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 7 · II.7.2.1

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 62 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.2.1

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 120

Διαίρεσις ἠθικοῦ τόπου

II.7.2.1

Φίλων ἐγένετο Λαρισαῖος, φιλόσοφος Ἀκαδημιακός, ἀκουστὴς Κλειτομάχου, τῶν ἱκανὴν εἰσενεγκαμένων προκοπὴν ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς. Οὗτος ὁ Φίλων τά τε ἄλλα πεπραγμάτευται δεξιῶς καὶ διαίρεσιν τοῦ κατὰ φιλοσοφίαν λόγου, ἣν ἐγὼ προχειριοῦμαι περὶ ἧς ὁ λόγος. Ἐοικέναι δή φησι τὸν φιλόσοφον ἰατρῷ. Καθάπερ οὖν ἔργον ἰατροῦ πρῶτον μὲν πεῖσαι τὸν κάμνοντα παραδέξασθαι τὴν θεραπείαν, δεύτερον δὲ τοὺς τῶν ἀντισυμβουλευόντων λόγους ὑφελέσθαι, οὕτως καὶ τοῦ φιλοσόφου. Κεῖται τοίνυν ἑκάτερον τούτων ἐν τῷ προσαγορευομένῳ προτρεπτικῷ λόγῳ, ἔστι γὰρ ὁ προτρεπτικὸς ὁ παρορμῶν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρετήν. Τούτου δ’ ὁ μὲν ἐνδείκνυται τὸ μεγαλωφελὲς αὐτῆς, ὁ δὲ τοὺς ἀνασκευάζοντας ἢ κατηγοροῦντας ἢ πως ἄλλως κακοηθιζομένους ⟨εἰς⟩ τὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἀπελέγχει.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 121

Division of the Ethical Field · 1

II.7.2.1

Philo was a native of Larissa, an Academic philosopher and a pupil of Clitomachus, one of those who made considerable progress in other matters. This Philo treated other subjects skillfully and also a division of philosophical discourse, which I shall take up as the subject under discussion.¹⁴² He says that the philosopher resembles a physician. Just as a physician’s task is first to persuade the sick person to accept treatment, and second to remove the arguments of those advising against it, so too is the philosopher’s. Both tasks belong to what is called exhortatory discourse, since exhortation urges one toward virtue. One part shows its great benefit; the other refutes those who reject philosophy, accuse it, or otherwise behave maliciously ⟨toward⟩ it.¹⁴³

142.Philo is Philo of Larissa, the Academic philosopher named in the Greek, not Philo of Alexandria. The first-person “I” belongs to the source’s narrator, who reports Philo’s division. Wachsmuth retains the difficult phrase περὶ ἧς ὁ λόγος and the reading λοιποῖς, “other matters”; the English does not silently replace either with a proposed reading from the apparatus.

143.Προτρεπτικός means exhortatory or encouraging a turn toward a way of life. The physician comparison explains why demonstrating philosophy’s benefit and answering its opponents belong to the same preliminary stage. The supplied ⟨toward⟩ follows ⟨εἰς⟩. In “its great benefit,” the immediate Greek antecedent is virtue; the surrounding argument concerns the benefit of philosophical cultivation.

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.