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.31.127.5–II.31.127.6

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 486 of 516

Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.127.5–II.31.127.6

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Ancient Greek

p. 968

Ξενοφῶντος — συνέχεια

II.31.127.5

ἐκέλευε δὲ καὶ λογισμοὺς μανθάνειν· καὶ τούτων δὲ ὁμοίως τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐκέλευε φυλάττεσθαι τὴν μάταιον πραγματείαν, μέχρι δὲ τοῦ ὠφελίμου πάντα καὶ αὐτὸς συνεσκόπει καὶ συνδιεξῄει τοῖς συνοῦσι. προύτρεπε δὲ σφόδρα καὶ ὑγείας ἐπιμελεῖσθαι τοὺς συνόντας παρά τε τῶν εἰδότων μανθάνοντας ὅσα ἐνδέχοιτο καὶ ἑαυτῷ ἕκαστον προσέχοντα διὰ παντὸς τοῦ βίου, τί βρῶμα ἢ τί πῶμα ἢ ποῖος πόνος συμφέροι αὐτῷ, καὶ πῶς τούτοις χρώμενος ὑγιεινότατα ⟨ἂν⟩ διάγοι. τοῦ γὰρ οὕτω προσέχοντος ἑαυτῷ ἔργον ἔφη εἶναι εὑρεῖν ἰατρὸν τὰ πρὸς ὑγίειαν συμφέροντα αὐτῷ μᾶλλον διαγιγνώσκοντα ἑαυτοῦ.

Ξενοφῶντος — συνέχεια

II.31.127.6

εἰ δέ τις μᾶλλον ἢ κατὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην σοφίαν ὠφελεῖσθαι βούλοιτο, συνεβούλευε μαντικῆς ἐπιμελεῖσθαι. τὸν γὰρ εἰδότα, δι’ ὧν ⟨οἱ⟩ θεοὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων σημαίνουσιν, οὐδέποτε ἔρημον ἔφη γίγνεσθαι συμβουλῆς θεῶν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 969

Xenophon continued

II.31.127.5

He also told them to learn calculation; here, as in the other subjects, he told them to guard against fruitless labor. He himself examined all these matters and went through them with his companions up to the point of usefulness.¹⁴²⁵ He also strongly urged his companions to care for their health, learning as much as possible from those who know, and each paying attention to himself throughout life: what food or drink or kind of exertion benefited him, and how, by using these, he ⟨could⟩ live in the best health.¹⁴²⁶ For he said it was hard for someone who attended to himself in this way to find a doctor who discerned what benefited his health better than he did himself.¹⁴²⁷

Xenophon continued

II.31.127.6

If, however, someone wanted more help than human wisdom could provide, he advised giving attention to divination.¹⁴²⁸ For, he said, the person who knows the means by which ⟨the⟩ gods give people signs concerning their affairs¹⁴²⁹ is never deprived of the gods’ counsel.¹⁴³⁰

1425.Λογισμοί are calculations. The limit is usefulness, rather than a rejection of learning the subject. Συνεσκόπει and συνδιεξῄει describe Socrates examining and going through these matters with his companions.

1426.Πόνος here is physical exertion, considered alongside food and drink. Wachsmuth prints ⟨ἂν⟩ supplied from Xenophon’s text; English marks the corresponding ⟨could⟩. Learning from knowledgeable people accompanies attention to one’s own experience.

1427.Ἑαυτοῦ is a genitive of comparison, than himself. The physician is compared with the person who consistently attends to his own condition; the wording keeps that qualification.

1428.The recommendation is conditional on seeking benefit beyond the measure of human wisdom. Divination supplements the human inquiry described above; the passage does not replace that inquiry with it.

1429.Wachsmuth prints the article ⟨οἱ⟩ supplied from Xenophon’s text. English marks it as ⟨the⟩ before gods.

1430.Σημαίνουσιν means give signs or indications. The means of these signs are not enumerated here. The final phrase is counsel of the gods, keeping the divine source of the guidance explicit.

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.