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

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 godless battalions. Where now are the unnumbered myriads, the clouds that almost covered the entire West? Where are the barbaric streams and armies poured out against our borders, then suddenly confused and flowing upon the earth and manifestly covered with their own blood? O your ever-flowing tears and deep and unseen groans, of which the one sufficed for them instead of river streams, and the other served as arrows. But I wish to say something more, but I fear your love of God, lest you exact a penalty from me for my words as if for an audacity. But philosophize with me a little, and do not immediately reply and confound my attempt with your eloquence. The work is manifestly of divine power, and what argument will contradict it? But God has used you for this purpose as he used Moses, and through you he wages war against this new Amalekite people, not only by the stretching out of hands, but also by strategic thoughts and brave armies striking from both sides, both on their backs and on their chests. For what God has become to you, that you become to the armies; and they looked to you for reference, but you purely to God; who from both sides has warred down the barbarian, from himself from above, and here through your hands and armies. This then is my bold attempt, not sufficiently worked out, but modestly introduced, so that by its brevity I might escape your hearing. And if it is acceptable to you, let books carry it; but if not, let the breezes scatter it; for from both sides you yourself will be proclaimed victor, either by the truth of the enterprise or by the piety of the thought. But however this may be, you have conquered, O emperor, a victory, and you have set up on earth so great a trophy, which is an unrivaled equivalent to all the famed accomplishments of Alexander the Macedonian, or rather incomparably better than these, and when compared to those of Moses, it is victorious by no small measure; but that demagogue and man who was addressed as a god, Pharaoh, left many of the nations unsubdued for the general after him, but you have not left a single barbarian unconquered for your sons. But, O noble seeds and offspring of a most noble father—and I will add, of a preeminent mother to whom nothing at all is comparable—do not suffer the same thing as Alexander, son of Philip. Do not look sullenly upon your father's accomplishments, as if you yourselves will wage war against and conquer none of the barbarians, since all have been defeated and driven away. But with a joyful soul step upon the captured shields and wage war against the slaughtered lions and dragons and reconcile the parts of the world to one another, joining together what is of the same race with peaceful treaties. And if there is anything barbaric, drive it away from afar, but choose to conquer the Roman state with generous gifts and acts of kindness according to the paternal examples. 15 A discourse describing the virtue of the protosynkellos To describe the man—for let him be for now anonymous—but I have chosen not to praise him. But if the discourse of description takes on some pretexts for eulogies, one should not be surprised; for the discourses pass through one another and like to be intertwined with one another. Besides, the description is a neighbor to the encomium and for these reasons he who speaks of the one is of necessity also intertwined with the other part. The one therefore being described by us refers his thought to the heroic life, but our kind is of a different sort, more varied rather than more grim; for these reasons, just like Phocion and Cato and before them Pericles, on account of the greatness of his prudence he seems unsociable to the many. And this is of the precise

κατορθώματα; ὢ τῶν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κατὰ τῶν βαρβάρων βελῶν, ὢ τῶν ἀφανῶν τοξευμάτων, ὢ τῶν ἀγγελικῶν ἐν ἀέρι δυνάμεων, ὢ τῶν θείων στρατευμάτων κατὰ τῶν ἀθέων ταγμάτων. ποῦ νῦν αἱ μηδὲ ἀριθμούμεναι μυριάδες, τὰ συγκαλύψαντα νέφη μικροῦ δεῖν τὴν ἑσπέραν ξύμπασαν; ποῦ τὰ χυθέντα κατὰ τῶν ἡμετέρων ὁρίων βαρβαρικὰ ῥεύματα καὶ στρατεύματα, εἶτ' ἀθρόον συγχυθέντα καὶ κατὰ γῆς ῥεύσαντα καὶ τοῖς οἰκείοις συγκαλυφθέντα περιφανῶς αἵμασιν; ὢ τῶν σῶν ἀειρύτων δακρύων καὶ τῶν βυθίων καὶ ἀφανῶν στεναγμῶν, ὧν τὰ μὲν ἀντὶ ποταμίων ῥευμάτων ἐκείνοις ἐξήρκεσαν, τὰ δὲ ἀντὶ βελῶν ἐχρημάτισεν. Ἐγὼ δὲ βούλομαί τι καὶ πλέον ἐρεῖν, ἀλλά σου δέδοικα τὸ φιλόθεον, μή με καὶ δίκην εἰσπράξῃς τῶν λόγων ὥσπερ τολμήματος. ἀλλὰ μικρόν τί μοι φιλοσόφησον, καὶ μὴ εὐθὺς ἀπαντήσῃς καί μοι συγχέῃς τῇ εὐγλωττίᾳ τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν. θείας μὲν τὸ ἔργον προδήλως δυνάμεως, καὶ τίς ἀντερεῖ λόγος; ἀλλὰ σοὶ ὡς Μωϋσῇ πρὸς τοῦτο ἐχρήσατο ὁ θεός, καὶ σοὶ καταπολεμεῖ τὸν νέον τοῦτον Ἀμαληκίτην λαόν, οὐ χειρῶν ἐκτάσει μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ στρατηγικοῖς ἐνθυμήμασι καὶ γενναίοις στρατεύμασιν ἀμφοτέρωθεν βάλλουσι, καὶ κατὰ νώτων καὶ κατὰ στέρνων. ὃ γὰρ σοὶ γέγονεν ὁ θεός, τοῦτο σὺ καθίστασο τοῖς στρατεύμασι· κἀκεῖνα μὲν πρὸς σὲ τὴν ἀναφορὰν εἶχε, σὺ δὲ καθαρῶς πρὸς θεόν· ὃς ἀμφοτέρωθεν τὸ βάρβαρον καταπεπολέμηκε, παρὰ μὲν ἑαυτοῦ ἄνωθεν, ἐνταῦθα δὲ παρὰ τῶν σῶν χειρῶν καὶ στρατευμάτων. Τοῦτο μὲν δὴ τὸ ἐμὸν τόλμημα, οὐκ ἀρκούντως ἐξεργασθέν, ἀλλὰ μετρίως εἰσενεχθέν, ἵνα σου τῷ συντόμῳ λάθω τὴν ἀκοήν. καὶ εἰ μὲν εὐπαράδεκτόν σοι, βίβλοι φερέτωσαν, εἰ δ' οὖν, αὖραι διασκιδνάτωσαν· ἀμφοτέρωθεν γὰρ στεφανίτης αὐτὸς ἀναγορευθήσῃ, ἢ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τοῦ ἐγχειρήματος ἢ τῷ φιλοθέῳ τοῦ σκέμματος. ὅπως δ' ἂν ἕξοι τοῦτο, νενίκηκας, ὦ βασιλεῦ, νίκην καὶ τηλικοῦτον ἔστησας ἐπὶ γῆς τρόπαιον, ὃ τοῖς μὲν τοῦ Μακεδόνος Ἀλεξάνδρου θρυλλουμένοις κατορθώμασιν ἀπαραμίλλως πᾶσιν ἀντίρροπον, ἢ τούτων μὲν ἀσυγκρίτως κρεῖττον, τοῖς δὲ Μωσαϊκοῖς παραβαλλόμενον καὶ οὐκ ὀλίγῳ μέρει νικῶν, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν δημαγωγὸς ἐκεῖνος ἀνὴρ καὶ θεὸς προσαγορευθεὶς Φαραὼ πολλὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἀφῆκεν ἀδούλωτα τῷ μετ' αὐτὸν στρατηγήσαντι, σὺ δὲ τοῖς παισὶν οὐδ' ὁντιναοῦν βάρβαρον ἀφῆκας ἀήττητον. Ἀλλ', ὦ γενναῖα τοῦ γενναιοτάτου πατρὸς σπέρματα καὶ γεννήματα-προσθήσω δὲ καὶ τῆς ὑπερφυοῦς μητρὸς καὶ ᾗ μηδὲν τῶν ἁπάντων ἀνθάμιλλον-μὴ πάθητε ταὐτὸν ὅπερ ὁ τοῦ Φιλίππου Ἀλέξανδρος. μὴ ἐπισκυθρωπάσοιτε τοῖς τοῦ πατρὸς κατορθώμασιν, ὡς πρὸς μηδένα τῶν πάντων βαρβάρων αὐτοὶ πολεμήσοντες καὶ νικήσοντες τῶν ὅλων ἡττημένων καὶ ἀπωσμένων. ἀλλ' ἱλαρᾷ τῇ ψυχῇ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀναιρεθεισῶν ἀσπίδων ἐμβαίητε καὶ τοὺς ἀπεσφαγμένους καταπολεμοῦντες λέοντάς τε καὶ δράκοντας καὶ τὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης τμήματα ἀλλήλοις καταλλάττοιτε, σπονδαῖς εἰρηνικαῖς συνάπτοντες τὸ ὁμόφυλον. καὶ εἴ τι μὲν βάρβαρον, πόρρωθεν ἀποκρούοιτε, τὴν δὲ πολιτείαν Ῥωμαίων νικᾶν ἕλοισθε φιλοτίμοις δωρήμασι καὶ φιλανθρωπεύμασι κατὰ τὰ πατρικὰ παραδείγματα. 15 Λόγος χαρακτηρίζων τὴν τοῦ πρωτοσυγκέλλου ἀρετήν Χαρακτηρίζειν τὸν ἄνδρα-ἔστω γὰρ τέως ἀνώνυμος- ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐγκωμιάζειν εἱλόμην. εἰ δέ τινας ὁ τοῦ χαρακτῆρος λόγος εὐφημιῶν προσλήψεται ἀφορμάς, θαυμάζειν οὐ χρή· δι' ἀλλήλων γὰρ οἱ λόγοι διήκουσι καὶ φιλοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις συμπλέκεσθαι. ἄλλως θ' ὁ χαρακτὴρ ἐκ γειτόνων τῷ ἐγκωμίῳ ἐστὶ καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ὁ περὶ θατέρου λέγων ἐξ ἀνάγκης καὶ τῷ λοιπῷ συμπλέκεται μέρει. Ὁ τοίνυν ἡμῖν χαρακτηριζόμενος ἐς τὸν ἡρωϊκὸν ἀναφέρει βίον τὴν γνώμην, τὸ δέ γε καθ' ἡμᾶς γένος ἑτεροῖόν ἐστι, ποικιλώτερον μᾶλλον ἢ βλοσυρώτερον· διὰ ταῦτα ὥσπερ Φωκίων καὶ Κάτων καὶ πρὸ τούτων ὁ Περικλῆς διὰ φρονήσεως μέγεθος ἀκοινώνητος δοκεῖ τοῖς πολλοῖς. ἔστι δὲ τοῦτο τοῦ ἀκριβοῦς