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they seem to connect the nearness of the season, for after winter spring appears. And Ares is worshipped with the sounds of arms and trumpets, and for this reason the Romans celebrated the first festival for him, calling it Armilustrium, as if a purification of arms, with neither winter nor any other circumstance hindering the movement of the arms on the field of Mars. His name according to the Egyptians is Pyroeis, whence also Xanthikos among the Macedonians; and the Greeks, as has been said, called him Ares from his deeds. For one would not find a proper name of a god according to Apollodorus, nor indeed a mark of nature, since those who philosophize introduce the forms now as male, now as female; but from the effects they gave them names, introducing the creative powers as male gods, and the life-giving ones as female. 4.35 That the star of Ares and that of Kronos are especially good, if indeed all things are good and nothing is base according to Plato, but things under the moon, not bearing their divinity, are corrupted, as Iamblichus says. That the astrologers say Ares is maleficent, not that he is such by nature, but because for souls descending to genesis he attends by the law of justice, acting justly upon them according to their worth; therefore he who allies himself with justice is good. That it is possible to learn from Proclus the Successor, that evil is not in existence nor in substance, who says that it is not possible for evil to exist, nor to be conceived as the opposite of the good. That even evil itself is for the sake of the good; but at any rate all things are for the sake of the good; and the divine is not the cause of evil; for evil would not be evil from there, but from other causes, and from those for whom begetting exists not according to power but according to weakness; wherefore it seems to me that Plato also, placing all things around the king of all, and allowing evil itself to be, as if imagined as good; for if he himself is of the things that are, so it would be necessary to call him the cause of all things; and not simply of all things nor of evils, but rather not the cause of these and the cause of all that is; so that the gods do not make evil, but as good, and they destroy it as evil. For the definition of evil is not a living and ensouled substance but a disposition in a soul that is contrary to virtue, arising from indolence through the falling away from the beautiful. One might then piously accept even the so-called maleficent planets, as not being such by nature, but contributing to the administration of the universe; for if Kronos cools, and Ares heats, then they contribute to genesis, and by themselves they are destructive, but when mixed, they are saving. 4.36 That Ptolemy in the Harmonics: there are, he says, definite numbers, through which in all things that come together and are fitted to one another an acknowledged concord arises; and nothing whatever can come together with something, except through these numbers. And these are: epitrite, hemiolic, spondaic, duple, triple, quadruple. 4.37 That the perceptible comes to us from the sun, and the natural from the lunar sphere, and by the beneficence of both lights this life of ours has been exceptionally constituted, or rather our way of life and the progress of our actions are referred partly to these two lights, and partly also to the five planets; but the mediation of the above-mentioned numbers well unites and connects some of these stars with the lights. but no other bond of number reconciles them with the lights; therefore the stars of Aphrodite and of Zeus are connected through these numbers to each of the lights, but that of Zeus is connected to the sun through all of them, and to the moon through several, while that of Aphrodite is harmonized with the moon through all of them, and with the sun through several numbers. From this, even if each of these is especially beneficent, nevertheless the star of Zeus with the sun is more profitable

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τὸ τοῦ καιροῦ προσεχὲς συνάπτεσθαι δοκοῦσι, μετὰ γὰρ χειμῶνα τὸ ἔαρ ἀναφέρεται. θεραπεύεται δὲ ὁ Ἄρης ἤχοις ὅπλων καὶ σάλπιγξι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο αὐτῷ τὴν πρώτην ἑορτὴν ἐπετέλουν οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι, καλοῦντες αὐτὴν Ἀρμιλούστριον οἱονεὶ καθαρμὸν ὅπλων, μὴ χείματος μὴ ἑτέρας τινὸς περιστάσεως εἰργούσης τὴν κίνησιν τῶν ὅπλων ἐπὶ τῷ τοῦ Ἄρεος πεδίῳ. ὄνομα δὲ αὐτῷ κατ' Αἰγυπτίους Πυρόεις, ὅθεν καὶ Ξανθικὸς παρὰ Μακεδόσιν· Ἕλληνες δὲ αὐτόν, ὡς εἴρηται, Ἄρεα ἐκ τῶν πραγμάτων προσηγόρευον. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄν τις εὕρῃ κυρίαν θεοῦ προσηγορίαν κατὰ τὸν Ἀπολλόδωρον, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ φύσεως γνώρισμα, ἐπεὶ νῦν μὲν ἄρρενας, νῦν δὲ θηλείας τὰς ἰδέας εἰσάγουσιν οἱ φιλοσοφοῦντες· ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων ὀνομασίας αὐτοῖς ἔθεντο, ἄρρενας μὲν θεοὺς τὰς δημιουργικὰς δυνάμεις, θηλείας δὲ τὰς ζωογόνους εἰσάγοντες. 4.35 Ὅτι ἀγαθὸς μάλιστα ὁ Ἄρεος ἀστὴρ καὶ ὁ τοῦ Κρόνου, εἴγε ἀγαθὰ πάντα καὶ φλαῦρον οὐδὲν κατὰ Πλάτωνα, ἀλλὰ τὴν τούτων θειότητα τὰ ὑπὸ σελήνην μὴ φέροντα φθείρεται, ὥς φησιν Ἰάμβλιχος. ὅτι κακοποιὸν τὸν Ἄρην οἱ ἀστρολόγοι φασίν, οὐχ ὅτι τοιοῦτος τὴν φύσιν, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ κατιούσαις ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐπὶ τὴν γένεσιν τῷ τῆς δίκης νόμῳ παρέπεται, κατ' ἀξίαν πράττων ἐπ' αὐταῖς τὰ δίκαια· ἀγαθὸς δὲ ἄρα ὁ τῇ δίκῃ συμμαχῶν. ὅτι πρὸς τοῦ ∆ιαδόχου Πρόκλου ἔστι μαθεῖν, ὅτι οὐκ ἐν ὑπάρξει οὐδὲ οὐσίᾳ τὸ κακόν, λέγοντος ὅτι οὐδὲ εἶναι τὸ κακόν ἐστι δυνατόν, μήτε ἐναντίον φανταζόμενον ὡς ἀγαθόν. ὅτι τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἕνεκα καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ κακόν· ἀλλὰ πάντα γε ἕνεκα τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ· καὶ τὸ θεῖον ἀναίτιον τοῦ κακοῦ· οὐ γὰρ τὸ κακὸν εἴη κακὸν ἐκεῖθεν, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἄλλων αἰτίων, καὶ οἷς τὸ γεννᾶν οὐ κατὰ δύναμιν ἀλλὰ κατ' ἀσθένειαν ὑπάρχει· διό μοι δοκεῖ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων περὶ τὸν πάντων βασιλέα τὰ πάντα θέμενος, καὶ αὐτὸ διδοὺς εἶναι τὸ κακὸν ὥσπερ ἀγαθὸν φανταζόμενον· εἰ γὰρ αὐτὸ τῶν ὄντων ἐστίν, οὕτω τε ἂν αὐτὸ ἁπάντων αἴ τιον προσειπεῖν χρεών· καὶ οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἁπάντων οὐδὲ τῶν κακῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων ἀναίτιον καὶ παντὸς τοῦ ὄντος αἴτιον· ὥστε οὐ ποιοῦσιν οἱ θεοὶ τὸ κακόν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἀγαθόν, καὶ ἀναιροῦσιν αὐτὸ ὡς κακόν. ὅρος γάρ ἐστι κακοῦ οὐκ οὐσία ζῶσα καὶ ἔμψυχος ἀλλὰ διάθεσις ἐν ψυχῇ ἐναντίως ἔχουσα πρὸς ἀρετὴν διὰ τὴν τοῦ καλοῦ ἀπόπτωσιν ταῖς ῥᾳθυμίαις ἐγγινομένη. λάβοι οὖν ἄν τις εὐσεβῶς καὶ τοὺς λεγομένους κακοποιοὺς τῶν πλανήτων, οὐκ ὄντας μὲν τοιούτους τὴν φύσιν, συντελοῦντας δὲ εἰς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς διοίκησιν· εἰ γὰρ ψύχει μὲν ὁ Κρόνος, ὁ δὲ Ἄρης θερμαίνει, ἄρα συντελοῦσι τῇ γενέσει, καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὰ μὲν φθαρτικά ἐστι, κιρνώμενα δὲ σωτήρια. 4.36 Ὅτι ὁ Πτολεμαῖος ἐν τῇ ἁρμονικῇ· ὡρισμένοι, φησίν, εἰσὶν οἱ ἀριθμοί, δι' ὧν ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς πρὸς ἄλληλα συμβαίνουσι καὶ ἁρμοζομένοις ὁμολόγος γίνεται συμφωνία· καὶ οὐδ' ὁτιοῦν δύναταί τινι, εἰ μὴ διὰ τούτων τῶν ἀριθμῶν συνελθεῖν. εἰσὶ δ' οὗτοι· ἐπίτριτος ἡμιόλιος σπονδεῖος διπλάσιος τριπλάσιος τετραπλάσιος. 4.37 Ὅτι τὸ μὲν αἰσθητὸν ἐξ ἡλίου, τὸ δὲ φυσικὸν ἐκ τῆς σεληνιακῆς σφαίρας πρὸς ἡμᾶς παραγίνεται, καὶ τῇ τῶν φώτων ἑκατέρων εὐποιΐᾳ κατ' ἐξαίρετον ἥδε συνέστηκεν ἡμῖν ἡ ζωὴ ἢ μέντοι ἡμετέρα ἀναστροφὴ καὶ αἱ τῶν πράξεων προκοπαὶ τοῦτο μὲν πρὸς τὰ δύο ταυτὶ φῶτα, τοῦτο δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς πέντε πλάνητας ἀναφέρονται· ἀλλὰ τούτων τῶν ἀστέρων ἄλλους μὲν ἡ μεσιτεία τῶν ἀνωτέρω μνημονευθέντων ἀριθμῶν καλῶς μετὰ τῶν φώτων ἑνοῖ καὶ συνάπτει. ἄλλος δὲ οὐδεὶς ἀριθμοῦ σύνδεσμος συμβιβάζει μετὰ τῶν φώτων· οὐκοῦν οἱ μὲν τῆς Ἀφροδίτης καὶ τοῦ ∆ιὸς ἀστέρες διὰ τούτων τῶν ἀριθμῶν ἑκατέρῳ τῶν φώτων συνάπτονται, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν τοῦ ∆ιὸς τῷ ἡλίῳ διὰ πάντων, τῇ δὲ σελήνῃ διὰ πλειόνων, ὁ δὲ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης τῇ μὲν σελήνῃ διὰ πάντων, τῷ δ' ἡλίῳ διὰ πλειόνων ἁρμόζεται ἀριθμῶν. ἐντεῦθεν εἰ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα τούτων ἑκάτερον ἀγαθοποιόν, ὁ τοῦ ∆ιὸς ὅμως ἀστὴρ σὺν ἡλίῳ λυσιτελέστερός