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.31.128.4

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.128.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 976

Ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Ἀγησίλαον ἐπιστολῆς — συνέχεια

II.31.128.4

δύναμαι δέ σοι ἀφηγήσασθαι, ὅσα ἀρετῆς ἔρωτα ἐμβάλλει, τὰ δὲ μείζω καὶ πλείω κρειττόνων ἂν εἴη. Τροφὴ μὲν οὖν ἔστω σώματος ἥπερ ἐν Λάκωσι· ψυχῆς δὲ νέας καὶ ἀρτιφυοῦς λόγοι ὁδὰς ἔχοντες ἀνδρῶν ἐπ’ ἀρετῇ τὸν βίον διενηνοχότων· παιδιαὶ δὲ ἄκοσμοι ἢ μῦθοι γραῶν ἐμβάλλοντες φρόνημα ταπεινὸν ἀπίτωσαν· τὸ δὲ πλέον ἔστω σὺν ἀνδράσι σώφροσιν, ἔνθα ὅμοια ὄψεται ἴσα τε ἀκούσεται. Πέφυκε δὲ πάντων μὲν ζῴων κρατεῖν τὸ ἔθος, παντὸς δὲ μᾶλλον ἀνθρώπου. Κινδυνεύομεν δέ, ὦ Ἀγησίλαε, μιμηταὶ εἶναι τῶν λεγομένων τε καὶ δρωμένων.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 977

From the Letter to Agesilaus, continued

II.31.128.4

I can, however, set out for you what instills a love of virtue; greater and more numerous matters would be the task of better men.¹⁴⁴² Let the nourishment of the body be that customary among the Laconians. For a young and newly growing soul, let it be accounts containing hodas [uncertain word] of men whose lives have been distinguished by virtue.¹⁴⁴³ Let disorderly games or old women’s stories that instill a lowly cast of mind be gone.¹⁴⁴⁴ Let the boy spend most of his time with temperate men, where he will see and hear like things. Habit naturally rules all living creatures, and the human being most of all. For we are liable, Agesilaus, to imitate what is said and done.¹⁴⁴⁵

1442.The writer limits his own claim: he offers what can awaken love of virtue, while reserving greater and more extensive instruction for better men. The main text reads ὅσα and ἀρετῆς; the latter is Meineke’s correction of the manuscript’s ἀρχῆς.

1443.Λάκωσι is the main text’s form for the Laconians. The following ὁδὰς is difficult and is retained as printed, without confidently translating it as paths. The apparatus records proposals including commands, songs and praises, as well as the possibility of a participle meaning guiding. English therefore marks the uncertain word rather than adopting one of these repairs.

1444.Παιδιαί means games or amusements. The letter dismisses both disorderly games and old women’s stories in connection with the lowly cast of mind they instill; the account preserves its characterization.

1445.The boy is the subject understood in ἔστω, ὄψεται and ἀκούσεται. Temperate follows σώφροσιν; the final sentences connect habitual company and the imitation of words and deeds.

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.