From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPrincipia are beginnings or first principles.
- In this workAfter celebrating philosophical discoveries and comparing them favorably with oracular responses, Lucretius says the earlier thinkers came to ruin at the principles of things.
- In this editionThe appendix prints manuscript hic under Munro’s text and notes that many editors prefer hi.
- A place to readCloses qualified praise with failure at the foundations.
Meaning
Principia are beginnings or first principles. Ruinae and the phrase about falling in a great collapse turn failure in foundational explanation into an architectural or bodily image of ruin. The repeated forms of magnus preserve the thinkers’ greatness even in their failure.
Use in the book
After celebrating philosophical discoveries and comparing them favorably with oracular responses, Lucretius says the earlier thinkers came to ruin at the principles of things. The judgment is sharply located: excellence in many discoveries does not secure the foundations of a physical account. Empedocles remains the greatest within the compared group, but not exempt from the criticism. The edition summarizes the ensuing Epicurean objections concerning void, the character of the elements, and divisibility; those arguments are not printed in full in this appendix excerpt. The entry therefore distinguishes the explicit verdict from the editorial outline of what follows. The image of collapse also connects usefully with Timon’s complaint that Empedocles’ principles require others, though the two criticisms have different authors and should not be treated as one shared technical argument.
Places to read
- Appendix I Lucretius (reception)Lucretius, On the Nature of Things I 734–741. Closes qualified praise with failure at the foundations.
- A 1 §§ 67–68 (quotation)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 67, quoting Timon. Provides a separate complaint about principles needing further principles.
Translation in this edition
The appendix prints manuscript hic under Munro’s text and notes that many editors prefer hi. That difference affects how the singular opening and following plural group are construed; it does not remove the explicit inclusion of Empedocles in the criticism.