Mouseiaan open library of the ancient world

Fragment 1

21 of 25 chapters in On Fate by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Original Latin

1 Itaque M. Cicero in libro, quem de fato conscripsit, cum quaestionem istam diceret obscurissimam esse et inplicatissimam, Chrysippum quoque philosophum non expedisse se in ea ait his verbis: Chrysippus aestuans laboransque, quonam ⟨pacto⟩ explicet et fato omnia fieri, et esse aliquid in nobis, intricatur hoc modo. Gel. N. A. 7.2.15

Musean translation

Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the surviving Latin in separate source-only tasks. Sections 1–48 and five fragments/testimonia follow Müller’s 1915 edition; lost passages remain marked. Perseus source and these derived editions CC BY-SA 4.0.

1 Thus Marcus Cicero, in the book he wrote on fate, while calling this question exceedingly obscure and entangled, says that the philosopher Chrysippus too failed to extricate himself from it. These are his words: “Chrysippus, tossing in uncertainty and struggling to explain in what ⟨way⟩ everything happens by fate and yet something lies in our power, becomes entangled in the following way.” Gel. N. A. 7.2.15

Plain English translation

Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted direct-Latin Plain English translation. Initial drafts used separate Latin-only tasks; later source-based editorial revisions were made by a reviewer with prior editorial access to Musean, not from its English wording. Includes all 48 sections and five fragments/testimonia, with lost passages marked. Perseus source and these derived editions CC BY-SA 4.0.

1 In the book he wrote about fate, Marcus Cicero calls this question very hard to understand and very tangled. He adds that the philosopher Chrysippus, too, failed to disentangle himself from it. Cicero puts it this way: “Chrysippus is all worked up, struggling to explain in what ⟨way⟩ everything can happen through fate while something is still up to us. He gets himself into the following tangle.” Gel. N. A. 7.2.15

About this section

Fragment 1 is part of On Fate by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This page sets the Latin original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 21 of 25 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.

Open the work page for the full contents, every edition, and the download links, or go back to Explore to browse other complete works in the Roman tradition. The reader keeps your place when you are signed in and lets you compare the original with each translation, one edition at a time.

Download the complete work as JSON · Retex Markdown