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

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, the ape seemed a lion and the Pygmy a Heracles. but he had his hand as an accuser, even if he had his tongue as a defender of his hand. So again a court and indictments and the tongues of orators assisting the one in danger, and hands stealing the truth. But what are Aeschines and Philocrates and any other who "cries against the divine bird," as Pindar says, compared to the rush of Polemon and the eloquence of Demosthenes? For having set and exerted yourself against all, as if on a scale with a hundred whole weights, you brought down the balance-pan of truth and made the proof of the unseen thing be on the other side. At this, the one on trial, like a sailor who has let go the rudder and despaired of his hopes, is storm-tossed, as is likely, and is submerged in the sea, and as he tried to come up for air no one held out a hand, not an initiate, not an initiator, not even the great high priest himself, the sum of virtue, because it was not according to the laws, but pushed him back, treading upon him and leaping on him with his heel. But when he had to breathe his last after gasping three times, you appear to him as a saving harbor and a beacon on the sea. And you save him not from a sea-monster, but by having become close to the sea-monster. And how was this? Not by becoming superior to the laws, although even this was permitted to you by the laws, nor by abusing your authority, but with law and by casting the votes; so that indeed the echo of that thought still buzzes in my ears and the words are sealed like wax. For having made four points for the case, some authoritative, some similar, greater and lesser, and comparing one with the other, then taking these by analogy according to the geometers, then again inverting and alternating, you made the point in question acknowledged, and in what you willingly took the lesser part having conquered, you seemed both a geometer and just and benevolent. Then is Themistocles admired because he understood the meaning of the oracle, making the triremes a wooden wall for Attica? And how small a part is this of breathing life into the dead and granting motion to chilled bones, and with what sort of knowledge do you, who are upon the tribunals, thus read the laws to me with Socratic judgment and geometric proof? But to Themistocles I would say this, that "You indeed after the oracle walled Athens with ships, but my emperor, having prophesied for himself, fortifies the city of the same name with stronger walls, having, as it were, spontaneously created certain hills or islands against the sea, such as you say concerning Delos, where Leto, having crossed over, gave birth. You would have said on seeing them, if it were a small thing for you, that these are sea-monsters having emerged from the earth, such as the Atlantic ocean swells up, having swum across from there to here." But let Themistocles and the Delphic oracles perish along with the tripod's cauldron. But I will hold to what follows, reviewing, but not exhausting, your superior qualities. For you not only wish better things for us, Emperor, but you also devise how they might come about immediately, not by raising pyramids nor digging Egyptian tunnels nor heaping up Rome, so that we might be lifted up to the heights as if by a machine, but by drawing rivers and raising up waters and joining seas, so that you might relieve for us the summer drought and give drink to a thirsting people. And in the depth of the earth the water bubbles, being confined and promising an eruption. For this reason you have assigned vents to it, from which indeed, as if from pressure being forced out and being hurled high up, it both cools the air and this new rain, having its origins from below, seems to descend as if from clouds. But these things are new and Archimedian, but for me, consider also the other things and be amazed: walls being made new or now being raised for the first time, whole cities being built in a single day, not with baked bricks as at Persian Ctesiphon, the famed fortress, but with unbreakable

λέγειν; -ἀσχήμων μέχρι τοῦ σχήματος, καττιτερινὸς ἢ χολοβάφινος καὶ τὸ ὅλον ψευδόχρυσος, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἐντὸς τῶν δεινῶν ἐγεγόνει, ἐδόκει λέων ὁ πίθηκος καὶ Ἡρακλῆς ὁ Πυγμαῖος. ἀλλ' εἶχε τὴν χεῖρα κατήγορον, εἰ καὶ τῆς χειρὸς τὴν γλῶτταν ὑπέρμαχον. πάλιν γοῦν δικαστήριον καὶ γραφαὶ καὶ γλῶτται ῥητόρων βοηθοῦσαι τῷ κινδυνεύοντι καὶ χεῖρες κλέπτουσαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν. ἀλλὰ τί πρὸς τὸν τοῦ Πολέμωνος ῥοῖζον καὶ τὴν ∆ημοσθένους δεινότητα Αἰσχίνης καὶ Φιλοκράτης καὶ εἴ τις ἄλλος φωνεῖ πρὸς ὄρνιχα θεῖον, ὅ φησι Πίνδαρος; πᾶσι γὰρ σαυτὸν ἀντιστήσας καὶ κατατείνας, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ ζυγοῦ ὅλαις ὁλκαῖς ἑκατὸν τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας κατήνεγκας πλάστιγγα καὶ τὸν τοῦ ἀφανοῦς ἔλεγχον παρὰ θάτερον μέρος πεποίηκας. ἐπὶ τούτοις οἷα δὴ πλωτὴρ ἀφεικὼς τοὺς οἴακας ὁ κρινόμενος καὶ τῶν ἐλπίδων ἀπεγνωκώς, χειμάζεται μέν, οἷα εἰκός, καὶ τῷ πελάγει βαπτίζεται, ἐξαναδῦναι δὲ πειρωμένῳ οὐδεὶς ὑπεῖχε τὴν χεῖρα, οὐ μύστης, οὐ μυσταγωγός, οὐκ αὐτὸς ὁ μέγας ἀρχιερεύς, τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸ κεφάλαιον, ὅτι μὴ κατὰ νόμους ἐξῆν, ἀλλ' ἀντώθει ἐπεμβαίνων καὶ λὰξ ἐναλλόμενος. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἔδει που τρὶς ἀναπνεύσαντα ἐρυγεῖν τὴν ψυχήν, λιμὴν αὐτῷ φαίνῃ σωτήριος καὶ φρυκτὸς ἐν θαλάσσῃ. καὶ σῴζεις οὐκ ἀπὸ κήτους, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τῷ κήτει γενόμενος. καὶ ταῦτα πῶς; οὐ κρείττων τῶν νόμων γενόμενος, καίτοι καὶ τοῦτό σοι παρὰ τῶν νόμων ἐξῆν, οὐδὲ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ καταχρησάμενος, ἀλλὰ μετὰ νόμου καὶ τὰς ψήφους θέμενος· ὡς ἄρα γε ἡ τῆς ἐννοίας ἐκείνης ἠχὼ ἔτι ἐμβομβεῖ μου ταῖς ἀκοαῖς καὶ τὰ ῥήματα οἷα κηρὸς ἐνεσφράγισται. τέσσαρα γὰρ τέλη τῆς δίκης ποιήσας, τὰ μὲν κύρια, τὰ δὲ ὅμοια, μείζονα καὶ ἐλάττονα, καὶ συγκρίνας θάτερον παρὰ θάτερον, εἶτα κατὰ τοὺς γεωμέτρας ἀνάλογα ταῦτα λαβών, εἶτ' αὖθις ἀναστρέψας καὶ ἐναλλάξας ὁμολογούμενον πεποίηκας τὸ ζητούμενον, καὶ οἷς ἑκὼν εἶναι τὸ ἔλαττον ἔσχες νενικηκώς, γεωμετρικός τε καὶ δίκαιος καὶ φιλάνθρωπος ἔδοξας. Εἶτα θαυμάζεται Θεμιστοκλῆς ὅτι ἀνέγνω τοῦ χρησμοῦ τὴν διάνοιαν, ξύλινον τεῖχος τὰς τριήρεις τῇ Ἀττικῇ θέμενος; καὶ πόσον τοῦτο μέρος τοῦ ἐμπνεῦσαι νεκροῖς καὶ ὀστέοις κατεψυγμένοις χαρίσασθαι κίνησιν, καὶ μεθ' οἵας τῆς ἐπιστήμης οὕτω μοι τοὺς νόμους οἱ ἐπὶ τῶν βημάτων ἀναγινώσκετε μετὰ Σωκρατικῆς κρίσεως καὶ γεωμετρικῆς ἀποδείξεως; πρὸς δὲ τὸν Θεμιστοκλέα ἐκεῖνο ἂν εἴποιμι, ὅτι "Σὺ μὲν μετὰ τὸν χρησμὸν ναυσὶ τὰς Ἀθήνας ἐτείχισας, ὁ δὲ ἐμὸς βασιλεὺς αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ χρησμῳδήσας τὴν ὁμώνυμον πόλιν τείχεσι κρείττοσι φράγνυται, λόφους τινὰς ἢ νήσους κατὰ τῆς θαλάσσης ὥσπερ αὐτοματίσας, ὁποῖα δὴ ὑμεῖς οἱ περὶ τῆς ∆ήλου φατέ, ἔνθα διαβᾶσα τέτοκεν ἡ Λητώ. εἶπες ἂν ἰδών, εἶπερ μικρὸν ἦν σοι ἐξαναδῦναι τῆς γῆς κήτη ταῦτα θαλάσσης, οἷα τὸ Ἀτλαντικὸν ἐξογκοῖ πέλαγος, ἐκεῖθεν ἐνταῦθα διανηξάμενα." ἀλλὰ Θεμιστοκλῆς μὲν καὶ χρησμοὶ ∆ελφικοὶ μετὰ τοῦ τριποδικοῦ ἐρρέτωσαν λέβητος. Ἐγὼ δὲ τῶν ἐφεξῆς ἕξομαι, ἐφοδεύων, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐξοδεύων τὰ σὰ προτερήματα. οὐ γὰρ βούλει μόνον ἡμῖν τὰ κρείττονα, βασιλεῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ προσμηχανᾷ, ὅπως ἂν παραυτὰ παραγένηται, οὐ πυραμίδας ἐγείρων οὐδ' Αἰγυπτίας ὀρύττων σύριγγας οὐδὲ τὴν Ῥώμην ἐπιχωννύων, ἵν' ὡς ἐκ μηχανῆς ἐπὶ τὸ ἄναντες ἀναχθείημεν, ἀλλὰ ποταμοὺς ἕλκων καὶ μετεωρίζων ὕδατα καὶ πελάγη συνάπτων, ἵν' ἡμῖν τὸν ἐν τῷ θέρει παραμυθήσῃς αὐχμὸν καὶ διψῶντα ποτίσῃς λαόν. ἐν δὲ τῷ βάθει τῆς γῆς τὸ ὕδωρ παφλάζει στενοχωρούμενον καὶ τὴν ἔκρηξιν ὑπισχνούμενον. διὰ ταῦτα ἀναπνοὰς τούτῳ κατένειμας, ἀφ' ὧν δὴ ὥσπερ ἐκ πιέσματος ἐκπυρρηνιζόμενον καὶ εἰς ὕψος ἀκοντιζόμενον ψύχει τε τὸν ἀέρα καὶ ὥσπερ ἐκ νεφῶν κατιέναι δοκεῖ καινὸς οὗτος ὄμβρος κάτωθεν ἔχων τὰς ἀφορμάς. ἀλλὰ καινὰ ταῦτα καὶ Ἀρχιμήδεια, σὺ δέ μοι καὶ τἆλλα κατανοῶν θαύμαζε, τείχη νεάζοντα ἢ πρώτως νῦν ἐγειρόμενα, πόλεις ὅλας ἐφ' ἡμέρας οἰκοδομουμένας μιᾶς, οὐ πλίνθοις ὀπταῖς ὥσπερ ἡ Περσὶς Κτησιφῶν τὸ θρυλλούμενον φρούριον, ἀλλ' ἀρραγέσι