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
are divided into an aristocracy, to be of lesser concern, because it is necessary to adorn the inner nature, while these things superficially beautify the outer nature; whence for them the other things, as many as the multitude deems worthy of zeal, were both dishonored and cast aside, but they held fast to philosophy alone and to all, so to speak, of music (and by music I mean neither that which is in pipes and rhythms nor that which is in harmonies and words, but the power which the compass of the tongue, well-trained, supplies to discourse). For since all things were divided by them as if into matter and form, they placed the things in actions with matter, and likened reason to form; whence some went up to pure form, leaving matter below, while others, beginning from there, also ordered the affairs here with reason. For the philosopher must not despair of the affairs in states, but after discourses he must go to these things; for they are manifestly a body and need a soul as their form, so that they may cast off their dispersion. Thus, Pythagoras and Socrates devoted their mind to states, and the one revered the Italian laws, the other the Attic laws. But Plato and Aristotle, the one indeed also constructed the best state in theory, and having left Athens for a short time, sailed to Sicily to correct Dionysius, and having not succeeded, he sailed away again, not holding a grudge against the son on account of the father; where indeed he also met with Dion, a noble man and a lover of philosophy, and he made many other friends and exhausted the tyrant's treasures on not a few of the Academic and Stoic philosophers; and being unable to reform the tyranny into a lawful government, he returned again to Attica, having given himself wholly to his discourses. But Aristotle, having exchanged Athens for Macedonia on account of Philip's Alexander, both proposed laws for the king, according to which he ought to live, and having corrected the character of his soul with philosophy, was with him when he remained at home and went abroad with him when he was on campaign, now as he was crossing the Euphrates against the Parthians, now as he was marching from there to Egypt, in order to subdue the Indus. And the Macedonian, though trophies were being raised for him each day, prided himself more on being with Aristotle than on those. and he was pleased with those things because victory came to him with reason; for the battle formations and the contrivances against his adversaries were allotted to him from the inventions of Aristotle. And so his companies were in measure and the phalanxes now double-fronted, now with front opposite rear, and again with front on both sides and the multitude was at one time gathered in a square formation and again when needed in an oblong or rectangular one; and the phalanx counter-marched quicker than speech wherever he wished, so that the rear-rank man became the file-leader, and the file-leader went to the rear; of the company, one part formed the rank, the other formed the file; the width formed the rank, the depth formed the file. For there a front-rank man was beside a front-rank man, but here a front-rank man was beside a second-rank man. The file-leader was superior to the others, and superior to him was the phalanx-commander (whom we, changing the word, call a camp-commander), after whom was the rear-rank man and again the second-rank man, after whom was the half-file-leader (which some indeed call an enomoty); for if it was ever necessary to divide the company in two and reverse the division, the half-file-leader filled the place of the file-leader. And since Philip's son wished at one time for the companies to appear many times more numerous to the enemy, and at another time a small fraction, so that by the one he might frighten and drive them away, and by the other he might deceive and draw them on, he then arranged the army in a triangle, and, if to appear numerous, he placed the file-leaders along the base, but if fewer than they were, putting the point forward he concealed the depth. From this those great successes had come to him
ἀριστοκρατίαν διῄρηνται, περὶ ἐλάττονος εἶναι σπουδῆς, ὅτι δέον τὴν ἐντὸς φύσιν κατακοσμεῖν, αἱ δὲ ἐπιπλάστως τὴν ἐκτὸς καλλωπίζουσιν·
ὅθεν τὰ μὲν ἄλλα τούτοις, ὅσα σπουδῆς ὁ πολὺς ἀξιοῖ, ἠτίμαστό τε καὶ ἔρριπτο, φιλοσοφίας δὲ μόνης ἀντείχοντο καὶ πάσης, ὡς
ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, μουσικῆς (μουσικὴν δέ φημι οὔτε τὴν ἐν αὐλοῖς καὶ ῥυθμοῖς οὔτε τὴν ἐν ἁρμονίαις καὶ λόγοις, ἀλλ' ἣν ἡ περιβολὴ
τῆς γλώττης εὖ ἠσκημένη τοῖς λόγοις χορηγεῖ δύναμιν). διῃρημένων γοῦν αὐτοῖς τῶν πάντων ὥσπερ εἰς ὕλην καὶ εἶδος τὰ μὲν ἐν
τοῖς πράγμασι μετὰ τῆς ὕλης ἐτίθουν, τὸν δὲ λόγον τῷ εἴδει προσείκαζον· ὅθεν οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ καθαρὸν τὸ εἶδος ἀνῄεσαν ἀφέντες κάτω
τὴν ὕλην, οἱ δ' ἐκεῖθεν ἀρξάμενοι καὶ τὰ τῇδε πράγματα κατεκόσμουν τῷ λόγῳ. οὐ γὰρ ἀπογνωστέον τῷ φιλοσόφῳ τῶν ἐν ταῖς πολιτείαις
πραγμάτων, ἀλλὰ μετὰ λόγους πρὸς ταῦτα ἰτέον· σῶμα γάρ εἰσιν ἄντικρυς καὶ δέονται τῆς ὡς ἐν εἴδει ψυχῆς, ἵνα τὸν σκεδασμὸν
ἀποβάλοιντο. Ταῦτ' ἄρα Πυθαγόρας μὲν καὶ Σωκράτης ἀφωσιοῦντο ταῖς πολιτείαις τὴν γνώμην καὶ ὁ μὲν τοὺς Ἰταλικούς, ὁ δὲ τοὺς
Ἀττικοὺς νόμους ἐσέβοντο. Πλάτων δὲ καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης, ὁ μὲν δὴ καὶ πολιτείαν τὴν ἀρίστην τῷ λόγῳ συγκατεσκεύακε καὶ τὰς Ἀθήνας
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀφεὶς εἰς Σικελίαν ἔπλευσε διορθωσόμενος ∆ιονύσιον καὶ μὴ τυχὼν αὖθις ἀπέπλευσεν, οὐ μνησικακή σας κατὰ τοῦ παιδὸς
τῷ πατρί· ἔνθα δὴ καὶ ∆ίωνι προσέμιξεν, ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ καὶ φιλοσοφίας ἐραστῇ, καὶ φίλους ἄλλους συχνοὺς ἐποιήσατο καὶ τοὺς
τοῦ τυράννου θησαυροὺς οὐκ ὀλίγοις τῶν Ἀκαδημαϊκῶν καὶ Στωικῶν φιλοσόφων ἐξήντλησε· τὴν δὲ τυραννίδα μεθαρμόσαι μὴ δυνηθεὶς
εἰς ἐπιστασίαν ἔννομον αὖθις ἐπανῆλθεν εἰς Ἀττικήν, ὅλον ἑαυτὸν τοῖς λόγοις ἐμπαρασχών. Ἀριστοτέλης δέ, διὰ τὸν τοῦ Φιλίππου
Ἀλέξανδρον τῶν Ἀθηνῶν τὴν Μακεδονίαν ἀνταλλαξάμενος, νόμους τε τῷ βασιλεῖ ὑπέθετο, καθ' οὓς ἐκεῖνον ἐδέησε ζῆν, φιλοσοφίᾳ
τε τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἦθος διορθωσάμε νος, καὶ μένοντι κατὰ χώραν συνῆν καὶ στρατευομένῳ συναπεδήμησε, νῦν μὲν τὸν Εὐφράτην διαπεραιουμένῳ
κατὰ τῶν Πάρθων, νῦν δ' ἐκεῖθεν τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἐλαύνοντι, ἵνα χειρώσηται τὸν Ἰνδόν. καὶ ὁ Μακεδών, ἐφ' ἑκά στης ἡμέρας τροπαίων
αὐτῷ ἐγειρομένων, τῷ τῷ Ἀριστοτέλει συνεῖναι μᾶλλον ἢ ἐκείνοις ἐκαλλωπίζετο. κἀκείνοις δὲ συνήδετο ὅτι μετὰ λόγου αὐτῷ προσεγίνετο
τὸ νικᾶν· αἱ γὰρ πρὸς τοὺς πολέμους τάξεις καὶ τὰ κατὰ τῶν ἀντιμαχούντων μηχανήματα ἐκ τῶν Ἀριστοτέλους ἐπινοιῶν αὐτῷ συνειλόχατο.
οἵ τε οὖν λόχοι αὐτῷ ἐν μέτρῳ καὶ αἱ φάλαγγες νῦν μὲν δίστομοι, νῦν δὲ ἀντίστομοι καὶ αὖθις ἀμφίστομοι τό τε πλῆθος ἄλλοτε
μὲν κατὰ τετράγωνον σχῆμα συνείλεκτο καὶ αὖθις δεῆσαν κατὰ πρόμηκες ἢ ἑτερόμηκες· ἀντέστραπτό τε θᾶττον ἢ λόγος ἡ φάλαγξ ᾗπερ
ἐβούλετο, ὡς τὸν μὲν οὐραγὸν λοχαγὸν γενέσθαι, τὸν δὲ λοχαγὸν εἰς οὐρὰν ἀπιέναι· τοῦ δὲ λόχου τὸ μὲν ἐζύγει, τὸ δὲ ἐστοίχει,
τὸ μὲν πλάτος ἐζύγει, τὸ δὲ βάθος ἐστοίχει. ἐκεῖ μὲν γὰρ πρωτοστάτης παρὰ πρωτο στάτῃ, ἐνταῦθα δὲ πρωτοστάτης παρὰ δευτεροστάτῃ.
ἦν δὲ τῶν μὲν ἄλλων κρείττων ὁ λοχαγός, τούτου δὲ ὁ φαλαγγάρχης (ὃν ἡμεῖς τὴν λέξιν μεθαρμοσάμενοι στρατοπεδάρχην κατονομάζομεν),
μεθ' ὃν ὁ οὐραγὸς καὶ αὖθις ὁ δευτεροστάτης, μεθ' οὓς ὁ ἡμιλοχίτης (ὃν δή τινες ἐνωμοτίαν κικλήσκουσιν)· εἰ γάρ που ἐδέησε
διχοτομῆσαι τὸν λόχον καὶ ἀντιστρέψαι τὴν διχοτομίαν, ὁ ἡμιλοχίτης τὸν τοῦ λοχαγοῦ τόπον ἀνεπλήρου. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐβούλετο ὁ τοῦ
Φιλίππου νῦν μὲν πολλαπλασίους τοὺς λόχους τοῖς πολεμίοις καταφαίνεσθαι, νῦν δὲ πολλοστημορίους, ἵνα δι' ἐκεῖνο μὲν φοβήσας
ἀποσοβήσειε, διὰ τοῦτο δὲ ἀπατήσας ἐφελκύσειεν, ἐτριγώνιζεν ἐνταῦθα τὸ στράτευμα, καί, εἰ μὲν εἰς πλῆθος φαίνεσθαι, κατὰ τὴν
βάσιν ἐτίθει τοὺς λοχαγούς, εἰ δ' ἐλάττους τῶν ὑπαρχόντων, τὴν κορυφὴν προτιθεὶς τὸ βάθος ὑπέκλεπτεν. ἐντεῦθεν αὐτῷ τὰ μεγάλα
ἐκεῖνα προσεγεγόνεισαν
