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
sitting and with his fingers harnessing and re-harnessing horses in the shadows; but there, one fighting against contrary winds and quickly backing water and skillfully handling the sail according to the various movements of the wind, and here, one overcoming the lunge of the wrestler and skillfully grappling with the hands and tripping up his feet with his feet and, by seeming to fall, throwing him down, just as indeed a charioteer standing skillfully by the chariot-rail, both checking and reining in one of the horses, and striking another with the whip, and driving one straight ahead, but making the other swerve and turn aside towards the turning-post. But if someone who professes to be a helmsman, then, when a fish of the sea appears somewhere, looks to his hook and lets down his rod with its lead sinker into the water, this man does not seem to me at all to be worthily named after his science; nor would one who fights in the front ranks or beside another, when he ought to be thrusting his spear forcefully against the enemy, if he were to strip the bracelets from the fallen, be fit for the military rolls. By the same token, therefore, neither would someone who chose to practice geometry or astronomy, if he then delighted in attending royal courts and became one who casts his eyes upon the treasures there, ever nobly take hold of these sciences. But perhaps you do not yet know how great is the magnitude of the mathematical sciences and how great their height, and that the ascent to them is not easy, but that he who is to partake of them must first, as if about to descend into the shrine of Ammon or into the mysteries of Mithras, toil beforehand with many propositions, just as there with austerities. But you, it seems, as if you were about to pick up pebbles on the seashore, so you approach geometry without a care, and it is no matter if you also walk somewhere else; for one need only wish to grasp it, and the demonstration is grasped. But perhaps you have not known that Pythagorean saying, "a figure and a step," or that one must ascend by degrees through such mathematical studies to the completely immaterial essences. But if someone wishing to ascend by a ladder to a very high roof should not climb without turning back, but turns his foot back and undoes the measures of his ascent as if unweaving some web of Penelope, will this man ascend to where he set out? Far from it; but this perhaps is a lesser point regarding your situation. But if someone, wishing to know the incorporeal essences, should not approach the natures that are close to being incorporeal, but should thicken, as it were, the soul's energy with the perceptions of bodies, would this man ever know an incorporeal nature? But, you blessed man, do you think that the mathematical sciences are somehow buried, so that you do not hasten to seize them through the air, but through tunnels, as thieves are accustomed to do and those who profess to dig wells? But do not think this; for astronomy and geometry and music, and long before them arithmetic, and all the arts that have flowed from these, blended with each other and having become one nature, both single and diverse, are seated above the back of heaven. Then do you not fear that, walking there, you will be consumed by the fire in between, and this when you have not yet acquired winged sandals? And how can you love geometry while groveling in the earth and hastening to make money and seeking honor from men? Is it not perhaps that the name of the science deceives you, lying to your supposition, and that you choose to divide off some of the land and measure it for yourself, in order that from this you might be called a geometer? But not from this, my good man, does geometry get its name; or perhaps from this, but it is not about this. For in older times it was named from what happened in Egypt; for there, when the Nile rose at its season and irrigated the land, and then again subsided and receded, so that there would be no confusion of properties, surveys determined the boundaries, from which came the figures on which the Egyptians' practice was based; and from there
καθήμενον καὶ τοῖς δακτύλοις τοὺς ἐν σκιαῖς ἵππους ζευγνύοντα καὶ μεταζευγνύοντα· ἀλλ' ἐκεῖ μὲν τὸν ἀνέμων ἀντιπνοίαις μαχόμενον
καὶ ταχὺ πρύμναν κρουόμενον καὶ εὐπετῶς τὸ ἱστίον μεταχειριζόμενον πρὸς τὰς διαφόρους κινήσεις τοῦ πνεύματος, ἐνταῦθα δὲ τὸν
τὴν προβολὴν ὑπερχόμενον τοῦ παλαίοντος καὶ ἀκροχει ριζόμενον εὐφυῶς καὶ τοῖν ποδοῖν τὼ πόδε λανθάνοντα καὶ τῷ δοκεῖν πίπτειν
καταπαλαίοντα, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ ἡνίοχον τὸν τεχνικῶς ἑστηκότα πρὸς τῇ ἄντυγι καὶ τῶν ἵππων τὸν μὲν ἀνακρουόμενόν τε καὶ ἀνασειράζον
τα, τὸν δὲ τῇ μάστιγι πλήττοντα, καὶ τὸν μὲν κατ' ἰθυτενὲς ἄγοντα, τὸν δὲ πρὸς τὸν καμπτῆρα παρεγκλίνοντά τε καὶ παρεκνεύοντα.
εἰ δέ τις ἐπαγ γελλόμενος κυβερνᾶν ἔπειτα ἰχθύος πῃ τῆς θαλάσσης παραφανέντος ἐπὶ τὸ ἄγκιστρον ἀπιδὼν τῇ ἁλιευτικῇ μολυβδαίνῃ
κατὰ τοῦ ὕδατος καθήσει τὸν κάλαμον, οὗτος οὐ πάνυ μοι δοκεῖ ἀξίως ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπιστήμης παρονομάζε σθαι· ἀλλ' οὐδ' ὁ προασπίζων
ἢ παρασπίζων, δέον ἐρρωμένως κατὰ τῶν ἀντιτεταγμένων τὸ δόρυ ὠθεῖν, εἰ τὰ τῶν πεσόντων ἀφαιροῖτο ψέλλια, τοῖς στρατιωτικοῖς
καταλόγοις ἐμπρέψειε. κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τοίνυν λόγον οὐδ' εἴ τις γεωμετρεῖν ἢ ἀστρονομεῖν αἱροῖτο, ἔπειτα βασιλείαις αὐλαῖς προσχωρεῖν
ἀγαπήσειε καὶ περὶ τοὺς ἐκεῖ θησαυροὺς ῥιψόφθαλμος γένοιτο, οὗτος ἄν ποτε γενναίως τῶν ἐπιστημῶν ἀντιλάβοιτο. Ἀλλ' ἴσως οὔπω
ἔγνωκας ὁποῖον τῶν μαθημάτων τὸ μέγεθος καὶ ἡλίκον τὸ ὕψος καὶ ὅτι οὐ διὰ ῥᾳδίας ἡ πρὸς ἐκεῖνα ἄνοδος, ἀλλὰ δεῖ τὸν ἐν μεταλήψει
τούτων γενησόμενον, ὥσπερ ἐν Ἄμμωνος κατιέναι μέλλοντα ἢ ἐς τὰ Μίθρου μυστήρια, πολλοῖς πρότερον προταλαιπωρῆσαι τοῖς λήμμασιν,
ὥσπερ ἐκεῖ ταῖς κακώσεσι. σὺ δὲ ἄρα, ὥσπερ τὰς ἐπὶ τῶν αἰγιαλῶν ψηφῖδας ἀναιρήσεσθαι μέλλων, οὕτως ἐπὶ τὴν γεωμετρίαν ἀπεριμερίμνως
χωρεῖς, καὶ οὐδὲν πρᾶγμα εἰ καὶ ἄλλοθί ποι βαδίζεις· θελῆσαι γὰρ δεῖ μόνον πρὸς τὴν κατάληψιν, καὶ κατείληπται ἡ ἀπόδειξις.
τὸ δὲ Πυθαγορικὸν ἐκεῖνο ἴσως ἠγνόηκας ὅτι σχᾶμα καὶ βᾶμα, ἢ ὅτι δεῖ διὰ τῶν τοιούτων μαθημάτων κλιμακηδὸν ἀνιέναι πρὸς τὰς
πάντῃ ἀύλους τῶν οὐσιῶν. εἰ δέ τις διὰ κλίμακος πρός τινα ὀροφὴν τῶν ὑψηλο τάτων ἀνιέναι βουλόμενος μὴ ἀμεταστρεπτὶ ἀναβαίνοι,
ἀλλ' ἀντανελίττει τὸν πόδα καὶ ἀναλύει τῆς ἀνόδου τὰ μέτρα ὥσπερ τινὰ Πηνελόπης ἱστὸν ἀνυφαίνων, ἆρ' οὗτος ἀναβήσεται ἐφ'
ὃ προὔθετο; πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ· ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἴσως ἔλαττον ὡς πρὸς τὸ σὸν πρᾶγμα. εἰ δέ τις γνῶναι τὰς ἀσωμάτους οὐσίας θελήσας
μὴ προσχωροίη ταῖς ἐγγὺς ἀσωμά των φύσεσιν, ἀλλὰ ταῖς τῶν σωμάτων ἀντιλήψεσι συμπαχύνοι οἷον τὴν ψυχικὴν ἐνέργειαν, ἆρ' ἂν
οὗτος γνοίη ποτὲ φύσιν ἀσώματον; Ἀλλ' ὦ μακάριε σύ, οὕτω πως τὰ μαθήματα οἴει κατορωρύχθαι, ὥστε μὴ σπεύδειν δι' ἀέρος ταῦτα
ἑλεῖν, ἀλλὰ διὰ ὑπονόμων ὥσπερ οἱ φῶρες ποιεῖν εἰώθασι καὶ οἱ φρεωρυχεῖν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι; ἀλλὰ μὴ τοῦτο οἴου· ἀστρονομία γὰρ
καὶ γεωμετρία καὶ μουσικὴ καὶ πολλῷ πρότερον ἀριθμη τικὴ καὶ ὅσαι ἀπὸ τούτων ἐρρύησαν τέχναι, συγκριθέντα πρὸς ἄλληλα καὶ
φύσις γεγονότα μία τε καὶ διάφορος, ὑπὲρ νῶτον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κάθηται. εἶτα οὐ δέδιας μὴ ἐκεῖσε βαδίζων τῷ μέσῳ καταναλωθῇς πυρί,
καὶ ταῦτα οὐδέπω παντάρβην κτησάμενος; πῶς δὲ γεωμετρίας ἐρᾷς περὶ γῆν ἰλυσπώμενος καὶ χρηματίσασθαι σπεύδων καὶ τιμὴν τὴν
ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ζητῶν; μή πού σε τὸ ὄνομα τῆς ἐπιστήμης παρακρούεται ψευδόμενον πρὸς τὴν σὴν ὑπόνοιαν καὶ ἀποδάσασθαί τι τῆς γῆς
αἱρῇ καὶ ἀπομετρῆσαι σαυτῷ, ἵν' ἐντεῦθεν γεωμέτρης ὀνομασθείης; ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐντεῦθεν, ὦ βέλτιστε, τῇ γεωμετρίᾳ τὸ ὄνομα· ἢ ἐντεῦθεν
μὲν ἴσως, οὐ περὶ τοῦτο δέ. παλαίτερον γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ συμβαίνοντος ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ὠνόμασται· ἐκεῖσε γὰρ κατὰ καιρὸν τοῦ Νείλου ἐπαναβαίνοντος
καὶ τὴν χώραν ἐπάρδοντος, εἶτ' αὖθις ὑπιόντος τε καὶ ἐλλείποντος, ἵνα μὴ τῶν κτήσεων σύγχυσις γένηται, καταγραφαὶ τοὺς ὅρους
ἀφώριζον, ἀφ' ὧν τὰ σχήματα ἐφ' οἷς ἡ Αἰγυπτίων πραγματεία· ἐντεῦθεν δὲ
