DE GRUYTER’S NEW VON ARNIM
Fragments of the Early Stoics (FESt)
General Editor: Christian Vassallo (Turin)
Apart from some fragments transmitted by the Herculaneum papyri and the medieval manuscript tradition, we possess only indirect testimonies about the early Stoics. The vast corpus of this material was collected in three volumes by Hans von Arnim in his Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (SVF), published by Teubner in 1903–05 (the fourth volume of indexes, edited by Maximilian Adler, appeared in 1924). Despite some partial attempts to amend and integrate this monumental collection, it remains the reference point for Stoic studies. The New von Arnim: Fragments of the Early Stoics (FESt) aims to completely replace the Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta through an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology, that draws on Classical Philology, the History of Ancient Philosophy, Papyrology, Epigraphy, Arabic and Near Eastern Studies, and new technologies for deciphering ancient manuscripts. The work will be divided into five volumes, according to the following editorial plan — vol. 1: Zeno of Citium; vol. 2: The School of Zeno (vol. 2.1: Aristo of Chios, Apollophanes of Antioch, Herillus of Chalcedon, and Dionysius of Heraclea; vol. 2.2: Persaeus of Citium, Cleanthes of Assos, and Sphaerus of Borysthenes); vol. 3: Chrysippus of Soli (vol. 3.1: Life, Works, and Logic; vol. 3.2: Physics; vol. 3.3: Ethics); vol. 4: The School of Chrysippus (vol. 4.1: Zeno of Tarsus and Diogenes of Babylon; vol. 4.2: From Antipater of Tarsus to Boethus of Sidon); vol. 5: Early Stoics: Uncertain Testimonies (With an Appendix on the Stoics of an Unknown Period); vol. 6: Indices.
Forthcoming volumes
Vol. 4.1: Zeno of Tarsus and Diogenes of Babylon (ed. by C. Vassallo) [2025]
Vol. 1: Zeno of Citium (ed. by C. Vassallo, E. Zimbardi, and F. Ruge, in collaboration with F.G. Corsi, R. Feo, and S. Coen) [2026]
Vol. 2.1: Aristo of Chios, Apollophanes of Antioch, Herillus of Chalcedon, and Dionysius of Heraclea (ed. by C. Vassallo, R. Feo, and F.G. Corsi) [2026]
Vol. 2.2: Persaeus of Citium, Cleanthes of Assos, and Sphaerus of Borysthenes (ed. by C. Vassallo, M. Protopapas-Marneli, A. Bazou, and B. Harriman, in collaboration with K. Alatzoglou, D. Argyri, E. Delli, J.A. Demetracopoulos, I. Keleni, N. Kolveris, M. Konstantinou-Rizos, G. Nitsos, S. Rangos, I. Theodoridis, I. Tsitsou, K. Vernardakis, and G. Voulgaris) [2026]
Vol. 3.1: Chrysippus of Soli: Bio-Doxography and Logic (ed. by C. Vassallo, F. Ruge, E. Zimbardi, in collaboration with M. Alessandrelli, F. Bellorio, and T. Ottobrini) [2027]
Vol. 3.2: Chrysippus of Soli: Physics (ed. by C. Vassallo, F. Bellorio, R. Malafronte, and T. Ottobrini, in collaboration with I. Hensley, F. Ruge, and E. Zimbardi) [2027]
Fragments of the Early Stoics (FESt), IV. The School of Chrysippus, 1. Zeno of Tarsus and Diogenes of Babylon, Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by Christian Vassallo, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Brill, 2025© (Open Access)
Diogenes of Babylon, also known as Diogenes of Seleucia, was a pupil of Chrysippus and, after Zeno of Tarsus, the fifth head of the Stoic school in Athens, serving until his death, with Antipater of Tarsus and Panaetius among his students.The dates of his birth and death remain uncertain (ca. 238/228–150/140 BCE). Together with the Academic Carneadesand the Peripatetic Critolaus, he participated in the embassy of philosophers sent to Rome to petition for the abolition of the 500-talent fine imposed on Athens for the sack of Oropos. From the key information about his surviving treatises,we know that their subjects can be traced back to the three parts into which Diogenes of Babylon divided philosophy—namely, logic, physics, and ethics—as Zeno of Citium had also done. One of the greatest difficulties in reconstructing his thought lies in its transmission: almost 80% of the testimonies about him, collected by von Arnim (SVF III, pp. 210–43 =frs. 1–126), are preserved in the papyri, especially the Herculaneum papyri, sometimes in rolls that have awaited a new critical edition for over a century. About 120 years after the publication of the Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, this volume, after critically collecting the scanty evidence for Zeno of Tarsus, presents a new systematic and comprehensive edition of the fragments of Diogenes of Babylon, with an introduction, a translation, and a running commentary. The collection increases by more than a half the number of known testimonies considered by von Arnim. This enterprise will significantly enhance our knowledge of the final stage of the early Stoa and its relation to the rival schools of Hellenistic philosophy. Most importantly, the volume brings to the fore one of the greatest and most revolutionary figures in the history of ancient philosophy, so far undeservedly neglected, whose doctrines contributed substantially to the development of logic, linguistics, ontology, and ethics in the Western thought.
Fragments of the Early Stoics (FESt), I. Zeno of Citium, Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by Christian Vassallo, Emanuele Zimbardi, and Fabian Ruge, In collaboration with Samuele Coen, Federico G. Corsi, and Rosalba Feo, 2 vols., Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Brill, 2026 (Open Access)
Zeno of Citium (ca. 334/333–262/261 BCE), the founder of the Stoic school in Athens, substantially shaped the thought of subsequent generations of Hellenistic philosophers, both his followers and his opponents. Since he is one of the most renowned Stoic philosophers, alongside Chrysippus, a new edition of his numerous fragments is an indispensable tool for studying in depth the origins of Stoicism, including Zeno’s legacy in significant philosophers of the imperial age, such as Seneca and Epictetus. This long-awaited new edition of Zeno’s fragments gathers all the testimonies that Hans von Arnim had already collected about 120 years ago, adds a significant number of new testimonies (based on a reassessment of Greek and Latin literature, new insights into the Herculaneum and Graeco-Egyptian papyri, as well as on Arabic and Syriac sources) and restructures their presentation by thematic and philosophical criteria. The sections on the Life and the Works of Zeno provide a detailed overview of the information dealing with his life, as well as with his vast literary output – in spite of the unfortunate loss of nearly all his work. Similarly, the reconstruction of Zeno’s philosophical doctrine is enhanced—within the tripartition of philosophy into logic, physics, and ethics—by the granularity of each section, divided into headings and sub-headings that identify single topics of philosophy. In addition, this is the first collection of Stoic fragments to assemble the Arabic tradition of Zeno’s sayings, along with those transmitted in Greek and Latin sources. A rich apparatus of commentary notes accompanies the fragments and guides the reader through the current scholarly debates. This groundbreaking volume of Zeno’s fragments is intended as the definitive reference-work for both experts in ancient philosophy and non-experts. Its principal aim is to provide an easy and authoritative access to a revolutionary figure of Antiquity: a man at the crossroads of Phoenicia and Greece that shaped Western philosophy with the novelty of his doctrines.