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Epithalamium fortunatissimis caesaris filiis

Επιθάλαμος τοῖς τοῦ εὐτυχεστάτου καίσαρος υἱοῖς

Even goat's hair was needed for the ancient tabernacle-making, wise Caesar. For let others identify their own Caesars by other names, and let them define some by the Julii, others by the Augusti, and others by other names; but I, though I could honor my divine Caesar with ten thousand other names, would not deprive him of this most beautiful and most fitting one: the wise. You would have need, I think, even of my contribution of speech for the wedding bridal-chamber-making of the sacred pair of your sons, but in that case, the hairs contributed something and were a not ignoble adornment to the creation, whereas here my contribution is neither for the sake of completion, nor as an adornment for those on whose behalf it is contributed. For what adornment could there be for those who are themselves adornment and beauty itself? What completion for those who lack nothing? But it is as a demonstration of the goodwill of those contributing. And if we have not arrived at the main day of the ceremony, but our contribution is late, one should not be surprised; for we did not remain silent about the ceremony out of ingratitude (for to whom else, if not to those who are the common masters and benefactors of all 343 and our own in particular, should we be grateful?), nor because we thought that one time has been assigned by you for weddings, and another for speech-writing, you who establish a most fitting time for everything else, obeying Solomon, the wise man obeying the wise, but for speech alone all time, so that not even when standing face to face with enemies and breathing the air do you disdain the graces of Hermes. But first, I was shrinking from the Gospel parable, and a certain not unreasonable fear crept over me from it that my speech might somehow—for I hesitate to say the father of the speech as well—because of not being magnificently arrayed as for a wedding, be bound hand and foot (whatever one must suppose are the hands and feet of a speech) and be cast out of the festival.

Then—for I will not hide my feeling—by the magnitude of my pleasure I was secretly deprived of the power of speech; for just as deep grief, so too, of course, pleasure, when it floods the human soul, tends to impair the rational faculties within it. These are my reasons for being late; for these I have been silent until now, although even so I have not come entirely out of season to the festival. For just as in the case of the perceptible sun, there are some rays which, when it is about to rise, leap forth and appear above the mountains and, as it were, herald the one who is rising, and, when it sets again, not all sink with it at once, but there are some that are left behind above the earth, so also in the case of these imperial festivals, there are certain pre-festivals and preliminary rites and, so to speak, leapings-forth of the celebrations, but there are nevertheless remnants of them as well, from which our speech has not arrived very far away, and having arrived, it is utterly ignorant and perplexed as to what it should do with itself, whether it should hymn marriage itself, tracing its origins, or whether it should much rather address the bridal pair before the marriage. And it judges the second to be better; for the first is both a matter for a greater treatise than the present one and, besides, it is unnecessary to try to establish marriage, which is sanctioned by nature, law, and time; while the second, this too is loftier than our speech can manage; but it is nevertheless necessary and, so to speak, the main point of the whole festival. I address you, therefore, sacred and honored pair to me, of bridegrooms and at the same time brothers, a pair previously yoked together under the single yoke of brotherhood345, and now under the two yokes of marriage

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Epithalamium fortunatissimis caesaris filiis

Επιθάλαμος τοῖς τοῦ εὐτυχεστάτου καίσαρος υἱοῖς

Ἐδέησε καὶ τριχῶν αἰγείων τῇ πάλαι σκηνοπηγίᾳ, καῖσαρ σοφέ. Ἄλλοι μὲν γὰρ ἄλλοις τῶν ὀνομάτων τοὺς ἑαυτῶν γνωριζέτωσαν καίσαρας, καὶ οὓς μὲν τοῖς Ἰουλίοις, οὓς δὲ τοῖς Αὐγούστοις, καὶ ἄλλους ἄλλοις ἀποσαφείτωσαν· ἐγὼ δὲ τὸν ἐμὸν θεσπέσιον καίσαρα μυρίοις καὶ ἄλλοις ἀποσεμνύνειν ἔχων ὀνόμασι, μὴ τοῦ καλλίστου τούτου καὶ οἰκειοτάτου ἀλλοτριώσαιμι, τοῦ σοφοῦ. ∆εήσαις, οἶμαι, καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς τοῦ λόγου συνεισφορᾶς τῇ τῆς ἱεροῦ σου τῶν υἱῶν συνωρίδος γαμηλίῳ παστοπηγίᾳ, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖ μὲν συνετέλουν τι καὶ αἱ τρίχες καὶ κόσμος ἦσαν οὐκ ἀγεννὴς τῷ δημιουργήματι, ἐνταῦθα δὲ οὔτε συντελείας ἕνεκα ἡ συνεισφορά, οὔτε κόσμου τῶν ἐφ' οἷς συνεισφέρεται. Τίς μὲν γὰρ τοῖς αὐτοκόσμοις κόσμος γένοιτο καὶ αὐτοκάλοις; Τίς δὲ τοῖς ἀνενδεέσι συντέλεια; Ἀλλ' εἰς ἔνδειξιν τῆς τῶν συνεισφερόντων εὐνοίας. Εἰ δὲ μὴ κατὰ τὴν κυρίαν τῆς τελετῆς ἀπηντήκοιμεν, ἀλλ' ὑπερή μερος ἡμῖν ἡ συνεισφορά, θαυμάζειν οὐ χρή· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὑπ' ἀγνωμοσύνης τὴν τελετὴν κατεσιωπήσαμεν (ἢ τίσιν ἄλλοις, εἰ μὴ τοῖς κοινῇ τε πάν 343 των καὶ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ἰδίᾳ δεσπόταις καὶ εὐεργέταις, εὐγνωμονοίημεν;), οὐδὲ τῷ νομίζειν ἄλλον μὲν γάμοις, λογογραφίαις δὲ ἄλλον ἀπονενεμῆσθαι καιρὸν παρὰ σοί, ὃς παντὶ μὲν ἄλλῳ καιρὸν εἶναι τίθης ἁρμοδιώτατον, Σολομῶντι πειθόμενος, ὁ σοφὸς τῷ σοφῷ, λόγῳ δὲ μόνῳ τὸν ἅπαντα, ὡς μηδὲ ἀντιμέτωπος ἱστάμενος τοῖς ἐχθροῖς καὶ τὸν ἀέρα πνέων τῶν Ἑρμαϊκῶν χαρίτων ὑπερορᾶν. Ἀλλὰ πρῶτα μὲν τὴν εὐαγγελικὴν ὑπεστελλόμην παραβολὴν καὶ φόβος μέ τις ἐντεῦθεν ὑπέτρεχεν οὐκ ἀνεύλογος μή που συμβῇ μου τὸν λόγον, ὀκνῶ γὰρ εἰπεῖν καὶ τὸν τοῦ λόγου πατέρα, διὰ τὸ μὴ κατὰ γάμον ἐστάλθαι πολυτελῶς, χεῖρας δεθέντα καὶ πόδας, ἅστινάς ποτε χεῖρας οἰητέον εἶναι λόγου καὶ πόδας, ἔξω ῥιφῆναι τῆς πανηγύρεως.

Ἔπειτα, οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀποκρύψω τὸ πάθος, καὶ τῷ μεγέθει τῆς ἡδονῆς ὑφῃρούμην λάθρᾳ τοῦ λόγου τὴν δύναμιν· φιλεῖ δὲ πάντως ὥσπερ λύπη βαθεῖα, οὕτως ἀμέλει καὶ ἡδονὴ ψυχὴν ἀνθρωπίνην περιχυθεῖσα ταῖς ἐν αὐτῇ λογικαῖς ἐπηρεάζειν δυνάμεσι. Ταῦτά μοι τῆς ὑπερημερίας τὰ αἴτια· τούτοις ἐγὼ τὸν ἄχρι νῦν ἐσίγησα χρόνον, καίτοι οὐδὲ οὕτω πάνυ ἔξωρος ἥκω τῇ πανηγύρει. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ ἡλίου εἰσὶ μὲν αἳ τῶν ἀκτίνων, ἀνατέλλειν μέλλοντος αὐτοῦ, προεξάλλονται καὶ τῶν ὀρῶν ὑπερφαίνονται καὶ οἷον προαγγέλλουσι τὸν ἀνατελούμενον καί, καταδυομένου πάλιν, οὐχ ἅμα πᾶσαι συγκαταδύονται, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ὅσαι καὶ ὑπὲρ γῆς ὑπολείπονται, οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν βασιλικῶν τουτωνὶ πανηγύρεων, εἰσὶ μὲν καὶ προπανηγύρεις τινὲς καὶ προτελεστίαι καὶ τῶν ἑορτῶν ὥσπερ εἰ πεῖν προεξάλματα, εἰσὶ δὲ ὅμως τούτων καὶ ὑπολείμματα, ὧν οὐ πάνυ πόρρω καὶ ὁ ἡμέτερος ἀπήντηκε λόγος, καὶ ἀπαντήσας τί ποτ' ἄρα καὶ χρήσαιτο ἑαυτῷ ἀμφαγνοεῖ καὶ διαπορεῖται πότερα τὸν γάμον αὐτὸν ἀρχαιολογήσας ὑμνήσεται ἢ πολὺ πρότερον τοὺς νυμφίους πρὸ τοῦ γάμου προσείπῃ. Καὶ ἄμεινόν γε κρίνει τὸ δεύτερον· τὸ μὲν γὰρ καὶ μείζονος ἢ κατὰ τὸ παρὸν πραγματείας καὶ ἄλλως οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον πρᾶγμα συνιστᾶν πειρᾶσθαι τὸν γάμον καὶ φύσει καὶ νόμῳ καὶ χρόνῳ κεκυρωμένον· τὸ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο μὲν ὑψηλότερον ἢ κατὰ τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον· ἀναγκαῖον δὲ ὅμως καὶ τῆς ὅλης ὡς εἰπεῖν ἑορτῆς τὸ κεφάλαιον. Προσφωνῶ σε τοίνυν, ζεῦγος ἱερόν μοι καὶ τίμιον νυμφίων ἅμα καὶ ἀδελφῶν, ζεῦγος ὑπ' ἐνὶ μὲν προϋπεζευγμένον ζυγῷ τῷ τῆς ἀδελφότητος345, ὑπὸ δυσὶ δὲ ἄρτι τοῖς γαμηλίοις