From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordΘραύσματα are fragments or broken pieces; ἐλάχιστα means smallest or least.
- In this workThe first Aëtius notice at A43 credits Empedocles with smallest uniform fragments before the four elements.
- In this editionDiels records the variant στοιχεῖα πρὶν στοιχείων in A43.
- A place to readPosits least fragments or masses beneath the four roots, beyond what the verse quoted here establishes.
Meaning
Θραύσματα are fragments or broken pieces; ἐλάχιστα means smallest or least. Aëtius’ phrase “elements before the elements” places such fragments explanatorily beneath the familiar four. Smallness is not, by itself, the same as indivisibility.
Use in the book
The first Aëtius notice at A43 credits Empedocles with smallest uniform fragments before the four elements. The second, pairing him with Xenocrates, says the elements are composed of smaller masses that are least parts and effectively elements of elements. These statements go beyond Aristotle’s argument that mixed roots remain in small portions: they supply a further level of constitution for the roots themselves.
No fragment quoted in this volume supports that lower level. The edition suggests contamination from atomist doctrine, but that remains a source-critical possibility rather than a demonstrated genealogy. One must not correct the notices into a secure atomic theory, nor dismiss them as certainly imported without argument.
A872’s Philoponus reasons that a pore theory requires solid indivisible parts. That is explicitly a consequence he thinks Empedocles must accept; elsewhere he distinguishes filled pores from void. The smallest-fragment notices and the later indivisibility argument are related evidence about interpretation, not independent proof that Empedocles professed atomism.
Places to read
- A 43 (testimony)Aëtius I 13,1 and I 17,3. Posits least fragments or masses beneath the four roots, beyond what the verse quoted here establishes.
- A 87 (polemical)2Philoponus, On Coming-to-be and Passing-away. Infers indivisible solids from the supposed requirements of a pore account.
Translation in this edition
Diels records the variant στοιχεῖα πρὶν στοιχείων in A43. Both formulations express a lower explanatory level; neither makes the report a direct Empedoclean quotation.