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STOBAEUS, JOANNES
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See also:STOBAEUS, JOANNES , so called from his native See also:place Stobi in See also:Macedonia, the compiler of a valuable See also:series of extracts from See also:Greek authors. Of his See also:life nothing is known, but he probably belongs to the latter See also:half of the 5th See also:century A.D. From his silence in regard to See also:Christian authors, it is inferred that he was not a Christian. The extracts were intended by Stobaeus for his son Septimius, and were preceded by a See also:letter briefly explaining the purpose of the See also:work and giving a See also:summary of the contents. From this summary (preserved in See also:Photius's Bibliotheca) we learn that Stobaeus divided his work into four books and two volumes. In most of our See also:MSS. the work is divided into three books, of which the first and second are generally called 'EKkoyai ¢vataai Kai i1B0Kal (See also:Physical and Moral Extracts), and the third 'AvOo-Xiycov (Florilegium or Sermones). As each of the four books is sometimes called 'AvOoXoytov, it is probable that this name originally belonged to the entire work; the full See also:title, as we know from Photius, was 'EKXoyc::v airort)See also:Beyµa-ra>v ulroBrpi3v !34 Xfa TETTapa (Four Books of Extracts, Sayings and Precepts). The See also:modern arrangement is somewhat arbitrary and there are several marked discrepancies between it and the See also:account given XX V ..20by Photius. The introduction to the whole work, treating of the value of See also:philosophy and of philosophical sects, is lost, with the exception of the concluding portion; the second See also:book is little more than a fragment, and the third and See also:fourth have been amalgamated by altering the See also:original sections. From these and other indications it seems probable that what we have is only an See also:epitome of the original work, made by an See also:anonymous See also:Byzantine writer of much later date. The didactic aim of Stobaeus's work is apparent throughout. The first book teaches physics—in the wide sense which the Greeks assigned to this See also:term—by means of extracts. It is often untrustworthy: Stobaeus betrays a tendency to confound the dogmas of the See also:early Ionic philosophers, and he occasionally mixes up See also:Platonism with Pythagoreanism. For See also:part of this book and much of book ii. he depended on the See also:works of See also:Aetius, a peripatetic philosopher, and See also:Didymus. The third and fourth books, like the larger part of the second, treat of See also:ethics; the third, of virtues and vices, in pairs; the fourth, of more See also:general ethical and See also:political subjects, frequently citing extracts to illustrate the pros and cons of a question in two successive chapters. In all, Stobaeus quotes more than five See also:hundred writers, generally beginning with the poets, and then proceeding to the historians, orators, philosophers and physicians. It is to him that we owe many of our most important fragments of the dramatists, particularly of See also:Euripides. Editio princeps (1609) ; Eclogae, ed. T. See also:Gaisford (1822), A. See also:Meineke, (186o–1864); Florilegium, ed. T. Gaisford (185o) ; A. Meineke (1855–1857), C. See also:Wachsmuth and O. Hense (1884–1894, and 1909). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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