Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 18 · I.18.1c.3–I.18.1e

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 206 of 879

Book I Chapter 18 · I.18.1c.3–I.18.1e

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 408

1c ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3

I.18.1c.3

Τόπον μὲν οὖν ἀναγκαῖον ὑπάρχειν καὶ σῶμα, κενὸν δὲ οὐδαμῶς, εἰ μὴ μόνον πρὸς νόησιν· ἀναιρετικὴν γὰρ εἶναι τὴν κατ’ ἐνδελέχειαν αὐτοῦ φύσιν τῆς τε τῶν ὄντων συμπαθείας καὶ τῆς τῶν σωμάτων ἀλληλουχίας· τὰς δὲ κινήσεις γίνεσθαι τὰς κατὰ τόπον [κατὰ τὸ πρότερον] ἀντιπερισταμένων ἀλλήλοις τῶν σωμάτων. Ἄπειρον δὲ οὐθὲν ἀπολείπει οὔτε κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος οὔτε κατὰ τὸ μέγεθος.

1d ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.18.1d

Ζήνων καὶ οἱ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ ἐντὸς μὲν τοῦ κόσμου μηδὲν εἶναι κενόν, ἔξω δ’ αὐτοῦ ἄπειρον. Διαφέρειν δὲ κενόν, τόπον, χώραν· καὶ τὸ μὲν κενὸν εἶναι ἐρημίαν σώματος, τὸν δὲ τόπον τὸ ἐπεχόμενον ὑπὸ σώματος, τὴν δὲ χώραν τὸ ἐκ μέρους ἐπεχόμενον.

1e Θαλῆς

I.18.1e

Θαλῆς ἐρωτηθείς, Τί τὸ μέγιστον; ἔφησε, Τόπος· τἄλλα μὲν γὰρ ὁ κόσμος, τὸν δὲ κόσμον οὗτος περιέχει.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 18

p. 409

1c ⟨Aëtius⟩: Motion without void

I.18.1c.3

Place and body, then, must exist, but void does not exist at all, except as an object of thought; for its nature, if actually realized, would destroy both the mutual responsiveness of existing things and the continuity of bodies.⁴⁹⁵ Motions occur from place to place [in respect of what comes before] as bodies successively take one another’s places.⁴⁹⁶ He admits nothing infinite, either in number or in extent.⁴⁹⁷

1d ⟨Aëtius⟩: Zeno

I.18.1d

Zeno and his followers held that there is no void within the world, but an infinite void outside it. Void, place, and space differ: void is an absence of body; place is what is occupied by body; space is what is occupied in part.⁴⁹⁸

1e Thales

I.18.1e

When Thales was asked, “What is the greatest thing?” he replied, “Place: the world contains everything else, but place contains the world.”⁴⁹⁹

495.The contrast with an object of thought guides “if actually realized.” The printed phrase is kat’ endelecheian, whose relation here to actuality rather than continuance is difficult; the Greek spelling is retained. Sympatheia is mutual responsiveness or shared affection, and allēlouchia is the connected succession of bodies.

496.The bracketed phrase kata to proteron is rejected by Usener in the base edition. The account makes movement possible by reciprocal displacement, without an intervening void; the rejected words should be omitted in a continuous reading.

497.This is the report’s compressed conclusion. It should not be expanded into a denial of every sense of infinity in Aristotle.

498.Erēmia is absence or being bereft: the definition makes body the criterion of occupation. Keep this threefold distinction separate from Epicurus’s report in 4a and the questioning formulation in Chrysippus’s report in 4d.

499.This is an attributed saying. Its superlative rests on the relation of container to contained; it is not given here as a developed geometrical argument.

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.