Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

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 23 · I.23.heading–I.23.1.3

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Book I Chapter 23 · I.23.heading–I.23.1.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 552

Κεφάλαιον ΚΓʹ

I.23.heading

Περὶ τῆς οὐρανοῦ οὐσίας καὶ διαιρέσεως.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.23.1.1

Ἀναξιμένης καὶ Παρμενίδης τὴν περιφορὰν τὴν ἐξωτάτω τῆς γῆς εἶναι τὸν οὐρανόν.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.23.1.2

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς στερέμνιον εἶναι τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐξ ἀέρος παγέντος ὑπὸ πυρὸς κρυσταλλοειδῶς, τὸ πυρῶδες καὶ τὸ ἀερῶδες ἐν ἑκατέρῳ τῶν ἡμισφαιρίων περιέχοντα.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3

I.23.1.3

Ἀναξίμανδρος ἐκ θερμοῦ καὶ ψυχροῦ μίγματος.

Παρμενίδης, Ἡράκλειτος, Στράτων, Ζήνων πύρινον εἶναι τὸν οὐρανόν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 23

p. 553

Chapter 23: The Substance and Division of Heaven

I.23.heading

On the substance and division of heaven.

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: The outermost circuit

I.23.1.1

Anaximenes and Parmenides held that heaven is the outermost circuit around the earth.⁶⁹⁶

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Empedocles’ solid heaven

I.23.1.2

Empedocles held that heaven is a solid mass, made of air solidified by fire like ice, containing the fiery and the airy in each of its hemispheres.⁶⁹⁷

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Mixture and fire

I.23.1.3

Anaximander held that it is made from a mixture of hot and cold.

Parmenides, Heraclitus, Strato, and Zeno held that heaven is fiery.⁶⁹⁸

696.Periphora can signify a circular course or circuit. The report places heaven at the outermost circuit around earth; it does not assert that earth itself revolves. The supplied attribution to Aëtius identifies the doxographical source reconstructed by the editor, here II.11.

697.The ice comparison describes the resulting solidity, although fire is said to cause it. LSJ, under krystalloeidēs, gives “like ice” and cites this very report, Placita II.11.2, for the adverb. “In each” follows the printed hekaterōi; the translation does not redistribute fire and air between separate hemispheres.

698.Hot and cold are the opposed constituents named in Anaximander’s compressed report. Parmenides appears again because the earlier sentence described heaven’s position, while this one describes its substance. The grouped names do not imply identical cosmologies.

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.