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.7.5b1.1

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5b1.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 184

Ὁρισμοὶ ἀρετῶν

II.7.5b1.1

Φρόνησιν δ’ εἶναι ἐπιστήμην ὧν ποιητέον καὶ οὐ ποιητέον καὶ οὐδετέρων, ἢ ἐπιστήμην ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν καὶ οὐδετέρων φύσει πολιτικοῦ ⟨λογικοῦ⟩ ζῴου (καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν λοιπῶν δὲ ἀρετῶν οὕτως ἀκούειν παραγγέλλουσι)· σωφροσύνην δ’ εἶναι ἐπιστήμην αἱρετῶν καὶ φευκτῶν καὶ οὐδετέρων· δικαιοσύνην δὲ ἐπιστήμην ἀπονεμητικὴν τῆς ἀξίας ἑκάστῳ· ἀνδρείαν δὲ ἐπιστήμην δεινῶν καὶ οὐ δεινῶν καὶ οὐδετέρων·

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 185

Definitions of the Virtues

II.7.5b1.1

Practical wisdom is knowledge of what should be done, what should not be done, and what is neither; or knowledge of things good, evil, and neither for a creature that is by nature social and ⟨rational⟩. They direct us to understand the other virtues in this way as well.²⁰⁶ Temperance is knowledge of what is choiceworthy, what is to be avoided, and what is neither. Justice is knowledge that assigns each their due worth. Courage is knowledge of things terrible, things not terrible, and things neither.²⁰⁷

206.Wachsmuth relocates the following extended exposition of virtues to this position, identifying it with a Chrysippean account. He explains that it stood later in the manuscript sequence between divisions of goods and evils, and argues for the displacement of a leaf. The source’s raised locator 5b¹ is written 5b1 here; added final numbers divide it only for layout. “Social” renders πολιτικοῦ, and “rational” is his supplement, not a replacement of the printed social qualification.

207.Each definition makes a virtue a kind of knowledge, in contrast with the preceding account’s exceptions. “Neither” retains the repeated third class in the practical wisdom, temperance, and courage definitions. Justice concerns assignment according to worth; the wording does not simply define it as giving everybody an identical share. “Terrible” retains δεινόν without replacing it by a list of external dangers.

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.