SVF I.266
Stoic: Zeno of Citium · Ancient source: Stobaeus, Florilegium 48,88 Mein. — Flor. 48,88 · Source language: Ancient Greek · Source status: Direct quotation, Testimonium
Original — Ancient Greek
Ζήνων ἔφη δεῖν τὰς πόλεις κοσμεῖν οὐκ ἀναθήμασιν ἀλλὰ ταῖς τῶν οἰκούντων ἀρεταῖς.
StoicOs Translation
Zeno said that cities should be adorned not with votive offerings but with the virtues of their inhabitants.
Context
Stobaeus' anthology of civic wisdom preserves the saying as a free-standing apophthegm under Zeno's name.
Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 266, p. 62 (OCR of the scanned edition). A one-line apophthegm introduced with “Zeno said” (ephē).
What the source actually tells us
A compact saying with a speech-marker, fully consonant with the Politeia's rejection of temples and monuments (SVF I.264, I.267): the polemic against sacred display is one of the book's best-attested traits.
Philosophical meaning
A city's true splendour is moral, not marble: statues and offerings decorate stone, while virtue decorates the community itself. The saying compresses the Politeia's programme — replace external cult with the cultivation of character.
Scholarly uncertainty
Anthology apophthegms travel between names; the attribution rests on Stobaeus alone, though the thought is secured for Zeno by SVF I.264 and I.267.
Go deeper
- Read SVF I.264 — no temples, no statues
- Read SVF I.267 — no temples, law-courts or gymnasia
- Read the Vita — Athens honours Zeno's virtue
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.