{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "diogenes.pseudo_epistles",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/pseudo-diogenes/pseudo-epistles/reference-22/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Pseudo-Diogenic Epistles",
    "author": "Pseudo-Diogenes",
    "date": "late Hellenistic or Imperial period, 1st century BCE-2nd century CE",
    "summary": "These letters transmitted under Diogenes’ name dramatize Cynic frankness, contempt for wealth, and freedom before rulers. Their attribution is conventional: they belong to a literary tradition later than the historical philosopher.",
    "learning": "Recognize conventions of the philosophical letter, follow the construction of a Cynic voice, and avoid confusing manuscript attribution with historical authorship.",
    "long_summary": "Epistolary form gives doctrine a situation and addressee. Advice, refusals, and provocative replies construct a Diogenes consistent with the anecdotal image, turning voluntary poverty and exile into signs of independence.\n\nThat consistency is itself an effect of reception. The texts are not personal archives and guarantee neither their setting nor displayed author. They show how later writers extended a Cynic voice considered exemplary.",
    "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": "Classical Greek world, 5th century BCE",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Bronze, iron, pottery, simple cranes, and shipbuilding sustain cities. Power still comes mainly from people, animals, wind, and water.",
        "science": "Geometry, astronomy, inquiry into nature, and rational argument advance without modern measuring instruments or standardized experiments.",
        "medicine": "Practitioners observe symptoms, diet, and seasons; healing sanctuaries and ritual treatment also remain common.",
        "transport": "Walking and animals dominate on land. Sailing ships and triremes connect islands, ports, and colonies.",
        "agriculture": "Small farms, grain, vines, olives, goats, and sheep shape the diet; harvests remain vulnerable to weather and war.",
        "communication": "Public speech, messengers, and handwritten letters carry news. Theatre, the civic square, and the banquet are major social media.",
        "clothing": "Women and men drape wool or linen as chitons, peploi, and cloaks. Garments are pinned, belted, and shaped by status rather than tailored like modern clothes."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Bronze, iron, pottery, simple cranes, and shipbuilding sustain cities. Power still comes mainly from people, animals, wind, and water. Geometry, astronomy, inquiry into nature, and rational argument advance without modern measuring instruments or standardized experiments. Practitioners observe symptoms, diet, and seasons; healing sanctuaries and ritual treatment also remain common."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "Walking and animals dominate on land. Sailing ships and triremes connect islands, ports, and colonies. Public speech, messengers, and handwritten letters carry news. Theatre, the civic square, and the banquet are major social media."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Small farms, grain, vines, olives, goats, and sheep shape the diet; harvests remain vulnerable to weather and war."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Women and men drape wool or linen as chitons, peploi, and cloaks. Garments are pinned, belted, and shaped by status rather than tailored like modern clothes."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "greek-roman-traditions",
        "label": "Greek and Roman traditions"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "grc",
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/diogenes/pseudo_epistles/representations/grc.ndjson",
            "language": "grc",
            "records": 51,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "e4f26fd70e440910e826dffae0dfc59da8dec5fdf75d14878f7a589a34ba3be6",
            "source_id": "pseudo-letters-grc"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/diogenes/pseudo_epistles/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": 51,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "61e0672dd868238b9da5049f680d2b102408bdf5a379469c1c7b0d4cb604d175",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/diogenes/pseudo_epistles/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": 51,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "bfb30bad977c9439f4defbf41ae809cf83a35c82e55d367ed6c792276bf890eb",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "freedom",
            "label": "Freedom"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "simple_living",
            "label": "Simple living"
        },
        {
            "id": "virtue",
            "label": "Virtue"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "diogenes.pseudo_epistles"
    ],
    "passages": 51,
    "word_count": 10974,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 10974,
        "fr": 11335,
        "grc": 8885
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "diogenes-carrier-explicit-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "carrier_reference",
                "label_fr": "Référence du témoin",
                "label_en": "Carrier reference"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Témoignage",
        "leaf_en": "Testimony"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:diogenes.pseudo_epistles:22",
    "canonical_ref": "22",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "grc",
            "text": "Ἐμοὶ τὸ μὲν ζῆν οὕτως ἐστὶν ἀβέβαιον, ὡς μὴ πιστεύεσθαι παραμενεῖν ἕως τὴν ἐπιστολήν σοι γράψω· πήρα δὲ ἱκανὸν αὐτοῦ ταμιεῖον, τὰ δὲ τῶν νομιζομένων θεῶν μείζονα ἢ κατ’ ἀνθρώπους. ἓν δὲ μόνον ἐμαυτῷ βέβαιον σύνοιδα, τὴν μετὰ τὴν γένεσιν φθοράν. Ταῦτ’ ἐπιστάμενος αὐτός τε τὰς κενὰς ἐλπίδας ἱπταμένας περὶ τὸ σωμάτιον ἀποφυσῶ, καὶ σοὶ παραγγέλλω μὴ πλέον ἀνθρώπου φρονεῖν.",
            "translator": "Rudolf Hercher, editor",
            "edition": "pseudo-letters-grc",
            "source_id": "pseudo-letters-grc",
            "translation_type": "original"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "For me, continued life is so uncertain that I cannot trust it to last until I have written you this letter. A pouch is an adequate storehouse for life, while the possessions of the reputed gods are greater than is fitting for human beings. I know only one thing to be certain for me: dissolution after birth. Knowing this, I blow away the empty hopes fluttering about this little body, and I instruct you not to think yourself more than human.",
            "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": "Pour moi, la vie est si incertaine que je ne puis être assuré qu’elle durera jusqu’à ce que j’aie fini de t’écrire cette lettre; une besace est un trésor suffisant pour elle, tandis que les biens des prétendus dieux sont trop grands pour des hommes. Je ne connais avec certitude, pour moi-même, qu’une seule chose: la destruction qui suit la naissance. Le sachant, je chasse les vaines espérances qui voltigent autour de mon petit corps, et je te recommande de ne pas nourrir des pensées qui dépassent la condition humaine.",
            "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": "0e1b7ffecf2cb78dc614989fc3e37be4bc2aebb6cb8a948b4640a716d55ef32e"
}