{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "cicero.lucullus",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/lucullus/reference-33/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Lucullus, Book Two of the Academica",
    "author": "Cicero",
    "date": "45 BCE",
    "summary": "The Lucullus pits a defence of certain knowledge against Cicero’s sceptical reply. At the centre stands the cognitive impression: can it bear a mark that guarantees truth and therefore warrants assent?",
    "learning": "Reconstruct both positions on assent, distinguish doubt from inability to act, and assess the function of probability in sceptical inquiry.",
    "long_summary": "Lucullus presents the position inherited from Antiochus, according to which action and learning collapse without reliable perceptions. Cicero answers with perceptual errors, philosophical disagreement, and the possibility of governing conduct by what appears probable.\n\nThe debate is not a simple denial of all knowledge. It tests the claim to possess an infallible criterion and asks what degree of commitment suits a fallible mind. The strength of both cases keeps the question open.",
    "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/lucullus/representations/lat.ndjson",
            "language": "lat",
            "records": 148,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "1550a58030654bd47d5f216cfd470d26c1f6be52f020998b817fb29647e2b6f4",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-lucullus-lat"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/cicero/lucullus/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": 148,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "b438f35e2c2d2cb939bd014e37b3c7fbd8d5b631c454101a26ebb4af3c5f1e9e",
            "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/lucullus/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": 148,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "1a5de7338cc12c579511fb54abf68fb320a548a4d75e213ea4a19c56772bceb3",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "academic_skepticism",
            "label": "Academic skepticism"
        },
        {
            "id": "judgment",
            "label": "Judgment"
        },
        {
            "id": "knowledge",
            "label": "Knowledge"
        },
        {
            "id": "probable_judgment",
            "label": "Probable judgment"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "cicero.lucullus"
    ],
    "passages": 148,
    "word_count": 25042,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 25042,
        "fr": 24713,
        "lat": 17995
    },
    "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.lucullus:33",
    "canonical_ref": "33",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "Quae ista regula est veri et falsi, si notionem veri et falsi propterea quod ea non possunt internosci nullam habemus? nam si habemus, interesse oportet ut inter rectum et pravum sic inter verum et falsum. si nihil interest, nulla regula est, nec potest is cui est visio veri falsique communis ullum habere iudicium aut ullam omnino veritatis notam. Nam cum dicunt hoc se unum tollere, ut quicquam possit ita verum videri ut non eodem modo falsum etiam possit ita videri, cetera autem concedere, faciunt pueriliter. quo enim omnia iudicantur sublato reliqua se negant tollere; ut si quis quem oculis privaverit dicat ea quae cerni possent se ei non ademisse. ut enim illa oculis modo agnoscuntur sic reliqua visis, sed propria veri non communi veri et falsi nota. quam ob rem sivetu probabilem visionem sive in probabilem et quae non inpediatur, ut Carneades volebat, sive aliud quid proferes quod sequare, ad visum illud de quo agimus tibi erit revertendum.",
            "edition": "perseus-cicero-lucullus-lat",
            "source_id": "perseus-cicero-lucullus-lat",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "“What rule of truth and falsehood is that, if we possess no conception of truth and falsehood because they cannot be distinguished? If we do possess such a conception, there must be a difference between truth and falsehood, just as there is between right and wrong. If there is no difference, there is no rule, and a person whose appearance of truth and falsehood is the same can possess no judgment and no mark of truth at all. When they say that they abolish only this, that anything can appear true in such a way that a falsehood could not appear in the same manner, while conceding everything else, they behave childishly. After abolishing the means by which everything is judged, they deny that they abolish the rest. It is as if someone deprived a man of his eyes and then said that he had not taken away the things that could be seen. For just as visible things are recognized only by the eyes, so all other things are recognized by appearances, but by the mark proper to truth, not one shared by truth and falsehood. Therefore, whether you put forward a probable appearance, or one that is probable and unhindered, as Carneades wished, or anything else to follow, you will have to return to the appearance with which we are dealing.”",
            "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": "Quelle peut être cette règle du vrai et du faux, si nous n’avons aucune notion du vrai et du faux parce qu’ils ne peuvent être distingués ? Si nous en avons une, il doit exister entre le vrai et le faux une différence semblable à celle qui sépare le droit du tort. S’il n’y a aucune différence, il n’existe aucune règle ; et celui pour qui la représentation du vrai est commune au vrai et au faux ne peut avoir aucun jugement ni aucun signe de la vérité. Lorsqu’ils disent qu’ils suppriment seulement la possibilité qu’une chose paraisse vraie d’une manière telle qu’une chose fausse ne puisse paraître de la même manière, tout en accordant le reste, ils agissent en enfants. Après avoir supprimé ce par quoi tout est jugé, ils prétendent ne pas supprimer le reste. Ce serait comme si quelqu’un, après avoir privé un homme de ses yeux, disait ne lui avoir pas ôté les choses susceptibles d’être vues. De même que ces dernières ne sont reconnues que par les yeux, tout le reste l’est par les représentations, mais par le signe propre au vrai, non par un signe commun au vrai et au faux. Ainsi, que tu proposes une représentation probable, ou une représentation probable et non entravée, comme le voulait Carnéade, ou quelque autre chose à suivre, il te faudra revenir à la représentation dont nous parlons.",
            "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": "0c6ff9cf238aa963ae77695620cdfc2080ec2ac6f0856af7a0b7a5fe453696de"
}