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.31.128.3

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.128.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 974

Ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Ἀγησίλαον ἐπιστολῆς — συνέχεια

II.31.128.3

Πόθεν δέ, ὦ γενναῖε, φήσεις, ἔστι τοῦτον λαβεῖν; Παρὰ φιλοσόφων ἀνδρῶν, οὓς θείους λέγων ὅσι’ ἂν εἴποιμι. Τούτων γὰρ νόμος οὐδεὶς ἄρχει γραφεὶς ὑπὸ φαύλων ἀνδρῶν δόξῃ ψευδεῖ ἐπικεχρωσμένος, τὸ δὲ ξυγγενὲς τῆς φύσεως ἄγει πρὸς τὰ κρείττω μαθήματα· ⟨οὐδὲ⟩ φεύξῃ φωραθεὶς παρανόμων δίκην· οὐ γὰρ ἀνθρωπίνων νόμων ἐραστὴς ἁλώσῃ, οὐδὲ ξενικῶν ἔσῃ ἐπαινέτης, θείων δὲ καὶ αἰωνίων παντὸς πάντῃ ἀξιομαθητοτέρων εἶναι νομιζομένων. Ὁδὸς μὲν οὖν ὧδέ σοι δεδηλώσθω·

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 975

From the Letter to Agesilaus, continued

II.31.128.3

“But where, my noble friend,” you will say, “can one acquire this?” From philosophical men, whom I could piously call divine. For no law written by base men and tainted with false opinion rules them; the kinship of their nature leads toward better studies.¹⁴³⁹ ⟨Nor⟩, if you are found out, will you face a charge of unlawful conduct.¹⁴⁴⁰ For you will not be caught as a lover of human laws, nor will you be a praiser of foreign ones, but of divine and eternal laws, held in every respect to be more worthy of learning than anything else. Let the way, then, have been shown to you in this manner.¹⁴⁴¹

1439.This refers back to the divine mind described in the preceding unit. The contrast is between laws written by human beings and the affinity of nature that leads the philosophers toward better studies.

1440.Wachsmuth prints Hercher’s supplied ⟨οὐδὲ⟩, reflected by ⟨Nor⟩. Δίκην φεύγειν is the legal idiom for facing prosecution, with the alleged offense in the genitive, here παρανόμων (LSJ, φεύγω IV). The sentence denies that the recipient will face such a charge; it does not describe fleeing punishment.

1441.The printed ἀξιομαθητοτέρων means more worthy of learning. The apparatus explains a shortened manuscript form with a compendium as this comparative, while also recording Dindorf’s different conjecture. The Greek here follows the form in Wachsmuth’s main text.

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.