From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPolitical participation includes wise engagement in public life, qualified by the account’s view of justice and constitutions; its place beside contemplation cannot be reduced to competition for office or campaigning.
- In StobaeusThe Stoic claim especially concerns constitutions progressing toward completeness, while the Peripatetic discussion connects civic action with sociability and also preserves a conditional preference for contemplation in another passage.
- In this editionRetain especially and the conditions of participation, and do not let one statement cancel another when the epitome gives both public activity and contemplation places in the virtuous life.
- A place to readChapter 7 · Excerpt 11b · Passage 2 Read participation as a consequence of the preceding claim about natural justice, attending to especially and progress rather than imagining an unconditional endorsement of every existing political arrangement.
- English renderings
- participate in public life; act as a citizen
Meaning
Politeuesthai concerns civic participation, not merely residence in a city or a modern party affiliation.
Use in the book
The Stoic account links wise participation with natural justice and especially with constitutions progressing toward completeness. The Peripatetic exposition offers public action among possible virtuous lives, qualifies it by circumstances and sociability, and later calls it a primary choice. It equates practical and political life in that latter statement. These claims coexist with a preference for contemplation. The lexical article records the tension rather than allowing one clause to cancel another. “Politics” here should not be limited to campaigning, competition for office or a particular modern governmental system.
The claim about public life follows the statement that justice exists by nature rather than convention. Participation is therefore presented as a consequence of the ethical account, not merely a preference for civic activity. The qualification especially directs attention to constitutions making progress toward complete ones; it does not require already perfect institutions before any participation can occur. Elsewhere, sociability draws the virtuous person toward political action even alongside contemplation. These different reasons for engagement should remain visible instead of being compressed into a modern description of seeking office.
“especially in constitutions that show some progress toward complete constitutions.” (Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11b · Passage 2).
Places to read
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11b · Passage 22Wise participation and natural justice.
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 24 · Passage 32Social nature draws the agent to civic action.
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 24 · Passage 72Practical and political life are equated.
Translation in this edition
“Participation in public life” avoids narrowing the activity to officeholding.
πολιτεύεσθαι
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11b · Passage 2; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 94.
μὴ θέσει. Ἑπόμενον δὲ τούτοις ὑπάρχειν καὶ τὸ πολιτεύεσθαι τὸν σοφὸν καὶ μάλιστ’ ἐν ταῖς τοιαύταις πολιτείαις ταῖς ἐμφαινούσαις
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 94, 144. The headword describes the attested verb, not an invented abstract doctrine.