SVF I.608

Stoic: Cleanthes of Assos · Ancient source: Stobaeus, Florilegium 82,9 Mein. (= Ecl. II 2,16) — Flor. 82,9 · Source language: Ancient Greek · Source status: Testimonium

Original — Ancient Greek

Κλεάνθης ἐρωτώμενος διὰ τί παρὰ τοῖς ἀρχαίοις οὐ πολλῶν φιλοσοφησάντων ὅμως πλείους διέλαμψαν ἢ νῦν· “ὅτι”, εἶπε, “τότε μὲν ἔργον ἠσκεῖτο, νῦν δὲ λόγος.”

StoicOs Translation

Cleanthes, asked why among the ancients, though fewer pursued philosophy, more nevertheless became distinguished than now, said: “Because then it was deed that was practised — now, discourse.”

Context

One of the apophthegmata — pointed sayings — that the tradition attached to Cleanthes, collected by von Arnim at the end of his section. Stobaeus files it under exhortations to practice.

Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 608, p. 135 (OCR of the scanned edition), among the Cleanthis apophthegmata (nos. 597–619) that von Arnim gathers at the close of the Cleanthes section.

What the source actually tells us

A chreia in classic form: question, name, pointed answer. Attribution rests on the anthology tradition, but the sentiment matches everything else transmitted about the man who drew water by night to hear philosophy by day.

Philosophical meaning

Philosophy is an askēsis — a training — before it is a theory. The ancients shone because they practised the deed (ergon); decline begins when the school practises discourse (logos) instead. From the second head of the Stoa, whose whole biography enacts the maxim, the saying is also a warning to his own successors.

Scholarly uncertainty

Like all anthology chreiai, the saying is unlocatable in any book and could have migrated between names; no earlier witness than Stobaeus survives. Its consistency with the biographical tradition supports, but cannot prove, authenticity.

Go deeper

• Read SVF I.487 — verse focuses thought like a trumpet
• Read the Vita — Cleanthes' character: slow, mocked, unshakable

About this edition

StoicOs Ancient Library is a developing multilingual digital study edition of surviving early Stoic material. The Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta assembled by Hans von Arnim provides the traditional reference framework. StoicOs distinguishes carefully between fragments, testimonia, later reports and interpretation. StoicOs translations are prepared from the surviving ancient-language sources where available.

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