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 7 · II.7.2.12–II.7.2.13

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English Page · Branch 69 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.2.12–II.7.2.13

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Ancient Greek

p. 134

Διαίρεσις ἠθικοῦ τόπου · συνέχεια

II.7.2.12

Ἐπεὶ δὲ τῶν καθηκόντων καὶ τῶν κατορθωμάτων ἃ μέν ἐστι καθ’ ἕκαστα, ἃ δὲ κατὰ τὴν πρὸς τοὺς πλησίον σχέσιν, συνέστη τόπος ὁ περὶ τῶν χαρίτων ἐκ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ κατὰ τὴν πρὸς τοὺς πλησίον σχέσιν ὑπάρχων. Πάλιν δ’ ἐπεὶ τῶν καθηκόντων καὶ τῶν κατορθωμάτων ἃ μὲν λέγεται σύνθετα, ἃ δὲ ἀσύνθετα, συνέστη ⟨ἐκ τοῦ⟩ κατὰ τὰ σύνθετα ὁ περὶ βίων λόγος, οὗ μέρος ὢν ὁ περὶ γάμου κατ’ ἰδίαν ἐτάχθη διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ ζητημάτων.

Διαίρεσις ἠθικοῦ τόπου · συνέχεια

II.7.2.13

Ὥστ’ εἶναι τοὺς πάντας τόπους κατὰ τὸν ⟨περὶ⟩ τῆς πράξεως λόγον, ⟨ὑποθετικόν, προτρεπτικόν⟩, παραμυθητικὸν ⟨ἢ⟩ παθολογικόν, ⟨αἰτιολογικόν⟩, περὶ ἀσκήσεως, περὶ καθηκόντων, περὶ κατορθωμάτων, περὶ χαρίτων, περὶ βίων, περὶ γάμου.

Ὁ μὲν οὖν ἠθικὸς λόγος εἰς ταῦτα καὶ τοσαῦτα τέμνοιτ’ ἄν· ἀρκτέον δὲ τῶν προβλημάτων, προτάττοντα τὰ γένη κατὰ τὴν ἐμοὶ φαινομένην διάταξιν, ἥν τινα πείθομαι πρὸς τὸ σαφέστερον διηνεγκέναι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 135

Division of the Ethical Field · 12

II.7.2.12

Some appropriate and completely right actions concern individual matters, while others concern our relations with those around us. Hence the topic of gratitude has arisen from the account of our relations with others. Again, since some appropriate and completely right actions are called composite and others noncomposite, discourse about ways of life has arisen ⟨from⟩ the treatment of composite actions. Marriage, as part of that discourse, has been arranged separately because of the number of questions it contains.¹⁵⁴

Division of the Ethical Field · 13

II.7.2.13

Thus all the topics in discourse ⟨concerning⟩ action are: ⟨precepts, exhortation⟩, consolation ⟨or⟩ passions, ⟨causal explanation⟩, practice, appropriate actions, completely right actions, gratitude, ways of life, and marriage.

Ethical discourse, then, may be divided into these parts and this number of them. We must begin the problems, placing the general categories first according to the arrangement that seems best to me, which I am persuaded has an advantage in clarity.¹⁵⁵

154.Χάριτες concerns gratitude or the reciprocal giving and returning of favors, not the mythological Graces. Composite actions are considered in their combination into a way of life, which explains the move from individual acts to βίοι. The supplied ⟨from⟩ follows ⟨ἐκ τοῦ⟩. The Greek source gives marriage its own heading because of the questions it raises, without answering those questions here.

155.The summary contains ten headings, with consolation and the treatment of passions offered as alternative names for one heading. Wachsmuth supplies “precepts, exhortation,” the alternative “or,” and “causal explanation” so that the list corresponds to the preceding exposition; the angle brackets preserve those interventions. The final first-person statement belongs to the narrator, who now proceeds from the division of ethics to its problems. The next heading is “On the End.”

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.