Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 223 of 879
Book I Chapter 19 · I.19.4.1–I.19.4.3
Ancient Greek
p. 4424 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · Ζήνων
Ζήνωνος. Τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πάντων τῶν κατ’ ἰδίαν ἕξιν συνεστώτων τὰ μέρη τὴν φορὰν ἔχειν εἰς τὸ τοῦ ὅλου μέσον, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ κόσμου· διόπερ ὀρθῶς λέγεσθαι πάντα τὰ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου ἐπὶ τὸ μέσον τοῦ κόσμου τὴν φορὰν ἔχειν, μάλιστα δὲ τὰ βάρος ἔχοντα· ταὐτὸν δ’ αἴτιον εἶναι καὶ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου μονῆς ἐν ἀπείρῳ κενῷ, καὶ τῆς γῆς παραπλησίως ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ περὶ τὸ τούτου κέντρον καθιδρυμένης ἰσοκρατῶς.
4 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 2
Οὐ πάντως δὲ σῶμα βάρος ἔχειν, ἀλλ’ ἀβαρῆ εἶναι ἀέρα καὶ πῦρ· τείνεσθαι δὲ καὶ ταῦτά πως ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς ὅλης σφαίρας τοῦ κόσμου μέσον, τὴν δὲ σύστασιν πρὸς τὴν περιφέρειαν αὐτοῦ ποιεῖσθαι· φύσει γὰρ ἀνώφοιτα ταῦτ’ εἶναι διὰ τὸ μηδενὸς μετέχειν βάρους.
4 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 3
Παραπλησίως δὲ τούτοις οὐδ’ αὐτόν φασι τὸν κόσμον βάρος ἔχειν διὰ τὸ τὴν ὅλην αὐτοῦ σύστασιν ἔκ τε τῶν βάρος ἐχόντων στοιχείων εἶναι καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἀβαρῶν. Τὴν δ’ ὅλην γῆν καθ’ ἑαυτὴν μὲν ἔχειν ἀρέσκει βάρος· παρὰ δὲ τὴν θέσιν διὰ τὸ τὴν μέσην ἔχειν χώραν (πρὸς δὲ τὸ μέσον εἶναι τὴν φορὰν τοῖς τοιούτοις σώμασιν) ἐπὶ τοῦ τόπου τούτου μένειν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 19
p. 4434 ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: Zeno on the center
Of Zeno. In all things within the world that are constituted with their own cohesive state, the parts have their motion toward the center of the whole; the same holds for the world itself. Hence it is rightly said that all parts of the world have their motion toward its center, especially those that have weight. The same cause also accounts for the world’s remaining at rest in infinite void, and likewise for the earth’s being established in equilibrium about the world’s center.544
4 Zeno: Weightless bodies
A body does not necessarily have weight: air and fire are weightless. Yet these too tend in some way toward the center of the world’s entire sphere, while forming their mass toward its circumference; for they naturally move upward, since they have no share in weight.545
4 Zeno: The world and the earth
Similarly, they say that the world itself has no weight, because its entire constitution consists both of elements with weight and of weightless ones. They hold that the earth as a whole has weight in itself; but because of its position, occupying the central region, it remains in that place, since bodies of this kind move toward the center.546
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 19 · I.19.4.1–I.19.4.3
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.
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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.