From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe word names a test by which a claim is tried. In this fragment the proposed test concerns whether action follows speech rather than whether speech is merely impressive.
- In StobaeusThe surviving passage contrasts adorning oneself with words and surpassing words by deeds, qualifying its appeal to conduct as a test of truth.
- In this editionKeep the incomplete opening and the qualification if indeed. The image does not establish that every successful action proves every claim made by its performer.
- A place to readChapter 15 · Excerpt 45 Read the damaged opening and the condition attached to the test, where action following speech is proposed as evidence rather than presented as an unrestricted rule.
- English renderings
- test; touchstone; means of testing
Meaning
Basanos denotes a means of testing. In the passage concerning Demosthenes it evokes a touchstone for judging whether words are answered by deeds.
Use in the book
The surviving excerpt contrasts verbal adornment with actions that exceed words, then proposes, with an explicit if indeed, that action following speech should count as a test of truth. The surrounding chapter repeatedly asks the reader to judge talk through conduct rather than assume that competent speech proves good character. This test therefore concerns the relation between a speaker’s claims and what is done. It is not a rule that every successful action proves every proposition said by its agent, nor a replacement for the distinctions among argument, evidence and persuasion elsewhere.
The fragment asks the reader to compare two kinds of display. Verbal adornment presents a person through speech; deeds can exceed that presentation. The conditional phrase attached to the test remains important, since the text does not state a complete criterion covering every proposition. Its concern is the relation between what a person says and what he does. The missing opening prevents a full reconstruction of the original setting, but the surviving contrast is sufficient to explain the testing image.
Places to read
- Chapter 15 · Excerpt 452Conduct accompanying speech is proposed as a test of truth.
Translation in this edition
Test is the clearest local rendering; touchstone preserves the image behind the noun. Keep the conditional wording of the source rather than presenting its proposal as an unrestricted editorial maxim.
βάσανον
Attested. Chapter 15 · Excerpt 45; Wachsmuth II, printed pp. 192-193.
εἴγε δὴ βάσανον τῆς ἀληθείας εἶναι χρὴ νομίζειν
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 192–193. The beginning is damaged, and the same-work attribution is questioned in the edition’s notes. Neither the missing opening nor a more definite identification of the author is reconstructed in this article.