Fragments

Nothing survives whole

9 thinkers here left work that is lost. These 52 lines exist because later writers copied them into works of their own — usually while arguing about something else entirely.

Whose books are lost

Who saved them

Not one of these lines was preserved on purpose. 13 writers across 880 years quoted them for their own reasons — as evidence, as a target, as an example of obscurity — and the quoting is the only reason we have them at all.

  1. Aristotlec. 340 and c. 320 BCE2 linesMetaphysics · On the Senses · On the Soul
  2. Plutarchc. 100 CE4 linesOn the E at Delphi · On the Oracles at Delphi · Against Colotes
  3. Galenc. 180 CE1 lineOn Medical Experience
  4. Sextus Empiricusc. 200 CE8 linesAgainst the Logicians · Against the Physicists
  5. Clement of Alexandriac. 200 CE5 linesMiscellanies · Enneads
  6. Hippolytus of Romec. 222 CE5 linesRefutation of All Heresies · On Exile
  7. Diogenes Laertiusc. 230 CE7 linesLives of the Eminent Philosophers
  8. Porphyryc. 280 CE1 lineLife of Pythagoras
  9. Arius Didymusc. 315 CE1 linePreparation for the Gospel
  10. Themistiusc. 360 CE1 lineOrations
  11. Proclusc. 440 CE1 lineCommentary on Plato's Timaeus
  12. Stobaeusc. 450 CE4 linesAnthology
  13. Simpliciusc. 540 CE12 linesCommentary on Aristotle's Physics · Commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens