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 18 · I.18.heading–I.18.1a.3

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 204 of 879

Book I Chapter 18 · I.18.heading–I.18.1a.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 404

Κεφάλαιον ΙΗʹ

I.18.heading

Περὶ κενοῦ καὶ τόπου ⟨καὶ χώρας⟩.

1a ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.18.1a.1

Οἱ ἀπὸ Θάλεω φυσικοὶ πάντες τὸ κενὸν ὡς ὄντως κενὸν ἀπέγνωσαν.

1a ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · Ἐμπεδοκλῆς

I.18.1a.2

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς.

Οὐδέ τι τοῦ παντὸς κενὸν πέλει οὐδὲ περιττόν.

1a ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3

I.18.1a.3

Δημόκριτος καὶ ἕτεροι, Λεύκιππος, Μητρόδωρος, Ἐπίκουρος τὰ μὲν ἄτομα ἄπειρα τῷ πλήθει, τὸ δὲ κενὸν ἄπειρον τῷ μεγέθει.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 18

p. 405

Chapter 18: Void, Place, and Space

I.18.heading

On void and place ⟨and space⟩.⁴⁸⁷

1a ⟨Aëtius⟩: The natural philosophers

I.18.1a.1

All the natural philosophers from Thales onward rejected the void as something truly empty.⁴⁸⁸

1a ⟨Aëtius⟩: Empedocles

I.18.1a.2

Empedocles.

No part of the whole is empty, nor is anything superfluous.⁴⁸⁹

1a ⟨Aëtius⟩: The atomists

I.18.1a.3

Democritus and others, Leucippus, Metrodorus, and Epicurus, held that atoms are infinite in number, whereas the void is infinite in extent.⁴⁹⁰

487.Kenon, topos, and chōra are rendered “void,” “place,” and “space” to preserve the distinctions discussed below. Their definitions vary among the reports. Wachsmuth restores “and space” in the heading from Photius and the ancient table of contents; the words are absent from the principal manuscripts.

488.The report makes a broad claim, then places a contrasting account of the atomists immediately after Empedocles’s verse. “Truly empty” means devoid of body, not merely lacking a particular visible occupant. The attribution to Aëtius is supplied in the base edition.

489.The single verse denies both a void within the whole and anything superfluous. Peritton can mean excess or surplus; the translation does not supply an additional cosmological argument.

490.The two kinds of infinity are explicitly distinguished: the number of atoms and the spatial extent of the void. The report does not say that any individual atom is infinitely large.

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.