From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAusterity here describes the virtuous person’s refusal to offer or receive favor-seeking speech, not a general program of severe living or a rejection of every agreeable interaction with others.
- In StobaeusThe definition concerns both speaking to someone else and admitting another’s flattering discourse, with insofar as delimiting the precise respect in which the virtuous person is called austere.
- In this editionKeep the qualifying insofar as and the purpose of currying favor, and do not add prescriptions about food, clothing, bodily hardship or solitude that this brief passage does not supply.
- A place to readChapter 7 · Excerpt 11s · Passage 2 Read the qualification and both directions of speech carefully; the definition specifies a relation to flattering discourse rather than describing the whole temperament or lifestyle of the virtuous person.
- English renderings
- austere; resistant to flattery
Meaning
Austēros describes moral austerity here, not an austere taste or merely a severe manner. Its definition is narrower than many ordinary English uses.
Use in the book
The virtuous person is called austere insofar as he neither offers nor accepts speech intended to curry favor. “Insofar as” limits the description: the passage identifies a relation to flattering discourse rather than condemning all agreeable conversation. It does not specify diet, dress, bodily hardship or withdrawal from common life. This ethical use differs materially from the same adjective’s sensory use, so the older taste-entry alone would not explain it. The lexicon does not add an ascetic program that the quoted definition never gives.
The explanation is deliberately limited. A virtuous person neither offers such speech to anyone nor admits it from another person. The relevant feature is its purpose of currying favor, not simply whether it sounds pleasant. The two directions distinguish avoiding flattery oneself from refusing to receive it. Nothing further is said here about material deprivation or withdrawal from common life. This brief definition is therefore best read as a specific ethical use of austere, with the qualifying phrase preventing a broader character portrait from being silently added.
“insofar as he neither offers anyone nor admits speech intended to curry favor.” (Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11s · Passage 2).
Places to read
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11s · Passage 22Refusing favor-seeking speech defines this austerity.
Translation in this edition
Explain the local definition rather than inferring practices.
Αὐστηρόν
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11s · Passage 2; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 114.
Αὐστηρόν τε λέγεσθαι τὸν σπουδαῖον καθ’ ὅσον οὔτε προσφέρει τινὶ οὔτε
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed p. 114. The adjective itself is the lemma; no unattested abstract noun is assumed.