Timaeus (Cicero)

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The text Timaeus by Marcus Tullius Cicero is the translation into Latin of part of the dialogue Timaeus by the Greek philosopher Plato . Cicero made the translation in 45 BC. Around the same time as his philosophical dialogues Lucullus and De natura deorum . It remains to be seen whether it represents preliminary work for these dialogues or whether he wants to bring the text closer to his Latin-speaking fellow citizens.

The preserved fragment of the Timaeus includes paragraphs 27d to 47b with a few gaps. It is possible that the beginning and end of the translation have been lost, but perhaps Cicero has omitted the anecdotal beginning (including Atlantis ). The end of the text that has been preserved also coincides with the end of the first main part of the Platonic reflections. The translation follows closely the original text. However, it is problematic to transfer terms for which there is no direct equivalent in the Latin language. Cicero does not use the central term δημιουργός ("Demiurge, divine craftsman") as a loan word, possibly because the term demiurgus was already given a different meaning by Roman historiography. Sometimes he finds colorless terms, such as artifex ("art master"), and sometimes he paraphrases the term.

Plato is quoted by Cicero (e.g. Lucullus 74 and De oratore 3, 67 on the possibility of certain knowledge), but he does not belong to the group of Greek philosophers most drawn upon by Cicero. In the dialogue De natura deorum (1, 18) he puts a mocking discussion of the opificem aedificatoremque mundi Platonis de Timaeo deum (“ Shaper and builder of the world, the god from Timaeus Plato”) in the mouth of the Epicurean Gaius Velleius . Cicero mentions neither the author Plato nor the dialogue participants Timaeus of Lokroi and Socrates .

The Timaeus of Plato had considerable influence on the Carolingian Renaissance . But the translation of Calcidius was accepted . This shows considerable differences from Cicero's text. Calcidius either did not know this or he consciously distanced himself from it. Cicero's fragment had no effect in antiquity and the Middle Ages. The archetype of the few manuscripts that has not survived ( e.g. Vossianus 84, Leiden, see IX med.) Is dated to the turn of the 8th to 9th century. The first print dates from 1471.

Text editing and translation

  • Marcus Tullius Cicero: Timaeus. De universitate. Latin – German. Edited and translated by Karl Bayer and Gertrud Bayer. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-006170-2 (reprint of the Artemis & Winkler edition, Düsseldorf 2006).

supporting documents

  1. Marcus Tullius Cicero: Timaeus. De universitate. Latin – German. Edited and translated by Karl Bayer and Gertrud Bayer. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-006170-2 , p. 93 f. (Reprint of the Artemis & Winkler edition, Düsseldorf 2006).
  2. Marcus Tullius Cicero: Timaeus. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-006170-2 , p. 96.
  3. Marcus Tullius Cicero: Timaeus. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-006170-2 , p. 97.
  4. Filip Karfik: The animation of the cosmos. Investigations on cosmology, theory of the soul and theology in Plato's Phaedo and Timaeus (= contributions to antiquity . Volume 199). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-598-77811-7 , pp. 98, 134 (reprint of the Saur edition, Munich / Leipzig 2004; also habilitation thesis, University of Prague 2002).
  5. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary.
  6. Reinhart Herzog (ed.): Restoration and renewal. The Latin literature from 284 to 374 AD (= Handbook of the Latin Literature of Antiquity. Volume 5 = Handbook of Classical Studies . 8th section, 5th part). CH Beck, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-31863-0 , p. 357.
  7. Marcus Tullius Cicero: Timaeus. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-006170-2 , p. 89 f.