Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 23 · I.23.2.1–I.23.3.1

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 279 of 879

Book I Chapter 23 · I.23.2.1–I.23.3.1

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 554

2 ⟨Ἀετίου καὶ Διδύμου⟩ · 1

I.23.2.1

Ἀριστοτέλης ἐκ πέμπτου σώματος.

Λέγει γοῦν ἐν τοῖς Περὶ τῆς φυσικῆς ἀκροάσεως καὶ οὐρανοῦ λόγοις οὕτως.

2 ⟨Ἀετίου καὶ Διδύμου⟩ · 2

I.23.2.2

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.

3 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.23.3.1

Θαλῆς, Πυθαγόρας καὶ οἱ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ μεμερίσθαι τὴν τοῦ παντὸς οὐρανοῦ σφαῖραν εἰς κύκλους πέντε, οὕστινας προσαγορεύουσι ζώνας· καλεῖται δ᾽ αὐτῶν ὁ μὲν ἀρκτικός τε καὶ ἀειφανής, ὁ δὲ θερινὸς τροπικός, ὁ δὲ ἰσημερινός, ὁ δὲ χειμερινὸς τροπικός, ὁ δὲ ἀνταρκτικός τε καὶ ἀφανής.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 23

p. 555

2 ⟨Aëtius and Didymus⟩: A fifth body

I.23.2.1

Aristotle held that heaven is made from a fifth body.⁶⁹⁹

For he speaks as follows in his works Physics and On Heaven:⁷⁰⁰

2 ⟨Aëtius and Didymus⟩: The enduring aether

I.23.2.2

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.⁷⁰¹

3 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Five celestial circles

I.23.3.1

Thales, Pythagoras, and his followers held that the sphere of the whole heaven is divided into five circles, which they call zones. Of these, one is called arctic and always visible; another, the summer tropic; another, the equator; another, the winter tropic; and another, antarctic and invisible.⁷⁰²

699.The fifth body is aether, distinguished from earth, water, air, and fire. Wachsmuth attributes the first statement to Aëtius II.11.3 and the following account to Arius Didymus’s epitome, physical fragment 9 in Diels. The latter is the same source used in I.22.1c.

700.“Heaven” in the title follows Spengel’s correction, adopted by Wachsmuth, of the manuscripts’ autou, “his own.” Despite the introductory “he speaks as follows,” what follows is an indirect report of Aristotelian doctrine, not an authenticated verbatim passage from either treatise.

701.This passage repeats the latter part of I.22.1c, as Wachsmuth explicitly notes. The repetition is preserved. “This” refers grammatically to aether, whose qualities are combined with those of the ensouled celestial whole. Unchanging substance and circular movement are both affirmed.

702.These are circles of the sky. The arctic and antarctic circles mark the limits of the always visible and never visible regions for a northern observer; they are not the modern geographical polar circles. The two tropics correspond to the sun’s northern and southern solsticial limits. “His followers” refers to Pythagoras.

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.