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
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 orators, yet not even Homer characterized the Aeacidae accurately; but if some entertainer in the camp has left this one unformed, since beauty is first in the mind, and then in those things in which it has come to be present, yet nonetheless we praise both the participant and that which is participated in. And in one way we shall praise the beauty and the grandeur of discourse in Plato, and in another way in Xenocrates and in another in Aeschines the Socratic; and so often descending to the level of men like Scopelianus and Nicetes we will adapt it, and according to the art and power of each we will define precisely the virtues of the discourse. Therefore let not even the Italian be deemed unworthy of a style, but let him be characterized for me, and every other one of the speakers. For I welcome even your newborn offspring of discourse; for your delivery is from me. And I, the forefather, do not detest the offspring, whatever it may be, whether its head is crushed, or its elbow is bent, or its knee is dislocated; for I will gladly receive what has slipped out and I will attempt the midwifery of the discourse, and I will at once both wash and shape it, as you might artfully put it, and I will give back to fortune that which deviated and I will welcome it even though it is deformed. For I am not more unloving toward my offspring than that woman of Attica (whose name I have forgotten). Now she was pregnant, as the story about her goes, and the father, as it seemed, did not permit her to be a mother, but wished for the baby to be put to death at its birth and to this end secretly pressured the midwife. But she served the father's will in another way; for having concealed a snake in her bosom, when the baby slipped out from the birth-pangs, she secretly put it aside, and placed the snake under the new mother as she sat up and said, “Alas, what a monster I have seen, for the offspring is a snake instead of a baby.” And the mother in childbed at once sympathetically said, “But, dear nurse, cherish the snake for me, for I hold it as my own soul”; and taking it in her two hands, she kissed it. But I too am an Attic man and a lover of children, and more so than she; for with pains of the soul I have begotten you and I love your infant discourses, may they someday even grow to manhood and be strong with powerful arms. But for now, keep giving birth for me; for nothing can flourish that has not been born. 20 To two of his students who had written arguments against each other There is no one among you, neither a spearman nor a javelin-thrower and, to make a list of military terms, neither a front-rank man nor a second-rank man, nor yet a leader of a squad or a section, nor one knowing how to keep the company in order, nor knowing ranks nor how to stand in a phalanx or against a phalanx; but just like that nation (I mean those who wear the candys), you run to the attack without order and run scattered against each other. And the Greek law and the ordinance of those who have philosophized orders those in the phalanx of logic to advance quietly and to be yoked to each other and to be in line (I mean in width and in length). But you are like those birds to which the poet compares the Trojan army; except that they, though flying with a clang, have still stood as worthy opponents in valor against those little men, but as for you, even these would quickly destroy you, as you make the flight of your arguments without order, having cut them into many parts and dissolved the logical arrangement. What at any rate these men, small in stature, have done to Heracles as he awoke, this they would do to you while you are awake. For the argument also brings the champion against these and of midday
ἀλληλουχεῖται δὲ τοῖς ἐνθυμήμασι καὶ διῆρται ταῖς ἐπιπλοκαῖς καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπέστραπται. εἰ δὲ οἱ τοιοίδε τῶν χαρακτήρων
τοῖς τελείοις ἀπονενέμηνται ῥήτορσιν, ἀλλ' οὐδ' Ὅμηρος τοὺς μὲν Αἰακίδας ἐχαρακτήρισεν ἀκριβῶς· εἰ δέ τις ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ
ψυχαγωγὸς τοῦτον ἀφῆκεν ἀμόρφωτον, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ κάλλος πρῶτον μὲν ἐν τῷ νῷ, ἔπειτα καὶ οἷς ἐκεῖνο παραγεγένηται, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν
ἧττον καὶ τὸ μετέχον καὶ τὸ μετεχόμενον ἐπαινοῦμεν. καὶ ἄλλως μὲν ἐν Πλάτωνι τὸ κάλλος τοῦ λόγου ἐπαινεσόμεθα καὶ τὸ μέγεθος,
ἄλλως δὲ ἐν Ξενοκράτει καὶ ἄλλως ἐν Αἰσχίνῃ τῷ Σωκρατικῷ· καὶ οὕτω θαμὰ καταβαίνοντες Σκοπελιανοῖς καὶ Νικήταις αὐτὸ προσαρμόσομεν
καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἑκάστου τέχνην καὶ δύναμιν τὰς ἀρετὰς τοῦ λόγου ἀκριβωσόμεθα. Μὴ τοίνυν μηδ' ὁ Ἰταλὸς ἀπαξιούσθω τῶν χαρακτήρων,
ἀλλ' αὐτός τέ μοι κεχαρακτηρίσθω καὶ πᾶς ὅστις ἄλλος τῶν ὁμιλητῶν. ἀσπάζομαι γὰρ ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ νεογιλὰ τῶν λόγων γεννήματα·
παρ' ἐμοῦ γὰρ ὁ τόκος ὑμῖν. καὶ ὁ προπάτωρ ἐγὼ οὐκ ἀπεχθαίρω τὸ ἔκγονον, ὁποῖον ἂν ᾖ, εἴτε κεφαλὴν συμπεπίεσται, εἴτε διηγκύλωται
τὸν ἀγκῶνα, εἴτε τὸ γόνυ ἐξήρθρωται· ὑποδέξομαι γὰρ ἡδέως τὸ ὀλισθῆσαν καὶ τῇ μαιείᾳ τοῦ λόγου ἐπιχειρήσω καὶ πλυνῶ μὲν αὐτίκα
διαπλάσομαί τε, πῶς ἂν εἴποιτε τεχνικῶς, καὶ ἀποδώσω τῇ τύχῃ τὸ παρεκνεῦσαν ἀσπάσομαί τε καὶ διεστραμμένως ἔχον. οὐ γάρ εἰμι
τῆς Ἀτθίδος ἐκείνης περὶ τὰ ἔκγονα ἀστοργότερος (τοῦ δ' ὀνόματος ἐπιλέλησμαι). ἐκύει δὲ αὕτη, ὡς ἡ περὶ αὐτὴν ἱστορία, καὶ
ὁ πατήρ, δόξαν οὕτως, οὐ συνεχώρει αὐτῇ μητρὶ ἔσεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἐβούλετο ἐπὶ τῷ τόκῳ τὸ βρέφος τεθνήξεσθαι καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο λεληθότως
τὴν μαῖαν κατήπειγεν. ἡ δὲ ἕτερον τρόπον τῷ τοῦ πατρὸς βουλήματι ὑπηρέτησεν· ὄφιν γὰρ ἐγκολπισαμένη, ἐπειδὴ τῶν ὠδίνων τὸ
βρέφος ὠλίσθησε, τὸ μὲν ὑπεξέθετο, τὸν δὲ ὄφιν ἐπικαθημένη τῇ πρωτοτόκῳ ὑπέθηκε καὶ «φεῦ, οἷον», φησί, «τέρας ἑώρακα, ὄφις
γὰρ ἀντὶ βρέφους τὸ κύημα». ἡ δὲ λεχὼ συμπαθῶς αὐτίκα «ἀλλά μοι, μαμμίδιον, τὸν ὄφιν», ἔφη, «περίθαλπε, ἔχομαι γὰρ αὐτοῦ ὡς
ψυχῆς»· καὶ ταῖν χεροῖν λαβοῦσα ἐφίλησεν. Ἀττικὸς δὲ κἀγὼ ἀνὴρ καὶ φιλόπαις καὶ μᾶλλον ἤπερ ἐκείνη· ψυχικαῖς γὰρ ὠδῖσιν ἐγεννησάμην
ὑμᾶς καὶ φιλῶ τὰ ὑμέτερα βρέφη τῶν λόγων, ἃ δήποτε καὶ ἀνδρωθεῖεν καὶ βραχίοσιν ἰσχύσαιεν καρτεροῖς. ἀλλά μοι τέως γεννᾶτε·
οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀκμάσοι μὴ γεννηθέν. 20 Εἰς δύο τινὰς τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ λογογραφήσαντας πρὸς ἀλλήλους Οὐδεὶς παρ' ὑμῖν, οὔτ' αἰχμητὴς
οὔτε ἀκοντιστὴς καί, ἵνα κατάλογον τῶν στρατιωτικῶν ὀνομάτων ποιήσωμαι, οὔτε πρωτοστάτης οὔτε δευτεροστάτης, ἀλλ' οὔτε ἐνωμοτίας
ἢ διμοιρίτης, οὐδὲ τὸν λόχον τηρεῖν ἐπιστάμενος, οὔτε τάξεις εἰδὼς οὔτε ἐπὶ φάλαγγος οὔτε πρὸς φάλαγγα ἵστασθαι· ἀλλ' ὥσπερ
δὴ τὸ ἔθνος (τοὺς ἐνειμένους φημὶ τὸν κάνδυν), βοηδρομεῖτε ἀσύντακτα καὶ διεσκεδασμένα θέοντες κατ' ἀλλήλων. καὶ ὁ μὲν Ἑλληνικὸς
νόμος καὶ ἡ τῶν φιλοσοφησάντων διάταξις ἡσυχῇ προϊέναι κελεύει τοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς λογικῆς φάλαγγος καὶ ζυγεῖν ἀλλήλοις καὶ στοιχεῖν
(τῷ πλάτει φημὶ καὶ τῷ μήκει). ὑμεῖς δὲ τοῖς ὄρνισιν ἐκείνοις ἐοίκατε οἷς ὁ ποιητὴς τὸ Τρωϊκὸν παραβάλλει στρατόπεδον· πλὴν
ὅσον ἐκεῖνοι μὲν καὶ κλαγγῇ πετόμενοι, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μικροῖς ἐκείνοις ἀνδράσιν ἀξιόμαχοι πρὸς ἀλκὴν καθεστήκασιν, ὑμᾶς δὲ θᾶττον
ἂν καὶ οὗτοι διαχρήσωνται οὐ σὺν τάξει τὴν πτῆσιν ποιουμένους τῶν λόγων, ἀλλ' εἰς πολλὰ κατατετμη μένους μέρη καὶ διαλελυκότας
τὴν λογικὴν σύνταξιν. ὃ γοῦν τὸν Ἡρακλέα οἱ σμικροὶ οὗτοι τὸ μέγεθος πεποιήκασιν ἀφυπνώσαντα, τοῦτο ἂν ὑμᾶς ἐγρηγορότας ποιήσαιεν.
Ἄγει γὰρ καὶ πρὸς τούτους ὁ λόγος τὸν ἀθλητὴν καὶ μεσημβρίας
