Texts & Licences

Every text in Plato Scroll is drawn from the public domain. This page credits the translators, the original-language sources, and the licences under which they are shared.

The translations

Plato Scroll gathers established public-domain translations, a number of modern public-domain renderings, and — for a few texts that had no free English translation — new translations prepared with Claude, disclosed as such. Each work is credited to its translator below; where a text carries its source language, the Greek or Latin original is noted too.

Plato

David Horan, Benjamin Jowett, George Burges, W.R.M. Lamb, R. G. Bury; Thomas Taylor and Floyer Sydenham, The Works of Plato (London, 1804), from a newly typed text of that edition read twice against the original; the Greek original.

Aristotle

E. M. Edghill, A. J. Jenkinson, G. R. G. Mure, W. A. Pickard-Cambridge, R. P. Hardie and R. K. Gaye, J. L. Stocks, H. H. Joachim, E. W. Webster, J. A. Smith, J. I. Beare, G. R. T. Ross, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, William Ogle, A. S. L. Farquharson, W. D. Ross, Benjamin Jowett, W. Rhys Roberts, S. H. Butcher, Sir Frederic G. Kenyon (The Constitution of Athens, from the Project Gutenberg transcription); the Greek original.

Aesop

V. S. Vernon Jones (1912).

Alcinous

George Burges; the Greek original (C. F. Hermann, 1884).

Anaxagoras

Arthur Fairbanks (1898).

Apollo

as preserved by Stobaeus.

Apuleius

Stephen Gaselee (1915), Bohn's Classical Library (1853), Thomas Taylor.

Archytas

a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek of H. Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker; the Greek text: Diels.

Boethius

H. F. Stewart, 1918; the Latin original.

Cicero

W. D. Pearman, C. D. Yonge, Francis Barham, C. R. Edmonds, H. Rackham, W. A. Falconer, E. S. Shuckburgh, Walter Miller.

Cornelius Agrippa

Willis F. Whitehead (1898), J.F. (1651).

Damascius

a new translation prepared with Claude (Fable 5) from the Kopp edition of 1826.

Dio Chrysostom

J. W. Cohoon; the Greek original (H. von Arnim, 1893–96).

Diogenes Laertius

C. D. Yonge; the Greek original (R. D. Hicks, 1925).

Empedocles

William Ellery Leonard.

Epictetus

George Long; the Greek original.

Euclid

Thomas L. Heath, J. L. Heiberg, R. C. Taliaferro.

Giordano Bruno

a new translation prepared with Claude (Opus 4.8).

Heraclitus

John Burnet, W. H. S. Jones.

Hermes Trismegistus

After Evelyn-White (Loeb), G. R. S. Mead; Asclepius and The Hermetic Excerpts of Stobaeus: a new translation prepared with Claude from the Latin and the Greek as the manuscripts transmit them, recovered from the edition of W. Scott (Oxford, 1924); the Greek and Latin originals (W. Scott, 1924).

Herodotus

G. C. Macaulay (1890); the Greek original (A. D. Godley, 1920–25).

Nonnus

Claude AI, edited by Mitchell Cizek; the Greek original (Perseus Digital Library).

Hesiod

Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), After Evelyn-White (Loeb); the Greek original (Evelyn-White, 1914).

Hierocles

a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek text of F. W. A. Mullach (Berlin, 1853), compared throughout with N. Rowe's English of 1707 (revised edition, 1906); the Greek text: Mullach 1853, OCR corrected.

Homer

Samuel Butler, Hugh G. Evelyn-White; the Greek original.

Iamblichus

Thomas Taylor (1816), Thomas Taylor; On Nicomachus’ Introduction to Arithmetic: a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek text of E. Pistelli (Leipzig, 1894), the first in English; On the General Science of Mathematics: a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek text of N. Festa (Leipzig, 1891); the Greek original (Nauck 1884, Pistelli 1888 and 1894, Festa 1891, Parthey 1857).

Isocrates

George Norlin (Loeb Classical Library, 1929), from the Perseus Digital Library; the Greek original (Norlin).

Julian

Wilmer Cave Wright; the Greek original.

Livy

Rev. Canon Roberts (1912); the Latin original.

Marcus Aurelius

C. R. Haines; the Greek original.

Maximus of Tyre

Thomas Taylor; the Greek original (H. Hobein, 1910).

Nicomachus

a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek text of R. Hoche (Leipzig, 1866); the Greek original (Hoche).

Numenius

Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie (1917).

Ocellus Lucanus

Thomas Taylor.

Origen

Frederick Crombie (On the First Principles; Against Celsus, from the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4, 1885, where two passages wanting in the copy used are supplied from the Greek and marked), William A. Curtis; the Greek original of On Prayer and of Against Celsus (P. Koetschau, 1899).

Orpheus

Thomas Taylor (1792).

Lucretius

William Ellery Leonard (1916); the Latin text (Perseus Digital Library).

Epicurus

C. D. Yonge (1853), from Book X of Diogenes Laertius; the Greek original (P. von der Mühll, 1922).

Manilius

Thomas Creech (1700), from the EEBO-TCP transcription (CC0); the Latin text (The Latin Library).

Ovid

Garth edition — Dryden, Pope, Addison & others (1717), from the Delphi edition; the Latin original.

Parmenides

John Burnet.

Philo of Alexandria

C. D. Yonge translation, Greek text (Cohn–Wendland).

Philolaus

a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek of H. Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker; the Greek text: Diels.

Philostratus

F. C. Conybeare, Wilmer C. Wright, A. R. Benner & F. H. Fobes, Arthur Fairbanks; the Greek original.

Plethon

Thomas Stanley; a new translation prepared with Claude (Opus 4.8).

Marsilio Ficino

De amore (commentary on the Symposium): a new translation prepared with Claude from the Latin of the Lyon 1557 printing of Ficino's Plato (Divini Platonis Opera omnia, Antoine Vincent), from the scan made available by the Internet Archive; collated with the transcription of the Laurenziana manuscript published by Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). The Latin text as established from these two witnesses. Translator's notes not yet verified.

Plotinus

Stephen MacKenna; the Greek original.

Plutarch

Lives: Bernadotte Perrin (Loeb, 1914–26). Moralia: F. C. Babbitt, W. C. Helmbold, P. H. De Lacy and B. Einarson, H. N. Fowler, H. Cherniss and W. C. Helmbold (Loeb), A. O. Prickard, and the translation “by several hands” revised by W. W. Goodwin (1874) — listed essay by essay below; the Greek original (Lives: B. Perrin, 1914–26; Moralia: G. N. Bernardakis, 1888–96).

Porphyry

Thomas Taylor; the Greek original (A. Nauck, 1860; Isagoge: A. Busse, 1887).

Proclus

Thomas Taylor.

Pseudo-Dionysius

John Parker (1897).

Ptolemy

J. M. Ashmand, E. L. Stevenson.

Sallustius

Thomas Taylor; the Greek original (F. W. A. Mullach, 1881).

Seneca

Frank Justus Miller, R. M. Gummere, Aubrey Stewart.

Sextus Empiricus

R. G. Bury; the Greek original (H. Mutschmann, 1912).

Simplicius

George Stanhope, Epictetus his Morals, with Simplicius his Comment (London, 1694), in the EEBO-TCP transcription, with the printer’s errata applied.

Solon

F. C. Conybeare.

Theophrastus

Arthur F. Hort, R. C. Jebb, Anonymous (1774), James G. Wood; the Greek original.

Virgil

J. B. Greenough (1900), Latin text, ed. Greenough, John Dryden (1697).

Xenophanes

Arthur Fairbanks (1898).

Xenophon

H. G. Dakyns; the Greek original.

Euripides

E. P. Coleridge (The Plays of Euripides, 1891) and, for the Bacchae, T. A. Buckley (1850), from the Perseus Digital Library; ten of the plays and the Bacchae are in the modernised form published by Perseus (CC BY-SA), marked as such on each play; the Greek original (Gilbert Murray).

Thucydides

Richard Crawley (1874), from the Perseus Digital Library, collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (H. S. Jones).

Polybius

Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (1889), from the Perseus Digital Library, collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (T. Büttner-Wobst).

Tacitus

Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (1864–77), from the Perseus Digital Library; the Latin original (C. D. Fisher; H. Furneaux).

Suetonius

Alexander Thomson, revised by Thomas Forester (1855), from the Perseus Digital Library, collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription, from which the passages cut in the American reprint are restored; the Latin original (M. Ihm).

Arrian

E. J. Chinnock (1884), from the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (A. G. Roos).

Apollodorus

Sir James George Frazer (Loeb Classical Library, 1921), with his notes, from the Perseus Digital Library; the Greek original (Frazer).

Pausanias

Arthur Richard Shilleto (Bohn’s Classical Library, 1886), from the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (F. Spiro).

Ammianus Marcellinus

C. D. Yonge (1862), from the Perseus Digital Library, collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Latin original (J. C. Rolfe).

Sappho

Henry Thornton Wharton, Sappho: Memoir, Text, Selected Renderings, and a Literal Translation (1885; fifth edition), from the Project Gutenberg transcription: his literal translation, with his account of the source of each fragment; the Greek text as Wharton prints it, after Bergk.

Pindar

Ernest Myers (1874), from the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (J. E. Sandys).

Callimachus

J. Banks, The Works of Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn’s Classical Library, 1856), from the Open Greek and Latin transcription (CC BY-SA), its OCR corrected; the Greek original (U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff; A. W. Mair).

Theocritus

Andrew Lang (1880), from the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (R. J. Cholmeley).

Apollonius Rhodius

R. C. Seaton (Loeb Classical Library, 1912), from the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (G. W. Mooney).

Aratus

a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek text of G. R. Mair (Loeb Classical Library, 1921); the Greek original (Mair).

Catullus

Leonard C. Smithers (1894), from the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Latin original (E. T. Merrill).

Horace

John Conington (Odes and Secular Hymn, 1863) and Christopher Smart, revised by T. A. Buckley (Satires, Epistles, Epodes, Art of Poetry), from the Perseus Digital Library and the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Latin original (P. Shorey and G. J. Laing; F. Vollmer; H. R. Fairclough).

Hippocrates

Francis Adams (The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, 1849), with W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1923) for Nutriment and Precepts, from the Perseus Digital Library; the treatises of Adams’s first volume collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (É. Littré; W. H. S. Jones).

Archimedes

The Method: Lydia G. Robinson (1909), from J. L. Heiberg’s German version of the newly found text, with the figures, from the Project Gutenberg transcription; The Sand-Reckoner, Measurement of a Circle and The Cattle Problem: a new translation prepared with Claude from the Greek.

Vitruvius

Morris Hicky Morgan (1914), from the Perseus Digital Library, collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Latin original (F. Krohn).

Galen

Arthur John Brock (Loeb Classical Library, 1916), with his notes, from the Perseus Digital Library, collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (Brock).

Lucian

H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Oxford, 1905), from the Perseus Digital Library, collated with the Project Gutenberg transcription; the Greek original (A. M. Harmon; K. Jacobitz).

Pythagoreans

Thomas Taylor (1818): the fragments of the ethical writings of certain Pythagoreans and the Pythagoric sentences printed with his Life of Pythagoras, from the Project Gutenberg transcription.

Thomas Taylor

his own writings: the Introductions, Additional Notes and Explanation of Platonic Terms from The Works of Plato (London, 1804), from a newly typed text of that edition.

The Vedas

Ralph T. H. Griffith (Rigveda 1889–92, Samaveda 1893, Atharvaveda 1895–96, White Yajurveda 1899), Arthur Berriedale Keith (Black Yajurveda, Harvard Oriental Series 1914); the Sanskrit text of the Rigveda.

Snorri Sturluson

Samuel Laing (1844), W. C. Green (1893).

Norse Sagas

William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon, George Dasent, John Sephton, F. York Powell, James Johnstone, Jón A. Hjaltalín and Gilbert Goudie, John Coles, W. G. Collingwood and J. Stefánsson, Oliver Elton, Muriel A. C. Press, Edmund Head, Thomas and Martha Holcomb, Nora Kershaw, M. W. Macdowall, Rasmus B. Anderson, Frederick York Powell.

The Upanishads

F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East vols. I and XV (1879, 1884); the Sanskrit texts.

Zoroaster

G. R. S. Mead.

Greek and Latin originals, author portraits, and illustrations are drawn from the public-domain Delphi Classics editions and other public-domain scans.

Sources

• Project Gutenberg
• Open Greek and Latin (First1KGreek and the English translations project, CC BY-SA) — Greek texts and the Bohn Callimachus.
• The Internet Archive
• The Perseus Digital Library — Greek texts and the Morpheus-derived lemma and lexicon data behind the Greek Lexicon.
• First1KGreek (Open Greek and Latin) — Greek texts of the first thousand years.
• EEBO-TCP (released CC0), sacred-texts.com, and tertullian.org.
• The Historical Christian Faith Writings Database — the Ante-Nicene Fathers text of Origen, Against Celsus.

The app

Plato Scroll is free, offline, and ad-free. The reader and website are the work of one person; the type is set in Cinzel & EB Garamond. If you spot an error in a text or an attribution, please let me know.