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

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 the laws, have proceeded to the inaccessible city from the crossroads and pits, becoming at once a prophet and a hierophant. And before washing your hands in the water of your own cauldron, you dared to touch the sacred books. Then, placing the tablets on your knees and unfolding them majestically, you from there do what the proverb says: an ass twitching its ears at a lyre; or not even this, for you do not perceive the sacred melody. And you would not have dared to be a pedagogue without having learned the laws of pedagogy, nor to wrestle without having first determined to practice holds, but you did not shrink from the pentathlon, not even knowing what the name is or whence it is derived, whether from justice or from some other state and power. But nature in its changes to the opposite has worked out certain intermediate states, and something black would not become white, having been so before, unless it should pass through the intermediate colors, and so with the rest; and the seasons are blended with one another at their extreme qualities through things that share in both and have the one next to the other, and the essential qualities are placed as a mean between what is and what has its substance in what is. Thus indeed nature is neither purely a substance, as it seems to Asclepiodotus, nor is it numbered among the accidents. And you yourself, the marvelous tavern-keeper, will spare the cold cup and would never pour hot water into it; for it would break at once, as the heat rarefies the cup and creates vapors, by which it then outright cracks. But while you have taken great foresight for this, and you philosophize simply by using the middle qualities before the opposite ones, you have utterly neglected yourself, having passed from tavern-keeping to the judicial office, not as Helle letting go from the air into the sea, nor as Icarus having winged his way from earth to heaven; for natural opposites are not so far distant from one another, nor is diametrical opposition fitted to any other things as it is to tavern-keeping and the judicial science. For while white is completely distant from black, yet the underlying subject of the one is not unreceptive to the other extreme but is suitably disposed toward it also; but how could a tavern-keeper, a man who has never even seen the porch of the laws, at once hold the office of Minos or Rhadamanthus, neither having conversed with the gods for nine years <***> nor having encountered the tablets of Zeus, nor like the jays, having their tongue trained by hearing into human speech? And a carver would never serve platters of meat, having taken them up, unless he first knew how to skillfully turn them on spits over the fire, whether they were of pork or of kid; but you, like an impromptu lawyer, were at once sown and sprung up, and you nod your helmet—I know not whether four-crested or single-crested—and you have appeared with a spear and like the Titans you shoot your arrows at the gods. And Dionysus, and after him Heracles, would never have been numbered among the Hellenic gods, if the one had not cleansed the whole earth of foul men, and the other had not cured incurable sufferings; and even in these things, there are those by whom they are ridiculed for being numbered among them. But you, having done the opposite of those things, not polluting the earth, but corrupting the liquid nature and destroying the body's robustness through the consumption of unmixed wine, then wish, like the gods in Homer, to sit beside Zeus on a golden floor and speak on matters you do not know, not even fearing golden-throned Hera, lest she might denounce you to Zeus and strike you from the sacred circle. What would you say, if you became their advocate? Do you know to which side you would give the turn of the scale and incline the balances of justice, and which of the nations has been more wronged, whether the Trojans, when the Hellenic army fell upon them, or the Hellenes, having been deprived of the capital of Hellenic beauty? And how would you judge between Phoenicians and Hellenes? and from

καὶ οὕτω τοῖς διαλεκτικοῖς ἐναρμόσας κανόσιν ἐκεῖθεν ἐπὶ τὴν θεολογίαν ἐπτέρου. σὺ δὲ τὰ τῶν νόμων ὥσπερ ὑπερβὰς τέμπη ἐπὶ τὸ ἄβατον ἄστυ κεχώρηκας ἐκ τῶν τριόδων καὶ τῶν βαράθρων προφήτης ἅμα καὶ ἱεροφάντης γινόμενος. καὶ πρὶν ἢ τὰς χεῖρας ἀποκλύσαι τῷ τοῦ σοῦ λέβητος ὕδατι τῶν ἱερῶν βίβλων ἐτόλμησας ἐπαφήσασθαι. εἶτα δὴ τὰς δέλτους ἐπὶ τῶν γονάτων θέμενος καὶ ἀναπτύσσων σεμνοπρεπῶς τὸ ἐντεῦθεν τὸ τῆς παροιμίας ποιεῖς, ὄνος πρὸς λύραν τὰ ὦτα κινῶν· ἢ μηδὲ τοῦτο, οὐ γὰρ αἰσθάνῃ τοῦ ἱεροῦ μέλους. καὶ παιδαγωγεῖν μὲν οὐκ ἂν ἐτόλμησας μὴ παιδαγωγίας νόμους μεμαθηκὼς οὐδὲ παλαίειν μὴ πρότερον ἀκροχειρίζειν διεγνωκώς, τὸν δὲ πένταθλον οὐ κατώκνησας οὐδ' ὅ τι ἐστὶ τοὔνομα ἐπιστάμενος οὐδ' ὅθεν παρῆκται, εἴτ' ἀπὸ τῆς δικαιοσύνης εἴθ' ἑτέρας τινὸς ἕξεως καὶ δυνάμεως. Ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν φύσις ἐν ταῖς εἰς τὸ ἐναντίον μεταβολαῖς μεσότητάς τινας ἀπειργάσατο, καὶ οὐκ ἄν τι μέλαν γένοιτο λευκὸν ὂν τὸ πρότερον, εἰ μὴ διὰ τῶν μέσων ἔλθοι χρωμάτων, καὶ τἆλλα οὕτως· οἵ τε καιροὶ ἀλλήλοις συγκεράννυνται οἱ κατὰ τὰς ἄκρας ποιότητας διὰ τῶν ἐπαμφοτεριζόντων καὶ θάτερον παρὰ θάτερον ἐχόντων, τοῦ τε ὄντος καὶ τοῦ ἐν τῷ ὄντι τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχοντος αἱ οὐσιώδεις μέσον ποιότητες τίθενται. οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἡ φύσις οὔτε οὐσία τίς ἐστι καθαρῶς, ὡς τῷ Ἀσκληπιοδότῳ δοκεῖ, οὔτε μετὰ τῶν συμβεβηκότων ἠρίθμηται. καὶ σὺ δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ θαυμάσιος κάπηλος φείσῃ τοῦ ψυχροῦ ποτηρίου καὶ οὐκ ἄν ποτε θερμὸν ὕδωρ αὐτῷ ἐπιχέοις· διαρραγῇ γὰρ αὐτίκα ἀραιώσαντος τὸ ἔκπωμα τοῦ θερμοῦ καὶ τεκόντος πνεύματα ὑφ' ὧν δὴ καὶ ψοφεῖ ἄντικρυς. ἀλλὰ τούτου μὲν πολλὴν πεποίησαι πρόνοιαν καὶ φιλοσοφεῖς ἀτεχνῶς ταῖς μέσαις ποιότησι πρὸ τῶν ἐναντίων χρώμενος, σαυτοῦ δὲ παντάπασι κατημέλησας, ἀπὸ καπηλείας εἰς τὴν δικαστικὴν παραγγείλας ἀξίαν, οὐχ ὡς ἡ Ἕλλη εἰς πέλαγος ἀφεὶς ἐξ ἀέρος οὐδ' ὡς ὁ Ἴκαρος ἀπὸ γῆς εἰς οὐρανὸν πτερυξάμε νος· οὐ γὰρ τοσοῦτον ἀλλήλων τὰ φύσει ἐναντία ἀφέστηκε οὐδ' ἄλλοις τισὶν ἡ ἐκ διαμέτρου ἥρμοσται ἐναντίωσις ὡς καπηλεία καὶ δικαστικὴ ἐπιστήμη. τὸ μὲν γὰρ λευκὸν εἰ καὶ ἀφέστηκε τοῦ μέλανος παντάπασι, ἀλλὰ τό γε ὑποκείμενον τούτῳ οὐκ ἄδεκτον καὶ θατέρου ἄκρου ἀλλ' ἐπιτη δείως καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνο ὑφέστηκε· κάπηλος δὲ ἄνθρωπος μηδὲ πρόθυρά ποτε νόμων ἰδὼν πῶς ἂν αὐτίκα τὴν τοῦ Μίνωος σχοίη ἀξίαν ἢ Ῥαδαμάν θυος, οὔτε τῷ θεῶν ἐννεάσας <***> οὔτε ταῖς ∆ιὸς ἐντετυχηκὼς δέλτοις οὔθ' ὥσπερ αἱ κίσσαι ῥυθμισθεῖσαι τὴν γλῶτταν ἐξ ἀκοῆς εἰς ἀνθρωπείαν διά λεκτον; καὶ δαιτρὸς μὲν οὐκ ἄν ποτε παραθείη κρειῶν πίνακας ἀείρας, εἰ μή γε πρότερον εἰδείη εὐστρόφως τοῖς ὀβελοῖς ταῦτα ὑπὲρ πυρὸς μεταλ λάττειν, εἴτε χοίρεια εἴη εἴτε ἐρίφεια· σὺ δ' ὥσπερ αὐτοσχέδιος νομικὸς ὁμοῦ τε ἐσπάρης καὶ ἀνεδόθης καὶ κόρυθα νεύεις, οὐκ οἶδα εἴτε τετραφά λαρον ἢ μονόμφαλον, καὶ μετὰ δόρατος ὦψαι καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ Τιτᾶνες ἀποτοξεύεις εἰς θεούς. Καὶ ὁ μὲν ∆ιόνυσος καὶ μετ' ἐκεῖνον ὁ Ἡρακλῆς οὐκ ἄν ποτε συναρίθμιοι τοῖς Ἑλληνίοις θεοῖς γεγόνασιν, εἰ μὴ ὁ μὲν τὴν γῆν ἅπασαν τῶν μιαρῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐκάθηρεν, ὁ δὲ ἀνίατα πάθη ἠκέσατο· κἀν τούτοις δὲ εἰσὶν ὑφ' ὧν καταγελῶνται τῆς συναριθμήσεως. σὺ δὲ τὰ ἐναντία ἐκείνοις δεδρακὼς καὶ τὴν μὲν γῆν οὐ μιάνας, τὴν δὲ ὑγρὰν διαφθείρας φύσιν καὶ ῥωμαλεότητα καταβαλὼν σώματος διὰ τῆς τοῦ ἀκράτου φορᾶς, εἶτα βούλει ὥσπερ οἱ παρ' Ὁμήρῳ θεοὶ πὰρ Ζηνὶ καθίζειν ἐν ἐδάφει χρυσέῳ καὶ δημηγορεῖν ἅττα οὐκ οἶδας, οὐδὲ τὴν χρυσόθρονον Ἥραν δεδιὼς μή που κατείπῃ σου πρὸς τὸν ∆ία καὶ διαγράψηταί σε τοῦ ἱεροῦ κύκλου. τί δ' ἂν εἴποις, εἰ προήγορος ἐκείνων γένοιο; ἆρ' οἶδας οἷστισι τὴν ῥοπὴν δοίης καὶ τὰ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἐπικλινεῖς τάλαντα καὶ τίνες μᾶλλον ἠδίκηνται τῶν ἐθνῶν, πότερον οἱ Τρῶες τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ τούτοις ἐπιβάντος στρατεύματος ἢ οἱ Ἕλληνες τὸ κεφάλαιον ἀφῃρημένοι τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς ὡραιότητος; πῶς δ' ἂν καὶ Φοίνιξι δικάσαις καὶ Ἕλλησι; καὶ παρὰ