3.  Had I seen him to be proud of his birth, and the rights of birth, or any of those infinitely little objects of those whose eyes are on the ground, we should have had to inspect a new catalogue of the Heroes.  What details as to his ancestors might I not have laid under contribution!  Nor would even history have had any advantage over me, since I claim this advantage, that his celebrity depends, not upon fiction or legend, but upon actual facts attested by many witnesses.  On his father’s side Pontus offers to me many details, in no wise inferior to its wonders of old time, of which all history and poesy are full;5    History and poesy, e.g., Xenophon, Polybius, and Apollonius. there are many others concerned with this my native land, of illustrious men of Cappadocia, renowned for its youthful progeny,6    Renowned, etc.  Cf. Homer, Od. ix. 27. no less than for its horses.  Accordingly we match with his father’s family that of his mother.  What family owns more numerous, or more illustrious generals and governors, or court officials, or again, men of wealth, and lofty thrones, and public honours, and oratorical renown?  If it were permitted me to wish to mention them, I would make nothing of the Pelopidæ and Cecropidæ, the Alcmæonids, the Æacidæ, and Heracleidæ, and other most noble families:  inasmuch as they, in default of public merit in their house, betake themselves to the region of uncertainty, claiming demigods and divinities, merely mythical personages, as the glory of their ancestors, whose most vaunted details are incredible, and those which we can believe are an infamy.

Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἑώρων αὐτὸν γένει καὶ τοῖς ἐκ γένους φιλοτιμούμενον, ἤ τινι τῶν μικρῶν ὅλως καὶ οἷς οἱ χαμαὶ βλέποντες, ἄλλος ἂν ἡρώων ὤφθη κατάλογος. Ὅσα τῶν ὑπὲρ ἐκεῖνον τοῖς χρόνοις ἐκείνῳ συνεισενεγκεῖν « ἂν » εἴχομεν καὶ οὐδ' ἂν ταῖς ἱστορίαις παρήκαμεν ἔχειν τι πλέον ἡμῶν ἐκεῖνό γε πλέον ἔχοντες πάντως, τὸ μὴ πλάσματι μηδὲ μύθοις, αὐτοῖς δὲ τοῖς πράγμασι καλλωπίζεσθαι, καὶ ὧν πολλοὶ μάρτυρες. Πολλὰ μὲν γὰρ ὁ Πόντος ἡμῖν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς προβάλλει τὰ διηγήματα καὶ οὐδενὸς ἐλάττω τῶν πάλαι περὶ αὐτὸν θαυμάτων, ὧν πλήρης πᾶσα συγγραφή τε καὶ ποίησις: πολλὰ δὲ τὸ ἐμὸν ἔδαφος τοῦτο, οἱ σεμνοὶ Καππαδόκαι, τὸ μηδὲν ἧττον κουροτρόφον ἢ εὔϊππον. Ὅθεν τῷ πατρῴῳ γένει τὸ μητρῷον ἡμεῖς ἀντανίσχομεν. Στρατηγίαι τε καὶ δημαγωγίαι καὶ κράτος ἐν βασιλείοις αὐλαῖς: ἔτι δὲ περιουσίαι καὶ θρόνων ὕψη καὶ τιμαὶ δημόσιαι καὶ λόγων λαμπρότητες, τίνων ἢ πλείους ἢ μείζους; Ὧν ἡμῖν, εἰ βουλομένοις εἰπεῖν ἐξῆν, οὐδὲν ἂν ἦσαν ἡμῖν οἱ Πελοπίδαι καὶ Κεκροπίδαι καὶ οἱ Ἀλκμαίωνες, Αἰακίδαι τε καὶ Ἡρακλεῖδαι καὶ ὧν οὐδὲν ὑψηλότερον, οἵτινες ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων φανερῶς εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἔχοντες ἐπὶ τὸ ἀφανὲς καταφεύγουσι, δαίμονας δή τινας καὶ θεοὺς καὶ μύθους τοῖς προγόνοις ἐπιφημίζοντες, ὧν τὸ σεμνότατον ἀπιστία, καὶ ὕβρις τὸ πιστευόμενον.