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.31.122.4

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Facing Pages · Branch 457 of 516

Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.122.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 910

Περὶ παίδων ἀγωγῆς — συνέχεια

II.31.122.4

Ἐπειδὰν δὲ τούτων ἕνεκα ἱκανῶς ἔχωσι, τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοὺς παιδευτέον, ἀρχομένους ἀπὸ τῶν ἁπλουστέρων καὶ γνωριμωτέρων, ἔπειτα προϊόντας ὁσημέραι καὶ κατὰ βραχὺ πρὸς τοὺς τῆς αἰτίας ἀπολογισμούς· καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων τὸ μὲν δι’ εὐκρινείας ἐπιστημονικῆς τελέως φυλακτέον ἔτι ἀτελέσι διανοίαις παρακατατίθεσθαι, τὸ δ’ ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν . . . καὶ διὰ πειθοῦς ἐμμελοῦς [καὶ] προσαγόμενον τὴν διάνοιαν τῶν ἀκουόντων καταβλητέον εἰς αὐτοὺς ὡς οἷόν τ’ ἐστὶ μάλιστα· γεγυμνασμένων δ’ αὐτῶν ἱκανῶς ἐν τούτοις ἐπὶ τῷ τέλει τῆς εἰς ἀρετὴν ἀγωγῆς οἱ ὅροι τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀφοριζέσθωσαν καὶ τῆς αἰτίας ἡ ἀκροτάτη παραδιδόσθω θεωρία, τελειότης τε τῶν λογισμῶν καὶ ἀναμάρτητος καὶ ἀνέλεγκτος ἐπιστήμη ⟨καὶ⟩ βεβαιότης ἐντιθέσθω τῆς γνώσεως, ἀλήθεια· ἡ γὰρ εἰς τοῦτο ἀγωγὴ [τῆς παιδείας] τέλος ἔχει τῆς τῶν παίδων ἀγωγῆς τὸ κράτιστον.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 911

On the Upbringing of Children continued

II.31.122.4

Once they are sufficiently prepared for these purposes, they must be educated through reasoned accounts, beginning with simpler and more familiar ones, then progressing daily and little by little toward explanations of the cause.¹³³¹ At this stage, one must completely avoid entrusting what has the clarity of exact knowledge to minds still immature. But the other—so to speak . . .—which also draws the hearers’ understanding through fitting persuasion, must be planted in them as fully as possible.¹³³² Once they have been adequately trained in these matters, at the end of their guidance toward virtue let the definitions of the virtues be laid down, and let the highest contemplation of the cause be imparted. Let completeness of reasoning, infallible and irrefutable knowledge ⟨and⟩ certainty of understanding be instilled—truth. For guidance to this point has as its goal what is best in children’s upbringing.¹³³³

1331.Λόγοι now become reasoned accounts taught to the learner, with gradual progress toward explanations of cause. The printed ἕνεκα is retained and rendered for these purposes; the apparatus records a proposal to delete it.

1332.The three-dot gap interrupts the contrast after so to speak; no missing description is reconstructed. Exact knowledge is distinguished from instruction through fitting persuasion. The rejected [καὶ] remains in Greek but contributes no additional and to the English.

1333.The culminating definitions, contemplation and knowledge follow adequate training. The supplied ⟨καὶ⟩ is mirrored by ⟨and⟩; rejected [τῆς παιδείας], of education, is not translated. The English takes the bare nominative ἀλήθεια, truth, as a concluding apposition.

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.