{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "cicero.de_fato",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/de-fato/reference-23/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "On Fate",
    "author": "Cicero",
    "date": "44 BCE",
    "summary": "In this fragmentary dialogue, Cicero asks whether causal chains and the truth of future statements abolish human freedom. Modal logic, causation, and responsibility meet in a rejection of inescapable fatalism.",
    "learning": "Separate determinism, fatalism, and foreknowledge, understand the problem of future contingents, and relate causation to moral responsibility.",
    "long_summary": "The text discusses Hellenistic responses to determinism, especially the Stoic attempt to reconcile universal fate with the agent’s own assent. Future propositions test whether logical truth and causal necessity should be identified.\n\nIncomplete survival makes reconstruction cautious. Cicero defends room for action without delivering a complete system; the work lies in distinctions among cause, necessity, prediction, and accountability.",
    "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/de_fato/representations/lat.ndjson",
            "language": "lat",
            "records": 48,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "aef84fdd31ab20312b1d5fb158d8d26235a3d1077b3b1940bc910f1ba9ceda12",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-de_fato-lat"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/de_fato/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": 48,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "3fef337f8f282a6be14ab04dcfa8ef2e2703cc1b92d603c28013d99324e561f1",
            "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/de_fato/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": 48,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "14580dee7880a94be4f3aa8e48a358e95e50872b691e80e167f32137f1efb337",
            "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_24/representations/fr.ndjson",
            "language": "fr",
            "records": 1,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "af004972571ecacb0487592a71780cfd8d8a32b166ef6f34db7de1699e13c22a",
            "source_id": "wikisource-fate"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/translation_carrier_fr_24/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": "bb8443d8da2bc196be9cb0ec1fecfbfbe6316a4f080b27e32f84b8ce3b61038e",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        },
        {
            "id": "freedom",
            "label": "Freedom"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "roles",
            "label": "Roles and relationships"
        },
        {
            "id": "sin",
            "label": "Sin"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "cicero.de_fato",
        "cicero.translation_carrier_fr_24"
    ],
    "passages": 48,
    "word_count": 7134,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 7134,
        "fr": 7308,
        "lat": 5240
    },
    "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.de_fato:23",
    "canonical_ref": "23",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "Hanc Epicurus rationem induxit ob eam rem, quod veritus est, ne, si semper atomus gravitate ferretur naturali ac necessaria, nihil liberum nobis esset, cum ita moveretur animus, ut atomorum motu cogeretur. Id Democritus, auctor atomorum, accipere maluit, necessitate omnia fieri, quam a corporibus individuis naturalis motus avellere. Acutius Carneades, qui docebat posse Epicureos suam causam sine hac commenticia declinatione defendere. Nam cum docerent esse posse quendam animi motum voluntarium, id fuit defendi melius quam introducere declinationem, cuius praesertim causam reperire non possent; quo defenso facile Chrysippo possent resistere. Cum enim concessissent motum nullum esse sine causa, non concederent omnia, quae fierent, fieri causis antecedentibus; voluntatis enim nostrae non esse causas externas et antecedentis.",
            "edition": "perseus-cicero-de_fato-lat",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-de_fato-lat",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Epicurus introduced this account because he feared that, if the atom were always carried by natural and necessary gravity, nothing would be free in us, since the mind would move as it was compelled by the motion of atoms. Democritus, the originator of atoms, preferred to accept that everything happens by necessity rather than tear their natural motion away from indivisible bodies. Carneades was more acute. He taught that the Epicureans could defend their cause without this fictitious swerve. Since they taught that there could be a certain voluntary motion of the mind, it was better to defend that claim than to introduce a swerve for which, especially, they could discover no cause. Having defended it, they could easily resist Chrysippus. For although they would concede that no motion occurs without a cause, they would not concede that everything which happens occurs from antecedent causes, since our will has no external and antecedent causes.",
            "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": "Épicure introduisit ce raisonnement parce qu’il craignait que, si l’atome était toujours entraîné par une pesanteur naturelle et nécessaire, nous ne possédions aucune liberté, notre esprit étant contraint de se mouvoir selon le mouvement des atomes. Démocrite, auteur de la théorie atomique, préféra accepter que tout arrive nécessairement plutôt que de retirer aux corps indivisibles leurs mouvements naturels. Carnéade fut plus pénétrant: il enseignait que les épicuriens pouvaient défendre leur cause sans cette déclinaison imaginaire. Puisqu’ils enseignaient qu’il peut exister un mouvement volontaire de l’esprit, il valait mieux défendre cette thèse qu’introduire une déclinaison dont, surtout, ils ne pouvaient trouver la cause. En la défendant, ils pouvaient aisément résister à Chrysippe. Tout en accordant qu’aucun mouvement n’est sans cause, ils n’accorderaient pas que tous les événements procèdent de causes antécédentes; car notre volonté n’a pas de causes externes et antécédentes.",
            "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"
        }
    ],
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}