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 22 · I.22.subheading–I.22.3a.2

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Book I Chapter 22 · I.22.subheading–I.22.3a.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 546

Εἰ ἓν τὸ πᾶν

I.22.subheading

Εἰ ἓν τὸ πᾶν.

3a ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.22.3a.1

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς κόσμον ἕνα· οὐ μέντοι τὸ πᾶν εἶναι τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλὰ ὀλίγον τι τοῦ παντὸς μέρος· τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν ὕλην.

Οἱ μὲν οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς στοᾶς ἕνα κόσμον ἀπεφήναντο, ὃν δὴ καὶ τὸ πᾶν ἔφασαν εἶναι τὸ σωματικόν.

3a ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.22.3a.2

Μητρόδωρος, ὁ καθηγητὴς Ἐπικούρου, φησὶν ἄτοπον εἶναι ἐν μεγάλῳ πεδίῳ ἕνα στάχυν γενηθῆναι καὶ ἕνα κόσμον ἐν τῷ ἀπείρῳ.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 22

p. 547

Whether the All Is One

I.22.subheading

Whether the all is one.⁶⁸⁷

3a ⟨Aëtius⟩: One world and the all

I.22.3a.1

Empedocles held that there is one world, but that the world is not the all: it is only a small part of the all, while the remainder is matter.

The Stoics declared that there is one world, which they also identified with all that is corporeal.⁶⁸⁸

3a ⟨Aëtius⟩: A single ear of grain

I.22.3a.2

Metrodorus, the teacher of Epicurus, says that it is absurd for a single ear of grain to grow in a great field, and for a single world to arise in the unlimited.⁶⁸⁹

687.This heading is transmitted at this point in the manuscripts, unlike its supplied occurrence at the start of the chapter. The following accounts distinguish one world from all that exists, and then contrast one world with infinitely many worlds.

688.The Stoic qualification “corporeal” is decisive: it does not identify the world with the all including incorporeal void. Compare I.21.3b, where the world without the surrounding void is called the whole. The Empedoclean report, by contrast, places matter outside the one world.

689.“Teacher of Epicurus” is the designation transmitted in this report, not a secure identification to be inferred from the name alone. Diogenes Laërtius 10.13-14 preserves other accounts of Epicurus’s teachers, including Nausiphanes; 10.22 places the well-known Metrodorus of Lampsacus among his associates. The wording here is not silently changed to “pupil.”

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.