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 48 · I.48.7–I.48.8.1

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 488 of 879

Book I Chapter 48 · I.48.7–I.48.8.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 972

7 · ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.48.7

Πυθαγόρας, Ἀναξαγόρας, Πλάτων, Ξενοκράτης, Κλεάνθης θύραθεν εἰσκρίνεσθαι τὸν νοῦν.

Παρμενίδης καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς καὶ Δημόκριτος ταὐτὸν νοῦν καὶ ψυχήν, καθ᾽ οὓς οὐδὲν ἂν εἴη ζῷον ἄλογον κυρίως.

8.1 · Ἰαμβλίχου

I.48.8.1

Ἰαμβλίχου ἐκ τοῦ Περὶ ψυχῆς.

Πάλιν τοίνυν περὶ τοῦ νοῦ καὶ πασῶν τῶν κρειττόνων δυνάμεων τῆς ψυχῆς οἱ μὲν Στωικοὶ λέγουσι μὴ εὐθὺς ἐμφύεσθαι τὸν λόγον, ὕστερον δὲ συναθροίζεσθαι ἀπὸ τῶν αἰσθήσεων καὶ φαντασιῶν περὶ δεκατέσσαρα ἔτη. Οἱ δ᾽ ἀπὸ Πλάτωνος καὶ Πυθαγόρου παρεῖναι μὲν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀρτιγενέσι τὸν λόγον φασίν, ἐπισκοτεῖσθαί γε μὴν [ἐν] τοῖς ἔξωθεν καὶ μὴ ἐνεργεῖν τὴν οἰκείαν ἐνέργειαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἡσυχάζειν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 48

p. 973

7 · ⟨Aëtius⟩: intellect and soul

I.48.7

Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Plato, Xenocrates, and Cleanthes hold that intellect enters from outside.

Parmenides, Empedocles, and Democritus hold that intellect and soul are the same; on their account, no living creature would be irrational in the strict sense.¹²⁴³

8.1 · Iamblichus: the development of reason

I.48.8.1

From Iamblichus, from On the Soul.

Again, then, concerning intellect and all the soul’s higher powers, the Stoics say that reason is not implanted at once, but is assembled later from perceptions and impressions, at about fourteen years of age. The followers of Plato and Pythagoras, however, say that reason is present even in the newborn, though it is obscured by external things and does not exercise its proper activity, but lies quiet.¹²⁴⁴

1243.Wachsmuth supplies the attribution Aëtius IV.5.11-12 (Diels, p. 392). These are reports grouped under names, not identified verbatim quotations from the philosophers. “From outside” translates thyrathen, literally “from beyond the door.” The conclusion about irrational creatures follows from the reported identification of intellect and soul; it is qualified by kyriōs, “in the strict sense.”

1244.The contrast is between the development of reason out of perceptual experience and a reason already present but inactive. Phantasiai in the Stoic report are “impressions”; the same word-family supplied “imagination” in Porphyry’s different account. The bracketed en is rejected in the Greek, so the English renders the remaining instrumental dative as “by external things.” The age is part of Iamblichus’s report, not a modern developmental claim.

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.