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 48 · I.48.6.3–I.48.6.4

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Facing Pages · Branch 485 of 879

Book I Chapter 48 · I.48.6.3–I.48.6.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 966

6.3

I.48.6.3

Καὶ ὁ μὲν νόος ἐντὶ ἀρχὰ τᾶς ἐπιστάμας, ἁ δ᾽ αἴσθασις τᾶς δόξας· ἁ μὲν γὰρ ἔχει τὰν ἐκ τῶν αἰσθατῶν ἐνέργειαν, ὁ δὲ τὰν ἐκ τῶν νοατῶν. Τυγχάνοντι δὲ τὰ μὲν αἰσθατὰ τῶν πραγμάτων κινάσιος μεταβλάσιός τε κοινανέοντα, τὰ δὲ νοατὰ στάσιος καὶ αἰδιότατος.

6.4

I.48.6.4

Παραπλασίως δὲ καὶ ἁ αἴσθασις καὶ ὁ νόος ἔχοντι· ἁ μὲν γὰρ αἴσθασις τῶ αἰσθατῶ, τὸ δ᾽ αἰσθατὸν καὶ κινέεται καὶ μεταβάλλει καὶ οὐδέποκα ἐν ταὐτῷ ἀτρεμέει· διὸ καὶ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον καὶ βέλτιον καὶ χεῖρον γίνεται ὁρῆν ⟨τὸ αἰσθατόν⟩· ὁ δὲ νόος τῶ νοατῶ, τὸ δὲ νοατὸν ἀκίνατον ἐξ ὠσίας· διὸ οὔτε μᾶλλον οὔτε ἧττον οὔτε βέλτιον οὔτε χεῖρον ἐντὶ νοὲν τὸ νοατόν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 48

p. 967

6.3 · Knowledge, opinion, and their objects

I.48.6.3

Intellect is the principle of knowledge, and perception of opinion; for the latter has its activity from perceptibles, the former from intelligibles. Among things, the perceptibles share in motion and change, while intelligibles share in rest and eternity.¹²³⁷

6.4 · Variable seeing and unvarying understanding

I.48.6.4

Perception and intellect stand in corresponding relations: perception to the perceptible, which moves and changes and never remains still in the same condition. Hence it is possible to see ⟨the perceptible⟩ more or less, better or worse. Intellect stands in relation to the intelligible, which is unmoving in its very being; hence one cannot understand the intelligible more or less, better or worse.¹²³⁸

1237.The masculine ho de points back to intellect, paired with the feminine perception. The English therefore takes “the latter” and “the former” as those faculties, though the preceding knowledge/opinion pair also makes a conceptual contrast. Epistama (Attic epistēmē) is knowledge; doxa is opinion. The opposition between changing and unchanging objects will ground the comparison that follows.

1238.The elliptical Greek gives “perception of the perceptible” and “intellect of the intelligible,” with Doric genitives; the English makes these relations explicit. The perceptible object is a printed supplement. The wording about degrees of seeing is compressed, and admits a stronger emphasis on the object’s changing visibility. The translation takes ginetai horēn as “it is possible to see”; the contrast remains with intellect’s unvarying object. Wachsmuth records a suspected gap after “being” but prints no gap there.

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.