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

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 principles from the higher sciences. And the works of Hero and Archimedes, upon which I myself have worked, I have clarified by my own metalwork, and I have made water suspend from a bent siphon; and I made a perforated vessel hold this back, and from its very mouth I poured out two liquid natures unmixed; and I have set before the eyes of you many an ox drawing up a stream of water all at once, I have put a voice into a blackcap and bestowed automatic motion on bronze wings; and a mirror has been fashioned by me from which, indeed, fire leaping out automatically strangely turns to ash what is set before it at a distance. And I do not say these things boasting (for how could a man boast of things for which the prize of superiority over all has been conceded by all?), but wishing to show to the many that, having chosen both ways of life, I have been esteemed in each appropriately; for it does not escape my notice that some, while deeming me worthy of the science here, lead me away from that in public affairs. And for my part, it would be enough for me as a general to perform most excellently and not to be vexed that I do not also know how to tie up bedrolls. But let them know well that I also master the clamors in the law courts and could judge and vote more nobly than them. But not yet these things, and let the discourse keep to its purpose; for in vain do they augur about us and number us among the circle of Socrates and Pythagoras. For I am not left behind by their intellect, but I have set sail with all my sheets to the Demosthenic tongue, neither having left this land from which I set out, nor being detached from that to which I have sailed, but as if in the midst of the sea holding both together for myself and holding to the one more nobly than the other; for I mingle Demosthenic things with Socratic, and as if in one mixing-bowl I blend together philosophy and rhetoric in my soul. And having encountered many of the ancient and canonical orators, I have not suffered the fate of the many, to be led by them, dragged by the nose, but I have even added to some of the works of Longinus' circle and have corrected the art of Adrianus in many places; and I have censured almost all the works of Sopater, and as for those of Hermogenes, you yourselves know how I reject them for their lack of causes. And yet there is nothing of what the man had said that has not been gleaned from the ancient orators; and what he also added is not a part of the substance, but like the cheek-piece of a Lydian horse. But while contemplating the arts I did not refrain from creating speeches, nor did I fit them to one single form, but when delivering a panegyric I am like those who dance, and shifting myself to forensic matters I give my tongue free rein, and when advising I have knit my brows and my speech imitates my character. And I have also applied myself to histories and I have written speeches from different points of view and have imitated the leaders in both fields as best as I could. And that I may speak of greater things, I have changed the body into spirit, and having translated almost all the storytelling of the stage into the truest meaning, I discovered the meanings of the Egyptian symbols so as to know what the beaks of hawks signify, and what the bills of ibises, and I have interpreted the Chaldean oracles, having less need of Proclus. Just as, then, some say in divination that a soul, having flown away from the body and being in the intelligible realm and having beheld the beautiful things there, would never choose to return and dwell again in the body, but would at once see and enter into the mind, so too I myself, having lived for a certain short time in the customs of politics and having been filled with the vexations from there, since I looked upon the pure light of philosophy and moved my dwelling from earth to heaven, I would not willingly move from there, not even if many were to compel me, unless some old woman were to draw me down like the moon with incantations.

τὰ στερεὰ διαιρῶν καὶ ἀναχωννύς. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐν κατόπτροις εἰδώλων συχνὰ ὑμῖν παρυπέδειξα ὀπτικῶς τε ὑμῖν τὰ μεγέθη ἐμέτρησα τὰς ἀρχὰς αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπερτέρων ἐπιστημῶν εἰληφώς. Τὰ δὲ Ἥρωνος καὶ Ἀρχιμήδους, ἐφ' οἷς αὐτὸς πεποίηκα χαλκεύων ἐτράνωσα ἀπὸ σίφωνός τε καμπύλου τὸ ὕδωρ ᾐώρησα· καὶ τετρημένον ἄγγος ἐπέχον τοῦτο ἐποίησα ἐξ αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ στομίου δύο τῶν ὑγρῶν φύσεων ἀμίκτως ἐξέχεον· καὶ βοῦν ἀθρόον τοῦ νάματος σπῶντα τοῖς πολλοῖς ὑμῖν ἐπ' ὄψεσι τέθεικα, μελαγκορύφῳ φωνὴν ἐνῆκα καὶ χαλκαῖς πτερύγεσιν ἐχαρισάμην αὐτόματον κίνησιν· κάτοπτρόν τέ μοι ἐξείργαστο ἀφ' οὗ δὴ πῦρ αὐτομάτως ἐξαλλόμενον τὸ ἐκ διαστήματος παρατιθέμενον παραδόξως τεφροῖ. καὶ οὐ μεγαλαυχούμενος ταῦτά φημι (πῶς γὰρ ἂν μεγαλαυχήσαιτο ἄνθρωπος ἐφ' οἷς παρὰ πάντων τὸ κατὰ πάντων πρεσβεῖον συγκεχώρηται;), ἀλλὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἐνδεῖξαι βουλόμενος ὅτι ἀμφοτέρους τῶν βίων ἑλόμενος ἐν ἑκάστῳ καταλλήλως εὐδοκίμηκα· οὐ γάρ με λανθάνουσιν ἔνιοι ὅτι με τῆς ἐνταῦθα ἐπιστήμης ἀξιοῦντες τῆς ἐν ταῖς πολιτείαις ἀπάγουσιν. κἄμοιγε ἤρκει στρατηγοῦντι ὡς ἄριστα μὴ δυσχεραίνειν ὅτι μὴ καὶ στρωματοδεσμεῖν ἐπίσταμαι. ἀλλ' εὖ γέ τοι̣ ἴστων ὅτι καὶ τῶν ἐν δικαστηρίοις θορύβων κρατῶ καὶ κάλλιον ἂν ἐκείνων καὶ δικάσαιμι καὶ ψηφίσαιμι. Ἀλλ' οὔπω ταῦτα, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἐχέσθω τοῦ σκοποῦ· μάτην γὰρ ἡμᾶς οἰωνίζονται καὶ τοῖς ἀμφὶ Σωκράτην καὶ Πυθαγόραν καταριθμοῦσιν. ἐγὼ γὰρ τοῦ μὲν ἐκείνων οὐκ ἀπολέλειμμαι νοῦ, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ∆ημοσθενικὴν γλῶτταν ὅλοις ἱστίοις ἀφῆκα, οὔτε ταύτην τὴν γῆν ἀπολιπὼν ἀφ' ἧς ὥρμησα, οὔτ' ἐκείνης ἀπῃωρημένος ἐφ' ἣν πέπλευσμαι, ὥσπερ δὲ ἐν μέσῳ πελάγει ἀμφοτέρας ἐμαυτῷ συνέχων καὶ τῆς ἑτέρας παρὰ τὴν ἑτέραν κρατῶν κάλλιον· ἐγκαταμιγνύω γὰρ Σωκρατικοῖς ∆ημοσθενικὰ καὶ ὥσπερ ἐφ' ἑνὶ κρατῆρι τῇ ἐμῇ ψυχῇ φιλοσοφίαν καὶ ῥητορικὴν ὁμοῦ συγκεράννυμι. πολλοῖς δὲ τῶν ἀρχαίων καὶ στασίμων ῥητόρων περιτυχὼν οὐ τὸ τῶν πολλῶν πέπονθα, ἵν' ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἀγοίμην ἑλκόμενος ἀπὸ τῆς ῥινός, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν περὶ Λογγίνου ἐνίοις προσέθηκα καὶ τὴν Ἀδριανοῦ τέχνην ἐν πολλοῖς διωρθωσάμην· καὶ τὰ Σωπάτρου ᾐτιασάμην σχεδὸν ἅπαντα, τὰ δὲ Ἑρμογένους καὶ αὐτοὶ ἴστε ὅπως ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν αἰτιῶν ἐλλείψει διαγράφομαι. καίτοι γε οὐδέν ἐστιν ὧν εἰρήκει ὁ ἀνὴρ ὃ μὴ παρὰ τῶν ἀρχαίων ῥητόρων προσηράνισται· ὅπερ δὲ καὶ προσέθετο οὐ μέρος ἐστὶν οὐσίας, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἵππου Λυδίου παραγναθίδιον. θεωρῶν δὲ τὰς τέχνας οὐκ ἀπέσχον τοῦ μὴ λόγους δημιουργεῖν οὐδὲ πρὸς μίαν ἰδέαν τούτους συνήρμοσα, ἀλλὰ πανηγυρίζων μὲν ὅμοιός εἰμι τοῖς χορεύουσι, μετατιθεὶς δὲ ἐμαυτὸν εἰς τὰ δικανικὰ ἐφίημι τῇ γλώττῃ, συμβουλεύων δὲ συνέσπακα τὰς ὀφρῦς καὶ ὁ λόγος τὸ ἦθος ἀπομιμεῖται. προσῆρα δὲ ἐμαυτὸν καὶ ἱστορίαις καὶ λόγους ἀπὸ διαφόρων ἐνστάσεων γέγραφα καὶ τοὺς ἐν ἑκατέροις ἀρχηγοὺς ἐμιμησάμην ὡς ἄριστα. καὶ ἵνα τὰ μείζω λέγω, τὸ μὲν σῶμα πρὸς τὸ πνεῦμα μετέβαλον, πᾶσαν δὲ σχεδὸν τὴν ἐν σκηναῖς λογοποιίαν εἰς τὴν ἀληθεστάτην μεθερμηνεύσας διάνοιαν, τὰ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων μετὰ τοῦ λόγου τῶν ξυμβόλων ἐξεῦρον ὡς εἰδέναι τί μὲν τὰ ῥύγχη τῶν ἱεράκων δύνανται, τί δὲ τὰ ῥάμφη τῶν ἴβεων, καὶ τὰ Χαλ δαίων προσηρμήνευκα λόγια, τοῦ Πρόκλου δεηθεὶς ἔλαττον. Ὥσπερ οὖν φασί τινες καταμαντευόμενοι ὡς ψυχὴ ἀποπτᾶσα τοῦ σώματος καὶ ἐν τῷ νοητῷ χώρῳ γενομένη καὶ τὰ ἐκεῖ προσθεασαμένη καλὰ οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἕλοιτο παλίσυρτος ἐνσκηνῶσαι τῷ σώματι, ἀλλ' ὁμοῦ τε ἴδοι καὶ εἴσω χωρήσοι τοῦ νοῦ, οὕτω δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς βραχύν γέ τινα χρόνον τοῖς πολιτικοῖς ἐμβιώσας ἤθεσι καὶ τῶν ἐντεῦθεν ἀνιαρῶν ἐμπλησθείς, ἐπειδὴ πρὸς τὸ καθαρὸν τῆς φιλοσοφίας ἐπέβλεψα φῶς καὶ ἀπὸ γῆς εἰς οὐρανὸν μετεσκήνωσα, οὐκ ἂν ἑκὼν εἶναι μεταβαίην ἐκεῖθεν οὐδ' ἂν πολλοί με καταβιάζοιντο, εἰ μή τις ὥσπερ τὴν σελήνην περι μάκτρια καταβιβάσει γραῦς.