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.22.3a.3–I.22.3c

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Book I Chapter 22 · I.22.3a.3–I.22.3c

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Ancient Greek

p. 548

3a ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3

I.22.3a.3

Ὅτι δὲ ἄπειρος κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος, δῆλον ἐκ τοῦ ἄπειρα τὰ αἴτια εἶναι. Εἰ γὰρ ⟨ὅδε⟩ ὁ κόσμος πεπερασμένος, τὰ δ᾽ αἴτια πάντα ἄπειρα ἐξ ὧν ὅδε ὁ κόσμος γέγονεν, ἀνάγκη ἀπείρους εἶναι. Ὅπου γὰρ ⟨ἀπέραντα⟩ τὰ αἴτια, ἐκεῖ καὶ ⟨τὰ⟩ ἀποτελέσματα. Αἴτια δὲ ἤτοι αἱ ἄτομοι ἢ τὰ στοιχεῖα.

3b ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.22.3b

Θαλῆς, Πυθαγόρας, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς, Ἔκφαντος, Παρμενίδης, Μέλισσος, Ἡράκλειτος, Ἀναξαγόρας, Πλάτων, Ἀριστοτέλης, Ζήνων ἕνα τὸν κόσμον.

Ἀναξίμανδρος, Ἀναξιμένης, Ἀρχέλαος, Ξενοφάνης, Διογένης, Λεύκιππος, Δημόκριτος, Ἐπίκουρος ἀπείρους κόσμους ἐν τῷ ἀπείρῳ κατὰ πᾶσαν περιαγωγήν.

3c ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.22.3c

Τῶν ἀπείρους ἀποφηναμένων τοὺς κόσμους Ἀναξίμανδρος τὸ ἴσον αὐτοὺς ἀπέχειν ἀλλήλων, Ἐπίκουρος ἄνισον εἶναι τὸ μεταξὺ τῶν κόσμων διάστημα.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 22

p. 549

3a ⟨Aëtius⟩: Unlimited causes and worlds

I.22.3a.3

That worlds are unlimited in number is clear from the causes being unlimited. For if ⟨this⟩ world is bounded, but all the causes from which this world has arisen are unlimited, there must be unlimited worlds. For where the causes are ⟨unlimited⟩, so too are the results. The causes are either the atoms or the elements.⁶⁹⁰

3b ⟨Aëtius⟩: One world or infinitely many

I.22.3b

Thales, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Ecphantus, Parmenides, Melissus, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno held that there is one world.

Anaximander, Anaximenes, Archelaus, Xenophanes, Diogenes, Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus held that there are infinitely many worlds in the unlimited, in every circuit.⁶⁹¹

3c ⟨Aëtius⟩: The distances between worlds

I.22.3c

Among those who declared that the worlds are infinitely many, Anaximander held that they are equally distant from one another, while Epicurus held that the intervals between worlds are unequal.⁶⁹²

690.The first Greek sentence has singular apeiros, “unlimited,” although the sense requires worlds in the plural. Wachsmuth identifies an old error and cites apeiroi as the intended wording; the translation gives that sense while retaining the printed Greek. The supplied article before “results” needs no separate English bracket. The argument counts worlds, rather than making each world spatially unlimited.

691.The lists are the report’s classification, not a claim that all members of each group held an identical theory. “In every circuit” follows the printed periagōgē, a difficult expression. Wachsmuth records peristasis in the parallel tradition; no particular cycle or spatial arrangement is silently supplied here.

692.The contrast concerns spacing, not the number or size of the worlds. The statement of equal distances is retained without imposing a geometrical reconstruction that the brief report does not supply.

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.