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
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 any way to insult in return those who insulted him, neither with the insults they used nor with newer exchanges of insults, but having made a certain wonderful defense against the accusation, he both sets forth the doctrine and shows, as if in a mirror, in his discourse his own face formed by the beauty of the faith. And just as if someone, being handsome in appearance, should then hide himself, if he were mocked for not being so, by showing himself he would be rid of the mockery, so indeed this man also, unfolding the hidden form of his soul and showing it to his insulters, both disposed of their part in the dispute, as was fitting, and, as he was a statue of beauty, made an example of himself. And proposing to praise the wisdom of the Greeks, he laments, as is fitting, that, while the genuine heirs of reason should inherit, the barbarian and alien race, to whom it in no way belongs, has inherited the wealth of wisdom, and almost all of Greece and her colony Ionia were completely cut off from their patrimony, and the inheritance was channeled to Assyrians and Medes and Egyptians, and the order has been so reversed that the Greeks speak barbarously, and the barbarians speak Greek. And a Greek man, it so happening, arriving at Susa or Ecbatana, the ancient palaces of Darius, and associating with Babylonians, will hear about things which he did not hear while speaking Greek, and he will marvel at each of the men and then perhaps for the first time will know that wisdom has been the guide of the universe; but a certain boastful barbarian, having come among us and entered into conversation with those in Greece and on our entire continent, would not concede so much as to call the many of them mules, but asses outright; for the majority do not understand, not even by half, either nature or that which is above it, while the remaining part think they know everything, but they do not even know the road to it. But some profess to be philosophers, and most are indeed eager to learn, while others sit in the front seats with a solemn face and a great beard, pale and scowling and with furrowed brow and dirty in their dress, digging up Aristotle from below and from the recesses of Hades, and seeming to pronounce maxims on as many things as that man concealed in the mist of obscurity. And while it is necessary to uncover the small bit of confusion with much discourse, they speak at length about the great amount of concealment with brief utterances. Therefore the barbarian considers us a joke and delights in our deficiencies, and goes away having become not more wise, but less than an ignorant man. That the undertaking of the Latin is skillful, therefore, the argument has shown in a few words. But if it does not flash with artistic beauty, nor is its diction rhythmical, nor does its composition have the bloom of grace, one must not be surprised; for the forms of discourse are many, and few are those who have combined the virtues from all of them in their own discourses. But one man has practiced clarity and purity, yet has not also strengthened his discourse with grandeur, while another has been made great in dignity, but he destroys the distinctness which is not apportioned to the dignity; and for one, the discourse gleams with a natural radiance, while another has loved artificial beauty. For Lysias is beautiful on the spot, while Isocrates is labored; and for Thucydides, the discourse is of surpassing weight, but for Herodotus this is less so, while his grace is insatiable. Let it be granted, therefore, also to the Italian that he is not entirely beautiful, but while his skill is strong, the beauty has flowed away. For these reasons, to a careless listener the discourse is immediately tedious (for from its prefaces it has been put together and densely packed), but to one who has paid attention, it is neither faulty nor burdensome; and it does not pour graces into the soul, but it compels one to think and to keep one's mind on what has been said. And it persuades not by chatter and pleasure (for it does not have the lures of the graces) nor does it charm with beauty nor attract with pleasantness, but it tyrannizes and does violence, as it were, with its thoughts. and it is not equal to any one person,
ἄττα τῆς ὑποθέσεως προεισόδια τέθεικεν, εἶθ' ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀνάγκης πρὸς τὸ βουλό μενον τὸν λόγον μετέστρεψε. καὶ ἀνθυβρίζειν μὲν
οὐδ' οὕτως προῄρηται τοὺς ὑβρίσαντας, οὔθ' οἷς ἐκεῖνοι ὑβρίκασιν οὔτε καινοτέραις τῶν ὕβρεων διαμείψεσιν, ἀλλὰ θαυμάσιόν τινα
τῆς κατηγορίας ἀπόλογον ποιησάμενος ἐκτίθησί τε τὸ δόγμα καὶ δείκνυσιν ὥσπερ ἐν κατόπτρῳ τῷ λόγῳ τὸ οἰκεῖον πρόσωπον μεμορφωμένον
τῷ κάλλει τῆς πίστεως. Καὶ ὥσπερ εἴ τις καλὸς ὢν τὸ εἶδος εἶτα δὴ κρύπτοιτο, εἰ σκωφθείη μὴ οὕτως ἔχων, ἐπιδείξας ἑαυτὸν ἀπηλλάγη
τοῦ σκώμματος, οὕτω δὴ καὶ οὗτος τὸ κεκρυμμένον ἀναπτύξας τῆς ψυχῆς εἶδος καὶ τοῖς ὑβρισταῖς δείξας ἐκείνοις τε ὅσον εἰκὸς
τὸ τῆς ἀντιλογίας μέρος ἀφωσιώσατο καί, ὡς ἄγαλμα εἴη κάλλους, παρεδειγμάτισεν ἑαυτόν. τὴν δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων σοφίαν προθέμενος
ἐπαινεῖν ἀπολοφύρεται ὡς εἰκὸς ὅτι, δέον τοὺς γνησίους τοῦ λόγου κληρονομεῖν, τὸ βάρβαρον καὶ ἀλλότριον τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς σοφίας
οὐδὲν προσήκοντα διεδέξατο καὶ ἡ μὲν Ἑλλὰς σχεδὸν ἅπασα καὶ ἡ ἄποικος Ἰωνία τῶν πατρῴων ἀκριβῶς ἐξεκόπησαν, ἐς Ἀσσυρίους δὲ
καὶ Μήδους καὶ Αἰγυπτίους ὁ κλῆρος μετωχετεύθη καὶ τοσοῦτον ἡ τάξις ἀντέστραπται, ὡς βαρβαρίζειν μὲν τοὺς Ἕλληνας, ἑλληνίζειν
δὲ τοὺς βαρβάρους. καὶ Ἕλλην μὲν ἀνήρ, οὕτω συμβάν, ἐς Σοῦσαν ἢ Ἐκβάτανα ἀφικόμενος, τὰ πάλαι τοῦ ∆αρείου ἀνάκτορα, καὶ Βαβυλωνίοις
συγγενό μενος ἀκούσεται περὶ ὧν ἑλληνίζων οὐκ ἤκουσε, καὶ θαυμάσεται τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἕκαστον καὶ τότε πρῶτον ἴσως γνώσεται ὅτι
σοφία τοῦ παντὸς καθηγήσατο· ἀλαζὼν δέ τις εἰς ἡμᾶς παραγενόμενος βάρβαρος καὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι καὶ τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἁπάσῃ ἠπείρῳ
εἰς ὁμιλίαν ἐληλυθὼς οὐδ' ὡς ἡμιόνοις τοῖς πολλοῖς συγχωρήσειεν, ἀλλ' ὄνοις ἄντικρυς· οἱ γὰρ πλείους, οὐδ' ἐξ ἡμισείας, οὔτε
τὴν φύσιν οὔτε τὸ ὑπὲρ ταύτην ἐπίστανται, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν μέρος οἴονται μὲν εἰδέναι τὸ πᾶν, ἴσασι δὲ οὐδὲ τὴν πρὸς τοῦτο ὁδόν.
ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν φιλοσοφεῖν ἐπαγγέλλονται καὶ μαθητιῶσί γε οἱ πλεῖστοι, οἱ δὲ προκάθηνται ἐν σεμνῷ τῷ προσώπῳ καὶ μεγάλῳ τῷ πώγωνι
ὠχροί τε καὶ σκυθρωποὶ καὶ κατεσπακότες τὴν ὀφρὺν καὶ πιναροὶ τὴν περιβολήν, ἀνορύττοντες τὸν Ἀριστοτέλην νέρθεν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν
τοῦ ᾅδου μυχῶν καὶ γνωματεύειν δοκοῦντες ὁπόσα ἐκεῖνος τῇ ἀχλύι τῆς ἀσαφείας κατέκρυψε. καὶ δέον τὸ βραχὺ τῆς συγχύσεως πολλῷ
ἀνακαλύπτειν τῷ λόγῳ, οἱ δὲ τὸ πλῆθος τῆς ἐπικρύψεως βραχέσι μακρολο γοῦσι τοῖς ῥήμασι. παιδιὰν οὖν ἡμᾶς ὁ βάρβαρος ἥγηται
καὶ τρυφᾷ ταῖς ἐνδείαις ἡμῶν καὶ ἄπεισιν οὐ πλέον ἢ σοφὸς γεγονώς, ἀλλ' ἔλαττον ἢ ἀμαθής. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἡ τοῦ Λατίνου ἐπιχείρησις
ἔντεχνος ἐν ὀλίγοις ὁ λόγος ἔδειξεν. εἰ δὲ μὴ ἀπαστράπτει τῷ τεχνικῷ κάλλει μηδὲ τὴν λέξιν ἐρ ρύθμισται μηδὲ ἡ συνθήκη τὴν
ὥραν ἔχει τῆς χάριτος, θαυμάζειν οὐ χρή· πολλαὶ γὰρ αἱ τῶν λόγων ἰδέαι καὶ τὰς ἐξ ἁπασῶν ἀρετὰς βραχεῖς οἱ τοῖς οἰκείοις λόγοις
συνειληφότες. ἀλλ' ὁ μέν τις τὸ σαφὲς καὶ καθαρὸν ἐπετήδευσεν, οὐ μέντοι καὶ τῷ μεγέθει τὸν λόγον ἐπέρρωσεν, ὁ δὲ τῷ μὲν ἀξιώματι
μεμεγέθυνται, ὀλλύει δὲ τὴν εὐκρίνειαν μὴ συνδιαιρομένην πρὸς τὸ ἀξίωμα· καὶ τῷ μὲν ὁ λόγος φυσικὴν ἀποστίλβει αὐγήν, ὁ δὲ
τὸ ἐπιποίητον κάλλος ἠγάπησε. Λυσίας μὲν γὰρ αὐτόθι καλός, ὁ δὲ Ἰσο κράτης ἐντρίβεται· καὶ Θουκυδίδῃ μὲν ὁ λόγος ἐς ὑπερβάλλοντα
ὄγκον, τῷ δὲ Ἡροδότῳ τοῦτο μὲν ἔλαττον, ἡ δὲ χάρις ἀκόρεστος. συγκεχωρήσθω οὖν καὶ τῷ Ἰταλῷ μὴ πάντῃ καλῷ, ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν τέχνη
ἔρρωται τούτῳ, τὸ δὲ κάλλος ἐρρύηκε. ∆ιὰ ταῦτα ἀμελεῖ μὲν ἀκροατῇ πρὸς ἀχθηδόνα ὁ λόγος εὐθύς (ἐκ γὰρ προοιμίων συνεσκεύασται
καὶ συμπέφρασται), πεφροντισμένῳ δὲ οὔτε πλημμελὴς οὔτε φορτικός· καὶ χάριτας μὲν οὐκ ἐγχεῖ τῇ ψυχῇ, φροντίζειν δὲ καταναγκάζει
καὶ πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἔχειν τὸν νοῦν. πείθει δὲ οὐκ ἐκ στωμυλίας καὶ ἡδονῆς (οὐ γὰρ ἔχει χαρίτων θήρατρα) οὐδὲ θέλγει τῷ
κάλλει οὐδ' ἐφέλκεται τῷ ἡδεῖ, τυραννεῖ δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ βιάζεται τοῖς νοήμασι. καὶ ἶσος μὲν ἑνί τῳ οὐκ ἔστιν,
