The book offers a synthetic survey of the fundamental translation-related dichotomy, i.e. the opposition between “faithful” and “free translation”, which has characterized the reflection on translation for over two millennia. The two allegedly contrasting approaches are traced through the history of translation in Europe, whereby four core periods are identified in which either one or the other approach was generally preferred. The book also contains the Slovene translations of some primary sources by authors such as Pliny the Younger, St. Jerome and Erasmus of Rotterdam, which are relevant to the discussion on faithful and free translation.