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.18.1b–I.18.1c.2

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Book I Chapter 18 · I.18.1b–I.18.1c.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 406

1b ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.18.1b

Στράτων ἐξωτέρω μὲν ἔφη τοῦ κόσμου μὴ εἶναι κενόν, ἐνδοτέρω δὲ δυνατὸν γενέσθαι. Τόπον δὲ εἶναι τὸ μεταξὺ διάστημα τοῦ περιέχοντος καὶ τοῦ περιεχομένου.

1c ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.18.1c.1

Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τετάρτῳ Φυσικῆς ἀκροάσεως γράφει· “εἶναι δέ φασιν οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι κενὸν καὶ ἐπεισιέναι αὐτὸ τῷ οὐρανῷ ἐκ τοῦ ἀπείρου πνεύματος ὡς ἀναπνέοντι.” Ἐν δὲ τῷ Περὶ τῆς Πυθαγόρου φιλοσοφίας πρώτῳ γράφει, τὸν μὲν οὐρανὸν εἶναι ἕνα, ἐπεισάγεσθαι δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ἀπείρου χρόνον τε καὶ πνοὴν καὶ τὸ κενόν, ὃ διορίζει ἑκάστων τὰς χώρας ἀεί.

1c ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.18.1c.2

Καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις λέγει, τόπον εἶναι τὸ τοῦ περιέχοντος πέρας ἀκίνητον, ἢ ἐν ᾧ μένει τε καὶ κινεῖται τὰ σώματα, πλήρη μέν, ὅταν πανταχόθεν περιέχῃ τὸ σῶμα, κενὸν δέ, ὅταν μηδὲν ἔχῃ τὸ παράπαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 18

p. 407

1b ⟨Aëtius⟩: Strato

I.18.1b

Strato said that there is no void outside the world, but that one can come into being within it. Place is the interval between what contains and what is contained.⁴⁹¹

1c ⟨Aëtius⟩: Aristotle on the Pythagoreans

I.18.1c.1

Aristotle writes in the fourth book of the Physics: “The Pythagoreans say that void exists and enters the heaven from the infinite breath, as though the heaven were breathing.”⁴⁹² In the first book of On the Philosophy of Pythagoras, he writes that the heaven is one, and that time, breath, and the void are brought into it from the infinite; the void continually separates the spaces belonging to individual things.⁴⁹³

1c ⟨Aëtius⟩: Place and void

I.18.1c.2

Elsewhere too he says that place is the unmoving boundary of what contains, or that in which bodies remain and move: full when it encloses the body on every side, empty when it has absolutely nothing in itself.⁴⁹⁴

491.The wording allows void to arise inside the world while denying it outside. Strato’s definition of place as an interval should be distinguished from the boundary definition in the next report.

492.The first quotation corresponds to Physics IV.6, 213b22-24. It reports a Pythagorean view rather than Aristotle’s own position. Pneuma is “breath”; the breathing image belongs to the account itself.

493.The second passage is testimony from a separately titled work of Aristotle. “Spaces” renders the plural chōras. The void functions here as a separator. Wachsmuth notes that part of excerpt 1c may derive from Arius Didymus; the printed attribution is therefore not certain for every clause.

494.The boundary definition is followed by a broader description of place as what bodies occupy. The contrast between full and empty explains the terms; it does not establish the actual existence of void, which the next sentences deny.

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.