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Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 24 · I.24.1c–I.24.1e

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 282 of 879

Book I Chapter 24 · I.24.1c–I.24.1e

Ancient Greek

p. 560

1c ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.24.1c

Ἀναξαγόρας τὸν περικείμενον αἰθέρα πύρινον μὲν εἶναι κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν, τῇ δὲ εὐτονίᾳ τῆς περιδινήσεως ἀναρπάσαντα πέτρους ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ⟨καὶ⟩ καταφλέξαντα τούτους ἠστερωκέναι.

Ἀπ᾽ ἀνατολῶν δὲ ἐπὶ δυσμὰς φέρεσθαι πάντας τοὺς ἀστέρας.

1d ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.24.1d.1

Διογένης κισηροειδῆ τὰ ἄστρα, διαπνοίας δὲ αὐτὰ νομίζει τοῦ κόσμου, εἶναι δὲ διάπυρα.

1d ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.24.1d.2

Συμπεριφέρεσθαι δὲ τοῖς φανεροῖς ἄστροις ἀφανεῖς λίθους καὶ παρ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτ᾽ ἀνωνύμους, πίπτοντας δὲ πολλάκις ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς σβέννυσθαι, καθάπερ τὸν ἐν Αἰγὸς ποταμοῖς πυρωδῶς κατενεχθέντα ἀστέρα πέτρινον.

1e ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.24.1e

Δημόκριτος πέτρους.

Καὶ πρῶτα μὲν τὰ ἀπλανῆ, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα τοὺς πλανήτας.

560

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 24

p. 561

1c ⟨Aëtius⟩: Anaxagoras

I.24.1c

Anaxagoras held that the surrounding aether is fiery in substance, and that by the force of its whirling it snatched rocks up from the earth ⟨and⟩ set them ablaze, turning them into stars.

All the stars travel from east to west.710

1d ⟨Aëtius⟩: Diogenes’ porous stars

I.24.1d.1

Diogenes held that the stars are like pumice; he considers them vents through which the world breathes, and says that they are incandescent.711

1d ⟨Aëtius⟩: Unseen stones

I.24.1d.2

Unseen stones revolve together with the visible stars and, for that very reason, have no names. They often fall to earth and are extinguished, like the stony star that fell in a blaze at Aegospotami.712

1e ⟨Aëtius⟩: Democritus

I.24.1e

Democritus held that the stars are rocks.

The fixed stars come first, and after them the planets.713

561

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.