{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "cicero.brutus",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/brutus/reference-288/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Brutus, or On Eminent Orators",
    "author": "Cicero",
    "date": "46 BCE",
    "summary": "Cicero traces the history of Roman eloquence through the speakers who shaped it. The dialogue combines criticism, portraiture, and an anxious reflection on public speech at a moment when the Republic is losing its freedom.",
    "learning": "Recognize Roman standards of eloquence, follow a literary history built through comparison, and connect the crisis of oratory with that of the Republic.",
    "long_summary": "Judgements about style, memory, voice, and training compose a genealogy of the Roman orator. Cicero places predecessors, rivals, and his own career within a tradition where political effectiveness cannot be separated from verbal art.\n\nDialogue turns the catalogue into a debate about standards of excellence. Beneath literary history lies a political question: what becomes of eloquence when civic deliberation gives way to personal force?",
    "historical_context": "The corpus manifests do not yet establish the precise place and circumstances of composition. The images below document the author’s world or the text’s transmission. They do not claim to show the exact scene of writing.",
    "material_world_label": "Roman world, 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Paved roads, aqueducts, concrete, glassware, mills, and hypocaust heating equip some cities, but energy comes mainly from bodies, animals, water, and wood.",
        "science": "Astronomy, geometry, natural history, and engineering compile Greek, Egyptian, and Roman knowledge. Measurement exists without a modern laboratory.",
        "medicine": "Physicians, midwives, baths, plants, and rudimentary surgery can help; reliable anaesthesia, antisepsis, and antibiotics do not exist.",
        "transport": "On foot, horseback, cart, or ship, road and sea networks connect the Empire. Travel remains slow, costly, and risky.",
        "agriculture": "Grain, vines, olives, pulses, and livestock supply cities and armies; estates, slavery, and tenancy organize part of the labour.",
        "communication": "Imperial couriers, letters on papyrus or tablets, inscriptions, and oral proclamations spread information. Everything is copied by hand.",
        "clothing": "Tunics and cloaks are common to both sexes; the stola, toga, footwear, colours, and jewellery mark citizenship, office, wealth, and origin."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Paved roads, aqueducts, concrete, glassware, mills, and hypocaust heating equip some cities, but energy comes mainly from bodies, animals, water, and wood. Astronomy, geometry, natural history, and engineering compile Greek, Egyptian, and Roman knowledge. Measurement exists without a modern laboratory. Physicians, midwives, baths, plants, and rudimentary surgery can help; reliable anaesthesia, antisepsis, and antibiotics do not exist."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "On foot, horseback, cart, or ship, road and sea networks connect the Empire. Travel remains slow, costly, and risky. Imperial couriers, letters on papyrus or tablets, inscriptions, and oral proclamations spread information. Everything is copied by hand."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Grain, vines, olives, pulses, and livestock supply cities and armies; estates, slavery, and tenancy organize part of the labour."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Tunics and cloaks are common to both sexes; the stola, toga, footwear, colours, and jewellery mark citizenship, office, wealth, and origin."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "greek-roman-traditions",
        "label": "Greek and Roman traditions"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "lat",
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/brutus/representations/lat.ndjson",
            "language": "lat",
            "records": 334,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "ee71cf092bf7b4bff9e46b7d84d6d2233817ecb912ad213af5bf241a11fbbe92",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-brutus-lat"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/brutus/representations/ai-generated/en-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-11",
            "language": "en",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 334,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "8273f16d3d1e9896fae36ef528dbf46e23081f777fc1b5c7f96f453183ed3a65",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/brutus/representations/ai-generated/fr-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-11",
            "language": "fr",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 334,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "5625ffe6dd7b642e68fb9982cbdec944e9a8c498a57343af12202fb552c74f4e",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/translation_carrier_fr_27/representations/fr.ndjson",
            "language": "fr",
            "records": 1,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "5c767b8bf95b137c1fcd813a2b283ab9d989380448c26e233af7880ad9ccbc00",
            "source_id": "wikisource-brutus"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/translation_carrier_fr_27/representations/ai-generated/en-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-11",
            "language": "en",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 1,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "f51092b8e14be274c829c1f91c5bf7f4025816790b4824ac1284a3a6c7ddc07a",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/translation_carrier_en_11/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 1,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "9591f6c2cf7d48f20d5149c9a1e7edea50340ef0a68899a5c3f236f8740f2120",
            "source_id": "gutenberg-brutus-orator"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/translation_carrier_en_11/representations/ai-generated/fr-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-11",
            "language": "fr",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 1,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "9b59e0884b88d843749319ba93298bc74c0a88f7eba798a11c99cbff1b94bdf5",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "education",
            "label": "Education"
        },
        {
            "id": "prayer",
            "label": "Prayer"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "rhetoric",
            "label": "Rhetoric"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "cicero.brutus",
        "cicero.translation_carrier_fr_27",
        "cicero.translation_carrier_en_11"
    ],
    "passages": 334,
    "word_count": 79995,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 79995,
        "fr": 75431,
        "lat": 25099
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "cicero-work-hierarchy-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "hierarchical_ref",
                "label_fr": "Division",
                "label_en": "Division"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Passage",
        "leaf_en": "Passage"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:cicero.brutus:288",
    "canonical_ref": "288",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "num igitur qui hoc sentiat, si is potare velit, de dolio sibi hauriendum putet? Minime; sed quandam sequatur aetatem. Sic ego istis censuerim et novam istam quasi de musto ac lacu fervidam orationem fugiendam nec illam praeclaram Thucydidi nimis veterem tamquam Anicianam notam persequendam. Ipse enim Thucydides si posterius fuisset, multo maturior fuisset et mitior. demosthenem igitur imitemur. O di boni; quid, quaeso , nos aliud agimus aut quid aliud optamus? At non adsequimur. Isti enim videlicet Attici nostri quod volunt adsequuntur.",
            "edition": "perseus-cicero-brutus-lat",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-brutus-lat",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Would someone who held this opinion, if he wished to drink, therefore think he must draw directly from the vat? Not at all; he would choose a certain age. So I would advise these men to avoid that new speech, seething as if fresh from the must and wine press, and not to pursue Thucydides’ illustrious but excessively ancient vintage as though it were Anician. Had Thucydides lived later, he himself would have been much more mature and mellow. “Let us therefore imitate Demosthenes.” Good gods! What else, I ask, are we doing or what else do we desire? But we do not attain it. These Atticists of ours, evidently, attain whatever they desire.",
            "translator": "Codex gpt-5.6-sol",
            "edition": "Prokopton42 non-official AI translation, 2026-09-11",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "generation_model": "gpt-5.6-sol"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "« Celui qui pense ainsi, s’il veut boire, doit-il donc croire qu’il lui faut puiser directement au tonneau ? Nullement, mais qu’il choisisse un certain âge. De même, je conseillerais à ces hommes de fuir cette éloquence nouvelle, bouillonnante comme le moût dans la cuve, sans pour autant rechercher la glorieuse marque de Thucydide, trop vieille comme celle d’Anicius. Thucydide lui-même, s’il avait vécu plus tard, aurait été beaucoup plus mûr et plus doux. “Imitons donc Démosthène.” Dieux bons ! Que faisons-nous d’autre, je vous prie, et que désirons-nous d’autre ? Mais nous n’y parvenons pas. Nos Attiques, eux, atteignent évidemment ce qu’ils veulent. »",
            "translator": "Codex gpt-5.6-sol",
            "edition": "Prokopton42 non-official AI translation, 2026-09-11",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "generation_model": "gpt-5.6-sol"
        }
    ],
    "content_checksum": "c8be1762c216cf2e9c0c2fe84bee9abace9a0161eaaf37f57b07f4dafb06b885"
}