The Anthology of John Stobaeus is a collection of excerpts from Greek poets, philosophers, historians and orators, arranged in four books of chapters, each under a single heading. Stobaeus, from Stobi in Macedonia, compiled it in the fifth century CE; Photius reports that he made it for his son Septimius.
Book I gathers excerpts on physics and theology: it opens with a prologue on arithmetic and includes chapters on the psychē, with a Hermetic passage from the books to Ammon. Book II begins with poets and sayings on the divine as beyond human knowing and holds a long survey of ethical doctrine that sorts goods into those of the psychē, those of the body and external goods. Book III takes the heads of conduct, good and bad, one to a chapter, setting poets, philosophers and historians side by side. Book IV treats the city, the household, marriage and family, and ends on how quickly the dead are forgotten.
In the Byzantine manuscripts the work came apart into two collections, copied separately: the Selections, Books I and II, and the Sayings, Books III and IV. The first two books survive abridged, Book II incompletely. Many of the excerpts come from works otherwise lost.
John Stobaeus of Stobi Anthology: summary and contents (PDF)
John Stobaeus of Stobi Anthology: summary and contents (Markdown)
Contents
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Αʹ Book I (Selections)
Physics and theology fill the first book of John Stobaeus's collection. It opens with a prologue on arithmetic, quoting Prometheus on his discovery of number in Aeschylus, Plutarch on Homer's words for friend and foe, and Philolaus on the power of the decad. Later chapters gather excerpts on the psychē, among them a Hermetic passage from the books to Ammon, and the book closes on Plato's Timaeus on how food becomes blood.
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Βʹ Book II (Selections)
The first chapter of Book II collects poets and sayings on the claim that the divine is beyond human knowing, from Aristarchus's Tantalus, Euripides' Philoctetes, Philemon, Pindar and Simonides to a saying of Demonax. At its centre stands a long doxographical survey of ethics that sorts goods into those of the psychē, those of the body and external goods, and the book ends on ingratitude, with letters of Apollonius and Xenophon's Education of Cyrus.
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Γʹ Book III (Sayings)
The third book opens on aretē, with lines from Sophocles' Eriphyle, Euripides, Theognis and the Pythagorean verses on mastering the belly, sleep, lust and anger. Each chapter takes a single head of conduct, good or bad, and sets poets, philosophers and historians side by side; one chapter reproduces Socrates' argument with Thrasymachus from the Republic. It closes on slander, citing a saying of Pelopidas, Artabanus's warning in Herodotus Book 7 and a line on slander from Josephus's Jewish War.
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Δʹ Book IV (Sayings)
The fourth book, on the state and the household, opens with Euripides' Phoenician Women and Phaethon, Sophocles and Eupolis's complaint that generals no longer come from the great houses. Chapters on politics, the household and family follow; on marriage, a Stoic argument urges the well-born to marry for their country and likens the bond of husband and wife to wine mixed with water. The final chapter gathers Euripides, Pindar, Sophocles, Archilochus and Stesichorus on how quickly the dead are forgotten.