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
achievements. Aristotle also divided his entire force into cavalry and infantry. and of the infantry, he positioned the light-armed to throw stones and shoot arrows, on others he fitted a breastplate and greaves, and to others he gave light shields; and likewise of the cavalry, the close-combat force used swords rather than spears or his sarissas (the sarissa is a Macedonian weapon, having an extended shaft and a long iron point), while the other part hurled javelins or shot arrows from a distance; and he shot not in the manner of Homer's archer, drawing the string to the breast, but drawing it across the forehead to the right ear itself, nor like Teucer, hiding under the shield of Ajax, but while pursuing and fleeing and standing firm. And why should I speak more of what Aristotle devised, and Alexander showed in action? But let our discourse return to its own beginning, that in former times reason ordered affairs and philosophy, being zealous about them, or being esteemed by them; for reason was needed, I suppose, for the lives of each. For this reason, wherever it happened to be combined, it established order and made cosmos, and all things partook of intelligence and grace. But now the order is reversed and what is up seems down, and what is down is suspected by the many to be up. For this reason the many cast philosophy—seated somewhere above the celestial heights and ordering and embracing all things, even to the last—down into matter, while they raise up to the ether the very playthings of matter, to which unfortunate men are subject, or rather, certain wicked and foolish little men. And if anyone approaches these things, or happens to have approached them, or happens to have obtained them all, they call the man fortunate and, ceasing to call him blessed, they praise him (for whereas "blessed" is suited to fortunes, "praise" is proper to virtues) and they attend him and act as his bodyguard, just as the twelve-axed and six-axed bodyguards did for the ancient Roman consuls; but if someone should turn to philosophy, they immediately take it as an omen; and if someone should see one first thing as the day dawns, he immediately requires purifications and cleanses himself, just like those who yoke their horses, if they should see a man wearing a coarse cloak. What is this other than being seasick, or rather, being downright melancholic? For just as colors appear altered to those men, so indeed do things to these. And if someone relates to them the things about the chariots and the events in the theaters and who registered on the rostrum, and who were convicted in their exile, and how for some their tongue ran glibly while slandering, but for others it was checked when the judge became angry, and how the general has won these or those wars and the tributes for the emperor have increased, and for him things are going with the stream, he seems extraordinary and is numbered among the demigods. But if someone should lead them to reason and advance them toward the inner sanctuaries of philosophy and show what nature is, what soul is, what an intellectual state is, what essential intellect is, and how the soul is related to this and this to the One, they despise him as a madman and leap away faster than from arrows. And if ever they should see a man doing geometry and measuring the heaven, measuring the sun, comparing the moon to the earth and finding the more or less in each case, then indeed they come up with the saying of Aristophanes against Socrates, that the geometer, having taken a flea, then dipped its two feet in wax, and when it cooled Persian slippers formed, taking these he measured the heaven. For this alone they alter from the ancient comedy, and they do not know that the way of life they live digs out the eye of the soul, while the philosophy these men pursue remodels it and rekindles it and lights it from the lights in heaven. But those of them who are more serious (and condescending to such a degree, so as to the Italian treaties and the
κατορθώματα. Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ καὶ τὴν πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ διῄρει δύναμιν εἰς ἱππικήν τε καὶ πεζικήν. καὶ τοῦ πεζοῦ τὸ μὲν ψιλὸν ἐτίθετο
λίθοις βάλλον καὶ τοξεύμασι, τῷ δὲ θώρακα καὶ κνημῖδας ἐνήρμοζε, τῷ δὲ κοῦφα ἐδίδου πελτάρια· ὣς δὲ καὶ τοῦ ἱππικοῦ τὸ μὲν
ἀγχέμαχον ἦν ξίφεσι μᾶλλον ἢ δόρασιν ἢ ταῖς ἐκείνου σαρίσσαις (ἡ δὲ σάρισσα Μακεδονικὸν ὅπλον ἐκτεταμένον ἔχον τὸν στύρακα
καὶ πρόμηκες τὸ σιδήριον), τὸ δὲ ἠκόντιζεν ἢ ἐτόξευε πόρρωθεν· ἐτόξευε δὲ οὐ κατὰ τὸν Ὁμήρου τοξότην προσάγον τῷ μαζῷ τὴν
νευράν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ μέτωπον ἕλκον πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ δεξιὸν οὖς, οὐδ' ὡς ὁ Τεῦκρος ὑπὸ τὴν τοῦ Αἴαντος ἀσπίδα κρυπτόμενος, ἀλλὰ
καὶ διῶκον καὶ φεῦγον καὶ βεβηκός. καὶ τί δ' ἂν τὰ πλείω λέγοιμι ὧν Ἀριστοτέλης μὲν ἐπενόησεν, ἐνεργὰ δὲ δέδειχεν ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος;
Ἀλλ' ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν ἀνίτω ἀρχήν, ὅτι τοῖς ἄνω χρόνοις τὰ πράγματα λόγος ἐκόσμει καὶ σπουδάζουσα περὶ ταῦτα,
ἢ παρὰ τούτων σπουδαζομένη, φιλοσοφία· ἔδει γάρ που λόγου τοῖς καθέκαστον βίοις. διὰ τοῦτο, ὅποι τύχοι συγκεραννύμενος, τάξιν
ἐτίθει καὶ κόσμον ἐποίει, καὶ πάντα μετεῖχε νοῦ τε καὶ χάριτος. νῦν δὲ ἡ τάξις ἀντέστραπται καὶ τὸ μὲν ἄνω κάτω δοκεῖ, τὸ
δὲ κάτω ἄνω τοῖς πολλοῖς ὑποπτεύεται. διὰ τοῦτο φιλοσοφίαν μὲν ἄνω που τῶν οὐρανίων νώτων προκαθημένην καὶ πάντα κοσμοῦσαν
καὶ περιέπουσαν μετὰ τῶν ἐσχάτων οἱ πολλοὶ τῆς ὕλης ἀπορριπτοῦσιν, αὐτὰ δὲ τῆς ὕλης τὰ παίγνια, οἷς δὴ κακοδαίμονες ὑπόκειν
ται ἄνθρωποι, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀνθρώπι' ἄττα πονηρὰ καὶ ἀνόητα, τῷ αἰθέρι ἐπελαφρίζουσι. κἂν μέν τις πρὸς αὐτὰ παραγίνηται ἢ καὶ
τυγχάνῃ παραγενό μενος ἢ καὶ τοῦ παντὸς τύχῃ παραγεγονώς, ὄλβιόν τε τὸν ἄνδρα καλοῦσι καὶ τοῦ μακαρίζειν ἀφέμενοι ἐπαινοῦσι
(τοῦ γὰρ μακαρισμοῦ ταῖς τύχαις προσαρμοζομένου ὁ ἔπαινος ταῖς ἀρεταῖς συνῳκείωται) περιέπουσί τε τοῦτον καὶ δορυφοροῦσιν
ὥσπερ τοὺς πάλαι Ῥωμαίων ὑπάτους δωδεκα πελέκεις καὶ ἑξαπελέκεις σωματοφύλακες· ἢν δέ τις ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίαν ὁρμήσειε, τοῦτον
εὐθὺς οἰωνίζονται· κἄν τις πρῶτον ἴδοι παρανατειλάσης ἡμέρας, καθαρσίων εὐθὺς δεῖται καὶ καθαγνίζεται, ὥσπερ οἱ τοὺς ἵππους
ζευγνύντες, ἢν τριβωνοφόρον ἄνδρα θεάσωνται. τοῦτο δὲ τί ἐστιν ἄλλο ἢ ναυτιᾶν, μᾶλλον δὲ μελαγχολᾶν ἄντικρυς; ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐκείνοις
ἐναλλὰξ ὁρῶνται τὰ χρώματα, οὕτω δὴ καὶ τούτοις ἑτεροίως τὰ πράγματα. καὶ ἢν μέν τις αὐτοῖς τὰ περὶ τῶν ὀχημάτων ἀφηγῆται
καὶ τὰ ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις γινόμενα καὶ τίνες μὲν ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος ἐγράψαντο, τίνες δὲ ἑάλωσαν φεύγοντες, καὶ ὅπως τοῖς μὲν ηὐδρόμει
ἡ γλῶττα συκοφαν τοῦσι, τοῖς δὲ ἐπεσχέθη ἐμβριμησαμένου τοῦ δικαστοῦ, καὶ ὡς ὁ στρατη γὸς τούσδε ἢ τούσδε τοὺς πολέμους νενίκηκε
καὶ ηὔξηνται μὲν οἱ φόροι τῷ βασιλεῖ, κατὰ ῥοῦν δὲ τούτῳ τὰ πράγματα φέροιτο, ὑπερφυής τε δοκεῖ καὶ μετὰ τῶν ἡμιθέων ἠρίθμηται.
εἰ δέ τις ἐπὶ νοῦν ἄγοι καὶ πρὸς τὰ τῆς φιλοσοφίας προβιβάζοι ἄδυτα καὶ δεικνύοι τί μὲν φύσις, τί δὲ ψυχή, τί δὲ νοερὰ ἕξις,
τί δὲ οὐσιώδης νοῦς, πῶς τε περὶ τοῦτον ἔχοι ψυχὴ καὶ οὗτος περὶ τὸ ἕν, καταφρονοῦσιν ὡς μαινομένου καὶ θᾶττον ἀποπηδῶσιν
ἢ τῶν βελῶν. γεωμετροῦντα δὲ εἴ ποτε θεάσαιντο καὶ μετροῦντα μὲν οὐρανόν, μετροῦντα δὲ ἥλιον, παραβάλλοντα δὲ σελήνην πρὸς
γῆν καὶ τὸ μᾶλλον ἢ ἧττον ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ εὑρίσκοντα, ἐνταῦθα δὴ τὸ τοῦ Ἀριστοφάνους κατὰ τοῦ Σωκράτους προσεξευρίσκουσιν, ὡς τὴν
ψύλλαν ὁ γεωμέτρης λαβών, εἶτα τῷ κηρῷ ἐμβάψας τὼ πόδε, ἐπειδὴ ψυγέντων περιέφυσαν Περσικαί, ταύτας λαβὼν ἀνεμέτρει τὸν οὐρανόν.
τοῦτο γὰρ μόνον τῆς ἀρχαίας παραλλάττουσι κωμῳδίας καὶ οὐκ ἴσασιν ὡς, ἣν μὲν ἐκεῖνοι πολιτεύονται πολιτείαν, τὸν τῆς ψυχῆς
ὀφθαλμὸν ἐξορύττει, ἣν δὲ οὗτοι μετίασι φιλοσοφίαν, ἀναπλάττει καὶ ἀναζωπυρεῖ καὶ τῶν ἐν οὐρανῷ φώτων ἀνάπτει. οἱ δὲ τούτων
σεμνότεροι (καὶ μέχρι τοσούτου συγκαταβαίνοντες, ὥστε τὰς Ἰταλῶν ξυνθήκας καὶ τὰ
