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Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume II

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 31 · II.31.120.4

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.120.4

Ancient Greek

p. 896

Ἀρχύτα — συνέχεια

II.31.120.4

Ἐπεὶ δ’ ἐν ἅπαντι πρᾶτον ἀνάγκα σκοπᾶν μὲν τὸ τέλος (τοῦτο γὰρ ποιέοντι κυβερνᾶται μὲν λιμένα [νεὼς] ἐς ὃν καταχθήσονται προτιθέμενοι, ἁνίοχοι δὲ τέρμα δρόμω, τοξόται δὲ καὶ σφενδονᾶται σκοπόν, ποθ’ ὃν παντᾷ ἁρμόσδονται), ἀνάγκα καὶ τᾷ ἀρετᾷ προκέσθαι τινα ὥσπερ τέχνᾳ τῶ βίω σκοπὸν ἢ πρόθεσιν, ταῦτα γὰρ ὀνυμαίνω καθ’ ἑκατέρων· τοῦτο δὲ φαμὶ εἶμεν τῶν μὲν πρακτικῶν τὸ κράτιστον, ⟨τῶν δὲ ἐπισταμονικῶν τὸ σοφώτατον⟩, τῶ δὲ βίω τὸ τέληον ἀγαθόν, τὸ λέγοντι ⟨τοὶ⟩ τἀνθρώπεια σοφοὶ εὐδαιμονίαν.

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Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 897

Archytas continued

II.31.120.4

Since in everything one must first consider the goal, as navigators do by setting before themselves the harbor where they will put in, charioteers the finish of a race, and archers and slingers a target toward which they make every adjustment,1311 virtue too, as an art of life, must have some target or objective set before it; I use these names in either case. I say that this is what is best in practical matters, ⟨what is wisest in matters of knowledge⟩, and the complete good of life, which ⟨the⟩ wise in human affairs call happiness.1312

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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.