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.18.4c.3–I.18.4d.2

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Book I Chapter 18 · I.18.4c.3–I.18.4d.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 424

4c Πλάτωνος Τίμαιος · 3

I.18.4c.3

“Λεῖον δὲ κύκλῳ πᾶν ἔξωθεν αὐτὸ ἀπηκριβοῦτο πολλῶν χάριν. Ὀμμάτων τε γὰρ ἐπεδεῖτο οὐδέν, ὁρατὸν [τε] γὰρ οὐθὲν ἔξωθεν ὑπελείπετο· οὐδ’ ἀκοῆς, οὐδὲ ⟨γὰρ⟩ ἀκουστόν· πνεῦμά τε οὐκ ἦν περιεστὼς δεόμενον ἀναπνοῆς.”

4d ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 1

I.18.4d.1

Χρυσίππου. Τόπον δ’ εἶναι ὁ Χρύσιππος ἀπεφαίνετο τὸ κατεχόμενον δι’ ὅλου ὑπὸ ὄντος ἢ τὸ οἷόν ⟨τε⟩ κατέχεσθαι ὑπὸ ὄντος καὶ δι’ ὅλου κατεχόμενον εἴτε ὑπό τινος ⟨εἴτε⟩ ὑπό τινων.

4d ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 2

I.18.4d.2

Ἐὰν δὲ τοῦ οἵου τε κατέχεσθαι ὑπὸ ὄντος τί μὲν κατέχηται, τί δὲ μή, τὸ ὅλον ⟨οὔτε⟩ κενὸν ἔσεσθαι οὔτε τόπον, ἕτερον δέ τι οὐκ ὠνομασμένον· τὸ μὲν γὰρ κενὸν τοῖς κενοῖς ἀγγείοις λέγεσθαι παραπλησίως, τὸν δὲ τόπον τοῖς πλήρεσι· χώραν δὲ πότερον τὸ μεῖζον οἷόν τε κατέχεσθαι ὑπὸ ὄντος καὶ οἷον μεῖζον ἀγγεῖον σώματος, ἢ τὸ χωροῦν μεῖζον σῶμα;

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 18

p. 425

4c Plato, Timaeus: Nothing outside

I.18.4c.3

“He finished its whole exterior smooth all around, for many reasons. It had no need of eyes, [and] for nothing visible remained outside; nor of hearing, ⟨for⟩ there was nothing audible; and there was no surrounding air that required breathing in.”⁵¹⁷

4d ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: Chrysippus on place

I.18.4d.1

Chrysippus. Chrysippus declared that place is what is occupied throughout by an existing thing, or what is ⟨capable of⟩ being occupied by an existing thing and is occupied throughout, whether by one thing ⟨or⟩ by several.⁵¹⁸

4d Chrysippus: Partial occupation

I.18.4d.2

If, of what can be occupied by an existing thing, one part is occupied and another is not, the whole will be ⟨neither⟩ void nor place, but something different that has no name. For “void” is spoken of by analogy with empty vessels, and “place” by analogy with full ones.⁵¹⁹ As for “space,” is it the larger thing capable of being occupied by an existing thing, like a larger vessel for body, or that which accommodates a larger body?⁵²⁰

517.Timaeus 33b-c. Wachsmuth rejects te, “and,” after “visible” and supplies gar, “for,” before “audible,” following Plato’s text. The rejected word is placed before “for” in English and should be skipped when reading continuously. The last clause describes the absence of external air for the world to breathe. The excerpt ends here.

518.The attribution to Arius Didymus is supplied; “Chrysippus” is the transmitted heading. The second formulation combines capacity for occupation with actual occupation throughout. Diels supplies te to complete hoion te, “capable of”; the other supplied word completes “whether ... or.”

519.The base edition restores “neither,” adjusts the construction of “will be ... place,” and reads “vessels” in place of the transmitted “causes.” These repairs make the empty/full comparison explicit. The unnamed partially occupied whole is not silently identified with Zeno’s “space” in 1d.

520.The question is preserved as a question. Chōra is “space,” while chōroun means making room for or accommodating. The compressed alternatives contrast the larger containing capacity with capacity to contain a larger body; no answer is supplied in the excerpt.

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.