{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "cicero.de_fato",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/de-fato/reference-34/",
    "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": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "death",
            "label": "Death"
        },
        {
            "id": "freedom",
            "label": "Freedom"
        },
        {
            "id": "law",
            "label": "Law"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        }
    ],
    "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:34",
    "canonical_ref": "34",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "Quodsi concedatur nihil posse evenire nisi causa antecedente, quid proficiatur, si ea causa non ex aeternis causis apta dicatur? Causa autem ea est, quae id efficit, cuius est causa, ut vulnus mortis, cruditas morbi, ignis ardoris. Itaque non sic causa intellegi debet, ut, quod cuique antecedat, id ei causa sit, sed quod cuique efficienter antecedat, nec, quod in campum descenderim, id fuisse causae, cur pila luderem, nec Hecubam causam interitus fuisse Troianis, quod Alexandrum genuerit, nec Tyndareum Agamemnoni, quod Clytaemnestram. Hoc enim modo viator quoque bene vestitus causa grassatori fuisse dicetur, cur ab eo spoliaretur.",
            "edition": "perseus-cicero-de_fato-lat",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-de_fato-lat",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "But if it is conceded that nothing can happen without an antecedent cause, what is gained if that cause is not said to be joined to eternal causes? A cause is that which produces the thing of which it is the cause, as a wound causes death, indigestion illness, and fire burning. A cause therefore must not be understood as anything that precedes something else, but as that which efficiently precedes it. My going down to the Campus was not the cause of my playing ball; nor was Hecuba the cause of the Trojans' destruction because she bore Alexander; nor Tyndareus the cause of Agamemnon's destruction because he fathered Clytemnestra. By that reasoning, a well-dressed traveler too will be said to have caused a highwayman to rob him.",
            "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": "Si l’on accorde que rien ne peut arriver sans cause antécédente, quel progrès fait-on si l’on ne dit pas que cette cause est elle-même liée à des causes éternelles? Une cause est ce qui produit la chose dont elle est la cause, comme une blessure produit la mort, une indigestion la maladie, le feu la chaleur. Il ne faut donc pas comprendre que tout ce qui précède une chose en soit la cause, mais seulement ce qui la précède en la produisant. Le fait que je sois descendu au Champ de Mars n’a pas été la cause de mon jeu de balle; Hécube n’a pas causé la ruine des Troyens parce qu’elle avait enfanté Alexandre; ni Tyndare celle d’Agamemnon parce qu’il avait engendré Clytemnestre. À ce compte, on dira aussi qu’un voyageur bien vêtu a été pour un brigand la cause qui l’a poussé à le dépouiller.",
            "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": "45c188e48c9c05ee19685d136bb0d9d17151a90fe27aa9efb49c56a1ea86ab32"
}