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Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 49 · I.49.28.1–I.49.28.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 564 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.28.1–I.49.28.2

Ancient Greek

p. 1124

28.1 · Πλάτωνος Τιμαίου

I.49.28.1

Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Τιμαίου.

Τὴν δὲ δὴ ψυχὴν οὐχ ὡς νῦν ὑστέραν ἐπιχειροῦμεν λέγειν, οὕτως ἐμηχανήσατο καὶ ὁ θεὸς νεωτέραν· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἄρχεσθαι ὁ θεὸς πρεσβύτερον ἀπὸ νεωτέρου συνέξας εἴασεν· ἀλλά πως ἡμεῖς πολὺ μετέχοντες τοῦ προστυχόντος τε καὶ εἰκῇ ταύτῃ πῃ καὶ λέγομεν, ὁ δὲ καὶ γενέσει καὶ ἀρετῇ ⟨προτέραν⟩ καὶ πρεσβυτέραν ψυχὴν σώματος ὡς δεσπότιν καὶ ἄρξουσαν ἀρξομένου ξυνεστήσατο ἐκ τῶνδέ τε καὶ τοιῷδε τρόπῳ.

28.2

I.49.28.2

Τῆς ἀμερίστου καὶ ἀεὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἐχούσης οὐσίας καὶ τῆς αὖ περὶ τὰ σώματα γιγνομένης μεριστῆς, τρίτον ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἐν μέσῳ συνεκεράσατο οὐσίας εἶδος, τῆς τε ταὐτοῦ φύσεως αὖ πέρι καὶ τῆς τοῦ ἑτέρου, καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ ξυνέστησεν ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ τε ἀμεροῦς αὐτῶν καὶ τοῦ κατὰ τὰ σώματα μεριστοῦ.

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Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1125

28.1 · Plato: soul’s priority to body

I.49.28.1

From Plato’s Timaeus.

Although we are now attempting to speak of soul after body, god did not accordingly devise it as younger. For god, having bound them together, would not have allowed the older to be ruled by the younger. We, however, share greatly in chance and heedlessness, and so speak in much the same fashion. He constituted soul as ⟨prior⟩ to body and older both in origin and in excellence, as its mistress and ruler, with body to be ruled. He made it from the following ingredients and in the following way.1394

28.2 · Being, sameness, and difference

I.49.28.2

From the indivisible being that always remains the same and the divisible being that comes to be in connection with bodies, he blended a third kind of being, intermediate between the two. Likewise, in the case of the nature of the same and that of the different, he constituted them in the same way, intermediate between their indivisible aspect and the aspect divided in connection with bodies.1395

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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.