Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 31 · II.31.130

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 498 of 516

Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.130

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 992

Ξενοφῶντος

II.31.130

Παίδευσις γὰρ καλὴ διδάσκει χρῆσθαι νόμοις καὶ λέγειν περὶ τῶν δικαίων καὶ ἀκούειν. οἱ μὲν οὖν παρασχόντες ἑαυτοὺς ἐπὶ τὸ μοχθεῖν τε καὶ διδάσκεσθαι αὐτοὶ μὲν μαθήσεις καὶ ἐπιπόνους μελέτας ἔχουσι, σωτηρίαν δὲ ταῖς αὑτῶν πόλεσιν· οἱ δὲ μὴ θέλοντες διὰ τὸ ἐπίπονον διδάσκεσθαι, ἀλλ’ ἐν ἡδοναῖς ἀκαίροις διάγειν, φύσει οὗτοι κάκιστοι· οὔτε γὰρ νόμοις οὔτε λόγοις ἀγαθοῖς πείθονται· οὐ γὰρ εὑρίσκουσι διὰ τὸ μὴ πονεῖν οἷον χρὴ τὸν ἀγαθὸν εἶναι· ὥστε οὔτε θεοσεβεῖς δύναιντ’ ἂν εἶναι οὔτε σοφοί. τῷ τε ἀπαιδεύτῳ χρώμενοι πολλὰ ἐπιτιμῶσι τοῖς πεπαιδευμένοις. διὰ μὲν οὖν τούτων οὐδὲν ἂν καλῶς ἔχοι· διὰ δὲ τῶν ἀμεινόνων ἅπασαι ⟨αἱ⟩ ὠφέλειαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εὕρηνται· ἀμείνους δὲ οἱ θέλοντες πονεῖν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 993

Xenophon, On Hunting

II.31.130

For good education teaches people to make use of laws and to speak and listen about what is just.¹⁴⁶⁷ Those who commit themselves to hard work and instruction gain learning and strenuous practice for themselves, and safety for their own cities.¹⁴⁶⁸ But those who, because it is hard, do not want to be taught, and instead want to pass their time in ill-timed pleasures, are the worst by nature. For they are persuaded neither by laws nor by good arguments. Since they do not work, they do not discover what a good person ought to be like; thus they could be neither reverent toward the gods nor wise.¹⁴⁶⁹ Acting in their uneducated way, they find much fault with the educated.¹⁴⁷⁰ Through such people, then, nothing would go well. But through better people all ⟨the⟩ benefits for humankind have been discovered; and the better people are those willing to work.¹⁴⁷¹

1467.The editorial reference identifies On Hunting 13.14-17; the Greek attribution itself names Xenophon. Education here joins the use of laws with speaking and listening about justice, rather than treating learning as the acquisition of information alone.

1468.The contrast gives learning and demanding practice to the learners themselves, and safety to their own cities. The printed αὐτοὶ, themselves, and the order ἐπιπόνους μελέτας, strenuous practice, are retained rather than replaced from a fuller Xenophon text.

1469.The description φύσει, by nature, stands beside the concluding emphasis on willingness to work; this excerpt does not develop their relation. Δύναιντ’ ἂν, could be, retains the potential form of the stated consequence.

1470.Τῷ τε ἀπαιδεύτῳ χρώμενοι literally speaks of making use of what is uneducated. The English understands the neuter adjective as their uneducated manner of acting; no particular opponent is named.

1471.Wachsmuth supplies ⟨αἱ⟩ from the Xenophon text, reflected by ⟨the⟩. The final comparison identifies the better people by their willingness to undertake effort, returning to the contrast between training and avoidance of hardship.

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.