Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Book I Chapter 8 · I.8.40a–I.8.40b.1
Ancient Greek
p. 24240a Ἀποφθέγματα
Θαλῆς ἐρωτηθείς, τί σοφώτατον; ⟨ἔφη,⟩ Χρόνος· ἀνευρίσκει γὰρ τὰ πάντα. Περίανδρος ἐρωτηθείς, Τί πάντων αἴτιον; ἔφη, Χρόνος. Θαλῆς ἔφησεν, ὅτι σαφέστατος ἔλεγχος πραγμάτων ἁπάντων ἐστὶν ὁ χρόνος, οὗτος ⟨γὰρ⟩ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐμφανίζει. Εὐρυφῶν ὁ ἰατρὸς ἐρωτηθεὶς τὸν διδάσκαλον παρ’ ᾧ ἐπαιδεύθη, Παρὰ τῷ χρόνῳ, ἔφη.
40b ⟨Ἀετίου, Περὶ ἀρεσκόντων⟩
Πυθαγόρας τὴν σφαῖραν τοῦ περιέχοντος.
Ἐρατοσθένης τὴν τοῦ ἡλίου πορείαν.
Οἱ Στωικοὶ χρόνου οὐσίαν αὐτὴν τὴν κίνησιν.
Οἱ πλείους ἀγένητον τὸν χρόνον.
Ξενοκράτης μέτρον τῶν γενητῶν, καὶ κίνησιν ἀΐδιον.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 8
p. 24340a Sayings
Asked what is wisest, Thales ⟨said,⟩ “Time, for it discovers everything.” Asked what is the cause of everything, Periander said, “Time.” Thales said that time is the clearest test of all things, ⟨for⟩ it makes the truth manifest. When Euryphon the physician was asked under which teacher he had been educated, he said, “Under time.”275
40b ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩
Pythagoras calls time the sphere of the surrounding heaven.
Eratosthenes calls it the sun’s course.
The Stoics identify the nature of time with motion itself.
Most thinkers hold that time is ungenerated.
Xenocrates calls it a measure of things that come to be, and everlasting motion.276
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 8 · I.8.40a–I.8.40b.1
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.