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he based his argument on that starry effluence. But when these things were said, I said to him, "Will you not stop recounting to me nonsensical and silly arguments, making that indivisible part of the instantaneous participation in the things flowing upon us from above, as you say, the cause of all things in us, neither saying whether this is animate and volitional, nor being able to show how that which is inanimate and unsubstantial, and has no proper impulse by nature, masters animate things, but having established in your argument the inanimate 40 and non-volitional, unstable and transient and indivisible and unsubstantial thing as some tyrant or master over all counsel and the foresight from reason, and education and care and virtuous pursuits? you attach the constitution and administration of existing things to its power, and do you not see into what absurdities the argument is carried? For if that portion of the effluence has such great power as to bring to pass, according to it, those who come into being at the first arrival, then certainly it will not be as a consequence but as a precedent that it will lead the way for the constitution of existing things. Therefore it will bring forth the one being born according to its own power and it will not serve the coincidence of the one being born. For it is unclear here which of the two is more causal than the other, with both coming together in an instant in like manner to each other. For both the man, even before his exit from the womb, is in motion somehow, being moved in nature through decrease and increase (since this too is a form of motion), and the star, even before the man has breathed the air, is moving and does not stand still; and the coincidence in like manner of things that coincide with each other through motion makes the judgment of which is precedent difficult. For both those things are moved through the cycles and this one, proceeding through nature, is moved. But if their conjunction with each other happens for both in one part of time, what is the difference of these things with respect to each other, so that one should think the one more causative than the other? For if man is because of the stars, nature would always be flowing with births, showing not even an instant's interval in the arrival of man. But if the intervals between births are many, it is clearly 41 demonstrated that human generation does not follow the motion of the stars, for the one is always in motion, but the other does not always give birth, but this happens by its own sequence and that again is moved distinctively on its own, with no necessity joining things separate by nature to each other. But if your argument establishes this, that the cause of all things in life lies in that portion of time, consider how many myriads of masters and tyrants every day and night likewise produces according to those fine and instantaneous divisions of time, with the night and day being divided into twenty-four hours, as you say, and each hour being partitioned into sixty segments, and again each of these segments being fragmented by the same number; and as those of you say who penetrate in their reasoning to the finer observation of such things, that also each of these again, of the so-called fine segments, is made finer by a division of the same number. The number, therefore, collected from these, of those instantaneous gods or masters or tyrants, or I know not what one should call them, is more than twenty-one myriads. But if one hour makes for us so many myriads, the twenty-four, multiplied according to the proportion of the one, will certainly generate infinite myriads of fates. And yet your argument strongly maintains that each of these has an inviolable power. Therefore it follows that none of them is inactive. For you would not say that inactivity is a property of power, but power is certainly seen in its activity. Therefore the results of the power are also equal; 42 so that as many segments as there are, so many also will be the births of men which will of necessity be established every hour. and if it is fitting that power be attributed equally to each portion, all will be equally kings, long-lived, powerful, well-fated, prosperous, and whatever belongs to the more honored lot

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τῆς ἀστρῴας ἐκείνης ἀπορροῆς κατεβάλετο. Ἐγὼ δὲ τούτων λεγομένων Οὐ παύσῃ, πρὸς αὐτὸν εἶπον, φληνάφους ἐμοὶ λόγους καὶ λήρους διεξιών, τὸ ἀμερὲς ἐκεῖνο μέρος τῆς ἐν ἀκαρεῖ μετουσίας τῶν ἄνωθεν ἡμῖν, ὡς φῄς, ἐπιρρεόντων πάντων αἴτιον τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν κατασκευάζων, οὔτε εἰ ἔμψυχον τοῦτο καὶ προαιρετικόν ἐστι λέγων οὔτε ὅπως κατακρατεῖ τῶν ἐμψύχων τὸ ἄψυχόν τε καὶ ἀνυπόστατον καὶ μηδεμίαν ἐκ φύσεως ἰδίαν ἔχον ὁρμὴν δεῖξαι δυνάμενος, ἀλλὰ πάσης βουλῆς καὶ τῆς ἐκ τῶν λογισμῶν προμηθείας παιδεύσεώς τε καὶ ἐπιμελείας καὶ τῶν κατ' ἀρετὴν ἐπι τηδευμάτων καθάπερ τινὰ τύραννον ἢ δεσπότην τὸ ἄψυχόν 40 τε καὶ ἀπροαίρετον, ἄστατόν τε καὶ παροδικὸν καὶ ἀμερὲς καὶ ἀνυπόστατον ἐπιστήσας τῷ λόγῳ; τῆς ἐκείνου δυνάμεως ἐξάπτεις τὴν τῶν ὄντων σύστασίν τε καὶ διοίκησιν, καὶ οὐχ ὁρᾷς εἰς οἵας ὁ λόγος ἀτοπίας ἐκφέρεται; εἰ γὰρ τοσαύτην ἔχει δύναμιν ἐκείνη τῆς ἀπορροῆς ἡ μοῖρα, ὡς κατ' αὐτὴν τοὺς παρὰ τὴν πρώτην πάροδον γεγονότας ἀποτελεῖν, πάντως ὅτι οὐκ ἐπακολουθητικῶς ἀλλὰ προηγουμένως τῆς τῶν ὄντων συστάσεως ἐξηγήσεται. οὐκοῦν ἐκείνη προάξει κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν δύναμιν τὸν τικτόμενον καὶ οὐχὶ τῇ τοῦ ἀποκυηθέντος συντυχίᾳ ὑπηρετήσει. ἄδηλον γὰρ ἐνταῦθα ποῖον τίνος ἀρχ ηγικώτερον ἀμφοτέρων ἐν τῷ ἀκαρεῖ κατὰ τὸ ἴσον ἀλλήλοις συμφερομένων. ὅ τε γὰρ ἄνθρωπος καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἐξόδου τῶν σπλάγχνων ἐν κινήσει πώς ἐστι διὰ μειώσεώς τε καὶ αὐξήσεως [ἐν] τῇ φύσει κινούμενος (ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο κινήσεως εἶδός ἐστι), τό τε ἄστρον καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τὸν ἄνθρωπον τοῦ ἀέρος σπάσαι φέρεται καὶ οὐχ ἵσταται· ἥ τε συντυχία κατὰ τὸ ἴσον τῶν διὰ κινήσεως ἀλλήλοις συντυγχανόντων ἄπορον ποιεῖ τοῦ προ ηγουμένου τὴν κρίσιν. καὶ γὰρ κἀκεῖνα κινεῖται διὰ τῶν κύκλων καὶ τοῦτο διὰ τῆς φύσεως ὁδεῦον φέρεται. εἰ δὲ ἑνὶ μέρει τοῦ χρόνου ἀμφοτέροις ἡ πρὸς ἀλλήλους σύνοδος γί νεται, τίς ἡ πρὸς ἄλληλα τούτων διαφορά, ὥστε τοῦ ἑτέρου τὸ ἕτερον αἰτιώτερον οἴεσθαι; εἰ γὰρ διὰ τὰ ἄστρα ὁ ἄνθρωπος, πάντοτε ἂν ἔρρει ἡ φύσις διὰ γεννήσεως οὐδὲ ἐν ἀκαρεῖ τι διάλειμμα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης παρόδου ἐπιδεικνύουσα. εἰ δὲ πολλαὶ τῶν γινομένων αἱ μεταξὺ διαστάσεις, σαφῶς 41 ἀποδείκνυται τὸ μὴ τῇ κινήσει τῶν ἄστρων τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἕπεσθαι γένεσιν, ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἀεὶ κινεῖται ἡ δὲ οὐκ ἀεὶ γεννᾶται, ἀλλ' ἰδίῳ τοῦτο εἱρμῷ κἀκεῖνο πάλιν ἰδιαζόντως ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ φέρεται οὐδεμιᾶς ἀνάγκης συναπτούσης πρὸς ἄλληλα τὰ διεστῶτα τῇ φύσει. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο ὁ ὑμέτερος κατασκευάζει λόγος τὸ ἐπ' ἐκείνῃ τῇ μοίρᾳ τοῦ χρόνου τὴν αἰτίαν τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον ἁπάντων κεῖσθαι, σκόπησον ὅσας μυριάδας δεσποτῶν καὶ τυράννων ἡμέρα πᾶσα καὶ νὺξ ὡσαύτως κατὰ τὰς λεπτὰς ἐκείνας καὶ ἀκαρεῖς τοῦ χρόνου τομὰς ἀπεργάζεται εἰς τέσσαρας καὶ εἴκοσιν ὥρας νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας, ὥς φατε, διῃρημένων, ἑκάστης δὲ ὥρας ἑξήκοντα τμήμασι μεριζομένης, πάλιν δὲ τῶν τμημάτων τούτων ἑκάστου κατὰ τὸ ἰσάριθμον κερματιζομένου· ὡς δέ φασιν ὑμῶν οἱ εἰς τὴν λεπτοτέραν τῶν τοιούτων παρατήρησιν τῷ λόγῳ διαδυόμενοι, ὅτι καὶ τούτων ἕκαστον πάλιν τῶν λεπτῶν λεγομένων τμημάτων ἰσαρίθμῳ διαιρέσει ἐπιλεπτύνεται. τὸ τοίνυν ἐκ τούτων ἀθροιζόμενον πλῆθος τῶν ἀκαριαίων ἐκείνων θεῶν ἢ δεσποτῶν ἢ τυράννων ἢ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως χρὴ λέγειν, μιᾶς πλέον καὶ εἴκοσι μυριάδων ἐστίν. εἰ δὲ μία ὥρα τοσαύτας ἡμῖν μυριάδας ποιεῖ, αἱ τέσσαρες καὶ εἴκοσι κατὰ λόγον τῆς μιᾶς πάντως πολλαπλασιασθεῖσαι τὰς ἀπείρους τῶν μοιρῶν μυριάδας ἀπογεννῶσιν. ἀλλὰ μὴν τούτων ἑκάστην ἀπαράβατον δύναμιν ἔχειν ὁ ὑμέτερος διισχυρίζεται λόγος. οὐκοῦν ἀκόλουθον μηδεμίαν αὐτῶν ἄπρακτον εἶναι. οὐ γὰρ ἂν τῆς δυνάμεως ἴδιον τὴν ἀπραξίαν εἴποις, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ πάντως καθορᾶται ἡ δύναμις. οὐκοῦν ἴσα καὶ τὰ τῆς δυνάμεώς ἐστιν 42 ἀποτελέσματα· ὥστε ὅσα τμήματα, τοσαῦται καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γενέσεις ἐξ ἀνάγκης καθ' ἑκάστην ὥραν συστή σονται. καὶ εἴπερ ἑκάστῃ μοίρᾳ τὸ δυνατὸν ὁμοίως προσμαρτυρεῖσθαι προσήκει, πάντας ἐπίσης βασιλέας, μακροβίους, δυνατούς, εὐκλήρους, εὐδαίμονας καὶ ὅσα τῆς προτιμοτέρας λήξεως