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.23.3.2–I.23.3.3

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English Page · Branch 280 of 879

Book I Chapter 23 · I.23.3.2–I.23.3.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 556

3 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.23.3.2

Λοξὸς δὲ [ἐν] τοῖς τρισὶ μέσοις ὁ καλούμενος ζῳδιακὸς ὑποβέβληται, παραψαύων τῶν μέσων τριῶν. Πάντας δ᾽ αὐτοὺς ὁ μεσημβρινὸς πρὸς ὀρθὰς ἀπὸ τῶν ἄρκτων ἐπὶ τὸ ἀντικρὺ τέμνει.

3 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3

I.23.3.3

Πυθαγόρας πρῶτος ἐπινενοηκέναι λέγεται τὴν λόξωσιν τοῦ ζῳδιακοῦ κύκλου· ἥντινα Οἰνοπίδης ὁ Χῖος ἐπίνοιαν ὡς ἰδίαν σφετερίζεται.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 23

p. 557

3 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Zodiac and meridian

I.23.3.2

The so-called zodiacal circle is set obliquely to the three middle circles, touching those three.⁷⁰³ The meridian cuts all of them at right angles, from the Bears to the opposite side.⁷⁰⁴

3 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Who discovered the obliquity?

I.23.3.3

Pythagoras is said to have been the first to discover the obliquity of the zodiacal circle; Oenopides of Chios appropriates this discovery as his own.⁷⁰⁵

703.The three middle circles are the two tropics and the equator. “Touching” translates parapsauōn: the zodiacal circle meets the equator by crossing it and the tropics at its northern and southern extremes. The printed [en], “in,” is rejected by the editor and remains visible on the Greek side; the English follows the sentence without it.

704.The Bears are the northern constellations, here indicating the north. The meridian is a great circle through the celestial poles. “All of them” refers to the five parallel circles of the preceding list, which it intersects at right angles; the oblique zodiac is not a sixth parallel circle.

705.Obliquity here concerns the zodiacal circle’s inclination to the celestial equator. The accusation of appropriation belongs to this ancient report. Other testimonies differ: Diodorus I.98.3 says that Oenopides learned about the sun’s inclined circle from Egyptian priests. For the competing accounts, see István Bodnár, Oenopides of Chius (2007), pp. 3-6 and 24. The statement is not a secure modern finding about priority. This is the end of chapter 23.

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.