{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "cicero.letters_to_atticus",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/letters-to-atticus/reference-16-12-1/",
    "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",
            "records": 1,
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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": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "civic_duty",
            "label": "Civic duty"
        },
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        },
        {
            "id": "forms",
            "label": "Intelligible forms"
        },
        {
            "id": "fortune",
            "label": "Fortune"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "philosophical_eros",
            "label": "Philosophical eros"
        },
        {
            "id": "roles",
            "label": "Roles and relationships"
        }
    ],
    "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:16.12.1",
    "canonical_ref": "16.12.1",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "Oppi epistulae, quia perhumana erat, tibi misi exemplum. de Ocella, dum tu muginaris nec mihi quicquam rescribis, cepi consilium domesticum itaque me pr. Idus arbitror Romae futurum. commodius est visum frustra me istic t esse, cum id non necesse esset, quam, si opus esset, non adesse, et simul ne intercluderer metuebam. ille enim iam adventare potest. etsi varii rumores multique quos cuperem veros, nihil tamen certi. ego vero, quicquid est, tecum potius quam animi pendeam, cum a te absim, et de te et de me. sed quid tibi dicam? bonum animum. de Ἡρακλειδείῳ Varronis negotia salsa. me quidem nihil umquam sic delectavit. sed haec et alia maiora coram.",
            "edition": "perseus-cicero-letters_to_atticus-lat",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-letters_to_atticus-lat",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Because Oppius' letter was most courteous, I sent you a copy. As for Ocella, while you mutter and send me no answer, I have taken counsel with my household; accordingly, I think I shall be in Rome on the day before the Ides. It seemed preferable for me to be there to no purpose when that was unnecessary than to be absent if I were needed, and at the same time I feared being cut off. For he may now be approaching. Although there are various reports, many of which I should like to be true, there is nevertheless nothing certain. Whatever happens, I would rather be with you than remain in suspense while absent from you, anxious both about you and about myself. But what can I tell you? Take heart. The business about Varro's Heraclidean work is delightful. Nothing has ever pleased me so much. But we shall discuss this and other, greater matters face to face.",
            "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": "Comme la lettre d’Oppius était pleine d’affabilité, je t’en ai envoyé une copie. Pour Ocella, tandis que tu marmonnes sans me répondre un mot, j’ai pris conseil des miens ; je pense donc être à Rome la veille des ides. Il m’a paru préférable de rester là-bas inutilement, même si ma présence n’était pas nécessaire, plutôt que de ne pas y être si elle le devenait ; je craignais aussi de voir ma route coupée. Il peut en effet arriver désormais. Les rumeurs sont certes diverses et nombreuses, et je voudrais que plusieurs fussent vraies, mais rien n’est certain. Pour ma part, quoi qu’il arrive, je préfère être avec toi plutôt que de rester dans l’angoisse, loin de toi, à ton sujet comme au mien. Mais que te dirai-je ? Courage. L’histoire de l’ouvrage de Varron à la manière d’Héraclide est savoureuse. Rien ne m’a jamais autant diverti. Mais nous parlerons de cela et d’autres sujets plus importants de vive voix.",
            "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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}