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Book I Chapter 7 · I.7.10
Ancient Greek
p. 22010 Διωτογένεος Πυθαγορείου ἐκ τοῦ Περὶ ὁσιότατος
Ἐπεὶ γὰρ τέτορες αἰτίαι τὰ σύμπαντα περαίνοντι καὶ ἐπὶ τέλος ἐπιτίθεντι, φύσις καὶ νόμος καὶ τέχνα καὶ τύχα, καὶ τῶν μὲν … ἐξ ἄθεος ποτὶ ξυμφωνίαν πολιτικὰν φερόντων νόμος ἐπιστάτας καὶ δαμιουργός· τῶν δὲ διὰ φρονάσιος ἀνθρωπίνας τελευθέντων τέχνα ⟨κα⟩ λέγοιτο μάτηρ τε καὶ ἁγεμὼν ἦμεν· τῶν δὲ εἰκᾷ τε καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν ἀπὸ τωὐτομάτω ὁμοίως ποτιπιπτόντων τοῖς χρηστοῖς τε καὶ πονηροῖς τύχαν τῶν τοιούτων αἰτίαν φασοῦμες· ταύταν δ’ οὔτ’ ἐν μέτρῳ οὔτ’ ἐν ὅρῳ τεταγμέναν καὶ πεφυρμένως ἕκαστα ποιεῖν· γενναθεῖσα δὲ δὴ ἐξ αὐταυτῶ γένεος ἄμφω κινεῖσθαι.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 7
p. 22110 Diotogenes the Pythagorean, On Piety
For four causes bring everything to completion and carry it to its end: nature, law, skill, and fortune. And of those things … law is the overseer and maker of what, through habit, conduces to civic harmony.246 Skill ⟨might⟩ be called the mother and guide of things accomplished through human intelligence. As for events that fall at random and by happenstance, of themselves, alike upon good and bad people, we shall call fortune their cause. It is fixed within neither measure nor limit and does everything in a confused fashion. Though born from one and the same stock, it moves in both directions.247
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 7 · I.7.10
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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.
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.