{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "sextus_empiricus.against_ethicists",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/sextus-empiricus/against-ethicists/livre-11/passage-108/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Against the Ethicists, Book XI of Against the Learned",
    "author": "Sextus Empiricus",
    "date": "c. 180-220 CE",
    "summary": "In Book XI, Sextus confronts doctrines of good, evil, and the art of living with disagreements among peoples and philosophers. Suspension removes the claimed self-evidence of natural values that conflict prevents from being established.",
    "learning": "Compare definitions of goodness, distinguish customary conduct from natural judgement, and understand why suspension is not practical indifference.",
    "long_summary": "The text surveys definitions of bodily, external, and moral goods, then shows how the same thing is sought, avoided, or judged indifferent by different schools. It also asks whether an art teaching conduct can possess a secure object, method, and expert.\n\nCriticism does not force the sceptic into inaction. The sceptic follows affections and customs without adding that they are naturally good or bad. The promised tranquillity depends on this change in assent, whose moral force differs from asserted theoretical relativism.",
    "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": "skepticism",
        "label": "Skepticism"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "grc",
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/sextus_empiricus/against_ethicists/representations/grc.ndjson",
            "language": "grc",
            "records": 257,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "0cbbb82dd66d0029de5d5c56b160a083811c0363f54322fdd9d4bcbcdbfcb317",
            "source_id": "adversus-grc"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/sextus_empiricus/against_ethicists/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": 257,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "0626e1628145e62edfcd56b90fb3f709d82a6e6484a60689beedd545775c5eb4",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/sextus_empiricus/against_ethicists/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": 257,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "ec00265be18697beb3cb6a1f1632badb68f5e3a183c0683265c1e00efeb608fa",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "death",
            "label": "Death"
        },
        {
            "id": "equipollence",
            "label": "Equipollence"
        },
        {
            "id": "suspension_of_judgment",
            "label": "Suspension of judgment"
        },
        {
            "id": "virtue",
            "label": "Virtue"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "sextus_empiricus.against_ethicists"
    ],
    "passages": 257,
    "word_count": 16268,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 16268,
        "fr": 17125,
        "grc": 13920
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "sextus-book-section-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "book",
                "label_fr": "Livre",
                "label_en": "Book"
            },
            {
                "key": "section",
                "label_fr": "Section",
                "label_en": "Section"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Section",
        "leaf_en": "Section"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:sextus_empiricus.against_ethicists:11.108",
    "canonical_ref": "11.108",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "grc",
            "text": "εἰκὸς δ’ ἔστιν ἐνίους αὐτῶν καὶ προσδοξάζοντας, ὅτι μετὰ τελευτὴν ὅμοιος αὐτοὺς ἔπαινος περιμένει, προῦπτον αἱρεῖσθαι θάνατον. οὐκ ἀπίθανον δ’ ἄλλους τοῦτο πάσχειν βλέποντας, ὅτι δυσυπομένητα μᾶλλον αὐτοῖς ἔσται τὰ κατὰ τὴν ζωήν, θεασαμένοις (X 62) υἱᾶς τ’ ὀλλυμένους ἑλκηθείσας τε θύγατρας καὶ θαλάμους κεραιζομένους καὶ νήπια τέκνα βαλλόμενα ποτὶ γαίῃ ἐν αἰνῇ δηιοτῆτι.",
            "translator": "Hermann Mutschmann and Jürgen Mau, editors",
            "edition": "adversus-grc",
            "source_id": "adversus-grc",
            "translation_type": "original"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "It is likely that some of them, also believing that similar praise awaits them after death, choose an evident death. Nor is it implausible that others undergo this because they see that what awaits them in life will be harder to endure, after beholding “sons slain, daughters dragged away, chambers ravaged, and infant children dashed to the ground in dreadful battle” (Iliad XXII 62).",
            "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": "Il est vraisemblable que certains d’entre eux, croyant qu’une louange semblable les attend après leur mort, choisissent une mort manifeste. Il n’est pas non plus invraisemblable que d’autres agissent ainsi parce qu’ils voient que la vie leur deviendra plus insupportable après avoir contemplé « leurs fils tués, leurs filles emmenées, leurs chambres nuptiales saccagées et leurs petits enfants jetés contre terre dans l’affreuse mêlée ».",
            "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": "ec56df6f20d47a57c2edae60fff442a01c0c1fa282987d95a267f1749fe98e0d"
}