Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 15 · I.15.6e.2–I.15.7.2

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Book I Chapter 15 · I.15.6e.2–I.15.7.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 376

6e ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.15.6e.2

Οὔθ’ ὕψος δέ φασιν οὔτε βάθος ἔχειν τὸν κόσμον, καθ’ ὃν λόγον ὕψος μὲν λέγεται τὸ κάτωθεν ἄνω διάστημα, βάθος δὲ τὸ ἄνωθεν κάτω. Μηδὲν γὰρ εἶναι τῶν οὕτως διαστημάτων λεγομένων περὶ τὸν κόσμον διὰ τὸ περὶ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ μέσον αὐτὸν συνεστάναι, ἀφ’ οὗ πρὸς ἅπαν ἐστὶ καὶ πρὸς ὃ πανταχόθεν ταὐτό.

7 Φιλολάου Βάκχαι · 1

I.15.7.1

Ὁ κόσμος εἷς ἐστιν. Ἤρξατο δὲ γίγνεσθαι ἄχρι τοῦ μέσου, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ μέσου εἰς τὸ ἄνω διὰ τῶν αὐτῶν τοῖς κάτω ἐστὶ τὰ ἄνω τοῦ μέσου ὑπεναντίως κείμενα τοῖς κάτω.

7 Φιλολάου Βάκχαι · 2

I.15.7.2

Τοῖς γὰρ κάτω τὸ κατωτάτω μέγα ἐστὶν ὥσπερ τὸ ἀνωτάτω, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὡσαύτως. Πρὸς γὰρ τὸ μέσον κατὰ ταὐτά ἐστιν ἑκάτερα, ὅσα μὴ μετενήνεκται.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 15

p. 377

6e ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩: Height and depth

I.15.6e.2

They say that the world has neither height nor depth, in the sense in which height means extension from below upward, and depth extension from above downward. For none of the extensions so named applies to the world, because it is constituted around its own center, from which it extends in every direction and toward which it is the same from every side.⁴⁴³

7 Philolaus, Bacchae, part 1

I.15.7.1

The world is one. It began to come into being as far as the middle; and from the middle upward, through the same things as below, are the things above the middle, lying opposite those below.⁴⁴⁴

7 Philolaus, Bacchae, part 2

I.15.7.2

For those below, what is lowest is great, just as what is highest is; and the rest likewise. For both stand in the same relation to the middle, insofar as they have not been displaced.⁴⁴⁵

443.The denial is qualified by a particular definition of height and depth. It does not deny the world’s spatial extent. The final phrase is compressed: the translation takes it to describe the same relation to the center from all sides. Compare Plato’s argument in excerpt 5 and the two definitions of dimensions in I.14.1l.

444.The title Bacchae is transmitted with the attribution to Philolaus. The wording of this excerpt is difficult. “As far as” retains Wachsmuth’s achri; “from” (apo) is a proposed correction in his apparatus. The following clause also has disputed wording and punctuation. This deliberately close rendering preserves the printed text’s uncertainty rather than presenting a securely reconstructed account of formation from the center.

445.“Great” renders the printed mega, but the sense of this sentence is not secure. Wachsmuth records conjectures such as mesa, “middle things,” and meros, “part,” as well as deletions, without adopting them. The general comparison is between positions above and below the center; the English does not silently substitute a conjecture for the troublesome word. The final qualification translates the printed mē, “not.”

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.