Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (SVF)
The Surviving Fragments and Testimonia of the Early Stoics
Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta is not itself an ancient Stoic book. It is the monumental collection of fragments and testimonia of the early Stoics assembled by the German scholar Hans von Arnim and published in the early twentieth century (1903–1905, index 1924).
SVF numbering is therefore a modern scholarly reference system for ancient material preserved in many different sources. “SVF I.179” does not mean paragraph 179 of a book by Zeno; it means item 179 in von Arnim's first volume — a passage from a later ancient author in which Zeno's teaching survives.
Volume I gathers Zeno and his pupils; Volumes II–III gather Chrysippus (with successors); Volume IV is the index. The StoicOs edition follows this traditional framework while carefully marking, for every entry, what kind of evidence it really is.
Collections
Zeno of Citium
Ζήνων ὁ Κιτιεύςc. 334–262 BCESVF Volume I · Available — 76 source entries
Founder of the Stoa. His own books are lost; his teaching survives in fragments and testimonia preserved by later ancient authors.
Cleanthes of Assos
Κλεάνθης ὁ Ἄσσιοςc. 331–c. 230 BCESVF Volume I · Available — 10 source entries
Zeno's successor as head of the Stoa, author of the Hymn to Zeus — the longest continuous early Stoic text to survive.
Chrysippus of Soli
Χρύσιππος ὁ Σολεύςc. 279–206 BCESVF Volume II–III · Available — 11 source entries
The Stoa's great systematiser — “without Chrysippus there would be no Stoa” — whose logic, ethics and doctrine of fate survive in nearly two thousand fragments.
Early Stoics and pupils
3rd–2nd century BCESVF Volume I · In preparation
Pupils and early successors whose fragments von Arnim gathered alongside the three heads of the school.
About this edition
StoicOs Ancient Library is a developing multilingual digital study edition of surviving early Stoic material. The Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta assembled by Hans von Arnim provides the traditional reference framework. StoicOs distinguishes carefully between fragments, testimonia, later reports and interpretation. StoicOs translations are prepared from the surviving ancient-language sources where available.