Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

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 49 · I.49.heading–I.49.1a.2

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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.heading–I.49.1a.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 976

Κεφάλαιον ΜΘʹ

I.49.heading

Περὶ ψυχῆς.

1a.1 · ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.49.1a.1

Θαλῆς ἀπεφήνατο πρῶτος τὴν ψυχὴν ἀεικίνητον ἢ αὐτοκίνητον.

Πυθαγόρας ἀριθμὸν αὑτὸν κινοῦντα, τὸν δὲ ἀριθμὸν ἀντὶ τοῦ νοῦ παραλαμβάνει.

Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Ξενοκράτης.

Ἀλκμαίων φύσιν αὐτοκίνητον κατὰ ἀίδιον κίνησιν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀθάνατον αὐτὴν καὶ προσεμφερῆ τοῖς θείοις ὑπολαμβάνει.

1a.2

I.49.1a.2

Δικαίαρχος ἁρμονίαν τῶν τεττάρων στοιχείων.

Ἀσκληπιάδης ὁ ἰατρὸς συγγυμνασίαν τῶν αἰσθήσεων.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 977

Chapter 49: On the soul

I.49.heading

On the soul.¹²⁴⁷

1a.1 · ⟨Aëtius⟩: soul and self-movement

I.49.1a.1

Thales was the first to declare the soul to be always in motion, or self-moving.

Pythagoras calls it a number that moves itself, taking number to stand for intellect.

Xenocrates holds the same view.

Alcmaeon considers it a nature that moves itself in eternal motion, and for this reason regards it as immortal and akin to divine things.¹²⁴⁸

1a.2 · Harmony and the senses

I.49.1a.2

Dicaearchus calls it a harmony of the four elements.

Asclepiades the physician calls it the joint exercise of the senses.¹²⁴⁹

1247.Psychē, “soul,” names the principle of life as well as the subject of thought and desire in these excerpts. The opening reports give competing definitions; they are not a single doctrine of Stobaeus. Letters follow Wachsmuth’s numbering, while decimal subdivisions are modern aids to comparison. His apparatus records that the heading is absent from F and P.

1248.Wachsmuth identifies this group editorially with Aëtius IV.2.1, 3, 4, 2, 7, 8, 6 (Diels, p. 386). The translated Latin attribution is marked by angle brackets. “First” is the report’s claim, not an independently established chronology. Thales’ alternatives distinguish continual motion from motion originating in the soul itself; Alcmaeon explicitly connects everlasting motion with immortality.

1249.The four elements are earth, water, air, and fire. Harmonia suggests their ordered combination. The unusual syngymnasia, rendered “joint exercise,” is retained; the report gives no further explanation of how the senses together constitute soul. A long list of topics found here in the manuscripts is excluded by Wachsmuth as a reader’s marginal summary; it is not part of his printed main text.

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.