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Chapter TwoTranslation Theories: A Historical Perspective2.0. For almost two thousand years, translation theory hasbeen concerned merely with outstanding works of art. Thescience of translation or ‘translatology’ has not emerge untilthe 1940s in an attempt to establish itself as a new disciplineinvolving radical changes in the approach and classification,away from the age-old dichotomy of ‘word vs. sense’ or‘literal vs. free’ translation, which has dominated thetraditional translation theory since Cicero (cf. Snell-Hornby(1988: 1) . In point of fact, history of translation theory dealswith the following kinds of questions explicitly stated byBaker:What translators have had to say about theirart / craft / science; how translations havebeen evaluated at different periods; whatkinds of recommendations translators havemade, or how translation has been taught;and this discourse is related to otherdiscourses of the same period.(Baker, 2005:101)More specifically, George Steiner in After Babel (1975:346-40) divides the literature on the theory, practice and historyof translation into four periods which extendfrom Cicero to the present, albeit their overlap and looselychronological structure.20