{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "cicero.letters_to_atticus",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/letters-to-atticus/reference-12-40-3/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Letters to Atticus",
    "author": "Cicero",
    "date": "68-44 BCE",
    "summary": "In letters to Atticus, Cicero shares calculations, fears, and reversals with his closest political confidant. The correspondence preserves a voice less polished than the speeches, caught within the crises of the late Republic.",
    "learning": "Observe political decisions taking shape, distinguish confidence from self-fashioning, and reconstruct the role of the largely absent addressee.",
    "long_summary": "The letters follow elections, alliances, civil war, exile, and domestic decisions almost at the pace of events. Cicero seeks advice, passes news, assesses Caesar, Pompey, and their supporters, then often revises his judgement in the next letter.\n\nThis immediacy reveals reasoning in motion rather than settled doctrine. Atticus remains an active addressee whose replies are largely absent, so silence, self-defence, and relational strategy must be read alongside the events discussed.",
    "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/letters_to_atticus/representations/lat.ndjson",
            "language": "lat",
            "records": 1479,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "c18722b900f27d95234987069046b79c90898739422ab6d543c77f5c7ad65fc8",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-letters_to_atticus-lat"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/letters_to_atticus/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": 1479,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "46a9ba0e94d4cd6726a644eddf2c8ebec7d27b5555352262be4a1e98e0e84ef0",
            "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/letters_to_atticus/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": 1479,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "e4cbdb57ec4313306c1e4fa44f92c123e845d086b7c5e2324ae86d08fc3b709b",
            "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_05/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 1,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "2d5e9462ef8b2f005b93d341387273fed1ead58e543dc8fce2a6b5ba8ac93b1e",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-letters-to-atticus-en-carrier"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/translation_carrier_en_05/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": "b34c29bc15b5b892cae9cd57911b32826695e588715b7026a8377491b31d59ec",
            "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_14/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 1,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "1f7a3e28da200cc9a11ef41a907dad05d1c845663a2010673d76bdab83b18c2d",
            "source_id": "gutenberg-selected-letters"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/translation_carrier_en_14/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",
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            "sha256": "7fee282ef09b594d82fb1c02bc3ef48942a11323aa1442dcb94361aa40d6e054",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
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    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "civic_duty",
            "label": "Civic duty"
        },
        {
            "id": "fortune",
            "label": "Fortune"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "prayer",
            "label": "Prayer"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "cicero.letters_to_atticus",
        "cicero.translation_carrier_en_05",
        "cicero.translation_carrier_en_14"
    ],
    "passages": 1479,
    "word_count": 211714,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 211714,
        "fr": 203445,
        "lat": 124700
    },
    "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.letters_to_atticus:12.40.3",
    "canonical_ref": "12.40.3",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "si quis requirit cur Romae non sim: quia discessus est; cur non sim in iis meis praediolis quae sunt huius temporis: quia frequentiam illam non facile ferrem. ibi sum igitur ubi is qui optimas Baias habebat quotannis hoc tempus consumere solebat. cum Romam venero, nec vultu nec oratione reprehendar. hilaritatem illam qua hanc tristitiam temporum condiebam in perpetuum amisi, constantia et firmitas nec animi nec orationis requiretur.",
            "edition": "perseus-cicero-letters_to_atticus-lat",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-letters_to_atticus-lat",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "If anyone asks why I am not in Rome: because people have left; why I am not at one of my little estates suited to this season: because I could not easily bear the crowds there. I am therefore where the man who possessed the finest place at Baiae used regularly to spend this season each year. When I come to Rome, neither my expression nor my speech will incur reproach. I have lost forever the cheerfulness with which I used to temper the sadness of these times, but neither my spirit nor my speech will be found wanting in constancy and firmness.",
            "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 quelqu’un demande pourquoi je ne suis pas à Rome, c’est parce qu’on en est parti; pourquoi je ne suis pas dans celles de mes petites propriétés qui conviennent à cette saison, c’est parce que je supporterais difficilement cette affluence. Je suis donc là où celui qui possédait la plus belle propriété de Baïes avait coutume de passer chaque année cette saison. Quand je viendrai à Rome, ni mon visage ni mes paroles ne pourront être blâmés. Cette gaieté dont j’assaisonnais la tristesse des temps, je l’ai perdue pour toujours; mais on ne trouvera aucun défaut à la constance et à la fermeté de mon âme ni de mes propos.",
            "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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}