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

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 beautiful and far-shining you appear. For you do not limit virtues by time, nor do you make their base wide and their peak narrow and ending in a point, but—that I may measure you geometrically in every way, as if starting from the point of your greatness—you end in heaven, increasing your virtues to the very summit. Whence one time after another came bearing something newer; and we who stand upon the earth are carried up high into the air, and those winged ones there are lifted up to the aether, and heaven embraces those in the aether. But when we think we are approaching your fire-gleaming step, then indeed we are more aware of the measure of the distance. But how could I elaborate on this part of you, with whom both arts and sciences have sprouted up together, and skilled natures have appeared, and greatness of mind and depth of wisdom? For as progress and perfection in each of these is praised, these too increase along with it. For you do not emulate noble things in part, nor do you embrace a mutilated virtue, but a perfect and complete one. And for you, it has grown together and is united like a sound body from all its parts, while we, dividing the whole, one in one part and another in another, are all put together and grow together in all respects, for your exalted greatness in philosophy is like a head and an acropolis, an exact mind escorted by the senses; and your tongue displays the height of rhetoric, being fire-breathing and contentious and more melodious than the Demosthenic echo; and your hands hold the place of laws, removing what is excessive, filling up what is lacking, and dispensing geometrical equality in affairs. And the other parts too, corresponding to some other of the praised qualities, are beautifully compacted. Thus you hold to all things and are ambidextrous, so as neither to practice generalship at the expense of the art of words, nor to deprive the one of the other. For you know the art of both words and arms not just as far as drawing a bow and giving the right hand sufficiently for hurling a spear, nor only to the extent of poring over the commentaries of the wise, but you give the depth of your mind and the cleverness of your tongue to your arms, discovering some things in your reflections, contriving others, explaining them with a clear tongue, and artfully encouraging the army, and you make the hoplite's art dependent on the science of tactics as on a principle, and from there you strengthen it and fix it immovably. Hence for you the dignity of monarchy proves true, and perhaps the whole inhabited world has become the circle of your rule, and the power of the Romans has been spread over all the earth. And if the sea of Ocean were navigable for you, perhaps we would have seen both the equator and the southern pole, and now we would have put to sea for the north, and now we would have journeyed to the antipodes. And Alexander, son of Philip, like a high-flying eagle dancing on the mountains and roaming everywhere in the inhabited world with a rush, seemed to hold what he had attacked, perhaps by stealth, but by proceeding further, he was bereft of both. For what he had, he did not possess, as it reverted to itself, and what he did not have, he possessed, being deceived by his hopes. But for you, as if by command, Egypt brings gifts and yields the Nile; and boastful and arrogant Persia has ceased from her arrogance and is now terribly disturbed; and the Babylonian tyrant, lowering his brow, goes forth from his over-proud tent and from afar casts his right hand to you, or rather, he does obeisance by letter and becomes part of the dominion governed by you. And that which approaches us from the east, now by small additions, reaches to the horizon itself, so that for you the end of the eastern dominion is the first of the

τὸ ἑσπέριον τῆς φρυκτωρίας πληροῖς, οὔτε τῶν ἀκτίνων φθονήσας ἡμῖν οὔτε τοῦ κύκλου τὸ χρῶμα μεταποιήσας, ἀλλ' ὅσῳ γε μᾶλλον ὁ χρόνος τὰς ἀποστάσεις διδοῖ, τοσούτῳ σὺ καλλίων φαίνῃ καὶ τηλαυγέστερος. οὐ γὰρ περιορίζεις χρόνῳ τὰς ἀρετάς, οὐδὲ πλατεῖαν μὲν αὐταῖς τὴν βάσιν ποιεῖς, στενὴν δὲ τὴν κορυφὴν καὶ εἰς ὀξὺ λήγουσαν, ἀλλ'-ἵνα σε πάντῃ καταγεωμετρήσω, ὥσπερ ἀπὸ σημείου τοῦ σοῦ μεγέθους ἀρχόμενος-εἰς οὐρανὸν καταλήγεις πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ ἀκρότατον συναύξων τὰς ἀρετάς. ὅθεν ἄλλος ἐπ' ἄλλῳ χρόνος ἧκέ τι φέρων καινότερον· καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ γῆς ἑστηκότες μετάρσιοι πρὸς ἀέρα φερόμεθα, οἱ δ' ἐκεῖσε πτηνοὶ πρὸς αἰθέρα κουφίζονται καὶ τοὺς ἐν αἰθέρι ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐγκολπίζεται. Ἐπὰν δὲ τῷ πυριλαμπεῖ σου πλησιάζειν δόξωμεν βήματι, τότε δὴ μᾶλλον τοῦ μέτρου τῆς διαστάσεως αἰσθανόμεθα. ἀλλὰ πῶς ἂν τοῦτο δή σοι τὸ μέρος ἐπεξεργάσωμαι, παρ' ᾧ δὴ καὶ τέχναι καὶ ἐπιστῆμαι συνανεβλάστησαν καὶ φύσεις ἐφάνησαν δεξιαὶ καὶ γνώμης μέγεθος καὶ βάθος φρονήσεως; ἐπαινουμένης γὰρ τῆς ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ τούτων προκοπῆς τε καὶ τελειώσεως καὶ ταῦτα συνεπιδίδωσιν. οὐ γὰρ ἐκ μέρους ζηλοῖς τὰ καλὰ οὐδ' ἠκρωτηριασμένην ἀσπάζῃ τὴν ἀρετήν, ἀλλὰ τελείαν καὶ ξύμπασαν. καὶ σοὶ μὲν ὥσπερ ἄρτιον σῶμα ἐξ ὅλων μερῶν συμπέφυκέ τε καὶ συνῳκείωται, ἡμεῖς δὲ καταδιελόμενοι τὴν ὁλότητα ἄλλος κατ' ἄλλο τι μέρος, καὶ πάντες κατὰ πάντα συντιθέμεθά τε καὶ συμφυόμεθα, οἷα μὲν γάρ τις κεφαλὴ καὶ ἀκρόπολις τὸ τῆς φιλοσοφίας σοι ὑπερανεστηκὸς μέγεθος, νοῦς ἀκριβὴς δορυφορούμενος ταῖς αἰσθήσεσιν· ἡ δὲ γλῶττα τὴν τῆς ῥητορικῆς ἀκμὴν ἐπιδείκνυσι πυρίπνοος οὖσα καὶ ἐναγώνιος καὶ τῆς ∆ημοσθενικῆς εὐφωνότερος ἠχοῦς· αἱ δὲ χεῖρες λόγον νόμων ἐπέχουσιν, ἀφαιροῦσαι μὲν τὸ πλεονάζον, τὸ δ' ἐλλεῖπον ἀναπληροῦσαι καὶ τὴν γεωμετρικὴν τοῖς πράγμασιν ἰσότητα πρυτανεύουσαι. καὶ τἆλλα δὲ μέρη πρὸς ἄλλο τι τῶν ἐπαινουμένων ἀναλογοῦντα εὐπλάστως συμπέπηγεν. οὕτω δὲ πᾶσιν ἐπέχεις καὶ ἀμφιδεξίως, ὡς μήτε τὴν στρατηγικὴν παρὰ τὴν ἐν λόγοις τέχνην ποιεῖν μήτε ταύτην ἐκείνης ἀποστερεῖν. οὐ γὰρ ὅσον τόξον ἐντεῖναι καὶ πρὸς δόρατος ἄφεσιν ἀποχρῶσαν δοῦναι τὴν δεξιὰν οὐδὲ μέχρι τοῦ προσκεκυφέναι τοῖς τῶν σοφῶν ὑπομνήμασι τῶν τε λόγων καὶ τῶν ὅπλων τὴν τέχνην ἐπίστασαι, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν ἐν νῷ βαθύτητα καὶ τὴν ἐν γλώττῃ δεινότητα τοῖς ὅπλοις δίδως, τὰ μὲν ἐν σκέμμασιν ἀνευρίσκων, τὰ δὲ καὶ προσμηχανώμενος καὶ γλώττῃ περιτράνῳ διασαφῶν καὶ τεχνικῶς παραθαρρύνων τὸ στράτευμα, τὴν δὲ ὁπλιτικὴν τῆς συντακτικῆς ἐπιστήμης ὥσπερ ἀρχῆς ἐξαρτῶν κἀντεῦθεν κρατύνων καὶ στηρίζων ἀμετακίνητα. ἔνθεν σοι καὶ τὸ τῆς μοναρχίας ἐπαληθεύει ἀξίωμα, καὶ κύκλος σοι τῆς ἀρχῆς ἡ οἰκουμένη τάχα γεγένηται ξύμπασα, καὶ τὸ Ῥωμαίων κράτος κατὰ πάσης ἐφήπλωται γῆς. εἴπερ δέ σοι πλωτὸν καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ πέλαγος ἦν, τάχ' ἂν καὶ τὴν ἰσημερινὴν εἴδομεν καὶ τὸν πόλον τὸν νότιον καὶ νῦν μὲν ἀνήχθημεν εἰς βορρᾶν, νῦν δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἀντίχθονα ἐβαδίσαμεν. Καὶ ὁ μὲν τοῦ Φιλίππου Ἀλέξανδρος ὥσπερ ἀετὸς ὑψιπέτης τοῖς ὄρεσιν ἐπορχούμενος καὶ πανταχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης τῷ ῥοίζῳ φοιτῶν, οἷς μὲν ἐπέστη κλέψας ἴσως τὴν ἔφοδον, ἐδόκει κρατεῖν, προσωτέρω δὲ προϊὼν ἑκατέρων ἀπελιμπάνετο. τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἔχων οὐκ εἶχεν ἀναδραμόντα πρὸς ἑαυτά, τὰ δὲ οὐκ ἔχων εἶχε ταῖς ἐλπίσιν ἐξαπατώμενος. σοὶ δὲ ὥσπερ ἐξ ἐπιτάγματος δωροφορεῖ μὲν Αἴγυπτος καὶ τοῦ Νείλου παραχωρεῖ· ἡ δὲ ἀλαζὼν Περσὶς καὶ μεγάλαυχος τῆς ἀλαζονείας ἐπαύσατο καὶ νῦν δεινῶς τεθορύβηται· ὁ δὲ Βαβυλώνιος τύραννος τὴν ὀφρὺν ἀφεὶς ἔξω χωρεῖ τῆς ὑπερτύφου σκηνῆς καὶ πόρρωθέν σοι ἐμβάλλει τὴν δεξιάν, μᾶλλον δὲ γράμματι προσκυνεῖ καὶ μέρος γίνεται τῆς ὑπὸ σοὶ ἰθυνομένης ἀρχῆς. τὸ δὲ πρὸς ἕω προσχωροῦν ἡμῖν ἤδη κατὰ μικρὸν ταῖς προσθέσεσιν ἐπ' αὐτὸν καταντᾷ τὸν ὁρίζοντα, ὡς εἶναί σοι τέλος τῆς ἑῴας ἀρχῆς τὴν πρώτην τοῦ