Oratoria minora
these things the phalanx-commander more courageous, the leader of the company stronger, the hoplite more ready for the needs of the moment, the one i
This gathering is a symbol of peace, O wise and beloved audience of mine, and, to speak with God, a most accurate stamp of coming peace. But it also h
of the barrier, may he himself also now make peace in our affairs and crush the opposing powers and find a way and a means for the desperate, he who b
through whom corruption has stolen into our souls. But neither are you free from the things of envy for upon your breast and your belly you have walk
None of you is without a share of lily-beds and rose-gardens, nor of other fragrance, what graces would one not enjoy when spring has arrived? But sin
virtues, but these they practiced and pursued, and all, having made the body lean through fasting and having released the soul from the bonds of natur
the heaven, how great, how ever-moving in its revolution, how wonderful in its nature? and the sun, how it is the source of the light here, how it is
is tested by countless signs, but Egypt is punished by darkness and you, the new Israel, have been freed from the clay and the brick-making thence al
has entrusted the rule of all. And having reviewed in his mind everyone, both soldiers and citizens, senators and governors, and all who had gained a
Rejoice and exult at my proclamation which God has shown to be splendid and most illustrious as never another. 6 {1To those who think the philosopher
so as to move the world, not to mention lead it up to heaven, but I am within the great circuit, for these reasons I have not wished to run in the sta
of actions, but you do not act in the proper way, nor do you emulate those ancient orators, Pericles, Cimon, Demosthenes and the others who have under
the pleasure of a matter drawing forth laughter, and the philosopher alone. But here it is the opposite in the case of your creation for you are the
testifying to the sweetness in a philosophical man. And Plato often rebukes Dion for the sullenness and smilelessness of his soul but is not the phil
A second matter is both adorned and set in order. This is the philosophy I too have emulated and if you examine it in one respect, you will count me
are divided into an aristocracy, to be of lesser concern, because it is necessary to adorn the inner nature, while these things superficially beautify
achievements. Aristotle also divided his entire force into cavalry and infantry. and of the infantry, he positioned the light-armed to throw stones an
to judge their customs worthy of comparison to philosophy) those things lift one up above the ether on a whole wing, but this they sink in the sea, ju
dividing and heaping up solids. But I also frequently showed you the images in mirrors and measured their sizes for you optically, having taken their
To those who envied him for the most esteemed honor Neither will an occasion for envy be left for you, nor for me a cause for honor and advancement f
ordained by God. But of the others, some excelled in these things, others in those, and no one in everything, or if anyone did, it was not as I have (
I am called for there are those who give me this name. If, then, I embark on the matter as if it were not permitted or unskillfully, show me this ver
they have imitated my manner for themselves. But look up also to the heavens at night, when all is clear, and see how not all the stars are of equal h
oversights, and the other things of which the tragic daemons are providers for all things are abundant, as if dripping from some spring of evils. The
a more grievous and troublesome evil. How very pleasing to them is the banquet hall. For as if shut up and squeezed together in some narrow place with
he was showing the strength of his words for a prize set before him, but for a matter from which it was not possible to profit from buffoonery and ins
We have known you as one who counterfeits its laws and has not understood even a trace of true wisdom. But O huckster, I have now suddenly changed my
being torn away from the laws as if from your own limbs, and clinging to other limbs whose form you did not know nor whose use you had studied? How th
and thus, having harmonized them with the rules of dialectic, you thence winged your way to theology. But you, as if having passed over the vale of th
For such a thing had happened to these men, and Herodotus indeed mentions the story right at the beginning of the first of the Muses. And if you shoul
sitting on the floor, knowing not even as much as mules. But I fear lest one of those standing by, taking hold of your cloak, might say, Friend, how
He forces the nonsense into truth. Do not, therefore, speak with the man, do not touch him, do not share a table, neither of salt nor of other things,
Taking a Megarian jar firmly in his two hands and raising it with both and fitting it to his lips, he drinks without taking a breath just like the oxe
they judge matters by their own life, but not by the rule of truth. For since these men have hated indifference, and they live like bees arranged unde
as you are writing, standing by your life. But we too shall write against our persecutors. For just as the seemliness of hair pleased you, so the unke
sitting and with his fingers harnessing and re-harnessing horses in the shadows but there, one fighting against contrary winds and quickly backing wa
Geometry, having taken its beginning from bodies, ended in the mind, though its nature is not so. For perception does not know how to beget mind, but
he has set down some introductions to the subject, then, as if out of necessity, he turned his argument to what he wanted. And he has not chosen in an
It is interwoven with its arguments and divided by its complexities and turned back upon itself. But if such styles have been assigned to perfect orat
he puts to sleep. But the others have leaped out from here and there, from the dormouse-holes and from the caves, one a palm-breadth tall, another but
changing the parts, preserves the same idea of the sound. But you must also take care for the art concerning the arrangement of the argument and do n
mysteries, and there they were taught the equality of geometry, and when they needed to philosophize, they went to Egypt, and having chosen to study a
but drawing them upon yourselves whence someone might indict you for sacrilege for having most shamelessly plagiarized things dedicated to divine men
and you are zealous but you render the account for your studies just as one of the necessary debts which some are required to pay even unwillingly. A
The birth-pangs of Plato and Aristotle are a bringing forth, by whom I am both born and fashioned. Do you see how from every side the argument has pro
you render to me. And while I seem to neglect other things, your affair is my pursuit and care whence, staying awake far into the nights, as soon as
to have the contemplation concerning these things, but from our wisdom to know the type and the truth, and to break the letter as if it were a shell,
having done no wrong thus you are elegant and sophistic, or rather powerful men and tyrants, and you dance upon a gentle character. But you are still
to the philosophers the technical matters, to learn the introductions, the proofs, the matters concerning demonstrations, how one reminds, how one pro
they might fit a diatonic melody and arrange the strings for it, do they not play a prelude for it and practice beforehand, not just once, but as many
should I enumerate poets and orators, who treated ancient genealogies with myths, from the very foundation basing their own discourse on myth? How the
quality and draws as much as its appetite desired but if it sees the liquid of the water corrupted, it leaves this spring, and goes to another and se
27 Encomium on the Flea They say ‘the gnat as an elephant.’ And so that our discourse may proceed along its path, let us attempt the flea as a leopard
its begetter for it is precisely black, like an eastern Ethiopian having changed his skin color from sun-burning, and it immediately reveals the heat
grieving. For it has appointed two masters of all things for itself, the sun for its birth, and man for its growth for from the one it has come into
lest it produce apoplexy, nature has cut the skull into various sutures but it also divided the entire bone of the suture with certain small holes, t
the awns guard, so also do the hairs of the louse ward off every attack. And even if the hunt should get close to the skin, it, just as they say spong
So indeed this creature has received its natural power in all the parts of its body. Now, the other beasts, being ambushed from behind, are by nature
from every side, equality bestows youth on nature. For men, when they grow old, and especially those who are graceful and tall in body, are filled wit
He was being plotted against by those revolting within him because of the absence of the regulator and shield-bearer of health and adversary of diseas
This is clear from the fact that it is possible to live without it and be well in the other senses, but the inactivity of these begets sickness and de
shouting like a Bacchant and acclaiming the son of Zeus and Semele. And from where did this good thing come to you, he says, O blessed one? Did you
let your communion with one another not be from habit and the opinion of the many, but let its principle be knowledge, and let the wandering and disor
souls? Far from it. But the body does not work against the spermatic logos (for this reason it is formed according to what that logos wishes), but the
working for just as the most drinkable of waters and the most temperate of airs dispose bodies well and generate a similar disposition, so also the c
But let the one who fails take pride that his brother happens to be better than he. Agesilaus happened to be the first among the Lacedaemonians even b
Let us summarize, by virtue, by reason, and by ancestral goods, using these three things for the best ends, you will be left behind in no part of eter
All things are mixed. But she fails in her plan, as the hero draws his sword against her, whence she almost breathed her last for her form is changed
by reason for see how the limbs have been fitted to nature. or rather, I shall marvel at the artist even from the stone for he did not place the var
being brought up, was he not turned away? Was not the compassionate one pricked to the heart over you? For this reason he shall be un-sacrificed and u
Nothing that exists is above Olympus. and so that I might make the last things of my discourse first, heaven is indeed adorned with stars, but these a
they have been hollowed out spontaneously, he will find how he might live luxuriously. For if he should go under the shade of a tree, immediately soft
pleasing, but all things were full of all things- the first tabernacle, the mercy-seat, the veil, the temple, the side-scenes, the vestibules, the out
discerning that man is an animal, which he did not know, and whatever else belongs to this, lest I make a further example of the foolish, or of the on
Intently and from every side examining subtleties, I was investigating the extensions, the releases, the intonations, the transitions, the displacemen
he has come, nor has he arrived to gather spiritual fruits, but only for the sake of this man whom you see reading with pleasure. For just as one who
Who will relate your magadis upon the breast and the songs and warblings upon your tongue, that all-harmonious melody, the pleasure that knows no sati
and himself, but what kind the others are, I do not know. For I see a form above human nature, and a look in one way cherubic, in another leonine, in
an ineffable sympathy and in turn feels a contrary passion, as the cosmos happens to be one living being, and how Plato, having posited the elements a
I have not heard of him rising up against anyone nor boasting for the whole time, but just as they say that the very learned accuse themselves of a te
to know what sort of thing your grandfather had become in life and what command of language he had. But I shall praise you, not by bringing in falseho
to revel. But whenever your bond was loosened and you shed the swaddling clothes, you did not know what to do with yourself, looking more cheerful, sm
Rejoice and exult at my proclamation which God has shown to be splendid and most illustrious as never another. 6 {1To those who think the philosopher loves the undertaking of affairs, and for this reason are also envious of him As if I had done something of such a sort as to move the opinions of the many, then some think that I love the direction and undertaking of affairs. For I have especially turned to the other way, according to which one might bring an indictment of arrogance, and I neither meet the rush for the most part nor do I yield myself to those who pull me, but I oppose and resist and pretend something even of things that are not fitting for me, so that I may obtain freedom. How then do you attribute the opposite to me, when you ought to judge from the opposites? And Achilles, the son of Peleus, having become wroth with Agamemnon and having encamped at his own naval station, wished Troy to defeat the Greeks, so that they might again entreat him against them. But I am so far from being absent from the contests, that I do not even wish for those who have undertaken affairs ever to be defeated; and many both know this about me and will testify to it. Whence then the many arrows of your words against one who is not wounded? You perhaps do not wish to say, but your very shadows would cry out with me, that you envy me so much or, to speak more truly, you are afraid that you even fabricate things that are not and have cried out as if you have suffered the very things you think you would suffer if I were to defeat you; for so you think. And what makes me a prophet of the matter is your spitefulness and malevolence, that, if I should become part of your phalanx, I will immediately be both your front-rank champion and the incomparable leader of the whole army. And that while each of you knows only one thing—one how to shoot with the bow, another with the sling, and one how to handle the spear well, another to carry the shield lightly, each one knowing and doing some different thing related to the contest—for me the skills of all have been collected and practiced, and I am neither weaker in tongue than the Pylian old man nor in hand than any of the heroes, but I will out-speak you as you speak, and I will deliberate better than you, and write more readily, and I will foreknow the future by what is happening, and what is being done I will either confirm more securely or, by counter-attempting, I will undo, and I will plead a case better than you and I will hold an annual office and I will preside and be an assessor and I will hold elections and give audience to both our own ambassadors and those from the nations. For these reasons you have feared me and, what I have not wished, you think I am eager for and desire. And this indeed I would not implacably reproach you for, but that I will very much charge you with, that you have mistaken my intention, and this although you yourselves have often testified to me of my fairness toward all. For toward no one have I ever been nor would I be neither harsh nor burdensome, but I even often overlook your tongues when they slip and I gently correct your opinions, in matters where what is meant is hard to guess and when you have turned entirely the opposite way, there are times I have turned you back to the straight path, not by forcibly bridling and checking you but by gently redirecting you. Why ever then are you in an uproar and have joined shields against one who is not fighting but wishes to dwell in a house without deceit after the manner of the just Jacob? Just as, then, having learned many of the secret things in arguments, I considered it sufficient to know the methods of such things; and I moved none of the things that are unmoved by their order, nor did I draw down any secret powers upon affairs, nor have I been eager to alter the fixed boundaries concerning events. So indeed also, having thoroughly investigated the parts of all political power and having used some of these on each of the occasions and having shown that none of the noble things is unapproachable for philosophy, I have again become purely of science and I philosophize alone in unphilosophical times. But since the whole theater has not been overleapt by me, nor have such wings grown on me,
χαῖρε καὶ ἀγαλλία ἐπὶ τῇ ἐμῇ ἀναγορεύσει ἣν ὁ θεὸς λαμπρὰν καὶ περιφανεστάτην ὡς οὐδέποτε ἄλλην ἀπέδειξεν. 6 {1Πρὸς τοὺς οἰομένους
τὸν φιλόσοφον ἐρᾶν τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων ἀντιλήψεως, ἅμα δὲ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο βασκαίνοντας αὐτῷ Ὥς τι πεποιηκότος ἐμοῦ τοιοῦτον οἷον
τὰς τῶν πολλῶν γνώμας κινῆσαι ἔπειτα οἴονταί τινες ἐρᾶν με τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων προστασίας καὶ ἀντιλήψεως. ἐγὼ γὰρ τὴν ἑτέραν
ἐτραπόμην μάλιστα, καθ' ἣν ἂν μέν τις ὑπεροψίας γραφὴν γράψαιτο, καὶ οὔτε ἀπαντῶ τὰ πολλὰ τῇ φορᾷ οὔτε συνεπιδίδωμι τοῖς ἕλκουσιν
ἐμαυτόν, ἀλλ' ἀντιβαίνω καὶ ἀντερείδω καὶ ὑποκρίνομαί τι καὶ τῶν μὴ προσηκόντων ἐμοί, ὥστε τῆς ἐλευθερίας τυχεῖν. πῶς οὖν
τἀναντία μοι προστρίβεσθε, δέον ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων χαρα κτηρίζειν; καὶ ὁ μὲν τοῦ Πηλέως υἱὸς Ἀχιλλεύς, μηνίσας τῷ Ἀγαμέμνονι
καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ οἰκείου ναυστάθμου κατασκηνώσας, ἐβούλετο τὴν Τροίαν τῶν Ἑλλήνων καταγωνίσασθαι, ἵν' αὖθις τοῦτον ἐπ' ἐκείνους
προσλιπαρή σαιεν. ἐγὼ δὲ τοσοῦτον ἀπέχω τοῦ μὴ τῶν ἀγώνων γενέσθαι, ὡς μηδὲ ἡττᾶσθαί ποτε βούλεσθαι τοὺς ὑποδύντας τὰ πράγματα·
καὶ τοῦτο πολλοί μοι καὶ συνίσασι καὶ προσμαρτυρήσουσι. πόθεν οὖν ἐπὶ τὸν μὴ τετρωμένον τὰ πολλὰ τῶν λόγων τοξεύματα; Ὑμεῖς
μὲν ἴσως ἐρεῖν οὐ βούλεσθε, αἱ δέ γε σκιαὶ ὑμῶν κἂν συμβοήσω σιν, ὅτι τοσοῦτόν μοι βασκαίνετε ἤ, ἵνα τἀληθέστερον εἴπω, δεδίατε
ὅτι καὶ τὰ μὴ ὄντα συμπλάττετε καὶ ὡς παθόντες, ἅπερ παθεῖν οἴεσθε ἐμοῦ ἡττῶντος ὑμᾶς, κεκράγατε· οἴεσθε γάρ. μάντιν δέ με
τοῦ πράγματος ποιεῖ τὸ ὑμέτερον κακεντρεχὲς καὶ κακόηθες ὡς, εἰ τῆς φάλαγγος ὑμῶν γένωμαι, εὐθὺς καὶ πρωτοστάτης ὑμῶν ἔσομαι
καὶ τοῦ ὅλου στρατοπέδου ἀσύγκριτος ἡγεμών. καὶ ὅτιπερ ὑμῶν ἕκαστος ὁ μὲν τοξεύειν μόνον ἐπίσταται, ὁ δὲ σφενδονᾶν, καὶ ὁ
μὲν εὖ τὸ δόρυ μεταχειρίζεσθαι, ὁ δὲ φέρειν ἐλαφρῶς τὴν ἀσπίδα, ἄλλος ἄλλο τι τῶν περὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα εἰδέναι καὶ πράττειν, ἐμοὶ
δὲ τὰ πάντων συνείλεκταί τε καὶ ἐπιτετήδευται καὶ οὔτε τὴν γλῶτταν ἀσθενέστερός εἰμι τοῦ Πυλίου γέροντος οὔτε τὴν χεῖρα οὐδενὸς
τῶν ἡρώων, ἀλλὰ καὶ λέγοντας ὑμᾶς ὑπερφωνήσω, καὶ διασκέψο μαι μὲν ὑμῶν κάλλιον, γράψω δὲ ἑτοιμότερον, καὶ τό τε μέλλον τοῖς
γιγνομένοις προγνώσομαι τό τε πραττόμενον ἢ ἀσφαλέστερον βεβαιώσομαι ἢ ἀντεπιχειρίσας διαλύσομαι, δίκην τε ἀγωνιοῦμαι κάλλιον
ὑμῶν καὶ ἐπέτειον ἄρξω ἀρχὴν προεδρεύσω τε καὶ παρεδρεύσω καὶ ἀρχαιρεσιάσω καὶ χρηματίσω ἡμετέροις τε καὶ τοῖς ἐκ τῶν ἐθνῶν
πρέσβεσι. διὰ ταῦτά με πεφόβησθε καί, ὃ μὴ βεβούλημαι, οἴεσθέ με προθυμεῖσθαι καὶ βούλεσθαι. καὶ τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ ἂν ἀπαραιτήτως
ὑμῖν ὀνειδίσαιμι, ἐκεῖνο δὲ καὶ λίαν ἐπισκήψω, ὅτι μου τῆς γνώμης διημαρτήκατε καὶ ταῦτα αὐτοί μοι πολλάκις τὴν περὶ πάντας
ἐπιείκειαν μαρτυρήσαντες. πρὸς οὐδένα γὰρ οὔτε βαρὺς οὔτε ἐπαχθὴς οὔτε γέγονά ποτε οὔτε γενοίμην, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλάκις ὑπερείδω
τὰς ὑμετέρας γλώσσας διαπιπτούσας καὶ τὰς γνώμας ἠρέμα ἐπανορθοῦμαι, ἐν οἷς δυσστόχαστον τὸ νοούμενον καὶ πάντῃ τὴν ἐναντίαν
ἔστιν οὗ τραπέντας ἐπὶ τὴν εὐθεῖαν ἐπέστρεψα, οὐ βίᾳ χαλιναγωγήσας καὶ ἀνακρούσας ἀλλ' ἠρέμα μετενεγκών. τί ποτ' οὖν διαθορυβεῖσθε
καὶ συνησπίκατε πρὸς οὐ μαχόμενον ἀλλ' ἀπλάστως οἰκεῖν οἰκίαν ἐθέλοντα κατὰ τὸν δίκαιον Ἰακώβ; Ὥσπερ οὖν πολλὰ τῶν ἀπορρήτων
ἐν τοῖς λόγοις μεμαθηκὼς ἀποχρῶν ἡγησάμην τὸ τὰς μεθόδους τῶν τοιούτων εἰδέναι· καὶ οὐδέν τι τῶν τῇ τάξει ἀκινήτων ἐκίνησα,
οὔτε τινὰς δυνάμεις ἀρρήτους ἐφειλκυσάμην τοῖς πράγμασιν, οὔτε τοὺς πεπηγότας ὅρους ἐπὶ τοῖς γιγνομένοις ἀλλοιῶσαι ἐσπούδακα.
οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς πολιτικῆς ξυμπάσης ἐξακριβώσας δυνάμεως καί τισι τούτων ἐφ' ἑκάστων χρησάμενος τῶν καιρῶν καὶ δείξας
ὅτι μηδὲν τῶν καλῶν ἀπροσποίητον τῇ φιλοσοφίᾳ ἐστί, τῆς ἐπιστήμης αὖθις καθαρῶς γέγονα καὶ φιλοσοφῶ μόνος ἐν ἀφιλοσόφοις καιροῖς.
ἐπεὶ δέ μοι οὐ ξύμπαν ὑπερπεπήδηται τὸ θέατρον, οὐδέ μοι τοιαῦται προσπεφύκασι πτέρυγες,
