Panegyric orations

 To run against you from an opposing lot, he endured but the pentathlon was accomplished for you and the pancratium was completed with no one having c

 The votes, i imagine the divine judgment and i refer to the incorruptible tribunal. when i test you in elections, i admire your intelligence and your

 From afar it shines on those landing and extends a hand to those from the sea, escorting them to rome most painlessly. what in addition to these does

 Using it and bending and curving it towards the drooping jaw, i remember the indian's eyebrow at this, how he held it more than a cubit above his head

 And to a rival. let others, then, measure you against and compare you with whomever they wish, but i, though i seem to make a strange and dissimilar c

 In prose, not in meters and poems or perhaps many are present, but they have no account of the matter, as if it were of no account to them. and time

 The hegemony of his father, with kingdoms overthrown and not a few changes having occurred in both, those who, having exchanged their fortune for the

 He took counsel of opposing nations, but by making everything purchasable with gold and royal splendors, from this he gained the goodwill of all, and

 Opened, and flung wide the very gates of the soul, and associated with wicked and corrupt lives. for he did not at once know the whole line of the fam

 To work deeds of injustice for he was angry with those who did wrong and would punish them. but when he began to be sick and his body was wasting awa

 Not a magnificent spirit, not a musical and graceful speech, nothing else of the sort that knows how to beautify the soul and the nature of the body.

 Drives a sphere, and the other the superterrestrial one, so that the one might wind its own zone in a single cycle, and the other in twelve cycles, an

 Defining the virtues by its power, and practicing the higher geometry. for this, as proclus also says, has occupied the middle ground between the indi

 The power of the kingdom came to him, besides these the life of david among the flocks, the pursuit, those many dangers into which he fell but was not

 He locks up the monarchy into a tyranny, having exchanged one evil for another. justice is not quiet, it kindles the coals, it sends the arrow, the wi

 I call it his girdle-and he draws away no small cavalry and infantry force from old rome, he adds to these also the best army of the east, and no smal

 An angel wrought a more manifest victory. i have something more to say than those wonders there the cross was in types and images, a bronze serpent s

 You, o king the more abundantly you pour out benefits upon us, the more you increase by being filled. from this, no one has been left out of such wea

 With the eyes, then poured out and dissolved, but better and higher than all that is visible. but, o emperor—for i repeat the title to you and call it

 You fill the western beacon, neither grudging us your rays nor altering the color of your disk, but the more time increases the distances, the more be

 The rising of the sun, the land upon which it immediately rises, so that, if any of our people wished, having gone there he could, not with geometrica

 I am an unskillful chronicler of your deeds and erring in my timing, and i do not have a nature that strikes out in both directions at once. for you a

 To wish. for you both comprehend the present and conjecture the future and discover the unseen, discerning character from eyebrows and eyelids, so tha

 To speak? -unseemly even in his appearance, made of tin or dipped in bile and altogether counterfeit gold, but since he was in the midst of dangers, t

 With stones lying along each side, so that the conjoined may seem continuous and the well-fitted of one nature. behold for me the heights and beauties

 But here is a distinct hand divided into five rosy branches. but this is a most unerring testimony of that godlike soul. but do you wish to see some t

 Transcending substance and holding the principles of the forms folded together and least of all divided from the one. and you, being such, do you not

 The fountains of good deeds flowed, as if from a sheer rock, having received the impetus for their flowing these proclaimed you by reputation even be

 A guide, so also there an arbiter of the administrations, that i may suit you for both, both speaking your deeds and doing the words of your administr

 P]ortions are deprived of praise, but no one of all men has been suited to all words of praise. but to you so much is granted [against] all in all thi

 To bring to the highest point of keenness, or your soul which was not [shattered by] trials, but also most nobly endured through the magnitude of the

 And they were torn away, and their manner altered their nature [....], and they have remained, and after the separation, being both nourished and fatt

 But the love of art and the care concerning the divine sanctuaries, what demostheneses or the best of the writers could describe and praise? how beau

 Having surpassed in his heroic deeds him and the kings up to you, but in his plans he is recorded as being less than his accomplishments, winning in [

 Less, you have given the first place to reason over passion, and you have established the one like some foundation upon the acropolis, but the other y

 Having considered what is seen, but when i also behold the tomb of the queen, and i behold it often whenever i wish to console some hardship of fortun

 To comprehend in a speech. for to whom could the unattainable be attainable, even if he were rich in the homeric power for speeches, or the herodotan

 Admiring and in return is eager to make an image and someone already having constructed a stele for you inscribed the gentle one. therefore solomon

 Much praise and measured against all of time. how then could i summarize the whole in a few words? i will speak, therefore, a little of your virtues,

 Everyone rejoices and exults with the one who has taken up your encomiums and because i did not weave the words of praise sooner, he is rather vexed

 Gracefulness, the maturity of your thought, the symmetry of your greatness, the quick-wittedness, the stability of your mind, the unmarried life, the

 At once for us the lord and most skilled in command and pleasing to all, o most excellent foresight, o wise consideration, o most noble counsel, o div

 Of virtues? you, beyond any kings who ever were, honored justice and preferred philanthropy, and having attained the height of prudence, you appeared

 Accomplishments? o the arrows from heaven against the barbarians, o the unseen bowshots, o the angelic powers in the air, o the divine armies against

 The greatest part of character. for as many as have become of a civic disposition, if they have descended to this willingly, they seemed both prudent

 Of civil administration and of divine hearing. if therefore, being engaged in one, he also holds to the other, let this for now be a secret to many. b

 Of wise men going to ammon's shrine or being within the delphic tripod suddenly transferred their apparent wisdom to the more divine and greater, how

 We have taken starting points, and yet more absurd, if we render praises to the good and noble men who have died, for what they have said concerning w

 And not many months after the sowing, but immediately reaping the harvest and so that i might say what is from the gospel, the two were running toget

 If we should set about to build him up, this marvelous man, both in nature and in diligence, has received much contribution toward his eloquence from

 For having embraced one of these, they might neglect the rest, or putting ears before mind, they have an unintelligible tongue, or having drawn up spr

 Pleases the petty and the overly artful. therefore, of these enumerated wise men, the one now honored in this discourse wishes to imitate gregory, and

 I knew not only what the greeks knew, nor what the chaldeans or egyptians knew, but i had also condemned them, though not all of them, nor has my refu

 With magnanimity, he who was both namesake and like-minded with the great constantine, and who alone nobly contended against all, and taking his name-

 Regulates the state of the church, no less than moses who constructed the tabernacle below according to the pattern shown to him for whether melodies

 Concerning which things, before his high-priesthood, at a time when he did not even have many resources of money, he constructed brilliantly and accom

 And to impart to others. and perhaps he did not endure the waves of the sea, but in his toils on land he might in some way be compared to paul. and co

 One of two things happening, either god descending into the mind, or the mind ascending to god. but what is the place of god's rest, or by which of al

 Of a voice, nor were you instructed by any of the higher powers, to lay aside the symbols of the priesthood, and to transfer yourself to another life,

 Nothing unpleasant would happen to those handling these things but for you, who happen to be a philosopher, what harm will come from these affairs? j

 Of words but you, o king, will both speak publicly among the armies and bring an impulse with your speech and will rouse them together for the deed.

 May you be crowned on the head with glorious trophies. may you be adorned with deeds of valor against the barbarians, and be escorted by many victorie

 May you rend the sea and stop the river and vanquish amalek. may a cloud, giving shade over your head, take away your burning heat, and a pillar of li

from afar it shines on those landing and extends a hand to those from the sea, escorting them to Rome most painlessly. What in addition to these does philosophy profess? that it is joined to the powers around God and is with you everywhere and goes forth with you. But do you desire to see that divine thing with your eyes? You have not faint images of this, nor unclear shadows, but its kinswoman, its impression, its pure likeness; let this show you both its virtue and its form. But I will return to that point again. Whenever I behold the rowed towers upon the sea, like certain hills and uprisings of the watery element guided by a thousand oars, I think that these very contrivances of yours shake the peaks of the mountains. And I am inspired by the unspeakable power of the thing, but I fear that it may be a convulsion of the universe and I do not know where to turn. And whenever I behold the glorious leaders of the Persians and Medes and Babylon driven as if by a machine to your rule, I seem to be among those who dream and I frequently rub my eyes. And what of you? Do you not become heavier to them than fortune? Far from it. For such things are for Dariuses and Xerxeses and Cyruses and Ochuses, who stained their right hands even with the blood of their kin, but you yourself extend your right hand and share your nectar and even somewhere show affection. And to omit the rest, how could I not admire your acts of goodwill, at which the sons of the mighty powerful, like the offspring of some giants, have come spontaneously to your city, and have become part of your tribunal? But "1oh, what could one say to address you rightly?"2 A king? But I see the dignity of the science of ruling, but where is the pomp of fortune? Where is the boast of monarchy, the arrogance towards the many, the boastfulness? A general? But the victories are clear; but nowhere is there boasting over them. A judge? But I see even the one condemned pleased with the verdict, and how will a judge be able to do this? An architect? But the timeliness of the creations surpasses the limits of architecture. An engineer? And what Archimedes has altered the tendencies of the elements? Who flooded thirsty Libya with water? Who, having diverted whole rivers, drove them together into one channel, and led it up and then down again? Who has attempted to make the liquid element stand still and move whenever he wished? And I for my part admire your other deeds and do not have the encomiums with which to crown them, but how you preserve for us the reality of monarchy, and the name does not deceive you, nor do you yourself falsify the title, at this I am even more astonished. For now the boundaries of our rule are not well-known rivers, not famed pillars, not islands, not known continents, but we are bounded where we wish, and if we should choose to go further, would we not be confident in the depth of matter? And if within such boundaries some have obtained allotments of rule, one must not be surprised. For they are not by nature set against us and opposed, but are parts and members of the whole empire and extremities of the whole. For whether one speaks of the Egyptians, or the Ethiopians, or the Indians, or Scythians, or Sarmatians, or the Hyperboreans themselves, over whose heads stands the pole of the sphere, a part. They are of the empire governed by you. From whence one from one place and another from another comes bearing gifts, not as of old the threads from the Seres, nor the gold tyrannically forced into clothing, nor the greenish stones that glisten with a spring-like color, but the natures of animals in which they surpassed us, and of which they did not endure to yield even the tracks to the kings before you. And now whenever I behold the elephant, long disbelieved by me along with the myths, being led through the middle of the theater by a charioteer, its hide iron and invulnerable, its size lofty, its form strange, its gait belying its bulk, as if built upon its legs as unbreakable foundations, as many things as with its hand, the trunk,

πόρρωθεν τοῖς καταίρουσιν ἀπαστράπτει καὶ χεῖρα ὀρέγει τοῖς ἐκ πελάγους πρὸς τὴν Ῥώμην ἀλυπότατα παραπέμπουσα. Τί δ' ἐπὶ τούτοις ἡ φιλοσοφία κατεπαγγέλλεται; ὅτι καὶ ταῖς περὶ θεὸν ἐκείνη συνῆπται δυνάμεσι καὶ πανταχοῦ σοι σύνεστι καὶ συμπρόεισιν. ἀλλὰ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἰδεῖν τὸ θεῖον ἐκεῖνο χρῆμα ποθεῖς; ἔχεις οὐκ ἀμυδρὰ καὶ τούτου ἰνδάλματα, οὐκ ἀσαφεῖς σκιάς, τὴν ἐκείνης ὁμόγονον, τὸ ἐκείνης ἐκσφράγισμα, τὸ καθαρὸν ἀφομοίωμα· αὕτη σοι τὴν ἐκείνης παραδεικνύτω καὶ ἀρετὴν καὶ μορφήν. Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖσε πάλιν ἐπάνειμι. ὅταν ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης τοὺς ἐρεσσομένους πύργους θεάσωμαι, ὥσπερ τινὰς λόφους καὶ ἐπαναστάσεις τῆς ὑγρᾶς φύσεως χιλίᾳ κώπῃ εὐθυνομένας, καὶ ταῦτα δὴ τὰ σὰ μηχανήματα δοκῶ κλονεῖσθαι τὰς τῶν ὀρῶν κορυφάς. καὶ ἐνθουσιῶ μὲν πρὸς τὴν ἄρρητον τοῦ πράγματος δύναμιν, δέδοικα δὲ μὴ συγκίνησις ᾖ τοῦ παντὸς καὶ οὐκ ἔχω ποῖ τράπωμαι. Ὅταν δὲ καὶ τοὺς λαμπροὺς ἡγεμόνας Περσῶν καὶ Μήδων καὶ Βαβυλῶνος θεάσωμαι ὥσπερ ἀπὸ μηχανῆς πρὸς τὴν σὴν ἐλαθέντας ἀρχήν, μετὰ τῶν ὀνειρωττόντων εἶναι δοκῶ καὶ πυκνὰ διερευνῶμαι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς. σὺ δὲ τί; μὴ γίνῃ τούτοις τῆς τύχης βαρύτερος; πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ. ∆αρεῖοι μὲν γὰρ ταῦτα καὶ Ξέρξαι καὶ Κῦροι καὶ Ὦχοι, οἳ καὶ συγγενικοῖς αἵμασι τὰς δεξιὰς κατεχράνθησαν, αὐτὸς δὲ καὶ δεξιὰν ἐμβάλλεις καὶ τοῦ σοῦ κοινωνεῖς νέκταρος καί που δὴ καὶ φιλεῖς. καὶ ἵνα παρῶ τἆλλα, πῶς οὐκ ἂν τὰς σὰς ἐπιφροσύνας θαυμάσαιμι, ἐφ' αἷς οἱ τῶν μέγα δυναμένων παῖδες, ὥσπερ τινῶν γιγάντων γοναί, πρὸς τὴν σὴν αὐτομάτως ἥκασι πόλιν, καὶ μέρος τοῦ σοῦ γεγόνασι βήματος; Ἀλλ' "1ὢ τί ἂν εἰπών σέ τις ὀρθῶς προσείποι;"2 βασιλέα; ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν τῆς ἀρχικῆς ἐπιστήμης ἀξίωμα καθορῶ, ὁ δὲ τῆς τύχης ὄγκος ποῦ; ὁ δὲ κόμπος τῆς μοναρχίας, τὸ δὲ κατὰ τῶν πολλῶν φρύαγμα, τὸ δὲ ἠλαζονεῦσθαι; στρατηγόν; ἀλλ' αἱ μὲν νῖκαι σαφεῖς· οὐδαμοῦ δὲ τὸ ἐπὶ ταύταις αὐχεῖν. δικαστήν; ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν καταψηφισθέντα ἡδόμενον ταῖς ψήφοις ὁρῶ, πῶς δὲ τοῦτο δυνήσεται δικαστής; ἀρχιτέκτονα; ἀλλ' ὁ τῶν δημιουργημάτων καιρὸς τοὺς ὅρους τῆς ἀρχιτεκτονίας νικᾷ. εὐμήχανον; καὶ τίς Ἀρχιμήδης τῶν στοιχείων μετήλλαξε τὰς ῥοπάς; τίς Λιβύην διψῶσαν κατέκλυσεν ὕδατι; τίς ποταμοὺς ὅλους μετοχετεύσας εἰς μίαν συνήλασε σήραγγα, ἀνήγαγέ τε καὶ αὖθις κατήγαγε; τίς ἱστᾶν καὶ κινεῖν τὴν ὑγρὰν φύσιν ὅτε βούλοιτο ἐπεχείρησεν; Ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ τἆλλα μὲν τῶν σῶν ἄγαμαι καὶ οὐκ ἔχω οἵοις καταστέψω τοῖς ἐγκωμίοις, τὸ δ' ὅπως τὸ τῆς μοναρχίας ἡμῖν διασώζεις χρῆμα, καὶ οὐ ψεύδεταί σε τὸ ὄνομα, οὐδὲ αὐτὸς καταψεύδῃ τῆς κλήσεως, τοῦτο καὶ μᾶλλον ὑπερεκπέπληγμαι. νῦν γὰρ ἡμῖν ὅροι τῆς ἀρχῆς οὐ ποταμοὶ γνωριζόμενοι, οὐ στῆλαι θρυλλούμεναι, οὐ νῆσοι, οὐκ ἤπειροι γινωσκόμεναι, ἀλλὰ περατούμεθα οἷ βουλόμεθα, καὶ ὧν εἰ περαιτέρω χωρεῖν ἑλοίμεθα, οὐκ ἂν τὸ βάθος τῆς ὕλης θαρρήσωμεν; εἰ δὲ καὶ τῶν τοιούτων ὅρων ἐντὸς λήξεις τινὲς ἡγεμονίας εἰλήχασι, θαυμάζειν οὐ χρή. οὐ γὰρ ἀντικαθιστάμεναι ἡμῖν πεφύκασι καὶ ἀντίθετοι, ἀλλὰ μέρη καὶ μέλη τῆς ὅλης ἀρχῆς καὶ πέρατα τῆς ὁλότητος. κἂν γὰρ τὴν Αἰγυπτίων εἴπῃ τις, κἂν τὴν Αἰθιόπων, κἂν τὴν Ἰνδῶν, κἂν Σκύθας, κἂν Σαυρομάτας, κἂν Ὑπερβορέους αὐτούς, οἷς κατὰ κορυφὴν ὁ τῆς σφαίρας πόλος ἐφέστηκε, μέρος. εἰσὶ τῆς ὑπὸ σοῦ ἰθυνομένης ἀρχῆς. ὅθεν ἄλλος ἄλλοθεν ἥκει δωροφορῶν, οὐχ ὡς πάλαι τὰ ἐκ Σηρῶν νήματα, οὐδὲ τὸν τυραννηθέντα εἰς ἐσθῆτα χρυσόν, οὐδὲ τὰς χλοαζούσας τῶν λίθων καὶ ἠρινὴν ἀποστιλβούσας χροιάν, ἀλλὰ ζῴων φύσεις οἷς ἐκεῖνοι τὸ πλέον εἶχον ἡμῶν, καὶ ὧν οὐδὲ τῶν ἰχνῶν παραχωρεῖν τοῖς πρὸ σοῦ βασιλεῦσιν ἠνέσχοντο. Καὶ νῦν ὅταν θεάσωμαι τὸν ἐλέφαντα τὸν μετὰ τῶν μύθων μοι πάλαι ἀπιστούμενον διὰ μέσου θεάτρου ὑφ' ἡνιόχου ἀγόμενον, σιδηροῦν καὶ ἄτρωτον τὴν δορὰν, τὸ μέγεθος ὑψηλόν, τὸ εἶδος ἀλλόκοτον, τὸν δρόμον παρὰ τὸν ὄγκον, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ θεμελίοις ἀρραγέσιν ἐπῳκοδομημένον τοῖς σκέλεσιν, ὅσα χειρὶ τῇ ῥινὶ