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 16 · I.16.1.8–I.16.1.10

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Facing Pages · Branch 193 of 879

Book I Chapter 16 · I.16.1.8–I.16.1.10

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Ancient Greek

p. 382

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 8

I.16.1.8

Ἐπίκουρος καὶ Ἀρίσταρχος τὰ ἐν τῷ σκότῳ σώματα χρόαν οὐκ ἔχειν.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 9

I.16.1.9

Ἀριστοτέλης πέρας ἐν ὡρισμένῳ διαφανεῖ, διαφανὲν δὲ ὕλην εἶναι διηθημένην καθαρὰν καὶ ἀμιγῆ, τούτου δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ κινητικὸν χρῶμα ὑπάρχειν· ἐν δὲ τῷ σκότῳ τὰ σώματα χρόαν δυνάμει μὲν ἔχειν, ἐνεργείᾳ δὲ μηδαμῶς· πολὺ δὲ τὸ μεταξὺ τοῦ τε μὴ ἔχειν καὶ μὴ ὁρᾶσθαι.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 10

I.16.1.10

Οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι τὰ στοιχεῖα κεχρῶσθαι φυσικῶς, οἱ δὲ τὰ ὁμοιομερῆ ποιότητος μετέχειν τὰ πρῶτα, οἱ δὲ τὰ ἄτομα πάντα συλλήβδην ἄχροα, ἐξ ἀποίων δὲ τῶν λόγῳ θεωρητῶν τὰς αἰσθητὰς ὑποφαίνουσι γίγνεσθαι ποιότητας.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 16

p. 383

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Epicurus and Aristarchus

I.16.1.8

Epicurus and Aristarchus held that bodies in darkness have no hue.⁴⁵³

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Aristotle

I.16.1.9

Aristotle held color to be a boundary within a delimited transparent body. The transparent, he said, is matter that has been filtered, pure and unmixed; and color is what sets this very thing in motion.⁴⁵⁴ Bodies in darkness have hue potentially, but in no way actually; there is a great difference between having none and not being seen.⁴⁵⁵

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: A comparison of accounts

I.16.1.10

Some of the other thinkers hold that the elements are naturally colored; others that the primary things with like parts possess quality; and others that all atoms, without exception, are colorless. These last suggest that sensible qualities arise from things without qualities, which are apprehended by reason.⁴⁵⁶

453.Wachsmuth adopts Usener’s correction sōmata, “bodies,” for the transmitted chrōmata, “colors,” both here and in the following Aristotelian report. The statement here is unqualified; the next account introduces a distinction between potentiality and actuality.

454.Compare Aristotle, On Sense 3, 439a-439b, on color and the boundary of the transparent in bodies. “Filtered” follows the printed diēthēmenēn, a reading Diels suspected of corruption, as Wachsmuth’s apparatus records. The summary is translated as it stands rather than replaced with Aristotle’s own fuller formulation.

455.Dynamis and energeia distinguish a capacity from its realization. The final sentence separates absence of hue from absence of its visible manifestation. This qualification is preserved alongside, rather than used to rewrite, the preceding report about Epicurus and Aristarchus.

456.The three groups are not named in this concluding comparison. Homoiomerē are things whose parts are of the same kind; compare the report about Anaxagoras in I.15.6a. The last clause belongs to the account that makes atoms colorless and contrasts rational apprehension of their constituents with sense perception of qualities.

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.