Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 6 of 879
The dedication · Testimony.1
Ancient Greek
p. 8Φωτίου μαρτυρία
Προσφωνεῖ δὲ ταῦτα (ἐκλογῶν ἀποφθεγμάτων ὑποθηκῶν βιβλία τέσσαρα) δι’ ὃν καὶ τὴν συνάθροισιν φιλοπονήσαι λέγει (Ἰωάννης Στοβαῖος), Σεπτιμίῳ ἰδίῳ υἱῷ. ἡ δὲ συναγωγὴ αὐτῷ ἔκ τε ⟨φιλοσόφων καὶ⟩ ποιητῶν καὶ ῥητόρων καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὰς πολιτείας λαμπρῶς βεβιωκότων ἐγένετο ὧν, ὡς καὶ αὐτός φησι, τῶν μὲν τὰς ἐκλογὰς τῶν δὲ τὰ ἀποφθέγματα καί τινων ὑποθήκας συναλεξάμενος ἐπὶ τῷ ῥυθμίσαι καὶ βελτιῶσαι τῷ παιδὶ τὴν φύσιν ἀμαυρότερον ἔχουσαν πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀναγνωσμάτων μνήμην στείλειεν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: The dedication
p. 9Photius on the dedication
He dedicates these works (the four books of Extracts, Sayings, and Precepts) to the person for whose sake he says he undertook the labor of collecting them: his own son Septimius.5 His collection was drawn from ⟨philosophers and⟩ poets, orators, and men who had distinguished themselves in public life. As he himself says, he gathered extracts from some, sayings from others, and precepts from others again, and sent them to his son to train and improve a natural capacity that was somewhat weak in remembering what he read.6
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · The dedication · Testimony.1
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.