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

defining the virtues by its power, and practicing the higher geometry. For this, as Proclus also says, has occupied the middle ground between the indivisible and the divisible, and is something irrational and a certain incorporeal body. But you practiced the incorporeal—for the inscription is of the soul—and you drew lines both rational and irrational. For there are pursuits in which you accepted no comparative—for this the irrational line implies—and you laid down bases, and built up proportional magnitudes, and from the vertices you suspended certain straight lines, so that what was approved by you might become solid. And moving from this, you understood concentric and eccentric circles, and you precisely calculated the periods of the luminaries, whether they complete their own revolution eccentrically or concentrically, and if the sun moves upon the fixed signs of the zodiac or is borne below the zodiacal circle, and if it varies its motion, and if it does not vary, how it is of uniform speed. Thus everything was outlined by your nature according to higher and better principles especially; for you called concentric circles those for which the starting point of the good and the first is the same; and eccentric those which unfold their actions from another cause, and understanding the luminaries as the active principles within us, you saw them moving with uniform speed, but having unevenness in their applications, and running on the height of the mind, but at times also running below, whenever the irrational phantoms of the soul prevail. Thus with practical allegories you interpreted the concepts, and being least in need of speech, by your investigations you led the initiated toward the more divine things. What then from this? All paid attention to you as to a superior, and prophesied from you. For they did not think in vain that such great understanding had been laid down for you, unless he who laid it down was about to arrange something greater. Whence you lay on the mouths of all, and you were not absent even from those who were sleeping, but even in their dreams you stood by them, either protected by a high-flying eagle or crowned with a wreath or most royally guarded by lions. But since he who at that time wielded the scepters of the Romans was terrible at conceiving suspicion and immediately using punishments, God misleads him, and letting you, the Joseph, go, he punishes Jacob, that golden and godlike soul. Thus God spared you more than your father, or rather he cared for him more in ineffable ways and prepared a kingdom of heaven through the affliction here. But you were not to be completely invulnerable to envy, nor to escape the eyes of all, nor to receive the prize of the kingdom without toil and labor, so that the matter might not seem to you a favor, but a recompense. For when your father departed to the divine palace, and you yourself now shone like a luminary among the senatorial stars, and the kingdom of the Romans fell to certain worthless rulers, ignorant of divine laws and how the decrees of providence are unchangeable, you are condemned to exile before others, and a wretched island, but because of you a blessed Babylon or new Byzantium, receives you perhaps as its protector and founder; and you, the chosen of all, become the condemned, and you endure oversights and bear hardships, and you fashioned certain mountains in your thoughts under which you might hide in flight, and you sought the last station, and you thought of clefts in the rocks, and you were eager to cut your golden hair, and you found fault with the omens, and you cried out against your own advantages. But then, O divine and royal head, while wandering in these thoughts did you have someone to minister and to comfort the grieving part of your soul with words, and to lead it back to good cheer with stories and examples? Or did you endure this also, along with everything, the inconsolable? Would that I had been present on the island, would that I had sat beside you as you were in pain and looking gloomy, and had driven away the despondency toward good hope, recounting the captivity of Joseph, the prison, the bonds, and how from opposite things the of the

τούτου δυνάμει τὰς ἀρετὰς ὁριζόμενος, καὶ τὴν ὑψηλοτέραν γεωμετρίαν ἀσκῶν. ἡ μὲν γάρ, ὡς καὶ Πρόκλος φησί, τὴν μέσην ἀπείληφε χώραν τῶν ἀμερίστων καὶ μεριστῶν καὶ ἔστι τι χρῆμα παράλογον καὶ σῶμά τι ἀσώματον. σὺ δὲ τὴν ἀσώματον ἐπετήδευες-κατὰ ψυχῆς γὰρ ἡ καταγραφή-καὶ γραμμὰς ῥητάς τε καὶ ἀλόγους ἐχάραττες. ἔστι γὰρ ἐν οἷς τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων οὐδὲ πρός τι ἐδέχου συγκριτικόν-τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ ἄλογος ὑπαινίττεται- βάσεις τε ὑπετίθεις, καὶ μεγέθη ἀνῳκοδόμεις ἀνάλογα, καὶ ταῖς κορυφαῖς εὐθείας τινὰς ἀπῃώρεις, ἵνα σοι στερρὸν τὸ δοκούμενον γίνεται. κἀντεῦθεν κινούμενος τοὺς ὁμοκέντρους καὶ ἑτεροκέντρους κύκλους ἠπίστασο, καὶ τὰς τῶν φωστήρων περιόδους ἠκριβολόγεις, εἴτε κατ' ἔκκεντρον εἴτε καθ' ὁμόκεντρον τὴν οἰκείαν ἀποτελοῦσι περιστροφήν, καὶ εἰ ἐπὶ τῶν κατεστηριγμένων ζωδίων κινοῖτο ὁ ἥλιος ἢ τοῦ ζωδιακοῦ κύκλου κατώτερον φέρεται, καὶ εἰ διαλλάττει τὴν κίνησιν, καὶ εἰ μὴ διαλλάττει, πῶς ἐνισοταχής ἐστιν. οὕτω σοι πάντα τῇ φύσει ἐσχεδιάζετο καθ' ὑψηλοτέρους μάλιστα λόγους καὶ κρείττονας· ὁμοκέντρους τε γὰρ κύκλους ὠνόμαζες οἷς ἡ αὐτὴ τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ πρώτη ἀφορμή· ἑτεροκέντρους δὲ τοὺς ἀπ' ἄλλης αἰτίας πράξεις ἑλίττοντας, καὶ φωστῆρας τοὺς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐνεργητικοὺς λόγους νοῶν, ἑώρας ἰσοταχῶς μὲν κινουμένους, τὸ δὲ ἀνιὸν ταῖς παραχρήσεσιν ἔχοντας, καὶ ἐφ' ὕψους μὲν τοῦ νοὸς διατρέχοντας, ἔστι δ' ὅτε καὶ ὑποτρέχοντας, ὁπηνίκα τὰ ἄλογα τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπερνικῶσιν εἴδωλα. οὕτω πρακτικαῖς ἀλληγορίαις ἡρμήνευες τὰ νοήματα, καὶ ἥκιστα λόγου δεόμενος σκοπῶν ὑπανῆγες τοὺς τελουμένους πρὸς τὰ θειότερα. Τί οὖν ἐντεῦθεν; πάντες σοι προσεῖχον ὡς κρείττονι καὶ ἀπὸ σοῦ προεφήτευον. οὐ γὰρ μάτην ᾤοντο τοσαύτην σοι καταβεβλῆσθαι σύνεσιν, εἰ μή τι μεῖζον ὁ καταβαλλόμενος οἰκονομεῖν ἔμελλεν. ὅθεν ἐν τοῖς ἁπάντων ἔκεισο στόμασι, καὶ οὐδὲ ὑπνωττ<ώντ>ων ἀπῇς, ἀλλὰ κἀν τοῖς ὀνείρασι τούτοις παρίστασο ἢ ὑψιπετεῖ σκεπόμενος αἰετῷ ἢ στεφανηφορῶν ἢ λέουσι βασιλικώτατα φυλασσόμενος. Ἐπεὶ δὲ δεινὸς ὁ τηνικαῦτα τὰ σκῆπτρα διέπων Ῥωμαίων ὑποψίαν τε λαβεῖν καὶ τιμωρίαις εὐθὺς χρήσασθαι, πλανᾷ τοῦτον ὁ θεός, καὶ τὸν Ἰωσήφ σε ἀφεὶς τιμωρεῖται τὸν Ἰακὼβ τὴν χρυσῆν ἐκείνην καὶ θεοειδῆ ψυχήν. οὕτως σοῦ μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐφείδετο ὁ θεός, ἢ κἀκείνου μᾶλλον ἀρρήτοις τρόποις ἐκήδετο καὶ βασιλείαν ἡτοίμαζεν οὐρανῶν διὰ τῆς ἐνταῦθα κακώσεως. οὐκ ἔμελλες δὲ πάντῃ ἄβλητος τῷ φθόνῳ γενήσεσθαι, οὐδὲ τοὺς πάντων διαλαθεῖν ὀφθαλμούς, οὐδ' ἄνευ καμάτου καὶ πόνου τὸ τῆς βασιλείας γέρας λαβεῖν, ἵνα μὴ χάρις σοι τὸ πρᾶγμα δόξῃ, ἀλλὰ ἀντίδοσις. Ἐπεὶ γὰρ ὁ μὲν πατὴρ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἀπῆλθε βασίλειον, αὐτὸς δὲ οἷα νῦν φωστὴρ τοῖς συγκλητικοῖς διέλαμπες ἄστρασιν, ἡ δὲ βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων πρὸς φαύλους τινὰς μετέπεσεν ἄρχοντας, θείους μὲν ἀγνοοῦντας νόμους καὶ ὡς ἀμετάτρεπτα τῆς προνοίας τὰ δόγματα, ὑπερορίαν πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων καταδικάζῃ, καὶ νῆσός σε φαύλη, διά σε δὲ ὄλβιος Βαβυλὼν ἢ νέον Βυζάντιον, πολιοῦχον τάχα καὶ οἰκιστὴν δέχεται· καὶ γίνῃ κατάκριτος τῶν πάντων ὁ πρόκριτος, καὶ καρτερεῖς παροράσεις καὶ κακοπαθείας ἀνέχῃ, καὶ ὄρη τινὰ ἀνεπλάττου τοῖς λογισμοῖς ὑφ' οἷς κρυβήσῃ φυγών, καὶ σταθμὸν ἔσχατον ἐπεζήτεις, καὶ σχισμὰς πετρῶν ἐνενόεις, καὶ τὰς χρυσᾶς τέμνειν τρίχας προεθυμοῦ, καὶ τοῖς συμβόλοις ἐπεμέμφου, καὶ τῶν πλεονεκτημάτων κατεβόας τῶν σῶν. ἀλλ' ἄρα, ὦ θεία καὶ βασιλικὴ κεφαλή, τούτοις ἀλύων τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἔσχες τὸν θεραπεύοντα καὶ λόγοις παρηγοροῦντα τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ λυπούμενον, καὶ ἱστορίαις καὶ παραδείγμασι πρὸς τὸ εὔθυμον ἐπανάγοντα; ἢ καὶ τοῦτο μετὰ πάντων τὸ ἀπαραμύθητον ἐκαρτέρεις; αἴθε παρῆν ἐγὼ τῇ νήσῳ, αἴθε συμπαρεκαθήμην ὀδυνωμένῳ καὶ σκυθρωπάζοντι, καὶ τὸ δύσθυμον ἀπήλαυνον πρὸς τὸ εὔελπι, τὴν τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ καταλέγων αἰχμαλωσίαν, τὴν εἱρκτήν, τὰ δεσμά, καὶ ὡς ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων τὸ τῆς