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.18.4b.2–I.18.4c.2

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Book I Chapter 18 · I.18.4b.2–I.18.4c.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 422

4b ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.18.4b.2

Οἱ Στωικοὶ εἶναι κενόν, εἰς ὃ κατὰ τὴν ἐκπύρωσιν ἀναλύεται ὁ κόσμος, ἄπειρον ὄν.

Ποσειδώνιος ἔφησε τὸ ἐκτὸς τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ ἄπειρον, ἀλλ’ ὅσον αὔταρκες εἰς διάλυσιν.

4c ⟨Ἀετίου καὶ Πλάτωνος⟩ · 1

I.18.4c.1

Πλάτων τόπον εἶναι τὸ μεταληπτικὸν τῶν εἰδῶν, ὅπερ εἴρηκε μεταφορικῶς τὴν ὕλην, καθάπερ τινὰ τιθήνην καὶ δεξαμενήν. Κενὸν δὲ μὴ εἶναι μήτε ἐκτὸς τοῦ κόσμου, μήτε ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ.

4c Πλάτωνος Τίμαιος · 2

I.18.4c.2

Λέγει γὰρ ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ οὕτως· “Τῶν δὲ δὴ τεττάρων ἓν ὅλον ἕκαστον εἴληφεν ἡ τοῦ κόσμου σύστασις· ἐκ γὰρ πυρὸς παντὸς ὕδατός τε καὶ ἀέρος καὶ γῆς συνέστησεν αὐτὸν ὁ συνιστάς, μέρος οὐδὲν οὐδενὸς οὐδὲ δύναμιν ἔξωθεν ὑπολιπών, τάδε διανοηθείς, πρῶτον μέν, ἵνα ὅλον ὅ τι μάλιστα ζῷον τέλειον ἐκ τελείων τῶν μερῶν εἴη· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἓν ἅτε οὐχ ὑπολελειμμένων ἐξ ὧν ἄλλο τοιοῦτον γένοιτ’ ἄν.”

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 18

p. 423

4b ⟨Aëtius⟩: The Stoics and Posidonius

I.18.4b.2

The Stoics held that there is void, infinite in extent, into which the world is dissolved at the conflagration.

Posidonius said that what lies outside the world is not infinite, but only large enough to accommodate its dissolution.⁵¹⁴

4c ⟨Aëtius and Plato⟩: The receptacle

I.18.4c.1

Plato held that place is what receives the forms: by this he meant matter, speaking figuratively of it as a kind of nurse and receptacle. There is no void either outside the world or within it.⁵¹⁵

4c Plato, Timaeus: The complete world

I.18.4c.2

For he says in the Timaeus: “The constitution of the world has taken each of the four in its entirety. Its maker constituted it from all the fire, water, air, and earth, leaving outside no part of any of them, nor any power. He had these things in mind: first, that it should be, as fully as possible, a complete living whole composed of complete parts; and further, that it should be one, since nothing had been left from which another such world could arise.”⁵¹⁶

514.Ekpyrōsis is the world’s conflagration, its resolution into fire. Posidonius’s qualification concerns the extent available outside the world; it directly limits the infinite void asserted in the preceding report.

515.This is the compiler’s account of Plato, before the direct quotation. Its identification of the receptacle with matter is retained as the report’s interpretation. “Nurse” and “receptacle” describe what receives; they do not identify it with a particular visible body. The base edition assigns this section to Aëtius and Plato’s Timaeus.

516.Timaeus 32c-33a. The quotation explains the world’s completeness and uniqueness by its inclusion of all four elemental bodies. The excerpt stops before Plato’s further reason, freedom from aging and disease, then resumes at 33b in the next unit. No intervening text is supplied.

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.