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 geometrical methods, but with his own eyes see for himself the size of the sun. But if otherwise he should have no love for celestial things, but for the beasts in the myths, or rather the monsters, about which both Indians and Libyans philosophize in secret, sitting in a high part of the theater he might see as if in a procession some tower-bearing and warlike, and others theatrical and self-revealing, and he would not disbelieve the stories about them. Others, then, perhaps marvel at the phenomenon itself, how the great promontory of the earth, the elephant, upon which perhaps the sons of Aloeus, having rolled Ossa on top, would have approached heaven, the ponderous burden of the inhabited world, a sight disbelieved by the eyes, disturbing and confounding all things from afar, when it comes near your tribunal, first ceases from its anger and changes to tameness, then as if filled with rational thought it perceives your power and gently bending its knee presses its forehead to the ground. But from this I understand something else symbolically, that to you all the giants of the earth—for so I call the most ancient powers—will willingly bow their heads and will be led by a small bridle wherever you may wish. And what of this? Will the other beast appear to us without symbol and without meaning? Certainly not. For I consider it a link between the East and West; for from the east, as if from its high head, it sets along with its hind feet. In these parts you will extend your rule and the rule is auspicious; for beginning from the East, like the heaven of the fixed stars, you revolve to the western horizon. But from here, as you run with an ineffable course, the nation beyond the Ister comes to meet you. This is a nomadic and self-sufficient people, living spontaneously and not reckoning a higher authority, dissolving the soul together with the body; for this reason it is indifferent to its affairs, and has no small desire for death and it leaps into and rushes at war, as if it were nothing to it if it should die or if it should lead another away from here, beyond the fated thread, as someone said. But oh, your deep understanding, oh, deep mind and magnanimous thought. Considering it shameful for the Roman ranks to contend with such men, for whom winning is the same as being defeated, like certain Gibeonites you number them among your Israel, having ordered them to be drawers of water and hewers of wood, since they too chose to be cast aside in the house of the lord rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners. And oh, the wonder! They who knew nothing more than what is seen, have been initiated into our secret doctrine and having received initiatory purifications and cleansings from barren stones and steep mountains they were born again as children to Abraham. But neither is a meadow at once full of flowers with all its plants, nor does the sea have gentle waves among its headlands and reefs and shores alike, nor is a body compacted into a healthy harmony from all its parts together, but analogous to the parts of a body, so too for the universal hegemony are the portions of rule, of which the majority, by joining the whole, alongside the minority, curtail the complete perfection, until, just as torrents, having been divided from one source and having flowed in thin streams, they again flood together towards the ravine. To others, then, I speak these things in riddles, but to you I make Italy very clear; which flowed away from other fingers, but from yours is poured back to the first source, for through you the newer Rome is first and better, towards which it is necessary for the streams to be carried back, as in the changing tides of a strait, so that all the rivers might flow together as to some great and boundless sea, or rather that they might converge from both sides as to the center of the universe. And I, upon the surrounding circle, will proceed with equal intervals, but of what sort

ἡλίου ἀνατολὴν καθ' ἣν ἐκεῖνος ἀμέσως ἄνεισιν γῆν, ὡς, εἴ γέ τις ἐθέλοι τῶν ἡμεδαπῶν, ἐκεῖσε βαδίσας ἐπ' ἐξουσίας οὐ γεωμετρικαῖς ἐφόδοις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου αὐτοπτήσειε μέγεθος. εἰ δ' ἄλλως τῶν μετεώρων μὲν μὴ ἐρῴη, τῶν δ' ἐν τοῖς μύθοις θηρίων, μᾶλλον δὲ τεράτων, περὶ ὧν ἐν ἀπορρήτοις φιλοσοφοῦσιν Ἰνδοί τε καὶ Λίβυες, ἐφ' ὑψηλοῦ τοῦ θεάτρου καθήμενος ὥσπερ ἐν πομπαῖς ἴδοι τὰ μὲν πυργοφόρα καὶ μάχιμα, τὰ δὲ θεατρικά τε καὶ αὐτοφαῆ καὶ ταῖς περὶ αὐτῶν ἱστορίαις οὐκ ἀπιστήσειεν. ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν ἴσως αὐτὸ θαυμάζουσι τὸ φαινόμενον, ὅπως τὸ μέγα τῆς γῆς ἀκρωτήριον, ὁ ἐλέφας, ἐφ' οὗ τάχ' ἂν οἱ τοῦ Ἀλωέως παῖδες τὴν Ὄσσαν ἐπικυλίσαντες τῷ οὐρανῷ ἐπλησίασαν, τὸ περιβριθὲς τῆς οἰκουμένης φορτίον, τὸ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀπιστούμενον θέαμα, πάντα πόρρωθεν ταράσσον καὶ ξυγκυκῶν, ἐπὰν ἐγγὺς τοῦ σοῦ βήματος γένηται, πρῶτα μὲν τοῦ θυμοῦ λήγει καὶ πρὸς ἡμερότητα μεταβάλλεται, ἔπειτα διανοίας λογικῆς ὥσπερ πιμπλάμενον τοῦ σοῦ κράτους αἰσθάνεται καὶ ἠρέμα κάμψαν τὸ γόνυ τὸ μέτωπον προσερείδει τῇ γῇ. ἐγὼ δ' ἐντεῦθεν ἄλλο τι συμβολικῶς ἐννοῶ, ὅτι σοι τῆς γῆς οἱ γίγαντες ξύμπαντες-οὕτω γὰρ ἐγὼ τὰς παλαιτάτας ἀρχὰς ὀνομάζω-ἐθελοντὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ὑποστρώσουσι κεφαλὰς καὶ βραχεῖ ἀχθήσονται χαλινῷ ὅπῃ δὴ καὶ θελήσειας. Τί δέ; τὸ δ' ἄλλο θηρίον ἀξύμβολον ἡμῖν φανεῖται καὶ ἀσημείωτον; οὐμενοῦν. ἑῴας γὰρ αὐτὸ καὶ ἑσπέρας ξύνδεσμον ἐγὼ τίθεμαι· ἐξ ἀνατολῆς γὰρ ὥσπερ τῆς ὑψηλῆς κεφαλῆς τοῖς ὀπισθίοις συγκαταδύνει ποσίν. οἷς δὴ σὺ τμήμασι τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκτενεῖς καὶ ἡ ἀρχὴ δεξιά· ἀπὸ γὰρ τῆς ἑῴας ἀρξάμενος ὥσπερ οὐρανὸς ἀπλανὴς εἰς τὸν ἑσπέριον περιελίττῃ ὁρίζοντα. ἀλλ' ἐντεῦθέν σοι ἀρρήτῳ θέοντι φορᾷ τὸ ὑπὲρ τὸν Ἴστρον ἔθνος προσυπαντᾷ. γένος δὲ τοῦτο νομαδικὸν καὶ αὐτόσκευον, αὐτοματίζον τὸν βίον καὶ ἀρχὴν μὴ λογιζόμενον κρείττονα, τὴν ψυχὴν συνδιαλύον τῷ σώματι· διὰ τοῦτο ἀδιαφορεῖ μὲν τοῖς πράγμασι, θανατᾷ δὲ οὐχ ἥκιστα καὶ τῷ πολέμῳ ἐφάλλεται καὶ προσάλλεται, ὡς οὐδὲν ὂν αὐτῷ εἰ τεθναίη εἴτ' ἄλλον ἐντεῦθεν παρὰ τὸν μοιραῖον, ὥς πού τις ἔφησεν, ἀπαγάγοι κλωστῆρα, ἀλλ' ὢ τῆς σῆς βαθείας συνέσεως, ὢ φρενὸς βαθείας καὶ διανοίας μεγαλογνώμονος. αἰσχρὸν ἡγησάμενος τῶν Ῥωμαίων τὰς τάξεις τοιούτοις ἀντιφερίζειν ἀνδράσιν, ἐφ' οἷς ἐν ἴσῳ τὸ νικᾶν ἐστι τῷ ἡττᾶσθαι, ὥσπερ τινὰς Γαβαωνίτας τῷ σῷ συγκαταριθμεῖς Ἰσραήλ, ἐπιτάξας αὐτοῖς ὑδροφορεῖν καὶ ὑλοτομεῖν, ἑλομένοις καὶ τούτοις ἐν οἴκῳ παραρριπτεῖσθαι κυρίου ἢ ἐν σκηνώμασιν ἁμαρτωλῶν κατοικεῖν. καὶ ὢ τοῦ θαύματος. οἱ μηδὲν τοῦ φαινομένου πλέον εἰδότες, τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐν ἀπορρήτοις δόξαν μεμυσταγώγηνται καὶ τελεστικῶν καθαρσίων τυχόντες καὶ ἁγνισμάτων ἐξ ἀγόνων λίθων καὶ ἀκροτόμων ὀρῶν ἀπεγεννήθησαν τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ. Ἀλλ' οὔτε λειμὼν εὐθὺς ἅπασιν εὐανθής ἐστι τοῖς φυτοῖς οὔτε θάλασσα προβόλοις ὁμοῦ καὶ σκοπέλοις λειοκυμονεῖ καὶ ἀκταῖς οὔτε σῶμα εἰς ὑγιεινὴν ἁρμονίαν συμπέπηκται ἐξ ὅλων ὁμοῦ τῶν μερῶν, ἀνάλογα δὲ μέρη σώματι καὶ τῇ κατὰ πάντων ἡγεμονίᾳ μερίδες ἀρχῶν, ὧν αἱ πλείους τῇ ὁλότητι προσχωροῦσαι παρὰ τὰς ἐλάττονας τὴν ξύμπασαν ἀκρωτηριάζουσι τελειότητα, ἕως ἂν ὥσπερ οἱ χείμαρροι ἐκ μιᾶς διαιρεθέντες ἀρχῆς καὶ λεπτὰ ῥεύσαντες αὖθις ὁμοῦ πρὸς τὴν χαράδραν συγκατακλύσωσι. τοῖς μὲν οὖν ἄλλοις αἰνίσσομαι ταῦτα λέγων, σοὶ δὲ τὴν Ἰταλίαν ἀριδήλως διασαφῶ· ἥτις ἀφ' ἑτέρων μὲν ἀπερρύη δακτύλων, παρὰ δὲ τῶν σῶν πρὸς τὴν πρώτην ἀναχεῖται πηγήν, πρώτη γὰρ διά σε ἡ νεωτέρα Ῥώμη καὶ κρείττων, πρὸς ἣν δεῖ ὥσπερ ἐν μεταβολαῖς εὐρίπων ἀνθυπενεχθῆναι τὰ ῥεύματα, ἵν' ὡς πρός τινα μεγάλην καὶ ἄπλετον θάλασσαν οἱ ποταμοὶ πάντες συρρεύσωσιν, μᾶλλον δὲ ὡς πρὸς τὸ τοῦ παντὸς κέντρον συννεύσωσιν ἑκατέρωθεν. κἀγὼ ἐπὶ τὸν πέριξ κύκλον ἴσοις βαδίσω τοῖς διαστήμασιν, ἀλλ' οἷος