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.31.121

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.121

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Ancient Greek

p. 902

Ἱερωνύμου

II.31.121

Δεῦρο δὴ καὶ σκεψώμεθα περὶ τῆς τῶν παίδων ἀγωγῆς, τίνα τρόπον διειλήφασιν οἱ πατέρες· οὐ γὰρ μόνον ἐν τοῖς πρότερον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τούτοις εὑρήσομεν αὐτοὺς οὐ μικρὰ διαφωνοῦντας· οἵτινες πρῶτον μὲν βαρβάροις παραβαλόντες ⟨τοὺς παῖδας⟩ παιδαγωγοῖς καὶ τούτων ἀκούειν κελεύσαντες, ἱκανῶς ἐπιμελεῖσθαι νομίζουσιν, ὥσπερ τοῦ κατὰ πόδας ἀκολουθήσοντος, ἀλλ’ οὐ τοῦ καλῶς ἡγησομένου δεομένων τῶν παιδίων καὶ τοῦ φυλάττοντος καθάπερ συβώτου μὴ πλανηθῇ, ἀλλ’ οὐχὶ . . . διὸ καὶ τὸν ἐκ τῶν ἐργατῶν ἀποδοκιμασθέντα, τοῦτον ἐπὶ παιδαγωγίᾳ κατατάττουσι, τὰ φύσει τιμιώτατα τοῖς εὐτελεστάτοις διδόντες· ὅθεν καὶ Περικλῆς, οἰκέτου ποτὲ πεσόντος ἀπὸ ἐλαίας καὶ τὸ σκέλος συντρίψαντος· «νέος ἄρα», ἔφη, «παιδαγωγὸς πέφηνεν», οὐκ ἀπιθάνως τῆς ὑπουργίας τὴν ἀτιμίαν σκώψας.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 903

Hieronymus

II.31.121

Come, let us also consider how fathers have understood children’s upbringing. For here too, as in the preceding matters, we shall find them seriously inconsistent.¹³¹⁸ They first hand ⟨the children⟩ over to barbarian pedagogues and tell them to obey these men, and consider this adequate care.¹³¹⁹ It is as though children needed someone to follow on their heels rather than lead them well, and someone to guard them like a swineherd against straying, rather than . . .¹³²⁰ That is why they assign a man rejected as a laborer to serve as a pedagogue, giving what is naturally most precious to those valued least. So, when a household slave once fell from an olive tree and broke his leg, Pericles said, “A new pedagogue has appeared, then.” His mockery of the low esteem of this service was not without point.¹³²¹

1318.The heading names Hieronymus without identifying a work or giving further biographical details. The opening refers to preceding matters in the discussion, not to past generations.

1319.Βάρβαροι marks the attendants as non-Greek. A παιδαγωγός here supervises a child’s conduct, rather than teaching a classroom subject. Wachsmuth supplies ⟨τοὺς παῖδας⟩, ⟨the children⟩.

1320.The follower–leader contrast concerns direction rather than mere physical custody. Three printed dots mark a gap after ἀλλ’ οὐχὶ, rather than; the missing positive contrast is not restored.

1321.Οἰκέτης is a household slave, not explicitly Pericles’s own. The quip exposes the low value attached to the attendant’s role. Νέος means new here, not necessarily young; no further occasion is specified.

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.