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 14 · I.14.1c.3–I.14.1e

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Facing Pages · Branch 180 of 879

Book I Chapter 14 · I.14.1c.3–I.14.1e

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Ancient Greek

p. 356

1c ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 3

I.14.1c.3

ποιεῖν δὲ καὶ πάσχειν τὰ σώματα ταῖς ἀσωμάτοις δυνάμεσι· κατὰ γὰρ τὰς ἐν ταύταις διαφορὰς ἀποτελεῖσθαι τάς τε τῶν δραστικῶν καὶ τὰς τῶν παθητικῶν φύσεις.

1d ⟨Ἀετίου· περὶ Ἀριστοτέλους⟩

I.14.1d

Μηδὲν δὲ πῦρ κυκλοτερῶς φύσει κινεῖσθαι, μόνον δὲ τὸ πέμπτον σῶμα.

1e ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.14.1e

Χρύσιππος ἔφασκε τὰ σώματα εἰς ἄπειρον τέμνεσθαι καὶ τὰ τοῖς σώμασι προσεοικότα, οἷον ἐπιφάνειαν, γραμμήν, τόπον, κενόν, χρόνον· εἰς ἄπειρόν τε τούτων τεμνομένων οὔτε σῶμα ἐξ ἀπείρων σωμάτων συνέστηκεν οὔτ’ ἐπιφάνεια οὔτε γραμμὴ οὔτε τόπος ⟨οὔτε κενὸν οὔτε χρόνος⟩.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 14

p. 357

1c ⟨Arius Didymus: Aristotle⟩, part 3

I.14.1c.3

Bodies act and are acted upon through incorporeal powers; for the natures of things capable of acting and of things capable of being acted upon are constituted according to the differences in these powers.⁴⁰⁸

1d ⟨Aëtius: Aristotle⟩

I.14.1d

No fire moves naturally in a circle; only the fifth body does so.⁴⁰⁹

1e ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩: Chrysippus

I.14.1e

Chrysippus said that bodies are divisible without limit, as are things resembling bodies, such as surface, line, place, void, and time. Yet although these are divisible without limit, a body is not composed of infinitely many bodies, nor is a surface, a line, or a place ⟨or void or time⟩ so composed.⁴¹⁰

408.The powers are expressly called incorporeal. This belongs to the report about Aristotle; it should not be merged with the Stoic account of bodily causes in the preceding chapter. “Being acted upon” renders paschein, which need not involve pain.

409.The “fifth body” is distinguished from the four elements. Wachsmuth points out that Aristotle himself calls the celestial substance the “first body”; “fifth” is the reporter’s designation, retained here.

410.The contrast is between endless divisibility and composition from an already infinite collection. In the compressed second clause, the corresponding constituents of surfaces, lines, and the rest are left implicit. Wachsmuth prints “or void or time” as a supplement, while noting an alternative of deleting these two items from the earlier list.

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.