Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 14 · I.14.minimum–I.14.1k.2

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Page · Branch 183 of 879

Book I Chapter 14 · I.14.minimum–I.14.1k.2

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 362

Ἐπιγραφή

I.14.minimum

Περὶ ἐλαχίστου.

1k ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.14.1k.1

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ἔφη πρὸ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων θραύσματα ἐλάχιστα, οἱονεὶ στοιχεῖα πρὸ τῶν στοιχείων ὁμοιομερῆ.

Ἡράκλειτος πρὸ τοῦ ἑνὸς δοκεῖ τισι ψήγματα καταλείπειν.

1k ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.14.1k.2

Ξενοκράτης καὶ Διόδωρος ἀμερῆ τὰ ἐλάχιστα ὡρίζοντο.

Ἡρακλείδης θραύσματα.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 14

p. 363

Subsection heading

I.14.minimum

On the smallest.⁴¹⁸

1k ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩: Empedocles and Heraclitus

I.14.1k.1

Empedocles said that before the four elements there are smallest fragments, as it were elements before the elements, with parts of the same kind.⁴¹⁹

Heraclitus seems to some to leave filings prior to the One.⁴²⁰

1k ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩: Other accounts

I.14.1k.2

Xenocrates and Diodorus defined the smallest things as without parts.

Heraclides defined them as fragments.⁴²¹

418.Wachsmuth places this transmitted phrase here as a subsection title. Elachiston is “the smallest” or “minimum”; the reports that follow ask what the smallest constituents are and whether they have parts.

419.Homoiomerē means having like parts. The report posits fragments prior to the four elements, without explaining whether this priority is temporal or structural. Its unusual formulation is retained rather than assimilated to another account of Empedocles.

420.Psēgmata are scrapings or filings. “Seems to some” explicitly marks this as an interpretation of Heraclitus; the text does not directly quote him or identify the interpreters.

421.“Without parts” translates amerē, as in the preceding report of Democritus. The final Greek is only a name and “fragments”; the English supplies the governing words from the preceding sentence. The passage offers classifications, not their supporting arguments.

About This Reading Edition

Stobaeus gathered Greek philosophy and poetry for his son Septimius. Volume I presents the dedication testimony, On Arithmetic, Book I through chapter 60, and the ancient contents of all four books. This complete bilingual edition includes an introduction and 2,117 explanatory notes.

Historical Text and Translation

The Greek follows Curt Wachsmuth’s 1884 Volume I, checked against the supplied scan. Gaps, lost-chapter headings, and uncertain attributions remain visible. Chapter 2 includes a labeled proposed reconstruction. The appendix outlines Books I–IV; the full texts of Books II–IV are outside this volume. Reader pages preserve the companion PDF’s numbering.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the Greek. Prose and verse retain their distinct forms, with mixed passages preserving their quoted verse. Every passage is paired with its Greek and identified by the edition’s reference number. All 2,117 notes remain linked to their passages, with continuous numbering across the introduction and text.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 printing are in the public domain. The independent English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The complete supplied edition is available as PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown. The PDF retains the fixed page locations used by the companion lexicon.