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.7.5–II.7.5a

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Facing Pages · Branch 91 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5–II.7.5a

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Ancient Greek

p. 178

Ζήνωνος καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν Στωϊκῶν δόγματα περὶ τοῦ ἠθικοῦ μέρους τῆς φιλοσοφίας

II.7.5

Περὶ δὲ τῶν ἠθικῶν ἑξῆς ποιήσομαι τὸν ὑπομνηματισμὸν τὰ κεφάλαια τῶν ἀναγκαίων δογμάτων ἀναλαβών. Ἄρξομαι δ’ ἐντεῦθεν·

Ζήνων · ἀγαθά, κακά, ἀδιάφορα

II.7.5a

Ταῦτ’ εἶναί φησιν ὁ Ζήνων, ὅσα οὐσίας μετέχει· τῶν δ’ ὄντων τὰ μὲν ἀγαθά, τὰ δὲ κακά, τὰ δὲ ἀδιάφορα. Ἀγαθὰ μὲν τὰ τοιαῦτα· φρόνησιν, σωφροσύνην, δικαιοσύνην, ἀνδρείαν καὶ πᾶν ὅ ἐστιν ἀρετὴ ἢ μετέχον ἀρετῆς· κακὰ δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα· ἀφροσύνην, ἀκολασίαν, ἀδικίαν, δειλίαν καὶ πᾶν ὅ ἐστι κακία ἢ μετέχον κακίας· ἀδιάφορα δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα· ζωὴν θάνατον, δόξαν ἀδοξίαν, ἡδονὴν πόνον, πλοῦτον πενίαν, ὑγίειαν νόσον, καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 179

Doctrines of Zeno and the Other Stoics on the Ethical Part of Philosophy

II.7.5

I shall next set down an account of ethical matters, taking up the main points of the essential doctrines. I shall begin here.¹⁹⁹

Zeno on Goods Evils and Indifferents

II.7.5a

Zeno says that the things that exist are those which partake of substance. Of existing things, some are goods, some evils, and some indifferents.²⁰⁰ Goods are such things as practical wisdom, temperance, justice, courage, and everything that is virtue or partakes of virtue. Evils are such things as folly, intemperance, injustice, cowardice, and everything that is vice or partakes of vice. Indifferents are such things as life and death, reputation and disrepute, pleasure and pain, wealth and poverty, health and disease, and things like these.²⁰¹

199.This heading introduces a sustained report of Stoic ethics within Chapter 7. The narrator’s first person belongs to the ancient account being excerpted; it is not the modern translator’s voice. Zeno is the Stoic founder, Zeno of Citium. The heading includes other Stoics, and the following material should not all be read as a verbatim quotation from a single work of Zeno.

200.“Substance” renders οὐσία in this statement about what exists; it is not the sense “property” or “wealth.” The sentence precedes an ethical division of existing things. Its wording is retained without expanding it into a full account of Stoic ontology. Compare Diogenes Laertius VII.101–102 for the division into goods, evils, and indifferents.

201.“Indifferents” means things placed in neither the good nor the evil class, not things about which a person must feel no concern. Life and death, health and disease are classified together in this respect; the sentence does not say that every practical choice between them is equivalent. Δόξα here means reputation, not opinion. Πόνος is pain or hardship, paired here with pleasure.

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.