Cicero as a translator

Abstract

Examination of Cicero's verse translations from Homer, the Greek dramatists and Aratus, and of his prose translations from Plato, Xenophon and the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers, show the following characteristics of Cicero as a translator:- As a rule he translates clearly and accurately. He omits what is irrelevant or superfluous if by so doing he can make the sense clearer, and he adds such explanations as will elucidate the Greek writer's meaning for a Roman reader, e.g. his translation of the names of constellations. But his method of translation varies according to his purpose in translating. Sometimes he gives only the main thought of the passage and omits all details, e.g. short passages translated from Homer and Plato. Sometimes his translation is free and he alters the tone of his original, e.g. two longer passages from Homer, and his version of Aratus' Phenomena. In the Phenomena he adds many words connoting light. In his prose translations the most striking change is his use of two Latin words for one Greek word. His use of the dactylic hexameter for his translation of the Phenomena is much more varied than Aratus' and shows development when compared with the Latin hexameters of Ennius. Cicero's hexameters are smoother, and lighter and more varied than Ennius', and contain fewer archaisms. Some passages are almost equal to the versification of Virgil, Cicero, compared with earlier Roman translators from the Greek, seldom uses compound Latin epithets coined on the analogy with the Greek. Cicero created a philosophical language. He coined few words, but combined common words. He was consistent in his use of philosophical terms and careful in the framing of definitions.