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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 1 · I.1.28c

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 31 of 879

Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.28c

Ancient Greek

p. 58

28 ⟨Ἀδήλου Πλατωνικοῦ⟩ (γʹ)

I.1.28c

Κατὰ ταὐτὰ δὲ Πλάτων ἀμφοτέρων ἐπεμνήσθη ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἑρμείαν καὶ Κορίσκον ἐπιστολῇ· τὸν γὰρ δημιουργὸν ἡγεμόνα πάντων τῶν θεῶν εἶπε, τῶν τε ὄντων καὶ τῶν μελλόντων. Μέλλοντας δὲ ἴσμεν θεοὺς τοὺς ἀεὶ γενητούς, τουτέστι συναπτομένους ποτὲ σώμασι.

Ἐν δὲ τῷ Τιμαίῳ χωρίσας τοῦ πλήθους τοὺς θεοὺς ἑνικῶς διὰ τοῦ οἰκητηρίου τοῦ κόσμου τοὺς πάντας ὠνόμασεν· “οὗτος” γὰρ ἔφη, “ὄντος ἀεὶ λογισμὸς θεοῦ περὶ τὸν ποτὲ ἐσόμενον θεόν”· δῆλος γὰρ ὁ μὲν λογιζόμενος θεὸς ὁ δημιουργὸς ὤν, ὁ δὲ ἐσόμενος καὶ γιγνόμενος ἀεὶ ὁ κόσμος λεγόμενος.

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Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 1

p. 59

28 ⟨An unidentified Platonist⟩ (3)

I.1.28c

In the same way Plato mentioned both in the letter to Hermias and Coriscus. He called the maker the leader of all the gods, both those who exist and those who are to come. By gods “to come” we understand those who are always subject to generation—that is, those who at some time are joined to bodies.59

In the Timaeus, separating the gods from multiplicity, he named them all in the singular through their dwelling-place, the cosmos. For he said: “This was the reasoning of the god who always exists concerning the god who was to exist at some time.” It is clear that the god who reasons is the maker, while the one who is to exist and is always coming-to-be is what is called the cosmos.60

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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.