Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 250 of 879
Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.3a–I.21.3c
Ancient Greek
p. 4963a ⟨Ἀετίου⟩
Ἐμπεδοκλῆς τὸν τοῦ ἡλίου περίδρομον εἶναι περιγραφὴν τοῦ πέρατος τοῦ κόσμου.
Σέλευκος ὁ Ἐρυθραῖος καὶ Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικὸς ἄπειρον τὸν κόσμον.
Διογένης καὶ Μέλισσος τὸ μὲν πᾶν ἄπειρον, τὸν δὲ κόσμον πεπεράνθαι.
3b ⟨Ἀετίου⟩
Οἱ Στωικοὶ διαφέρειν τὸ πᾶν καὶ τὸ ὅλον· πᾶν μὲν γὰρ εἶναι σὺν τῷ κενῷ τῷ ἀπείρῳ, ὅλον δὲ χωρὶς τοῦ κενοῦ τὸν κόσμον. Μήτε αὔξεσθαι δὲ μήτε μειοῦσθαι τὸν κόσμον, τοῖς δὲ μέρεσιν ὅτε μὲν παρεκτείνεσθαι πρὸς πλείονα τόπον, ὅτε δὲ συστέλλεσθαι. Ἀπὸ γῆς δὲ ἄρξασθαι τὴν γένεσιν τοῦ κόσμου, καθάπερ ἀπὸ κέντρου, ἀρχὴ δὲ σφαίρας τὸ κέντρον.
3c ⟨Ἀετίου⟩
Οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι πάντες ἔμψυχον τὸν κόσμον ⟨καὶ⟩ προνοίᾳ διοικούμενον.
Λεύκιππος δὲ καὶ Δημόκριτος καὶ Ἐπίκουρος οὐδέτερα τούτων, φύσει δὲ ἀλόγῳ ἐκ τῶν ἀτόμων συνεστῶτα.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 21
p. 4973a ⟨Aëtius⟩: The world’s boundary
Empedocles held that the sun’s circuit traces the boundary of the world.
Seleucus of Erythrae and Heraclides of Pontus held the world to be unlimited.
Diogenes and Melissus held the all to be unlimited, but the world to be bounded.622
3b ⟨Aëtius⟩: The all and the whole
The Stoics distinguish the all from the whole: the all includes the unlimited void, while the whole is the world apart from the void. The world neither increases nor diminishes, though in its parts it sometimes extends into a greater space and sometimes contracts. The world’s generation began from earth, as from a center; and the center is the starting point of a sphere.623
3c ⟨Aëtius⟩: Soul and providence
All the others held the world to have a soul ⟨and⟩ to be governed by providence.
Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus held neither of these views: the world is constituted from atoms by a nature without reason.624
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.3a–I.21.3c
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.
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.