Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Book I Chapter 5 · I.5.22a
Ancient Greek
p. 18822 Ἐκ τῆς Ἀριστοτέλους πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον ἐπιστολῆς (αʹ)
Οἶμαι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἀνάγκην οὐκ ἄλλο τι λέγεσθαι πλὴν τοῦτο· οἱονεὶ ἀνίκητον οὖσαν, εἱμαρμένην δὲ διὰ τὸ εἴρεσθαί τε καὶ χωρεῖν ἀκωλύτως· πεπρωμένην δὲ διὰ τὸ πεπερατῶσθαι πάντα καὶ μηθὲν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἄπειρον εἶναι· καὶ μοῖραν μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ μεμερίσθαι, νέμεσιν δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἑκάστῳ διανεμήσεως, ἀδράστειαν δὲ ἀναπόδραστον αἰτίαν οὖσαν κατὰ φύσιν, αἶσαν δὲ ἀεὶ οὖσαν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 5
p. 18922 From Aristotle’s letter to Alexander (1)
I think that necessity too names nothing other than this: as though it were “unconquerable.” It is called fate because things are linked together and proceed unhindered; destiny because everything has been bounded and nothing among existing things is unbounded; moira because things have been apportioned; nemesis from the distribution to each; adrasteia because it is by nature an inescapable cause; and aisa because it always exists.207
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 5 · I.5.22a
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.
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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.
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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.