Homo Ineptus or Homo Sapiens: Joannes Stobaeus and his “universal knowledge” in the educational space of Late Antiquity

The article discusses the structural and substantive features of the Anthology by Joannes Stobaeus, the 5th century Byzantine compiler, who created one of the most extensive collections of extracts from ancient authors. This collection allowed everyone, throughout life, to practice active reading of classical texts as well as to be introduced to universal knowledge relatively free from either pagan or Christian faith. Initially, Stobaeus’ Anthology consisted of four books which were later grouped into two volumes, but they did not cease to be two autonomous parts of the same work. The introduction to the Anthology is lost, but the 9th century Byzantine theologian and Patriarch Photius of Constantinople points out that Stobaeus wrote a textbook to help his son Septimius, who had problems memorizing texts. Photius’s direct indication of Stobaeus’ didactic purpose, however, is one of the assertions most challenged by contemporary researchers. Photius is trusted in terms of the original structure and content of the Anthology, but not in its pedagogical intention: to some authors, this seems to be too insignificant a purpose (which was secondary, if any), but to others, on the contrary, too ambitious (whose implementation was far from complete). The first two books of the Anthology represent a view of education as a process inextricably bound to philosophy and the second two — as a result rooted in everyday life. Stobaeus’ methods of working with sources suggest that he, not without pedagogical intent, integrated quotations into a somewhat cumbersome but well thought out contextual framework. The latter was damaged by numerous copyists, but not lost, which allows us to speak about a special place this collection occupied in the educational and knowledge space of Late Antiquity