander asked the geometer Menaechmus to teach him geometry concisely. “O king,” he said, “across the country there are ordinary and royal roads, but in geometry there is one road for everyone.”¹²⁹⁵

From Serenus

II.31.116

Heraclitus used to say that much learning does not instill understanding.¹²⁹⁶ Anaxarchus, however, said that much learning greatly benefits, but also greatly harms.¹²⁹⁷

1293.The heading cites material under Serenus’s name without specifying a work or further identifying the author. The boy called to make the payment is apparently an attendant; the text gives no name or explicit status.

1294.Τριώβολον is a payment of three obols, a denomination of Greek currency. The reply turns the pupil’s demand for advantage into a literal cash profit.

1295.This anecdote has no separate author heading. It names Menaechmus and Alexander; the apparatus compares a similar Euclid story without replacing those names. Roads for ordinary people and for royalty provide the contrast with geometry’s single shared route.

1296.The heading prints Σερήνου, Serenus; the apparatus credits Meineke with correcting the manuscript’s Σερίνου. The parenthetical Bywater fragment reference printed beside Heraclitus’s name is a modern editorial reference and is not part of the quoted saying.

1297.Πολυμάθεια is extensive learning, while νοῦς is understanding or intelligence. The two sayings are juxtaposed: Anaxarchus gives learning both beneficial and harmful effects, without specifying the conditions for either.

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.