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
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, but to dig up the hidden spirit like pearls; and neither to think the things of Moses as the ends of truth, nor to suppose the foreshadowings of the better thing to be complete in themselves, but to bring those things to these, and these to another restoration; but not to reject entirely the things of the Greeks in which those men have chosen to speak of divine things, but—counting the paternal depth and the three triads and the ten world-rulers and the one girded below and the flanks of Hecate and the manes and other different parts along with the myths, in which they theologize concerning the principle of all things, and that from there all things consist, and that this is a being having no generation, and other things as are similar to those of our court—to try to join them to the divine oracles and to make our soul a common mixing-bowl for both. But the Hermetic monad and the other writings of this man which he dictated to his own son, Tat, in which he does not clearly oppose the true doctrines, accept; for they are better than Plato's philosophy and closely resemble oracles and lead the soul up from matter. And his Poimandres (for so he entitled his own discourse) reject as a dreamer, as also the seizure of the mind of Empedotimus, which Iamblichus indeed extols, but Posidonius the philosopher rejects. But what these men say concerning the one and being and the self-moved and the extended, giving with proofs, if you find them agreeing with the approaches from there, accept them; but if discordant, reject them. And dishonor for me also the circuits of souls of Plato and the entelechy of souls of Aristotle and the torment of souls in Hades in the muddy rivers, and the wonder-working and tale of wonders of Proclus and what Plotinus shows of those who hear the gods; and turn away for me also from the daimonion of Socrates, with which he often conversed and used as a rule for action. If you do thus, like sailors you will draw drinkable water from the salt. For what do these men do? Whenever they are caught at sea and do not have a good supply of fresh water, having hung sponges over the sea and having squeezed the vapor out into water, they sup a most sweet stream. And so you too, having suspended your soul on high over the Greek doctrines as over salty waters, the echo borne from there, being heavy and earthy, having changed it into sharp and light, you might perhaps hear a most clear-sounding melody from the highest of strings. 25 ad discipulos de philosophia et rhetorica But there, to play the things of Mithras, and here, the things of Ammon, with the spirit playing you and in turn making you rage like a Corybant and throwing you on your back. But what is the teacher to you? For we have not both drunk from the same mixing-bowl, that we should be led by the same spirit. For you are perhaps seized by the Muses and seized by the Nymphs, and Hermes leads you wherever he might wish, and for this reason you are bent and you scream, twisting yourselves toward yourselves. But I follow the rules below and the technical ones, and after the basic elements I know the composition, and after the premises I understand the conclusion; but being moved by my own spirit I would not undo the things from which I have advanced to this point, nor would I weave the web of Penelope, nor having secured it as was possible would I now again lay the foundations and cast down the first principle of the building. But you, if you do not take me also as a fellow-player and as a leader of the return, you cry out loudly and you do wrong
ἔχειν τὴν περὶ ταῦτα θεωρίαν, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς ἡμετέρας σοφίας τὸν τύπον γινώσκειν καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ τὸ μὲν γράμμα ἐπιθραύειν
ὥσπερ ἔλυτρον, τὸ δὲ κεκρυμμένον πνεῦμα ὥσπερ μαργαρίτας ἀναχων νύειν· καὶ μήτε τὰ Μωσέως ὡς τέλη τῆς ἀληθείας οἴεσθαι, μήτε
τὰς τοῦ κρείττονος διατυπώσεις ὑπολαμβάνειν αὐτοτελεῖς, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνα μὲν εἰς ταῦτα φέρειν, τὰ δὲ εἰς ἑτέραν ἀποκατάστασιν·
μὴ πάντῃ δὲ καὶ τὰ Ἑλλήνων παραιτεῖσθαι ἐν οἷς θεολογεῖν οἱ ἄνδρες προῄρηνται, ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν πατρικὸν βυθὸν καὶ τὰς τρεῖς τριάδας
καὶ τὰς δέκα κοσμαγωγοὺς καὶ τὸν ὑπεζωκότα καὶ τοὺς λαγόνας τῆς Ἑκάτης καὶ τὰς χαίτας ἄλλα τε ἕτερα μέρη μετὰ τῶν μύθων συναριθμοῦντες,
ἐν οἷς περὶ τῆς τῶν πάντων θεολογοῦσιν ἀρχῆς, καὶ ὅτι ἐκεῖθεν τὰ πάντα συνέστηκε, καὶ ὅτι ὄν ἐστιν αὕτη οὐκ ἔχουσα γένεσιν,
καὶ τἆλλα ὡς τοῖς τῆς ἡμετέρας παρεοικότα αὐλῆς, συγκολλᾶν πειρᾶσθαι θείοις λογίοις καὶ κοινὸν ἀμφοῖν κρατῆρα ποιεῖσθαι τὴν
ἡμετέραν ψυχήν. τὴν δὲ Ἑρμαϊκὴν μονάδα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τούτου συγγράμματα ἃ δὴ πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ παῖδα τὸν Τὰτ ὑπηγόρευσεν,
ἐν οἷς μὴ καθαρῶς ταῖς ἀληθέσι δόξαις ἐναντιοῦται, προσίεσθε· κρείττονα γὰρ ἢ κατὰ τὴν Πλάτωνος φιλοσοφίαν καὶ χρησμοῖς ἀκριβῶς
ἐοικότα καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐκ τῆς ὕλης ἀνάγοντα. καὶ τὸν Ποιμάνδρην τούτου (οὕτω γὰρ τὸν οἰκεῖον λόγον ἐπέγραφεν) ὡς ὀνειρώττοντα
δια πτύετε, ὡς δὲ καὶ τὴν Ἐμπεδοτίμου τοῦ νοῦ ἁρπαγήν, ἣν ἐξαίρει μὲν ὁ Ἰάμβλιχος, Ποσειδώνιος δὲ ἀθετεῖ ὁ φιλόσοφος. ἃ δέ
φασιν οὗτοι περὶ τοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ τοῦ ὄντος καὶ τοῦ αὐτοκινήτου καὶ τοῦ διαστατοῦ ἀποδείξεσι διδόντες, εἰ μὲν συμβαίνοντα ταῖς
ἐκεῖθεν ἐφόδοις εὕρητε, δέχεσθε· εἰ δ' ἀπᾴδοντα, διαπτύετε. ἀτιμάζοιτε δέ μοι καὶ τὰς Πλάτωνος τῶν ψυχῶν περιόδους καὶ τὴν
Ἀριστοτέλους τῶν ψυχῶν ἐντελέχειαν καὶ τὴν ἐν ᾅδου τῶν ψυχῶν ἐν ποταμοῖς τοῖς θολεροῖς βάσανον, τὴν δὲ τοῦ Πρόκλου τερατουργίαν
καὶ τερατολογίαν καὶ ἃ δὴ Πλωτῖνος δείκνυσι θεοκλυτῶν· ἀποτρέπεσθε δέ μοι καὶ τὸ τοῦ Σωκράτους δαιμόνιον, ᾧ δὴ ἐκεῖνος θαμὰ
ὁμιλῶν κανόνι ἐχρῆτο πρὸς τὴν ἐνέργειαν. Εἰ οὕτω ποιεῖτε, κατὰ τοὺς ναυτιλλομένους ἐξ ἁλμυροῦ πότιμον ὕδωρ ἀρύσεσθε. τί δ'
ἔστιν ὃ οὗτοι δρῶσιν; ἐπειδὰν ἐναποληφθέντες πελάγεσιν ὕδατος γλυκέος μὴ εὐπορῶσι, σπόγγους τῇ θαλάσσῃ ἐπικρεμάσαντες καὶ
τὸν ἀτμὸν εἰς ὕδωρ ἐναποθλίψαντες ἀπορροφῶσιν ἡδίστου νάματος. καὶ ὑμεῖς τοιγαροῦν τὴν ὑμετέραν ψυχὴν ἐφ' ὕψους τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν
δογμάτων ὡς ἁλμυρῶν ἀναρτήσαντες, τὴν ἐκεῖθεν φερομένην ἠχὼ βαρεῖαν καὶ γεώδη τυγχάνουσαν εἰς ὀξεῖαν καὶ κούφην μεταβαλόντες,
τάχ' ἂν ὑπὸ τῆς ὑπάτης τῶν χορδῶν λιγυρωτάτου μέλους ἀκούσεσθε. 25 αδ δισξιπυλος δε πηιλοσοπηια ετ ρηετοριξα Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖ μὲν
τὰ Μίθρου παίζειν, ἐνταῦθα δὲ τὰ ἐς Ἄμμωνος, τοῦ πνεύματος ὑμᾶς παίζοντος καὶ παρὰ μέρος κορυβαντιῶντος καὶ ὑπτιάζον τος.
ἀλλὰ τί παρ' ὑμᾶς ὁ διδάσκαλος; οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ κρατῆρος ἄμφω πεπώκαμεν, ἵν' ὑπὸ τῷ αὐτῷ ἀγοίμεθα πνεύματι. ὑμεῖς μὲν
γὰρ ἴσως μουσόληπτοι καὶ νυμφόληπτοι καὶ Ἑρμῆς ἄγει πρὸς ὃ καὶ βούλοιτο, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο κάμπτεσθέ τε καὶ κλώζεσθε πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς
συστρεφόμενοι. ἐγὼ δὲ τοῖς κάτω κανόσι καὶ τεχνικοῖς ἕπομαι καὶ μετὰ τὴν στοιχείωσιν μὲν οἶδα τὴν σύνθεσιν, μετὰ τὰς προτάσεις
δὲ ἐπίσταμαι τὸ συμπέρασμα· οἰκείῳ δὲ κινούμενος πνεύματι οὐκ ἂν ἀναλύσαιμι ἀφ' ὧν εἰς τοῦτο προὐχώρησα, οὐδὲ τὸν Πηνελόπης
ἱστὸν ἱστουργήσαιμι, οὐδ' ἀσφαλισά μενος αὐτὸν ὡς ἐνῆν νῦν αὖθις θείην κρηπῖδας καὶ πρώτην ἀρχὴν τῆς οἰκοδο μῆς καταβάλοιμι.
ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς, εἰ μὴ κἀμὲ συμπαίστορα λάβητε καὶ τῆς ἀνακάμψεως προηγούμενον, μέγα κεκράγατε καὶ ἀδικεῖτε
