Panegyric orations

 To run against you from an opposing lot, he endured but the pentathlon was accomplished for you and the pancratium was completed with no one having c

 The votes, i imagine the divine judgment and i refer to the incorruptible tribunal. when i test you in elections, i admire your intelligence and your

 From afar it shines on those landing and extends a hand to those from the sea, escorting them to rome most painlessly. what in addition to these does

 Using it and bending and curving it towards the drooping jaw, i remember the indian's eyebrow at this, how he held it more than a cubit above his head

 And to a rival. let others, then, measure you against and compare you with whomever they wish, but i, though i seem to make a strange and dissimilar c

 In prose, not in meters and poems or perhaps many are present, but they have no account of the matter, as if it were of no account to them. and time

 The hegemony of his father, with kingdoms overthrown and not a few changes having occurred in both, those who, having exchanged their fortune for the

 He took counsel of opposing nations, but by making everything purchasable with gold and royal splendors, from this he gained the goodwill of all, and

 Opened, and flung wide the very gates of the soul, and associated with wicked and corrupt lives. for he did not at once know the whole line of the fam

 To work deeds of injustice for he was angry with those who did wrong and would punish them. but when he began to be sick and his body was wasting awa

 Not a magnificent spirit, not a musical and graceful speech, nothing else of the sort that knows how to beautify the soul and the nature of the body.

 Drives a sphere, and the other the superterrestrial one, so that the one might wind its own zone in a single cycle, and the other in twelve cycles, an

 Defining the virtues by its power, and practicing the higher geometry. for this, as proclus also says, has occupied the middle ground between the indi

 The power of the kingdom came to him, besides these the life of david among the flocks, the pursuit, those many dangers into which he fell but was not

 He locks up the monarchy into a tyranny, having exchanged one evil for another. justice is not quiet, it kindles the coals, it sends the arrow, the wi

 I call it his girdle-and he draws away no small cavalry and infantry force from old rome, he adds to these also the best army of the east, and no smal

 An angel wrought a more manifest victory. i have something more to say than those wonders there the cross was in types and images, a bronze serpent s

 You, o king the more abundantly you pour out benefits upon us, the more you increase by being filled. from this, no one has been left out of such wea

 With the eyes, then poured out and dissolved, but better and higher than all that is visible. but, o emperor—for i repeat the title to you and call it

 You fill the western beacon, neither grudging us your rays nor altering the color of your disk, but the more time increases the distances, the more be

 The rising of the sun, the land upon which it immediately rises, so that, if any of our people wished, having gone there he could, not with geometrica

 I am an unskillful chronicler of your deeds and erring in my timing, and i do not have a nature that strikes out in both directions at once. for you a

 To wish. for you both comprehend the present and conjecture the future and discover the unseen, discerning character from eyebrows and eyelids, so tha

 To speak? -unseemly even in his appearance, made of tin or dipped in bile and altogether counterfeit gold, but since he was in the midst of dangers, t

 With stones lying along each side, so that the conjoined may seem continuous and the well-fitted of one nature. behold for me the heights and beauties

 But here is a distinct hand divided into five rosy branches. but this is a most unerring testimony of that godlike soul. but do you wish to see some t

 Transcending substance and holding the principles of the forms folded together and least of all divided from the one. and you, being such, do you not

 The fountains of good deeds flowed, as if from a sheer rock, having received the impetus for their flowing these proclaimed you by reputation even be

 A guide, so also there an arbiter of the administrations, that i may suit you for both, both speaking your deeds and doing the words of your administr

 P]ortions are deprived of praise, but no one of all men has been suited to all words of praise. but to you so much is granted [against] all in all thi

 To bring to the highest point of keenness, or your soul which was not [shattered by] trials, but also most nobly endured through the magnitude of the

 And they were torn away, and their manner altered their nature [....], and they have remained, and after the separation, being both nourished and fatt

 But the love of art and the care concerning the divine sanctuaries, what demostheneses or the best of the writers could describe and praise? how beau

 Having surpassed in his heroic deeds him and the kings up to you, but in his plans he is recorded as being less than his accomplishments, winning in [

 Less, you have given the first place to reason over passion, and you have established the one like some foundation upon the acropolis, but the other y

 Having considered what is seen, but when i also behold the tomb of the queen, and i behold it often whenever i wish to console some hardship of fortun

 To comprehend in a speech. for to whom could the unattainable be attainable, even if he were rich in the homeric power for speeches, or the herodotan

 Admiring and in return is eager to make an image and someone already having constructed a stele for you inscribed the gentle one. therefore solomon

 Much praise and measured against all of time. how then could i summarize the whole in a few words? i will speak, therefore, a little of your virtues,

 Everyone rejoices and exults with the one who has taken up your encomiums and because i did not weave the words of praise sooner, he is rather vexed

 Gracefulness, the maturity of your thought, the symmetry of your greatness, the quick-wittedness, the stability of your mind, the unmarried life, the

 At once for us the lord and most skilled in command and pleasing to all, o most excellent foresight, o wise consideration, o most noble counsel, o div

 Of virtues? you, beyond any kings who ever were, honored justice and preferred philanthropy, and having attained the height of prudence, you appeared

 Accomplishments? o the arrows from heaven against the barbarians, o the unseen bowshots, o the angelic powers in the air, o the divine armies against

 The greatest part of character. for as many as have become of a civic disposition, if they have descended to this willingly, they seemed both prudent

 Of civil administration and of divine hearing. if therefore, being engaged in one, he also holds to the other, let this for now be a secret to many. b

 Of wise men going to ammon's shrine or being within the delphic tripod suddenly transferred their apparent wisdom to the more divine and greater, how

 We have taken starting points, and yet more absurd, if we render praises to the good and noble men who have died, for what they have said concerning w

 And not many months after the sowing, but immediately reaping the harvest and so that i might say what is from the gospel, the two were running toget

 If we should set about to build him up, this marvelous man, both in nature and in diligence, has received much contribution toward his eloquence from

 For having embraced one of these, they might neglect the rest, or putting ears before mind, they have an unintelligible tongue, or having drawn up spr

 Pleases the petty and the overly artful. therefore, of these enumerated wise men, the one now honored in this discourse wishes to imitate gregory, and

 I knew not only what the greeks knew, nor what the chaldeans or egyptians knew, but i had also condemned them, though not all of them, nor has my refu

 With magnanimity, he who was both namesake and like-minded with the great constantine, and who alone nobly contended against all, and taking his name-

 Regulates the state of the church, no less than moses who constructed the tabernacle below according to the pattern shown to him for whether melodies

 Concerning which things, before his high-priesthood, at a time when he did not even have many resources of money, he constructed brilliantly and accom

 And to impart to others. and perhaps he did not endure the waves of the sea, but in his toils on land he might in some way be compared to paul. and co

 One of two things happening, either god descending into the mind, or the mind ascending to god. but what is the place of god's rest, or by which of al

 Of a voice, nor were you instructed by any of the higher powers, to lay aside the symbols of the priesthood, and to transfer yourself to another life,

 Nothing unpleasant would happen to those handling these things but for you, who happen to be a philosopher, what harm will come from these affairs? j

 Of words but you, o king, will both speak publicly among the armies and bring an impulse with your speech and will rouse them together for the deed.

 May you be crowned on the head with glorious trophies. may you be adorned with deeds of valor against the barbarians, and be escorted by many victorie

 May you rend the sea and stop the river and vanquish amalek. may a cloud, giving shade over your head, take away your burning heat, and a pillar of li

Everyone rejoices and exults with the one who has taken up your encomiums; and because I did not weave the words of praise sooner, he is rather vexed and annoyed; and in part he pities me, because I have launched myself upon such a sea of your advantages; and because I have dared the depth of your pre-eminences, he seems astonished and amazed. For they know, they know precisely, that Demosthenic skills and Lysian graces and Isocratic sirens and Platonic sublimities and the golden tongue of Dio will be defeated by these things. But for me, even if I were rich with the rush of Polemon, it would have been welcome; for not even so would I have been sufficient to praise worthily the magnitude of your advantages, but I would have touched upon the praise at least somewhat. And even if I were not able to complete this pentathlon contest, I would have descended to each one and stripped for the contests and touched the starting-line, of the virtues of your rule. But all of you assist me in my struggles, all you who have been illuminated by the beauties of her radiance and have been made brilliant by the influx of good things, for I am not able to dare the undertaking, considering the unattainability of the matter, but let my speech go to the sun's rays, I mean your virtues and praises, O most divine queen, to gaze upon them, as much as is possible for human eyes. You have, then, two fatherlands, both this brilliant and renowned and royal city and the intelligible and divine and heavenly metropolis. But just as when examined against each other they differ by a great measure, so indeed when compared in your case they appear even more incomparable and unparalleled. For that one beautifies you, while this one is adorned and made radiant by you; and that one provides to you the swarm of graces, while this one, gathering them from you, transfers and transmits them to us. And to speak concisely, through you all the good things in which our city abounds have descended to it from the heavenly colonnades. For it has not happened in your case as it did with those before you who were entrusted with the royal rudders, that this good thing was present, but that one was left behind; but all things, with which a well-ordered city is adorned, which were formerly divided, have under your rule been fitted together with one another and have been entwined around our city like some most brilliant necklace and most golden-plaited chain. Therefore, the most instructive Hesiod, perceiving that things were moving toward the worse, and the virtue of men had been diminished, said that the first race was golden, the second in turn silver, and the one after that iron. But if he were present now and saw the city revelling in all good things and virtue flourishing yet more, and no less the people adorned by it receiving an increase of it and hastening to be assimilated to the first good, or in any case you who have embraced all the virtues, he would have cried out that the springs of rivers were flowing upstream and the words of his epics would have simply moved for him to a backward course, so that first there was an iron race, then a silver one when your ancestors shone forth, and then again a golden one when your majesty arose. So then, since you have two fatherlands, the one adorning you, and the other in turn being adorned and beautified by you, are the things that come after these lesser and much inferior to the beginnings? Far from it, but the birth-pangs were in symbols, the conception in signs, and in ineffable ends the godlike manifestation of your glory; but for me the overflowing wealth has turned to poverty, so that it is not possible to speak, where there is need to say many things. For what of yours shall I praise first, and what shall I admire last? The royal upbringing, the ordering of your morals, the education of your character, your cheerfulness, your gentleness, your affability, the

τῶν σῶν ἐγκωμίων ἁψαμένῳ πᾶς τις συγχαίρει καὶ συναγάλλεται· καὶ ὅτι μὴ τάχιον τοὺς τῆς εὐφημίας ἔπλεξα λόγους, δυσανασχετεῖ μᾶλλον καὶ δυσχεραίνει· κατοικτείρει δέ με καὶ τὸ μέρος, ὅτιπερ εἰς τοσοῦτον πέλαγος ἐμαυτὸν ἐπαφῆκα τῶν σῶν πλεονεκτημάτων· καὶ ὅτι τοῦ βάθους τῶν σῶν κατετόλμησα προτερημάτων, ἐκπληττομένῳ ἔοικε καὶ θαυμάζοντι. ἴσασι γάρ, ἴσασιν ἀκριβῶς, ὡς ἡττηθήσονται τούτων καὶ ∆ημοσθενικαὶ δεινότητες καὶ Λυσιακαὶ χάριτες καὶ σειρῆνες Ἰσοκρατικαὶ καὶ Πλατωνικαὶ μεγαλόνοιαι καὶ ἡ χρυσῆ γλῶττα τοῦ ∆ίωνος. ἐμοὶ δέ, κἂν τὸν τοῦ Πολέμωνος ῥοῖζον ἐπλούτουν, ἀγαπητὸν ἂν ἦν· οὐδ' οὕτως μὲν γὰρ ἂν ἤρκεσα κατ' ἀξίαν εὐφημεῖν τῶν σῶν πλεονεκτημάτων τὸ μέγεθος, ἡψάμην δ' ἂν ποσῶς γε τῆς εὐφημίας. κἂν μὴ τὸν πένταθλον τοῦτον ἆθλον οἷός τε τελέσαι γέγονα, ἐπὶ τὸ ἑκάτερον ἂν κατέβην καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἄθλους ἀπεδυσάμην καὶ τῆς βαλβῖδος ἡψάμην, τῶν σῶν τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀρετῶν. Ἀλλά μοι συλλάβοισθε πάντες τῶν ἀγώνων, ὅσοι καὶ τοῖς τῆς φαιδρότητος κάλλεσιν ἐπελάμφθητε καὶ τῇ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐπιρροῇ ἐλαμπρύνθητε, οὐ γὰρ οἷός τε εἰμὶ κατατολμᾶν τοῦ ἐγχειρήματος τὸ τοῦ πράγματος δυσέφικτον ἀναλογιζόμενος, ὁ δὲ λόγος ἐπὶ τὰς ἡλιακὰς ἀκτῖνας ἴτω, τὰς σὰς ἀρετάς φημι καὶ εὐφημίας, ὦ θειοτάτη βασίλισσα, ταύταις ἐνατενίσων, ὅσον ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις ἐφικτόν. Πατρίδες μὲν οὖν σοι διτταὶ καθεστήκασιν, ἥ τε φαιδρὰ πόλις αὕτη καὶ περιώνυμος καὶ βασίλισσα ἥ τε νοητὴ καὶ θεία καὶ ἄνω μητρόπολις. ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐξεταζόμεναι πρὸς ἀλλήλας πολλῷ τῷ μέτρῳ διενηνόχατον, οὕτω δὴ κἀπὶ σοὶ παραβαλλόμεναι ἔτι καὶ μᾶλλον ἀσύγκριτοί τε καὶ ἀπαράμιλλοι φαίνονται. σὲ μὲν γὰρ ἐκείνη καλλύνει, ὑπὸ σοῦ δ' αὕτη κοσμεῖταί τε καὶ φαιδρύνεται· καὶ σοὶ μὲν ἐκείνη παρέχει τὸν τῶν χαρίτων ἑσμόν, αὕτη δ' ἀπὸ σοῦ ταύτας συλλέγουσα ἐφ' ἡμᾶς μεταβιβάζει καὶ μετατίθησι. συλλήβδην δὲ εἰπεῖν διὰ μέσης σοῦ πάντα τἀγαθά, ὧν ἡ ἡμετέρα πόλις εὐθηνεῖ, ἐκ τῶν οὐρανίων στοῶν πρὸς αὐτὴν καταπεφοιτήκασιν. οὐ γάρ, ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς πρὸ σοῦ τοὺς βασιλείους οἴακας ἐγχειριζομένοις τόδε μὲν παρῆν τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἐκεῖνο δ' ἀπελιμπάνετο, οὕτω δὴ συμβέβηκεν ἐπὶ σοί· ἀλλὰ πάντα, οἷστισι δὴ πόλις εὐνομουμένη κοσμεῖται, διῃρημένα τυγχάνοντα πρότερον ἐπὶ τῆς σῆς ἀρχῆς συναρμοσθέντα πρὸς ἄλληλα ὥσπερ τις φανότατος ὅρμος καὶ χρυσοπλοκωτάτη σειρὰ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ πόλει περιεπλάκησαν. Ὁ μὲν οὖν παιδευτικώτατος Ἡσίοδος κατιδών, ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον χωροῦσι τὰ πράγματα, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀρετὴν ἀπομειωθεῖσαν, τὸ μὲν πρῶτον γένος χρύσεον εἶναι ἔφησε, τὸ δεύτερον δ' αὖ ἀργύρεον καὶ τὸ μετ' ἐκεῖνο σιδήρεον. εἰ δέ γε τὰ νῦν παρῆν καὶ τήν τε πόλιν πᾶσιν ἀγαθοῖς ἐπεντρυφῶσαν εἶδε καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν ἔτι μᾶλλον ἀνθήσασαν, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ἧττον καὶ τοὺς ταύτῃ κεκοσμημένους ἀνθρώπους ἐπίδοσιν ταύτης λαμβάνοντας καὶ πρὸς τὸ πρῶτον σπεύδοντας ἀφομοιωθῆναι καλὸν ἢ πάντως σε τὴν πάσας τὰς ἀρετὰς ἐγκολπωσαμένην, ἄνω ποταμῶν χωρεῖν ἂν τὰς πηγὰς ἐξεβόησε καὶ πρὸς ἀνάρρουν ἀτεχνῶς αὐτῷ τὰ τῶν ἐπῶν ἐκεχωρήκει, ὡς πρῶτα μὲν σιδήρεον γένος ἦν, ἔπειτα δ' ἀργύρεον τῶν σῶν δῆθεν προγόνων ἀναλαμψάντων, εἶτ' αὖθις χρύσεον τῆς σῆς ἀνατειλάσης μεγαλειότητος. Οὕτω γοῦν διττῶν σοι τῶν πατρίδων οὐσῶν καὶ τῆς μὲν κοσμούσης, τῆς δ' αὖ ὑπὸ σοῦ κοσμουμένης τε καὶ καλλυνομένης, ἐλάττω τὰ μετὰ ταῦτα καὶ πολὺ τῶν ἀρχῶν ἥττονα; πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ, ἀλλ' ἡ ὠδίνησις ἐν συμβόλοις, ἡ κύησις ἐν σημείοις καὶ ἐν ἀρρήτοις τέρμασιν ἡ τῆς σῆς εὐκλείας θεοειδὴς ἐπιφάνεια· ἐμοὶ δὲ περιέστη τῶν περιρρεόντων ὁ πλοῦτος εἰς ἀπορίαν, ὥστ' οὐκ εἶναι λέγειν, ἐν οἷς δεῖ πολλὰ λέγειν. Τί γὰρ τῶν σῶν ἐπαινέσομαι πρῶτον, τί δὲ τελευταῖον θαυμάσομαι; τὴν βασίλειον ἀναγωγήν, τὴν τῶν ἠθῶν ῥύθμισιν, τὴν τοῦ τρόπου. παίδευσιν, τὸ ἱλαρόν, τὸ ἥμερον, τὸ προσηνές, τὸ