{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "cicero.de_fato",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/de-fato/reference-45/",
    "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": "freedom",
            "label": "Freedom"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "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:45",
    "canonical_ref": "45",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "Omninoque cum haec sit distinctio, ut quibusdam in rebus vere dici possit, cum hae causae antegressae sint, non esse in nostra potestate, quin illa eveniant, quorum causae fuerint, quibusdam autem in rebus causis antegressis in nostra tamen esse potestate, ut illud aliter eveniat, hanc distinctionem utrique adprobant, sed alteri censent, quibus in rebus, cum causae antecesserint, non sit in nostra potestate, ut aliter illa eveniant, eas fato fieri; quae autem in nostra potestate sint, ab iis fatum abesse",
            "edition": "perseus-cicero-de_fato-lat",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-de_fato-lat",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "In general, since the distinction is this, that in some matters it can truly be said that, once these causes have preceded, it is not within our power to prevent the events whose causes they were, whereas in other matters, even after causes have preceded, it is nevertheless within our power for the event to happen otherwise, both parties approve this distinction. But one party thinks that matters in which, after causes have preceded, it is not within our power for events to happen otherwise occur by fate, while fate is absent from those matters that are within our power",
            "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": "En somme, voici la distinction: dans certains cas, on peut dire avec vérité que, certaines causes ayant précédé, il n’est pas en notre pouvoir d’empêcher les événements dont elles sont les causes; dans d’autres cas, malgré l’antécédence de certaines causes, il reste en notre pouvoir que l’événement se produise autrement. Les deux partis approuvent cette distinction. Mais les uns estiment que les événements qui, une fois leurs causes antécédentes posées, ne peuvent plus dépendre de nous de manière à se produire autrement, arrivent par le destin; tandis que le destin est absent de ceux qui demeurent en notre pouvoir.",
            "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": "4885c5515814ecfd59b3909fbbf3e9a72c9f9170901c7faa12014894cfd2ae1e"
}