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for fate is of adulterers and others; but the stars that impose necessity will pay the penalty more than the one who is compelled to perform the deed. But I will speak yet otherwise concerning these things: let the schools be idle, let sophists and rhetoricians and grammarians cease, and doctors and other sciences and an untold multitude of mechanical arts, and let no one teach any longer, if the provision of knowledge for human nature happens by fate and not from the learning of letters. For if fate prepared the educated and most learned man, let no one learn from a teacher, but by nature † let the Moirai who spin the threads receive the knowledge, according to the utterance of your boastful deception through words. Platonists, the 4th sect from Hellenism, and the _th in sequence. But let these things have been said by me against Zeno and the Stoics. But Plato, himself also being carried along in the same things, in the transmigration and transfusion of souls and in polytheisms and the other idolatries and superstitions *, did not perhaps think entirely the same concerning matter as Zeno and the Stoics. For he himself knows God, and that all created things have been created from the existing God; and that there is a first cause and a second and a third; and the first cause is God, but the second cause, some powers, to have been created * from God, and that through him and the powers matter came to be. For he says thus: 'heaven came into being at the same time as time, therefore it will be dissolved at the same time,' having refuted his own earlier statements concerning matter. For he once said that matter was also co-eternal with God. 1.186 Pythagoreans, the 5th sect from Hellenism, and the 7th in sequence. Before this, Pythagoras and those who profess the Peripatetic school characterize one God, but adhere to other philosophies * and to the things * philosophized. Again, the same as these are the things of their unlawful and most impious opinion, the immortalizations and transmigrations of souls and destructions of bodies, which he himself and those with him declare. And he ends his life at last in Media. And he says God is a body, that is, heaven, and his eyes and the other parts are as in a man, the sun and moon and the other stars and the elements in the sky. Epicureans, the _th sect from Hellenism, and the 8th in sequence. 1. And Epicurus, in order after these, introduced a lack of providence to the world; and that all things are composed of atoms and again separate into atoms, and that all things are from spontaneity and the cosmos subsists, with nature always generating and then again being consumed and again being born from itself, never ceasing, growing from itself and being crushed into itself. And that from the beginning the universe was like an egg, and a spirit, dragon-like, was constricting nature around the egg then like a crown or a belt. And having willed at some time with a certain force to constrict the whole matter, or rather nature of all 1.187 things, more tightly, it thus divided beings into the two hemispheres, and thereafter from this the atoms were separated. For the light and finer parts of all nature floated upwards, that is, light and aether and the finest part of the spirit, while the heaviest and dross-like parts inclined downwards, that is, earth which is the dry, and the wet substance of waters. And that all things are moved by themselves and through themselves in the revolution of the pole and the stars, as if all things were still being driven by the dragon-like spirit. And we have spoken in part concerning these things; and in the same way these four sects must be refuted; * for the sake of brevity of reading. 2. From here then as I also said above, poets, logographers, historiographers

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γὰρ ἡ εἱμαρμένη μοιχῶν τε καὶ ἄλλων· δίκην δὲ μᾶλλον τίσουσιν οἱ ἀνάγκην ἐπιτιθέντες ἀστέρες ἤπερ ὁ ἀναγκαζόμενος δρᾶσαι τὸ ἐπιχείρημα. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλως ἔτι περὶ τούτων ἐρῶ· ἀργείτωσαν αἱ διατριβαί, παυσάσθωσαν σοφισταί τε καὶ ῥήτορες καὶ γραμματικοί, ἰατροί τε καὶ ἄλλαι ἐπιστῆμαι βαναύσων τε τεχνῶν ἀμύθητον πλῆθος, καὶ μηκέτι μηδεὶς παιδευέτω, εἴπερ ἐξ εἱμαρμένης τυγχάνει τῶν ἐπιστημῶν καὶ μὴ ἐκ γραμμάτων μαθήσεως ὁ πορισμὸς τῇ ἀνθρωπείᾳ φύσει. εἰ γὰρ εἱμαρμένη τὸν πεπαιδευμένον καὶ λογιώτατον παρεσκεύασε, μὴ μανθανέτω τις παρὰ τοῦ διδάσκοντος, ἀλλὰ τῇ φύσει † λαμβανέτωσαν τὴν εἴδησιν αἱ τοὺς μίτους κλώθουσαι Μοῖραι κατὰ τὸ φθέγμα τῆς κομπώδους σου διὰ λόγων πλάνης. Πλατωνικοί, ἀπὸ Ἑλληνισμοῦ αἵρεσις ˉδ, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉ. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πρὸς Ζήνωνα καὶ τοὺς Στωϊκούς μοι λελέχθω. Πλάτων δὲ ἅμα καὶ αὐτὸς κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ φερόμενος, τῇ μετενσωματώσει καὶ μεταγγισμῷ τῶν ψυχῶν καὶ πολυθεΐαις καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις εἰδωλολατρείαις καὶ δεισιδαιμονίαις *, οὐ περὶ τῆς ὕλης πάντῃ ἴσως κατὰ Ζήνωνα καὶ τοὺς Στωϊκοὺς ἐφρόνησεν. οἶδεν γὰρ αὐτὸς θεόν, τὰ δὲ γεγενημένα πάντα ἐκ τοῦ ὄντος θεοῦ γεγενῆσθαι· εἶναι δὲ πρῶτον αἴτιον καὶ δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον· καὶ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον αἴτιον θεόν, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον αἴτιον ἐκ θεοῦ γεγενῆσθαι * τινὰς δυνάμεις, δι' αὐτοῦ δὲ καὶ τῶν δυνάμεων γεγενῆσθαι τὴν ὕλην. φάσκει γὰρ οὕτως· «οὐρανὸς ἅμα χρόνῳ γεγένηται, ὁμοῦ ἄρα καὶ λυθήσεται», τὰ πρότερα ἑαυτοῦ τὰ περὶ ὕλης ἀνασκευάσας. εἶπε γάρ ποτε καὶ σύγχρονον εἶναι τῷ θεῷ τὴν ὕλην. 1.186 Πυθαγόρειοι, ἀπὸ Ἑλληνισμοῦ αἵρεσις ˉε, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉζ. Πρὸ δὲ τούτου Πυθαγόρας καὶ οἱ Περιπατητικὴν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι χαρακτηρίζουσιν ἕνα θεόν, φιλοσοφίαις δὲ ἄλλαις * καὶ τοῖς * φιλοσοφουμένοις προσανέχουσι. τὰ ἴσα μὲν τούτοις πάλιν τὰ τῆς ἀθεμίτου γνώμης καὶ ἀσεβεστάτης, τῶν ψυχῶν ἀπαθανατισμούς τε καὶ μετενσωματώσεις καὶ σωμάτων φθοράς, αὐτός τε καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ ἀγορεύουσιν. οὗτος δὲ τέλος ἐν τῇ Μηδίᾳ τὸν βίον καταστρέφει. σῶμα δὲ λέγει εἶναι τὸν θεὸν τουτέστιν οὐρανόν, ὀφθαλμοὺς δὲ αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὥσπερ ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ, ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἄστρα καὶ τὰ κατ' οὐρανὸν στοιχεῖα. Ἐπικούρειοι, ἀπὸ Ἑλληνισμοῦ αἵρεσις ˉ, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉη. 1. Ἐπίκουρος δὲ καθεξῆς μετὰ τούτους ἀπρονοησίαν τῷ κόσμῳ εἰσηγήσατο· ἐξ ἀτόμων δὲ συνεστάναι τὰ πάντα ἠδ' αὖ πάλιν εἰς ἄτομα χωρεῖν καὶ ἐξ αὐτοματισμοῦ εἶναι τὰ ὅλα καὶ τὸν κόσμον ὑφεστάναι, ἀεὶ γεννώσης τῆς φύσεως ἠδ' αὖ πάλιν δαπανωμένης καὶ ἐξ αὑτῆς πάλιν ἐπιγινομένης, μηδέποτε δὲ ληγούσης, ἀφ' ἑαυτῆς φυομένης καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὴν συντριβομένης. εἶναι δὲ ἐξ ὑπαρχῆς ᾠοῦ δίκην τὸ σύμπαν, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα δρακοντοειδῶς περὶ τὸ ᾠὸν ὡς στέφανον ἢ ὡς ζώνην περισφίγγειν τότε τὴν φύσιν. θελῆσαν δὲ βιασμῷ τινὶ καιρῷ περισσοτέρως σφίγξαι τὴν πᾶσαν ὕλην εἴτ' οὖν φύσιν τῶν 1.187 πάντων οὕτως διχάσαι μὲν τὰ ὄντα εἰς τὰ δύο ἡμισφαίρια καὶ λοιπὸν ἐκ τούτου τὰ ἄτομα διακεκρίσθαι. τὰ μὲν γὰρ κοῦφα καὶ λεπτότερα τῆς πάσης φύσεως ἐπιπολάσαι ἄνω τουτέστιν φῶς καὶ αἰθέρα καὶ τὸ λεπτότατον τοῦ πνεύματος, τὰ δὲ βαρύτατα καὶ σκυβαλώδη κάτω νενευκέναι, τουτέστι γῆν ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ξηρόν καὶ τὴν ὑγρὰν τῶν ὑδάτων οὐσίαν. τὰ δὲ ὅλα ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν κινεῖσθαι καὶ δι' ἑαυτῶν ἐν τῇ περιδινήσει τοῦ πόλου καὶ τῶν ἄστρων ὡς ἀπὸ τοῦ δρακοντοειδοῦς ἔτι τὰ πάντα ἐλαύνεσθαι πνεύματος. Καὶ ἀπὸ μέρους μὲν περὶ τούτων ἔφημεν· τῷ δὲ αὐτῷ τρόπῳ τὰς τέσσαρας ταύτας αἱρέσεις ἀνατρεπτέον· * διὰ τὴν συντομίαν τῆς ἀναγνώσεως. 2. Ἐντεῦθεν ὡς καὶ ἀνωτέρω λοιπὸν ἔφην ποιηταὶ λογογράφοι ἱστοριογράφοι