Stephanus pagination

Stephanus pagination is a system of reference and organization used in modern editions and translations of Plato (and less famously, Plutarch[citation needed]) based on the three-volume 1578 edition[1] of Plato's complete works translated by Joannes Serranus (Jean de Serres) and published by Henricus Stephanus (Henri Estienne) in Geneva.

Reference to Stephanus manifestly presupposes the existing ordering of the work in its given volumes, but given historical disagreement as to the chronology and proper ordering of Plato's works, care should therefore be taken when referring to Stephanus pagination as opposed to another scheme.

The spurious dialogue Halcyon was included in the corpus of Lucian's works and does not have Stephanus numbers.

Unlike Stephanus pagination, Bekker numbering starts with page 1 and proceeds through all of Aristotle's works without starting over, regardless of the number of volumes needed for a given edition.

Bekker numbering therefore has the advantage, not shared by Stephanus pagination, of giving compact, unambiguous numerical citation of a given passage, page, etc, without the absolute necessity in order to avoid ambiguity to specify the dialogue, work or volume which exists in the case of Stephanus.