Fragment 4
Original Latin
4 Cicero dicit Hippocratem, nobilissimum medicum, scriptum reliquisse quosdam fratres, cum simul aegrotare coepissent et eorum morbus eodem tempore ingravesceret, eodem levaretur, geminos suspicatum. quos Posidonius Stoicus multum astrologiae deditus eadem constitutione astrorum natos eademque conceptos solebat asserere. ita, quod medicus pertinere credebat ad simillimam temperiem valetudinis, hoc philosophus astrologus ad vim constitutionemque siderum quae fuerat, quo tempore concepti natique sun. Augustin. de civ. dei 5.2
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.
4 Cicero says that Hippocrates, that most distinguished physician, left a written account of certain brothers whom he suspected of being twins because they began to fall ill together, and their illness grew worse at the same time and abated at the same time. The Stoic Posidonius, much devoted to astrology, used to insist that they had been born under matching configurations of the stars, and their conceptions too had taken place under matching configurations. Thus what the physician believed belonged to the closest similarity in their bodily constitution, the philosopher-astrologer attributed to the influence and configuration of the stars at the time when they were conceived and born. Augustin. de civ. dei 5.2
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.
4 According to Cicero, the celebrated physician Hippocrates recorded a suspicion about two brothers: he thought they were twins. They had started being ill together. In both brothers, the illness grew worse at once and eased at once. The Stoic Posidonius, a keen follower of astrology, regularly insisted that the brothers had matching arrangements of stars when they were born and matching arrangements when they were conceived. To the physician, their very similar bodily makeup explained the case. To the philosopher who studied the stars, the explanation was the stars' power and arrangement when the brothers were conceived and when they were born. Augustin. de civ. dei 5.2
About this section
Fragment 4 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 24 of 25 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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