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Cease talking nonsense, O wisest ones, about things of no worth. Know, even if late, to follow the divine oracles, and not your own unsubstantial notions. For tell me: How do you suppose the stars of the fixed sphere move contrary to the universe? Is this motion theirs alone, or of the sphere in which they are? But if it is theirs, how do they traverse unequal circles in equal time? And how has none of those in the Milky Way come to be outside of it, nor any of those outside it appear closer to it or in it? But if one were to say the sphere is carried contrariwise, it will be found to be moving contrary to itself at the same time. And what could one conceive more absurd than this? 1.14 They so contend to leave no excess of shamelessness, or rather of impiety, to anyone, as to confess shamelessly that there are some who dwell under the earth. What then, when someone should perplex them by saying: Does the sun travel under the earth in vain? Immediately, caring nothing for ridicule, they will say that there are antipodes carried head downwards and rivers having the opposite position to those here, attempting to turn everything upside down rather than to follow the doctrines of truth, in which there are none of the sophisms of vanity, but all things are easy and full of piety and procure salvation for those who approach them soberly. 1.15 Since you know how to give the causes of all things: For what reason does your sphere not revolve from the north to the south, or from another wind to the one blowing opposite? And do not tell me: This seemed better to the maker of the world, for otherwise you are uttering my own words. And how do you think you speak in accordance with the nature of things when you suppose that the heaven moves and circles at all, without supposing, even fictionally, a place or a body outside of it? For it is not possible for something to move without the four elements, for instance either upon earth or upon water or upon air or upon fire, or to travel from place to place ad infinitum, or to always turn in the same place. 1.16 But if it travels through an infinite place rolling, you suppose an infinite earth outside, on which it rolls, leaving empty spaces behind; but if you suppose one of the other three elements, a sphere is not naturally suited to roll and turn on either of them, but rather travels whizzing like a javelin. But if again it always rolls and turns in the same place without going from place to place, it must be supported by pivots like a lathe or an armillary sphere, or by an axle like a machine or a wagon. And if this, again it is necessary to ask on what either the pivots or the axle are supported; and this ad infinitum. And how shall we suppose the axle to pass through the middle of the earth? Of what body, tell me? Since, therefore, these things are perplexing in the nature of things, it remains, as we also said before, that it is fixed and does not revolve. 1.17 But also in supposing the earth to be as a center in the middle of the universe, you very quickly refute yourselves by saying that the middle is in turn 'down'; for it is impossible for the same thing to be at the same time both middle and down; for the middle is the middle of up and down, or of right and left, or of front and back. How then, not besieged by perplexity, do you utter inconsistent and unnatural things from your jaws? 1.18 For fearing lest someone should perplex you by asserting: How is it possible for such unspeakable weights of the earth to hang in the air and stand and not fall down? Having invented tales not of true but of strange fictions, you say conversely that the middle is down, as if someone were to suppose fire in the middle instead of the earth, you would have said the middle is 'up' instead of 'down', since fire tends upwards. To me, at least, they seem to destroy the first things by means of the second, and the second by means of the first. 1.19 But if they should say that the air, being equal on all sides of the earth, is pushed by the universe, and that the earth remains uninclined and does not incline to one side, how are men and the other irrational creatures, both terrestrial and winged, not pushed together, remaining uninclined like the earth, but cut through all the air, walking and air-traveling and high-stepping? Not only such things, but also some mere inanimate things

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Παύσασθε ληρωδοῦντες, ὦ σοφώτατοι, τὰ μηδενὸς ἄξια. Γνῶτε δὲ κἂν ὀψέ ποτε τοῖς θείοις ἕπεσθαι λογίοις, καὶ μὴ ταῖς ὑμετέραις αὐτῶν ἀνυποστάτοις ἐπινοίαις. Ἐπεὶ λέξατε· Πῶς καὶ τῆς ἀπλανοῦς οἴεσθε τοὺς ἀστέρας ἐναντίως τῷ παντὶ κινεῖσθαι; Μόνων αὐτῶν, ἢ τῆς ἐν ᾗ εἰσι σφαίρας ἐστὶν ἡ τοιάδε φορά; Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν αὐτῶν, πῶς ἐν ἴσῳ χρόνῳ τοὺς ἀνίσους διέρχονται κύκλους; Πῶς δὲ οὐδεὶς τῶν ἐν τῷ γαλαξίᾳ γέγονεν ἐκτὸς αὐτοῦ, οὐδὲ τῶν ἔξωθεν αὐτοῦ πλησιέστερον αὐτοῦ φαίνεται ἢ ἐν αὐτῷ; Εἰ δὲ τὴν σφαῖραν ἐναντίως φέρεσθαι λέγοι τις, εὑρεθήσεται κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν χρόνον αὐτὴ ἑαυτῇ ἐναντίως κινουμένη. Τούτου δὲ τίς ἂν ἀτοπώτερον ἐπινοήσειεν; 1.14 Οὕτως δὲ ἀναιδείας, ἀσεβείας δὲ μᾶλλον, οὐδενὶ καταλιπεῖν ὑπερβολὴν ἁμιλλῶνται, ὡς ἀπερυθριᾶν ὁμολογεῖν τε τινὰς ὑπὸ γῆν οἰκοῦντας εἶναι. Τί οὖν, ὅταν ἀπορήσειέ τις αὐτοῖς λέγων· ∆ιακενῆς ὁ ἥλιος ὑπὸ γῆν φέρεται; Παραχρῆμα καταγέλωτος οὐ φροντίζοντες ἐροῦσιν ὡς ἀντίχθονές εἰσι κάτω κάρα φερόμενοι καὶ ποταμοὶ τοῖς ἐνταῦθα οἱ τὴν ἐναντίαν θέσιν ἔχοντες, ἅπαντα τὰ ἄνω κάτω μεταστρέφειν ἐπιχειροῦντες ἢ τοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας ἕπεσθαι δόγμασιν, οἷς οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν τῆς ματαιότητος σοφισμάτων, ἅπαντα δὲ ῥᾴδια καὶ θεοσεβείας ἀνάπλεα καὶ τοῖς προσιοῦσι σωφρόνως αὐτοῖς προξενεῖ τὴν σωτηρίαν. 1.15 Ἐπεὶ δὲ πάντων αἰτίας ἴστε λέγειν· Ἕνεκα τίνος οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορρᾶ περιφέρεται ἡ σφαῖρα ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τὸν νότον, ἢ ἀπὸ ἑτέρου ἀνέμου ἐπὶ τὸν ἀντιπνέοντα; Καὶ μή μοι λέγε· Τοῦτο κρεῖττον ἔδοξε τῷ ποιητῇ τοῦ κόσμου, τὰ ἐμὰ γὰρ ἄλλως ἐστὲ φθεγγόμενοι. Πῶς δὲ τῇ φύσει τῶν πραγμάτων ἀκόλουθα δοκεῖτε λέγειν ὅλως κινεῖσθαι καὶ κυκλεύειν τὸν οὐρανὸν ὑποτιθέμενοι, ἔξωθεν αὐτοῦ ἢ τόπον ἢ σῶμα, κἂν πεπλασμένως, μὴ ὑποτιθέμενοι; Οὐ γὰρ δυνατόν τι κινεῖσθαι ἄνευ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων, οἷον ἢ ἐπὶ γῆς ἢ ἐπὶ ὕδατος ἢ ἐπὶ ἀέρος ἢ ἐπὶ πυρός, ἢ καὶ ἀπὸ τόπου εἰς τόπον μετέρχεσθαι ἐπ' ἄπειρον, ἢ ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πάντοτε στρέφεσθαι τόπου. 1.16 Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ἐπ' ἄπειρον μετέρχεται τόπον κυλιόμενος, ἄπειρον γῆν ὑποτίθεσθε ἔξωθεν, εἰς ἣν κυλίεται, ἔρημα τοὔπισθεν καταλιμπάνων, εἰ δὲ ἕτερον ἓν τῶν τριῶν στοιχείων ὑποτίθεσθε, οὐδ' εἰς ὁπότερον αὐτῶν κυλίεσθαι καὶ στρέφεσθαι πέφυκε σφαῖρα, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον καὶ ἀκοντιζομένη ῥοιζηδὸν μετέρχεται. Εἰ δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἀεὶ τόπου κυλίεται καὶ στρέφεται μὴ μετερχόμενος τόπον ἐκ τόπου, ἀνάγκη αὐτὸν ὑπὸ κλωτάκων ὡς ὁ τόρνος ἢ ὡς ἡ ὀργανικὴ σφαῖρα βαστάζεσθαι, ἢ ὑπὸ ἄξονος ὡς ἡ μηχανὴ ἢ ἡ ἅμαξα. Καὶ εἰ τοῦτο, πάλιν ἀνάγκη ζητεῖν εἰς τί ἐπιστηρίζονται ἢ οἱ κλώτακες ἢ ὁ ἄξων· καὶ τοῦτο ἐπ' ἄπειρον. Πῶς δὲ καὶ τὸν ἄξονα διήκειν διὰ μέσου τῆς γῆς ὑποθώμεθα; Ποίου σώματος, εἴπατε; Τούτων οὖν τῇ φύσει τῶν πραγμάτων ἀπορουμένων, λείπεται, καθὰ καὶ πρώην εἴπαμεν, ἐρηρεισμένον αὐτὸν εἶναι καὶ μὴ περιφερόμενον. 1.17 Ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν γῆν ὡς κέντρον μέσην τοῦ παντὸς ὑποτιθέμενοι ταχύτατα ἑαυτοὺς καταλύετε τὸ μέσον πάλιν κάτω λέγοντες εἶναι· τὸ αὐτὸ γὰρ κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ μέσον καὶ κάτω ἀδύνατον εἶναι· τὸ μέσον γὰρ τοῦ ἄνω καὶ κάτω μέσον ἐστίν, ἢ τοῦ δεξιὰ καὶ ἀριστερά, ἢ τοῦ ἔμπροσθεν καὶ ὄπισθεν. Πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἀπορίᾳ πολιορκούμενοι ἀνακόλουθα καὶ ἀφύσικα ἀπὸ γνάθων φθέγγεσθε; 1.18 ∆εδιότες γὰρ μή τις ὑμῖν ἀπορήσειε φάσκων· Τὰ τοσαῦτα ἀμύθητα βάρη τῆς γῆς πῶς δυνατὸν ὑπὸ ἀέρα κρέμασθαι καὶ ἵστασθαι καὶ μὴ καταπίπτειν; Οὐκ ἀληθῶν, ἀλλὰ ξένων πλασμάτων μύθους ἐφευρηκότες ἀντιστρόφως λέγετε τὸ μέσον κάτω εἶναι, ὡς εἴ γε ἀντὶ τῆς γῆς πῦρ τις ὑπόθοιτο μέσον, τὸ μέσον ἄνω ἂν εἴπατε ἀντὶ τοῦ κάτω, ἐπειδὴ τὸ πῦρ ἀνωφερές ἐστιν. Ἐμοὶ γοῦν τὰ πρῶτα δοκοῦσι διὰ τῶν δευτέρων ἀναιρεῖν, καὶ διὰ τῶν πρώτων τὰ δεύτερα. 1.19 Εἰ δὲ ἐξ ἴσου ὄντος τοῦ ἀέρος πάντοθεν τῆς γῆς ὠθεῖσθαι λέγοιεν ὑπὸ τοῦ παντός, καὶ τὴν γῆν ἀκλινῆ διαμένειν καὶ μὴ κλίνειν ἐν μέρει, πῶς ἄνθρωποι καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἄλογα χερσαῖά τε καὶ πτηνὰ οὐ συνωθοῦνται, ἀκλινῆ διαμένοντα ὡς ἡ γῆ, ἀλλὰ διατέμνει τὸν ἀέρα πάντα πορευόμενα καὶ ἀεροποροῦντα καὶ ὑψηλοβατοῦντα; Οὐ μόνον τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ψιλά τινα ἄψυχα