From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAcquiring wealth is a qualified skill involving proper sources, timing, method and limits, not simply successful accumulation; the account records disagreement about whether the activity is intermediate or morally excellent.
- In StobaeusThe exclusive claim about the virtuous money-acquirer is joined to practical questions about when and how long acquisition should continue, while the report preserves differing assessments instead of speaking with one unqualified voice.
- In this editionUse acquiring money or wealth where appropriate rather than importing modern financial institutions, and retain the explicit disagreement about classification instead of treating all profitable activity as morally excellent.
- A place to readChapter 7 · Excerpt 11d · Passage 3 Begin with some said and others, then read the questions of source, time, manner and limit; the second sentence does not remove the report’s stated disagreement in the first.
- English renderings
- acquiring money; expertise in resources
Meaning
Chrēmatistikē concerns acquiring resources or money. Expertise in this sphere differs from a bare accumulation of wealth.
Use in the book
The Stoic account includes proper sources, collection, preservation and expenditure in the skill, and records disagreement over whether acquiring money is intermediate or morally excellent. The Peripatetic account makes provision a branch of household management and ranks acquisition occurring naturally above retail dealing. Neither should be paraphrased as approval of any profitable activity. Sources, timing, manner, limits and justice matter as well as returns. “Finance” risks importing modern institutions not named in the passage; ordinary wealth is not itself the technical skill.
The report marks disagreement immediately: some call acquiring money intermediate and others morally excellent. It then connects proper acquisition with the virtuous person’s knowledge of sources, timing, manner and duration. These questions constrain the activity rather than merely describe how to increase a sum. The preceding definition also includes preserving and spending money with a view to adequate resources. Taken together, the passages distinguish expertise from possession and specify limits internal to acquiring well. The disagreement should remain visible even when the surrounding account stresses the virtuous person’s competence.
“Some said that acquiring money is intermediate, others that it is morally excellent.” (Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11d · Passage 3).
Places to read
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11d · Passage 22Expertise includes proper sources and use of resources.
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11d · Passage 32Disagreement over the activity’s classification.
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 26 · Passage 82Natural acquisition is ranked above retail trade.
Translation in this edition
“Acquiring money” or “acquiring wealth” is more precise here than “economics.”
χρηματιστικὴν
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11d · Passage 2; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 95.
ἐπιμέλειαν καὶ τῶν κατ’ ἀγρὸν ἐργαζομένων· τὴν δὲ χρηματιστικὴν ἐμπειρίαν περιποιήσεως χρημάτων ἀφ’ ὧν δέον καὶ ἕξιν ὁμολογουμένως
χρηματίζεσθαί
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11d · Passage 3; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 95.
τὸ δὲ χρηματίζεσθαί τινες μὲν μέσον εἶπον εἶναι, τινὲς δὲ ἀστεῖον. Φαῦλον δὲ μηδένα
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 95, 149. The noun of expertise and the activity-verb need not have the same classification.