to kick away the beast-like monster of disorder, lest somehow the stabled disorder of the wits, having turned from the well-trodden path, should take the mind wandering along with it. Thus you most excellently reconcile the discordant ways of the demagogic factions and, having composed a composite animal from opposing reasonings, you have fitted it for unity, and you have joined into one the ways that leap apart from each other, and you alone have accomplished what nature was unable to accomplish. The City, wishing to suitably attach a memorial to this greatest achievement, paints for you the image below, since for the one above you had another painter. And since, like a master of the house, you have cleared all our inner places and, having emptied with your pious purgative the veins where the passions dwell, you have restrained the harm of inner cruelty, and from without, for the rest, the clouds of Thrace also raised up for us winters of battle, and in one place the Scythian-nurturing Charybdis, pretending to be silent, was waylaying roads like a robber, and in another, the Sclavene wolves, running out together, joined the surge of the sea to the land, and the stream, stained with their blood, forcibly became red, and from there, as if vying the more, the unfaceable visage of Perseus's Gorgon was brought to face us; and the whole world was mixed up together. And it was necessary for you to command the battle; perhaps another in such great confusion would not have readily endured to steer, but since it seemed right to you to bear the whole burden in place of all, if you could, you renounced your own cares and made the cares of all your own. And often wishing to draw the bow to shoot both Charybdis and the Gorgon, the petrifying image for its beholders, you turned and checked the hurried shot; and indeed, as you were shooting an arrow against her, the rapacious wolves drew you back; and for a short time you endured, organizing a single, thrice-dangerous battle against them. And when these swords of necessity, sharpened by their common attacks against us, were in a short time broken by your cares, and for the rest a storm prevailed not only of affairs, but also of the passage of time; in which the extensions of the night especially labor to bring forth entries for anxieties, you were of a mind to cut off, as was possible, the circumstances from the ends of the sun; for you knew Persia to be the source of evils. And indeed, forming the plan, you feigned to present yourself in the places before the city, not as something delightful—especially as it was winter, when they were accustomed to have plenty—but so that the affairs of the citizens would in no way be entangled with your plans, nor again that the doctrines of your deliberations become evident to harmful spies; for a spy, having slipped into a crowd, is covered as by a cloud and remains hard to find. There, at any rate, most excellent one, collecting all your mind into yourself and nourishing it with wise leisure, you read all <the> dispositions of the laws which are defined from arms and affairs. But the secret doctrines of your purpose were occasions for words to those accustomed to chatter, among whom the tongue, having slipped from the inner door, flees and cries out erratically; nevertheless, you understood that these things had pardon. For in a way it seemed that the community was vexed out of a reasonable necessity of affection for you, not having their tongues provoked by envy—for cares are not envied by the envious—but not bearing to see your absence, even if they should often happen to be benefited. Here, imitating the Elijah of old and walking in the wildernesses, you were nourished not with food, as you showed, but with cares; for there was no task of military dispositions that you did not pursue with the leisure of your deliberations, forming, arranging, preparing, proscribing and giving shape to the images of the battle for others, for yourself, for the army, for the nations, so that one might say, summarizing in brief, that before the contests you were gathering the contests, and completely doing the battle before the battle. Others, therefore, to whom it seems dear, will write of mountains, ravines and narrow passes and the rocky, impassable projections through which you passed like a swift-running breath, so that it is not possible to strike with stones arriving from projectiles, nor indeed the earth with trenches

ἐκλακτίσαι τὸ κτηνόμορφον τῆς ἀταξίας τέρας, μή πως παρατραπεῖσα τῆς τετριμμένης ἡ φατνιῶσα τῶν φρενῶν ἀταξία τὸν νοῦν ἑαυτῇ συμπλανώμενον λάβῃ. οὕτως ἄριστα τοὺς διεστῶτας τρόπους τῶν δημαγωγῶν συμβιβάζεις ταγμάτων καὶ σύνθετόν τι ζῶον ἐξ ἐναντίων συνθεὶς λογισμῶν εἰς ἕνωσιν ἥρμοσας καὶ τοὺς ἀποσκιρτῶντας ἀλλήλων τρόπους εἰς ἓν συνῆψας καὶ κατώρθωσας μόνος ὃ μὴ κατορθοῦν εὐπόρησεν ἡ φύσις. τούτῳ θέλοντες τῷ μεγίστῳ πράγματι μνήμην συνάψαι συμφερόντως ἡ Πόλις γράφουσιν ὑμῖν τὴν κάτωθεν εἰκόνα, εἰ τὴν ἄνω γὰρ ἄλλον εἶχες ζωγράφον. ἐπεὶ δὲ πάντας, οἰκοδεσπότου δίκην, τοὺς ἔνδον ἡμῶν ἐξεχέρσωσας τόπους καὶ τὰς ἐνοίκους τῶν παθημάτων φλέβας τῷ σῷ κενώσας εὐσεβεῖ καθαρσίῳ τῆς ἔνδον ὠμότητος εἶρξας τὴν βλάβην, ἐκτὸς δὲ λοιπὸν καὶ τὰ τῆς Θρᾴκης νέφη χειμῶνας ἡμῖν ἐξανέστησεν μάχης, καὶ πῇ μὲν ἡ Χάρυβδις ἡ Σκυθοτρόφος σιγᾶν δοκοῦσα λῃστρικῶς ὡδοστάτει, πῇ δ' αὖ συνεκθέοντες οἱ Σκλάβοι λύκοι τῇ γῇ συνῆπτον τῆς θαλάττης τὸν σάλον, καὶ τοῖς παρ' αὐτῶν αἵμασιν πεφυρμένος ὁ ῥοῦς ἐρυθρὸς ἐκ βίας ἐγίνετο, κἀκεῖθεν ὥσπερ ἀντερίζουσα πλέον ἀντιπρόσωπος ἡ δυσάντητος θέα τῆς Γοργόνος προσῆκτο τῆς τοῦ Περσέως· καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος ἦν ὁμοῦ πεφυρμένος. σὲ δὲ στρατηγεῖν ἦν ἀνάγκη τῆς μάχης· τυχὸν μὲν ἄλλος ἐν τοσαύτῃ συγχύσει οὐκ ἂν κυβερνᾶν ῥᾳδίως ἠνέσχετο, ὑμῖν δὲ δόξαν ὥστε πᾶν τὸ φορτίον, εἴπερ δυνηθῇς, ἀντὶ πάντων βαστάσαι, ἀπηγόρευσας τῶν σεαυτοῦ φροντίδων καὶ σὰς ἐποίου τὰς ἁπάντων φροντίδας. καὶ πολλάκις τὸ τόξον ἐντεῖναι θέλων βαλεῖν τε τὴν Χάρυβδιν εἰς τὴν Γοργόνα τὴν πετροποιὸν τῶν θεατῶν εἰκόνα, στραφεὶς ἐπέσχες τὴν βολὴν ἠπειγμένην· καὶ δὴ κατ' αὐτῆς ἀντιβάλλοντας βέλος ἀνθεῖλκον ὑμᾶς οἱ φιλάρπαγες λύκοι· χρόνῳ δὲ μικρῷ συγκροτῶν ἐκαρτέρεις μίαν κατ' αὐτῶν τριπλοκίνδυνον μάχην. ἐπεὶ δὲ ταῦτα τῆς ἀνάγκης τὰ ξίφη κοιναῖς καθ' ἡμῶν προσβολαῖς τεθηγμένα ταῖς σαῖς μερίμναις ἐν βραχεῖ διῃρέθη, χειμὼν δὲ λοιπὸν οὐ μόνον τῶν πραγμάτων, καὶ τῆς φορᾶς δὲ τοῦ χρόνου κατεκράτει· ἐν ᾧ μάλιστα ταῖς μερίμναις εἰσόδους τῆς νυκτὸς ὠδίνουσιν αἱ παρεκτάσεις, γνώμης ἐγίνου τὰς ἀπ' ἄκρων ἡλίου, ὡς ἦν ἐφικτόν, ἐκτεμεῖν περιστάσεις· πηγὴν γὰρ ᾔδεις τῶν κακῶν τὴν Περσίδα. καὶ δὴ τὸ πρᾶγμα σχηματίζων ἐπλάσω σαυτὸν παρασχεῖν τοῖς πρὸ ἄστεος τόποις οὐχ ὥς τι τερπνόνκαὶ μάλιστα τοῦ χρόνου χειμῶνος ὄντος εὐπορεῖν εἰθισμένοις, ἀλλ' ὥστε τοῖς σοῖς μηδαμῶς βουλεύμασι τὰ τῶν πολιτῶν συμπλέκεσθαι πράγματα, μηδ' αὖ γενέσθαι βλαπτικοῖς κατασκόποις ἔκδηλα τῶν σῶν σκεμμάτων τὰ δόγματα· καλύπτεται γὰρ ὡς νέφει κατάσκοπος ὄχλῳ παρεισδὺς καὶ δυσεύρετος μένει. ἐκεῖσε γοῦν, κράτιστε, συλλέγων ὅλον τὸν νοῦν σεαυτοῦ καὶ σχολῇ σοφῇ τρέφων πάσας ἀνέγνως <τὰς> διατάξεις τῶν νόμων τὰς ἐξ ὅπλων καὶ πραγμάτων ὡρισμένας. ἀλλ' ἦν τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ σκοποῦ σου δόγματα λόγων ἀφορμαὶ τοῖς λαλεῖν εἰθισμένοις, παρ' οἷς ὀλισθήσασα τῆς ἔσω θύρας ἡ γλῶττα φεύγει καὶ βοᾷ πλανωμένως· ὅμως συνεῖδες ταῦτα συγγνώμην ἔχειν. ἔδοξε γάρ πως ἐξ ἀνάγκης εὐλόγου τοῦ πρὸς σὲ φίλτρου δυσφορεῖν ἡ κοινότης, οὐκ ἐκ φθόνου τὴν γλῶτταν ἠρεθισμένοι τοῖς βασκάνοις γὰρ οὐ φθονοῦνται φροντίδες, ἀλλ' οὐ στέγοντες τὴν ἀπουσίαν βλέπειν, κἂν πολλάκις τύχωσιν ὠφελημένοι. ἐνταῦθα τὸν πρὶν Ἠλίαν μιμούμενος καὶ ταῖς ἐρήμοις ἐμβατεύων ἐτρέφου οὐ βρῶσιν, ὡς ἔδειξας, ἀλλὰ φροντίδας· οὐκ ἦν γὰρ ἔργον πολεμικῶν συνταγμάτων ὃ μὴ μετῆλθες τῇ σχολῇ τῶν σκεμμάτων, τυπῶν, προτάττων, εὐτρεπίζων, προγράφων καὶ σχηματουργῶν τῆς μάχης τὰς εἰκόνας ἄλλοις, σεαυτῷ, τῷ στρατῷ, τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ὡς ἄν τις εἴπῃ περιλαβὼν ἐν συντόμῳ πρὸ τῶν ἀγώνων τοὺς ἀγῶνας συλλέγων καὶ τὴν μάχην δρῶν ἐντελῶς πρὸ τῆς μάχης. ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν γράψουσιν, οἷς δοκεῖ φίλον, ὄρη, φάραγγας καὶ στενὰς διεξόδους καὶ τὰς πετρώδεις ἐξοχὰς καὶ δυσβάτους δι' ὧν παρῆλθες ὡς πνοὴ ταχυδρόμος, ὡς οὔτε πέτραις ἐκ βελῶν ἀφιγμέναις ἔνεστι βάλλειν, οὔτε μὴν ὀρύγμασι τὴν γῆν