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

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 I quietly laugh at it, but I am clearly inspired by the sight and I rejoice with my fatherland that it has been honored with such things. But when I see the camel in the leopard, or the deer in the camel, the simple and composite animal, striding on high, raising its neck as if by a machine and then contracting it again, at once two-footed and four-footed according to the riddle of the Sphinx, because it does not use its four feet alternately and in turn for movement, but proceeds with two together on each side in turn, I am astonished how the Egyptians and Ethiopians, who are devoted to this animal as to a superior nature, endured to see it walking into the land of the Romans. But let this be postponed for now, wherever it may lead, for it has a certain secret meaning revealed in symbols. But what am I to do, I who am weary even before the contests, and have now barely begun? But assist me, all you who have drunk with me from the same craters of discourse. For if my spirit failed me while I was still lingering at the foot of the mountain, what would become of me if I attempted the ascent? Therefore I would not attempt this—for I would be mad—but I will hold fast to the foothills. And here too, labor with me, and let each contribute something different to the emperor, like a subscription of praise: the philosophers, his philosophical character; the orators, his eloquence; those versed in the laws, his knowledge of the laws; the generals, his power in counsel and strategic decisions; the musicians, the harmony of his character; the sharp-witted, quick, and mindful, his supernatural, transcendent, and unfailing intellect; the swift and rapid, the quickness of his mind; youth, the gray hair of his soul; old age, the intensity and tirelessness of his thought. To these you might add the rest: his wisdom concerning divine things, the fount of his philanthropy, the standard of his justice, his magnanimity in the face of terrors, his fearlessness in the face of circumstances, the equity of his judgment, the precision of his thought, his moderation in magnificence and magnificence in moderation. But when I see you magnificently exalted and venerated in the dignity of your power and creating the imperial scene, I see you seated upon the clouds and delivering oracles with darkness and storm, and I seem to hear divine voices. Therefore I do not even enter the unseen darkness, but I stand at a distance with the senate, lest I be struck by your stern words as if by stones. When I see you philosophizing and having laid aside the scene, I see the ineffable condescension of God, the immeasurable depth of humility. For even if you did not wash the feet of friends, yet you kissed the wounds of the sick, and you loved the whitish swellings like pearls, and the reddish inflammations like carbuncles and fire-gleaming stones. And why would you who direct the courses of asceticism toward God not also become for me a part of the festival and participants in this new contest? Does he not rouse you to action and give you wings for contemplation, and kiss your squalid hair, and exchange his purple for your worn cloaks? And seal my speech for me, Mount Sinai, Imaus, most lofty Athos, northernmost Olympus, upon which he has not been a guest, but he has invited your unwashed ones who sleep on the ground to hospitality in the palace. But what shall I do? How shall I restrain myself? How shall I hold back my thoughts? For as soon as I have touched, as if in shadows, upon your praises, my mind is altered, and I know not how to say it, I am divinely inspired and my impulse is unrestrainable. But since I cannot contain this divine possession, I return to myself, that I may gaze upon you

χρώμενον καὶ πρὸς τὴν γένυν ὑποκαθημένην ὑποκλῶντα ταύτην καὶ κάμπτοντα, ἐνθυμοῦμαι τοῦ Ἰνδοῦ τὴν ἐπὶ τούτῳ ὀφρῦν ὅπως εἶχε ταύτην ὑπὲρ ἕνα πῆχυν τῆς κεφαλῆς, καὶ ἠρέμα μὲν ταύτης καταγελῶ, δῆλος δέ εἰμι τῇ θέᾳ ἐνθουσιῶν καὶ τῇ πατρίδι συγχαίρων ὅτι τοῖς τοιούτοις τετίμηται. Ὅταν δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐν τῇ παρδάλει θεάσομαι κάμηλον, ἢ τὴν ἐν τῇ καμήλῳ ἔλαφον, τὸ ἁπλοῦν ζῷον καὶ σύνθετον, ὑψηλὰ βιβῶσαν, ὥσπερ ἀπὸ μηχανῆς τὸν τράχηλον ὑψοῦσαν καὶ αὖθις συστέλλουσαν, δίπουν ὁμοῦ καὶ τετράπουν κατὰ τὸ αἴνιγμα τῆς Σφιγγός, τῷ μὴ τοῖς τέσσαρσιν ἐναλλὰξ καὶ παρὰ μέρος χρῆσθαι πρὸς κίνησιν, ἀλλὰ συνδύο προϊέναι παρὰ μέρος ἑκάτερον, ἐκπλήττομαι ὅπως οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ Αἰθίοπες, οἱ καθάπερ κρείττονι φύσει τῷ ζῴῳ τούτῳ προσανακείμενοι, ἐς τὴν Ῥωμαίων βαδίζον ἰδεῖν ὑπέμειναν γῆν. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ὅποι φέρει ἀναβεβλήσθω τὰ νῦν, ἔχει γάρ τινα λόγον ἀπόρρητον ἐν συμβόλοις παραδεικνύμενον. Ἐγὼ δὲ τί πάθω καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἀγώνων ἀποκαμών, καὶ νῦν μόλις ποτὲ ἐφαψάμενος; ἀλλὰ συλλάβοισθέ μοι πάντες ὅσοι μοι ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν κρατήρων τοῦ λόγου πεπώκατε. εἰ γὰρ ἔτι περὶ τὴν τοῦ ὄρους ὑπώρειαν διατρίβοντι τὸ πνεῦμα ἐπέλιπε, τί ἂν γένωμαι τῆς ἀνόδου δραξάμενος; ὅθεν τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ ἂν ἐγχειρήσαιμι- μαινοίμην γὰρ ἂν-τῶν δὲ προπόδων ἀνθέξομαι. καί μοι κἀνταῦθα συγκάμοιτε, καὶ ἄλλος ἄλλο τι τῷ βασιλεῖ ὥσπερ ἔρανον εὐφημίας συνεισενέγκοιτε, τὸ μὲν ἐν ἤθει φιλόσοφον οἱ φιλόσοφοι, τὴν εὐγλωττίαν οἱ ῥήτορες, τὴν περὶ νόμους ἐπιστήμην οἱ τῶν νόμων ἐπήβολοι, οἱ στρατηγοὶ τὴν ἐν συμβουλίαις καὶ γνώμαις στρατηγικαῖς δύναμιν, τὴν τοῦ ἤθους ἁρμονίαν οἱ μουσικοί, οἱ ὀξεῖς καὶ ἀγχῖνοι καὶ μνήμονες τὸν ὑπερφυῆ καὶ ὑπέρνουν καὶ ἀνεπίληστον, οἱ ταχεῖς καὶ ὀξύρροποι τὸν ἐν ταχυτῆτι βεβηκότα φρενός, ἡ νεότης τὸ πολιὸν τῆς ψυχῆς, ἡ πολιὰ τὸ τῆς διανοίας σύντονον καὶ ἀκάματον. πρὸς τούτοις καὶ τἆλλα προστιθείητε, τὴν περὶ τὰ θεῖα σοφίαν, τὴν τὴς φιλανθρωπίας πηγήν, τὴν τῆς δικαιοσύνης στάθμην, τὴν πρὸς τὰ δεινὰ μεγαλοψυχίαν, τὸ πρὸς τὰ συμπίπτοντα ἀδεές, τὸ τῆς γνώμης ἐπιεικές, τὸ τοῦ φρονήματος ἀκριβές, τὴν ἐν τῷ μεγαλοπρεπεῖ μετριότητα καὶ ἐν τῷ μετρίῳ μεγαλοπρέπειαν. Ἀλλ' ὅταν μέν σε ἴδω μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἐπαιρόμενον καὶ τῷ τοῦ κράτους ἀξιώματι σεμνυνόμενον καὶ τὴν ἀρχικὴν δημιουργοῦντα σκηνήν, ἐπὶ τῶν νεφελῶν σε βλέπω καθήμενον καὶ μετὰ γνόφου καὶ λαίλαπος χρηματίζοντα, καὶ θείων ἀκούειν δοκῶ φωνῶν. ὅθεν οὐδὲ τὸν ἀθέατον γνόφον εἰσέρχομαι, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τῆς γερουσίας ἵσταμαι πόρρωθεν, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς στερροῖς λόγοις ὡς λίθοις βληθῶ. ὅταν δὲ φιλοσοφοῦντα ἴδω καὶ τὴν σκηνὴν ἀποθέμενον, τὴν ἄρρητον ὁρῶ τοῦ θεοῦ συγκατάβασιν, τὸ ἀμέτρητον βάθος τῆς ταπεινώσεως. εἰ γὰρ καὶ φίλων πόδας οὐκ ἔνιψας, ἀλλὰ νοσούντων τραύματα κατεφίλησας, καὶ τοὺς μὲν λευκανθίζοντας ὄγκους ὡς μαργαρίτας ἠγάπησας, τὰ δὲ πυρρὰ τῶν οἰδημάτων ὡς τοὺς ἀνθρακώδεις λίθους καὶ πυραυγεῖς. Τί δὲ οἱ τῷ θεῷ τοὺς τῆς ἀσκήσεως δρόμους ἰθύνοντες οὐκ ἄν μοι γένοισθε καὶ αὐτοὶ μέρος τῆς πανηγύρεως καὶ τοῦ καινοῦ τούτου ἀγῶνος συλλήπτορες; οὐχ οὗτος πρὸς μὲν τὴν πρᾶξιν ὑμᾶς ἐγείρει, πρὸς δὲ τὴν θεωρίαν πτεροῖ, καὶ τὴν μὲν πιναρὰν ὑμῶν κόμην καταφιλεῖ, τῆς δὲ πορφύρας τοὺς τρίβωνας ἀνταλλάσσεται; καὶ σφραγίσατέ μοι τὸν λόγον τὸ Σιναῖον ὄρος, τὸ Ἱμαῖον, ὁ ὑψηλότατος Ἄθως, ὁ βορειότατος Ὄλυμπος, ἐφ' οἷς οὐκ ἐξενοδόχηται μέν, τοὺς δὲ ὑμῶν ἀνίπτους καὶ χαμαιεύνας πρὸς τὴν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ ξενίαν εἰσκέκληκεν. Ἀλλὰ τί δράσω; πῶς δ' ἐμαυτὸν ἐπίσχω; πῶς καθέξω τοὺς λογισμούς; ὁμοῦ γε γὰρ ἡψάμην ὅσον ἐν σκιαῖς τῶν σῶν ἐγκωμίων, καὶ τὴν γνώμην ἠλλοίωμαι, καὶ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως εἴπω, θεοφοροῦμαι καὶ ἀκάθεκτός εἰμι τὴν ὁρμήν. ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ στέγειν τὴν θεοληψίαν οὐ δύναμαι, ἐπανακάμπτω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, ἵνα σε θεωρήσω