Classics

In this study I shall discuss some general problems concerning the general nature of the remarks made by Cicero himself, in various places in his philosophical and rhetorical works, about his translation of a Greek term into Latin. We have over two hundred such remarks scattered throughout these writings. Some of them are brief and give us only the bare facts about the Latin word and its Greek original – e.g. Luc. 54, 'ea dico incerta quae ἄδηλα Graeci'. Some are longer, explaining the various ways of rendering a Greek term into Latin, and the reasons for Cicero's preference for this or that Latin term. Some of these remarks appear as part of a more general discussion of how one should translate Greek words for abstract concepts. The Appendix to this article is, to the best of my knowledge, the second complete collection of all such Greek-into-Latin remarks in Cicero's philosophical and rhetorical works. The only other collection I have encountered is Appendix I to Christian Nicolas's Sic enim appello. 1 Nicolas's collection of these notes is 'minimalist', and does not include the larger contexts of Cicero's explanations, hesitations, and methodological discussions. This is sufficient for his theme, which treats Cicero's translations of Greek terms as specimens of what modern linguists call 'terminological autonymy'. If, however, one wishes to examine these remarks from the point of view of Cicero's own practice, achievements, difficulties and doubts, one often needs to put a remark in its wider context, or even cite at length some of Cicero's more general discussions of the sort of translation he was attempting. My list is therefore longer and more extensive than Nicolas's – as well as filling some plain gaps in his list. Two relatively comprehensive aids to the study of Cicero's Latin rendering of Greek terms have been available for a while, but have not been sufficiently used. Victor Clavel's De M. T. Cicerone Graecorum Interprete is quite an achievement for what originated as a thèse complémentaire written by a busy schoolmaster, not allowed at the time to teach in a university due to his " opinions très libérales ". 2 This book is a somewhat confused, but very useful, treasure-trove. In its first two parts, it deals with Cicero's translations from Greek poetry and prose, providing full texts and fragments of Cicero's translations proper (as available at that time), and discussing various methodological issues, such as Cicero's remarks on the Greek words behind his translations as against his 'silent' translations of 37 1. Christian Nicolas, Sic enim appello: Essai sur l'autonymie terminologique Gréco-latine chez Cicéron (Louvain,

A discussion of Cicero's contribution to Western philosophical terminology by creating Latin renderings of Greek philosophical terms; and a warning against dealing with such Ciceronian issues without the Latin original and its Greek background.

This study demonstrates that the first ever Hebrew translation  of the Symposium, by Asher ben-Israel, published in 1914, was made not from the Greek, but from two recent German translations. The article also gives some details about the translators and their backgrounds in Palestine and in Germany. There is a short English summary.

An analysis of a number of passages in Philo which seem to show clear traces of passages in the Nicomachean Ethics. Did Philo read the Aristotelian text itself, or only parts of it in some early commentators? How much of the acromatic writings were available to Philo?