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 22 · I.22.1c–I.22.1d.1

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Book I Chapter 22 · I.22.1c–I.22.1d.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 536

1c ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩

I.22.1c

Περιέχεσθαι δὲ ταῦτα ὑπὸ τοῦ αἰθέρος, ἔνθα τὰ θεῖα διανενεμημένα κατὰ σφαίρας ἵδρυται τῶν λεγομένων ἀπλανῶν τε καὶ πλανωμένων ἀστέρων. Ὅσας δὲ εἶναι τὰς σφαίρας, τοσούτους ὑπάρχειν καὶ τοὺς κινοῦντας θεοὺς ταύτας, ὧν μέγιστον τὸν πάσας περιέχοντα, ζῷον ὄντα λογικὸν καὶ μακάριον, συνεκτικὸν καὶ προνοητικὸν τῶν οὐρανίων. Συνεστάναι δὲ τὰ ἄστρα καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐκ τοῦ αἰθέρος, τοῦτον δὲ οὔτε βαρὺν οὔτε κοῦφον οὔτε γενητὸν οὔτε φθαρτὸν οὔτε αὐξόμενον οὔτε μειούμενον ἐς ἀεὶ διαμένειν ἄτρεπτον καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον, πεπερασμένον καὶ σφαιροειδῆ καὶ ἔμψυχον, κινούμενον περὶ τὸ μέσον ἐγκυκλίως.

1d ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.22.1d.1

Φιλόλαος πῦρ ἐν μέσῳ περὶ τὸ κέντρον, ὅπερ ἑστίαν τοῦ παντὸς καλεῖ καὶ Διὸς οἶκον καὶ μητέρα θεῶν, βωμόν τε καὶ συνοχὴν καὶ μέτρον φύσεως· καὶ πάλιν πῦρ ἕτερον ἀνωτάτω, τὸ περιέχον.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 22

p. 537

1c ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: The celestial spheres

I.22.1c

These bodies are enclosed by aether, where the divine bodies are established, distributed among the spheres of the so-called fixed and wandering stars. There are as many gods moving these spheres as there are spheres. Greatest among them is the one enclosing them all, a rational and blessed living being, holding the heavenly things together and exercising providence over them.⁶⁷⁵ The stars and heaven are constituted from aether. This is neither heavy nor light, neither generated nor perishable, neither increasing nor diminishing; it remains forever unchanging and unaltered, bounded, spherical, and endowed with soul, moving in a circle around the center.⁶⁷⁶

1d ⟨Aëtius⟩: Philolaus’s central fire

I.22.1d.1

Philolaus places fire in the middle, about the center, calling it the hearth of the all, the house of Zeus, the mother of the gods, and nature’s altar, bond, and measure. There is also another fire at the highest level, enclosing everything.⁶⁷⁷

675.Wachsmuth identifies this as Arius Didymus’s epitome, physical fragment 9 in Diels, reporting Aristotle. The description of an all-enclosing living god and providence belongs to this report; it is not presented here as a direct quotation from an Aristotelian treatise.

676.“This” follows the masculine pronoun referring to aether. The report combines its material qualities with those of the ensouled celestial whole. The sentence beginning with the stars’ constitution is repeated in I.23.2; Wachsmuth explicitly notes that repetition.

677.The central fire and the enclosing fire are distinguished. “Hearth” identifies the center of the cosmic household; the report gives it several religious and structural names. This central fire is also distinct from the sun, which appears among the bodies moving around it in the following sentence.

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.