Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Facing Pages · Branch 473 of 516
Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.125.6
Ancient Greek
p. 942Μουσωνίου — συνέχεια
Ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν μόγις καὶ βραδέως καὶ ὥσπερ μοχλευόμενος ὑπὸ μυρίων λόγων τάχ’ ἂν ἐπινεύσειεν, ὁ νωθέστερος· ὁ δ’ αὖ ταχέως καὶ ἑτοίμως δέξεται τὰ λεγόμενα ὡς οἰκεῖα καὶ προσήκοντα αὑτῷ, μήτε ἀποδείξεων δεόμενος πολλῶν, μήτε πραγματείας μείζονος. Ἢ οὐ τοιοῦτος παῖς ἐκεῖνος ὁ Λάκων; ὃς Κλεάνθην τὸν φιλόσοφον ἠρώτησεν, εἰ ἀγαθὸν ὁ πόνος ἐστίν· οὕτω γὰρ ἐκεῖνος φαίνεται φύσει πεφυκὼς καλῶς καὶ τεθραμμένος εὖ πρὸς ἀρετήν, ὥστε ἔγγιον εἶναι νομίζειν τὸν πόνον τῆς τἀγαθοῦ φύσεως ἢ τῆς τοῦ κακοῦ· ὅς γε ὡς ὁμολογουμένου τοῦ μὴ κακὸν ὑπάρχειν αὐτόν, εἰ ἀγαθὸν τυγχάνει ὤν, ἐπυνθάνετο. Ὅθεν καὶ ὁ Κλεάνθης ἀγασθεὶς τοῦ παιδὸς εἶπεν ἄρα πρὸς αὐτόν·
Αἵματος εἶς ἀγαθοῖο, φίλον τέκος, οἷ’ ἀγορεύεις.Πῶς οὖν ὁ τοιοῦτος οὐ ῥᾳδίως ἐπείσθη ἂν μήτε πενίαν μήτε θάνατον δεδιέναι, μήτ’ ἄλλο μηδὲν τῶν δοκούντων φοβερῶν, μηδ’ αὖ διώκειν πλοῦτον ἢ ζωὴν ἢ ἡδονήν;
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31
p. 943Musonius continued
Rather, the duller one might perhaps assent only with difficulty and slowly, as though pried into agreement by countless arguments. The other will accept what is said quickly and readily as congenial and fitting for himself, needing neither many proofs nor a lengthy treatment.1382 Was not that Spartan boy of this kind, the one who asked the philosopher Cleanthes whether hardship is good? For he appears so well endowed by nature and so well brought up toward virtue that he thought hardship nearer to the nature of good than to that of bad. Taking it as agreed that hardship is not bad, he asked whether it actually is good. Hence Cleanthes, admiring the boy, said to him:
You are of noble blood, dear child, from what you say.1383
How then would someone of this kind not readily be persuaded to fear neither poverty nor death nor anything else considered fearful, and not, in turn, to pursue wealth or life or pleasure?1384
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.125.6
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.
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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.