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
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 not build the argument on a rotten foundation. But when you let yourselves down into play, so as to jest with one another, do this also cleverly, so that your buffoonery may not be illiberal; but also make it clear in the discourse that the jest is play, and let the clear sky dispel the mist. Let no one reproach another for an opinion of faith; for the confession is common to all and there is no need to seek for the origins of the principles. But have I perhaps fashioned the missing limbs and moved the crown to the middle of the head? Or do the newborn feet still limp and the stance not have much confidence? For the time being, then, let the head be articulated; for in any case we will also provide the cure for the other distorted limbs. 21 When it rained and his disciples did not go up to the school But do you not eat in summer, and are you continent in winter? But discourse is also nourishment for the soul, which one should not accept or reject according to these or those changes of the weather. For if you are willing to let your learning waver because of external causes, you would never attain wisdom; for each quality of the environment comes bearing some evil. For cold congeals bodies, heat dissolves them and destroys their strength, dryness produces drought, and moisture makes phlegm more excessive; and the affections resulting from these things somehow dispose and alter us. For thunderclaps startle, lightning bolts terrify, and earthquakes even more so; and when we see mock suns or counter-suns or colored bands, we think we are looking at new creations. If, therefore, you have shrunk from partaking in the discourse because of the rain, you would perhaps also be deprived of learning because of lightning bolts or the shooting of the stars or the darting of the stars or for some other of the greatest or smaller things; and there is never a time when these things do not happen in the universe. For all these reasons, therefore, you would be seen to be destitute of all philosophy. But not so are those who farm or fight for their country, nor those who practice the mechanical arts. But the gold-assayer, whenever necessary, rubs the gold against the touchstone, and the goldsmith thus purifies the material by fire, separating it from foreign elements; and, in general, every craftsman of any art does not handle the materials according to the seasons, unless this is also a work of the art, just as the farmer is accustomed to do (for at this time he plants and at that he grafts the shoots, and now he cuts wood, and again he fells trees). But it is not by emulating him that you have caused or suffered this absence; but because you are soft of mind toward the knowledge of better things, for this reason you blame any and every aspect of the season for your deprivation of them. For your soul is not stirred up, nor does the fire of zeal consume us, but just as you partake of things happening in the marketplace, so indeed you also partake of the discourse. But for the philosophers before us, the schools in their own homelands were not sufficient; but some were sent from Asia to Europe, and the Europeans for their part moved to the other continent, just like those who work the sea, carrying some goods to those to whom they decided to put in, and taking on other cargo and having goods to bring to their own land. And neither the surging sea nor the storming winds held them back, nor the peaks of mountains and the impassable lookouts of hills, but they were carried everywhere as if by a spirit in an unhindered stream. For since the forms of music were distributed throughout the universe, here they were initiated into the things of rhetoric
μεταβάλλων τὰ μέλη τὴν αὐτὴν σῴζει τῆς ἠχοῦς ἰδέαν. ἐπιμελητέον δὲ ὑμῖν καὶ τῆς περὶ τὰς συντάξεις τοῦ λόγου τέχνης· καὶ μὴ
ἐπὶ σαθρῷ θεμελίῳ τὸν λόγον οἰκοδομεῖτε. ἐς παιδιὰν δ' ἑαυτοὺς καθιέντες, ὥστε ἀποσκῶψαι ἀλλήλους, εὐφυῶς καὶ τοῦτο ποιεῖν,
ἵνα μὴ ἀνελεύθερος ἡ βωμολοχία ὑμῖν ᾖ· ἀλλὰ καὶ προσεπισημαίνειν τῷ λόγῳ ὅτι παιδιὰ τὸ σκῶμμα, καὶ διαλυέτω τὴν ἀχλὺν ἡ αἰθρία.
δόξαν δὲ πίστεως μηδεὶς θατέρῳ προσονειδιζέτω· κοινὸν γὰρ πᾶσι τὸ ὁμολόγημα καὶ οὐ δεῖ ἀρχὰς τῶν ἀξιωμάτων ζητεῖν. Ἀλλὰ μῶν
προσεπλασάμην τὰ λείποντα τῶν μελῶν καὶ τὴν κόρσην ἐπὶ μέσην μετήνεγκα τὴν κεφαλήν; ἢ ἔτι τὰ νεογιλὰ ὑποσκάζει τὼ πόδε καὶ
τὴν στάσιν οὐ πάνυ θαρρεῖ; τέως μὲν οὖν διηρθρώσθω ἡ κεφαλή· πάντως γὰρ καὶ τοῖς διεστραμμένοις ἑτέροις μέλεσι τὴν ἴασιν ἀποδώσομεν.
21 Ὅταν ἔβρεξε καὶ οὐκ ἀνῆλθον οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν σχολήν Ἀλλ' οὐχὶ θέρους μὲν ἐσθίετε, χειμῶνος δὲ ἐγκρατεύεσθε. τροφὴ
δὲ καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ὁ λόγος ἐστίν, ἣν οὐ χρὴ προσίεσθαι ἢ ἀποστρέφεσθαι κατὰ τὰς τοιάσδε ἢ τοιάσδε τοῦ ἀέρος μεταβολάς. εἰ γὰρ
πρὸς τὰς ἔξωθεν αἰτίας τὴν μάθησιν ταλαντεύειν ἐθέλετε, οὐδέποτ' ἂν ἐπήβολοι σοφίας γένησθε· ἑκάστη γὰρ ποιότης τοῦ περιέχοντος
ἥκει τι κακὸν φέρουσα. ἡ μὲν γὰρ ψύξις τὰ σώματα πήγνυσιν, ἡ δὲ θερμότης διαχεῖ ταῦτα καὶ τὴν δύναμιν καθαιρεῖ καὶ ἡ ξηρότης
αὐχμὸν ἐργάζεται καὶ ἡ ὑγρότης περιττό τερον τὸ φλέγμα ποιεῖ· καὶ τὰ ἐκ τούτων ἀποτελούμενα πάθη διατίθησί πως ἡμᾶς καὶ ἀλλοιοῖ.
ἐκπλήττουσι μὲν γὰρ αἱ βρονταί, ἐκδειματοῦσιν οἱ κεραυνοὶ καὶ οἱ σεισμοὶ ἔτι μάλιστα· παρηλίους δὲ ἢ ἀνθηλίους ἰδόντες ἢ κεχρωσμένας
γραμμὰς καινὰ οἰόμεθα βλέπειν δημιουργήματα. εἰ οὖν διὰ τὸν ὑετὸν ἀπωκνήσατε πρὸς τὴν τοῦ λόγου μετάληψιν, τάχ' ἂν καὶ διὰ
τοὺς κεραυνοὺς ἢ τοὺς τῶν ἄστρων ἐκπυρηνισμοὺς ἢ τοὺς διᾴττοντας τῶν ἀστέρων ἢ δι' ἄλλο τι τῶν μεγίστων ἢ μικροτέρων ἀπολειφθήσεσθε
τῆς μαθήσεως· οὐκ ἔστι δὲ ὁπότε μὴ ταῦτα ἐν τῷ παντὶ γίνεται. διὰ πάντα τοιγαροῦν πάσης ἂν ἔρημοι φιλοσοφίας ὀφθείητε. Ἀλλ'
οὐχ οὕτως οἱ γεωργοῦντες ἢ πατρίδος προπολεμοῦντες, οὐδὲ οἱ τὰς βαναύσους τῶν τεχνῶν μετερχόμενοι. ἀλλ' ὅ τε χρυσογνώμων δεῆσαν
ἑκάστοτε τὸν χρυσὸν παρατρίβει τῇ λίθῳ τῇ γνώμονι, καὶ ὁ χρυσοχόος οὕτω καθαίρει τὴν ὕλην ἐκπυρῶν καὶ ἀπαλλάττων τῶν ἀλλοτρίων·
καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς πᾶς ὁ τέχνης ἐργάτης τινὸς οὐ πρὸς τοὺς καιροὺς ποιεῖται τὴν μεταχείρισιν τῶν ὑλῶν, εἰ μὴ ὅτε καὶ τοῦτο ἔργον
τῆς τέχνης ἐστίν, ὥσπερ ὁ γεωργὸς ποιεῖν εἴωθεν (ἐν τῷδε μὲν γὰρ τῷ χρόνῳ φυτεύει καὶ ἐν ἐκείνῳ τὰς ἀποφυάδας ἐντίθησι, καὶ
νῦν μὲν ὑλοτομεῖ, αὖθις δὲ δενδροτομεῖ). ἀλλ' οὐ τοῦτον ὑμεῖς ζηλοῦντες πεποιή κατε ἢ πεπόνθατε τὴν ἀπόλειψιν· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ
μαλακῶς ἔχετε τῆς γνώμης πρὸς τὴν τῶν κρειττόνων γνῶσιν, διὰ τοῦτο πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τοῦ καιροῦ αἰτιᾶσθε τῆς τούτων στερήσεως. οὐ
γὰρ ἀνηρέθισθε τὴν ψυχήν, οὐδὲ τὸ πῦρ ἡμᾶς τοῦ ζήλου καταβιβρώσκει, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τινὸς τῶν ἐν ἀγορᾷ γινομένων, οὕτω δὴ καὶ τοῦ
λόγου μεταλαμβάνετε. Τοῖς δέ γε πρὸ ἡμῶν φιλοσόφοις οὐκ ἐξήρκει τὰ ἐν ταῖς πατρίσιν αὐτῶν παιδευτήρια· ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς
Ἀσίας ἐπὶ τὴν Εὐρώπην ἐστέλ λοντο, οἱ δέ γε Εὐρωπαῖοι ἐπὶ τὴν ἑτέραν μετεσκευάζοντο ἤπειρον, ὥσπερ οἱ τὴν θάλασσαν ἐργαζόμενοι,
τὰ μὲν μετακομίζοντες πρὸς οὓς καταίρειν ἔδοξαν, τὰ δὲ μεταφορτιζόμενοι καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκείας ἀγώγιμα ἔχοντες. ἐπεῖχε δὲ τούτους
οὔτε θάλασσα κυμαινομένη οὔτε τὰ πνεύματα καταιγίζοντα οὐδὲ ὀρῶν ἀκρότητες καὶ λόφων περιωπαὶ δύσβατοι, ἀλλὰ πανταχόσε ὥσπερ
πνεῦμα ἀκωλύτῳ ἐφέροντο ῥεύματι. ἐπεὶ γὰρ τὰ τῆς μουσικῆς εἴδη διεμεμέριστο τῷ παντί, ὧδε μὲν τὰ τῆς ῥητορικῆς ἐμυοῦντο
