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

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 out twice, because you are master of the twofold circle of virtues, both that which is of the soul and that which is of the mind—the contest which I have now entered, as you see, is the most dreadful and most wondrous of all that have ever been; for I alone of all men have proclaimed to compete with your virtues in my speech. And now I stand in so great a theatre to display my boldness, having no weapon for defence, but with my mind fortified by philosophy and my tongue sharpened by rhetoric. And on either side stand classes of wise men, so that they may judge and test my display from all sides, and demonstrate your invincibility in contests of words. And I, standing at a great distance opposite, strip to contend with you, my antagonist, already grown pale and shrinking, and as if recoiling from some Heracles from afar. But you, like some rising eastern sun, illumine the theatre with your rays, while you fill me with giddiness and vertigo, falling upon my eyes with your infinite light. And before I could win, you have both conquered and been crowned. Such is the contest; yet for my part I have taken courage in this. And I will tell the reason. For if up to a certain point I shall withstand you, wrestling and contriving against the greatness of your virtues, just as that Israel of old strove and struggled against the angel who appeared to him, by this very fact I have conquered and will be ranked among the demigods. But if, immediately upon engaging, I receive the token of a defeated nature, I shall not be so much without honor for having been defeated, as I shall be crowned by such a one. And you yourself, the judge of the contest, will later honor me, and there are some crowns that you might award me, so as not to spoil your own overwhelming victory. If, then, it were permitted for me to philosophize perfectly, setting aside the lower laws of encomia, I would have introduced the more divine ones instead and I would have said that your fatherland and city, O emperor, is the intelligible and divine order, your lineage a higher one beyond which no one could go, <εἰ μὴ> God, and your immediate family the whole power of the virtues, your growth the progress and perfection of the intellectual seed, and your art unchangeable knowledge, your action the intense movement and energy towards the good, and your rule from abroad the turning and return of the soul from the body towards God, if then, as I have said, I had employed a pure and unmixed philosophy for you, so would I have brought my discourse for you to its complete end. But since the hearing of the multitude has most need of the other discipline, I am turning to that form of encomia, using rhetoric, at least, after philosophy. But having arrived at this point in my speech, I must call not upon Apollo, leader of the Muses, nor Hermes of the speeches, nor the Muses from Helicon, to help me fashion this encomium, but upon the first Word, or rather the one above this and incomprehensible, from whom and to whom are the beginnings and ends of philosophy; who, long ago, fitted for you both body and soul for this imperial rule, and having prepared beforehand for you the most beautiful fatherland under the sun and a lineage the noblest among mortals, and having adorned you on the other hand with a magnanimous nature most harmoniously blended with your character, and an intellect with deep knowledge, and also bringing on a mass of good fortune, and glory for political achievements, and since you shone forth beyond all in all things by your gradual advances and ascents, He at last raised you to the highest pinnacle of authority, so that, having long since acquired the science of ruling, you might at once hold the sceptre in your hands and immediately award righteousness to affairs of state. But what a prelude to your reign you have comprised, from the very first starting point bringing us happiness as a sort of conclusion attached to your rule. For like a spring sun, having risen at once, both the eastern and

τοῖς ὄμμασιν, εἶτα δὴ χεόμενον καὶ λυόμενον, ἀλλὰ παντὸς τοῦ φαινομένου κρείττων καὶ ὑψηλότερος. ἀλλ', ὦ βασιλεῦ-παλιλλογῶ γάρ σοι τὴν κλῆσιν καὶ δὶς ἐπαναφωνῶ, ὅτι καὶ τοῦ διττοῦ ἐπάρχεις κύκλου τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὅσος τε ψυχικὸς καὶ ὅσος πέφυκε νοερός-ὁ μὲν ἀγὼν ὃν εἰσελήλυθα νῦν, ὡς ὁρᾷς, τῶν πώποτε γενομένων ὁ φρικωδέστατος καὶ θαυμασιώτατος· μόνος γὰρ τῶν ἁπάντων ἐπήγγειλα διαμιλλήσασθαί σου τῷ λόγῳ ταῖς ἀρεταῖς. καὶ νῦν ἐπὶ τηλικούτῳ θεάτρῳ τὴν τόλμαν ἐπιδειξόμενος ἕστηκα, ὅπλον μὲν οὐδὲν ἔχων πρόβλημα, φιλοσοφίᾳ δὲ πεπυκασμένος τὸν νοῦν καὶ τῇ ῥητορικῇ τὴν γλῶτταν ἐστομωμένος. Ἑστᾶσι δὲ ἑκατέρωθεν γένη σοφῶν, ἵνα τὴν μὲν ἐμὴν ἐπίδειξιν πάντοθεν κρίνωσί τε καὶ βασανίσωσι, τὸ δὲ σὸν ἐν τοῖς λογικοῖς ἀγῶσιν ἀήττητον ἀποδείξωσι. κἀγὼ μὲν ἐκ διαμέτρου ἀφεστηκὼς τῷ ἀνταγωνιστῇ σοι παραποδύομαι, ὠχριακὼς ἤδη καὶ συστελλόμενος καὶ ὥσπερ τινὰ Ἡρακλέα μακρόθεν ὑποστελλόμενος. σὺ δὲ οἷά τις ἑῷος ἀνατέλλων ἥλιος πυρσεύεις μὲν ἀκτῖσι τὸ θέατρον, ἐμὲ δὲ ἰλίγγου καὶ σκοτοδίνης πληροῖς, ἀπείρῳ φωτὶ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐμπεσών. καὶ πρὶν ἢ νικῆσαι νενίκησαί τε καὶ ἐστεφάνωσαι, τοιοῦτος μὲν ὁ ἀγών· ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ παρὰ μέρος τοῦτον τεθάρρηκα. καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν ἐρῶ. εἰ μὲν γὰρ μέχρι τινὸς ἀντιστήσομαί σοι πρὸς τὸ τῶν σῶν ἀρετῶν μέγεθος ἀντιπαλαμώμενος καὶ ἀντιτεχνώμενος, ὥσπερ ὁ Ἰσραὴλ ἐκεῖνος τῷ ὀφθέντι ἀγγέλῳ ἀντιβαίνων καὶ ἀντερειδόμενος, αὐτῷ δὴ τούτῳ νενίκηκα καὶ μετὰ τῶν ἡμιθέων τετάξομαι. εἰ δ' εὐθὺς προσβαλὼν τὸ σύμβολον τῆς ἡττωμένης γενέσεως δέξομαι, οὐ τῷ ἡττηθῆναι μᾶλλον ἀγέραστος ἔσομαι ἢ τῷ τοιούτῳ στεφανωθήσομαι. καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ ἀγωνοθετῶν ὕστερον σεμνυνεῖς με, καὶ τῶν στεφάνων ἔστιν οὕς μοι βραβεύσειας, ἵνα μὴ τὸ σὸν διαφθείρῃς ἐκνίκημα. Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐξῆν μοι φιλοσοφεῖν τέλεον, τοὺς κάτω νόμους τῶν ἐγκωμίων παραιτησάμενος τοὺς θειοτέρους ἀντεισενήνεγκα καὶ ἔφησα ἂν ὅτι πατρὶς μέν σοι, ὦ βασιλεῦ, καὶ πόλις ὁ νοητὸς καὶ θεῖος διάκοσμος, γένος δὲ ἀνώτερον μὲν καὶ οὗ μηδ' ἂν ἐπέκεινά τις χωρήσειεν, <εἰ μὴ> ὁ θεός, προσεχὲς δὲ ἡ σύμπασα τῶν ἀρετῶν δύναμις, αὔξησις ἡ τοῦ νοεροῦ σπέρματος προκοπὴ καὶ τελείωσις, καὶ τέχνη μὲν ἡ ἀμετάπτωτος ἐπιστήμη, πρᾶξις ἡ σύντονος περὶ τὸ καλὸν κίνησις καὶ ἐνέργεια, ἡ δ' ἐξ ὑπερορίας ἀρχὴ ἡ ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἐπιστροφὴ καὶ ἐπάνοδος, εἰ μὲν οὖν, ὅπερ εἴρηκα, καθαρᾷ συνεχρώμην σοι τῇ φιλοσοφίᾳ καὶ ἀμιγεῖ, οὕτως ἂν τὸν λόγον σοι μέχρι παντὸς συνεπέρανα. ἐπεὶ δὲ τῇ τῶν πολλῶν ἀκοῇ τῆς ἑτέρας ἀσκήσεως μάλιστα δεῖ, πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην ἰδέαν τῶν ἐγκωμίων μεταχωρῶ, μετά γε φιλοσοφίαν τῇ ῥητορικῇ χρώμενος. Ἀλλά μοι κλητέον ἐνταῦθα γενομένῳ τοῦ λόγου οὐκ Ἀπόλλωνα μουσηγέτην, οὐ τὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς λόγοις Ἑρμῆν, οὐ τὰς Μούσας ἐξ Ἑλικῶνος, ἵνα μοι συνεξεργάσωνται τὸ ἐγκώμιον, ἀλλὰ τὸν πρῶτον λόγον, μᾶλλον δὲ τὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦτον καὶ ἄσχετον, ἀφ' οὗ δὴ καὶ πρὸς ὃν αἱ τῆς φιλοσοφίας ἀρχαὶ καὶ τὰ πέρατα· ὃς δή σοι πόρρω καὶ τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν πρὸς τὴν βασίλειον ταύτην ἁρμόσας ἀρχὴν καὶ τὰ μὲν προπαρασκευασάμενος πατρίδα τῶν ὑφ' ἡλίῳ τὴν καλλίστην καὶ τἄλλο γένος τῶν ὑπὸ γένεσιν τὸ ἀκρότατον, τὰ δὲ κοσμήσας φύσει μεγαλογνώμονι ἤθει κεκραμένῳ ἁρμονιώτατα, διανοίᾳ σὺν ἐπιστήμῃ βαθείᾳ, τὰ δὲ καὶ ἐπάγων τύχης ὄγκον, δόξαν ἐπὶ πολιτικοῖς κατορθώμασιν, ἐπειδὴ παρὰ πάντας ἐν πᾶσιν ἐξέλαμψας ταῖς κατὰ μικρὸν προόδοις καὶ ἀναβάσεσι, τέλος ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκροτάτην τῆς ἐξουσίας περιωπὴν ὕψωσεν, ἵνα πόρρω τὴν ἐπιστήμην τοῦ ἄρχειν λαβὼν ὁμοῦ τε τὸ σκῆπτρον ἐν χεροῖν ἔχοις καὶ βραβεύοις εὐθὺς τοῖς πράγμασι τὸ εὐθύ. Ἀλλ' οἷον σὺ τὸ τῆς βασιλείας προοίμιον συνεκεφαλαίωσας ἐκ πρώτης ἀφετηρίας τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ἡμῖν ὥσπερ δή τι συμπέρασμα τοῦτο συνεπαγαγὼν τῇ ἀρχῇ. οἷα γάρ τις ἐαρινὸς ἥλιος εὐθὺς ἀνατείλας τό τε ἑῷον καὶ