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 24 · I.24.1l.2–I.24.1m.2

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Book I Chapter 24 · I.24.1l.2–I.24.1m.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 566

1l ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.24.1l.2

Καὶ πρῶτον μετὰ γε τὴν τῶν ἀπλανῶν θέσιν φαίνωνα λεγόμενον τὸν τοῦ Κρόνου, δεύτερον φαέθοντα τὸν τοῦ Διός, τρίτον πυρόεντα τὸν τοῦ Ἄρεος, τέταρτον ἑωσφόρον τὸν τῆς Ἀφροδέτης, πέμπτον στίλβοντα τὸν τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ, ἕκτον ἥλιον, ἕβδομον σελήνην.

Τὰς δὲ ἐπισημασίας τάς τε χειμερινὰς καὶ τὰς θερινὰς κατὰ τὰς τῶν ἄστρων ἐπιτολάς τε καὶ δυσμὰς γίνεσθαι.

1m ⟨Ἀετίου καὶ Διδύμου⟩ · 1

I.24.1m.1

Ἀριστοτέλης ἐκ τοῦ πέμπτου σώματος γεγενῆσθαι τὰ ἄστρα.

Μὴ δεῖσθαι δὲ τὰ οὐράνια τροφῆς, οὐ γὰρ φθαρτὰ ἀλλ᾽ ἀΐδια εἶναι.

1m ⟨Ἀετίου καὶ Διδύμου⟩ · 2

I.24.1m.2

Πάντα δὲ κινεῖσθαι, τὰ μὲν πρὸς ἡμῶν καλούμενα πλανήτας ὑπὸ τὸν ζῳδιακὸν κύκλον, λοξὸν ὄντα καὶ τῶν τροπικῶν ἐφαπτόμενον, τὰ δὲ ἀπλανῆ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰεὶ φανεροῦ παρήκοντα μέχρι τοῦ ἀφανοῦ· οὐκ ὀλίγα δὲ αὐτῶν τῆς γῆς εἶναι μείζονα.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 24

p. 567

1l ⟨Aëtius⟩: Order and seasonal signs

I.24.1l.2

First, after the position of the fixed stars, comes the star of Cronus, called Phaenon; second, that of Zeus, Phaethon; third, that of Ares, Pyroeis; fourth, that of Aphrodite, Eosphorus; fifth, that of Hermes, Stilbon; sixth, the sun; and seventh, the moon.⁷²²

Weather signs, both wintry and summery, occur in accordance with the risings and settings of the stars.

1m ⟨Aëtius and Didymus⟩: Aristotle

I.24.1m.1

Aristotle held that the stars are constituted from the fifth body.

The heavenly bodies need no nourishment, since they are eternal, not perishable.⁷²³

1m ⟨Aëtius and Didymus⟩: Celestial motion

I.24.1m.2

All of them move: those we call planets beneath the zodiacal circle, which is oblique and touches the tropics; the fixed stars extend from the always visible region as far as the unseen. Not a few of them are larger than earth.⁷²⁴

722.The five divine names correspond to Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Their descriptive names mean approximately Shining, Radiant, Fiery, Dawn-bringer, and Gleaming. This is the order ascribed to Plato in this report; it should not be substituted for the distinct ordering in Timaeus 38d. Sun and moon complete the seven wandering bodies.

723.The fifth body is aether, as in chapters 22-23. “Are constituted” renders gegenēsthai in the context of the next statement’s eternal bodies. Wachsmuth combines Aëtius II.13.13 and II.17.5 with Arius Didymus’s epitome, physical fragment 8.

724.The extent from the always visible to the unseen describes the distribution of the fixed stars across the sky, not a claim that each circumpolar star becomes invisible. The zodiac’s obliquity and contact with the tropics were described in I.23.3. The opening “all” includes fixed stars in the common celestial motion.

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.