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 what they have done, and for what they have done concerning what they have said, but shall deprive the living of the discourse which would make their virtue public, and in addition we would open up a wide road of good actions. For to them it is uncertain if anyone will appear to speak friendly favors, but here the recompense of the good deed is manifest; and in that case one of two things is done, either that the discourse is known to those being praised, or that the encomium becomes a starting point of good for others, this last alone, for the first does not have an acknowledged manifestation; but if one undertakes to praise those still living, he both shows them a splendid favor, and refers the listeners to this man as a living example, so that they might have both what they hear and whom they see for guidance to the better. But you, dearest and wisest of all men, and I might even say most godlike, endure the praise nobly, and do not rise up before the speech, nor close your ears, which you are accustomed to do in public conversations, not accepting even the slightest praise. But if you do, at least be philosopher enough for me in this, not to deprive the rest of the benefit from the speech; for I do not weave your praise in order to gratify you, but for these two reasons: to discharge to you the debt of instruction and to pay the wages as I am able, and to set you up for others as an example of both virtue and knowledge, whichever one might wish to hear of, whether that which is gathered from theorems, or that which appears after the perfection of virtues, of which the one displays the beauties of nature, and the other shows the principles of things beyond nature. Having turned so far toward the one being praised, let the speech now incline back to itself and accomplish what it set out to do. And the purpose is to praise the speech and action of a man; which, being barely comparable with each other, do not allow others even to come near them. And if it had been given to me by him also to compose his praise from external splendors, I would not have been at a loss for any of the more august things here, neither royal courts, nor higher thrones, nor private, nor public goods. But since the one being praised is not more dignified by these things than he is ashamed of them, who has almost forgotten whence he has come, we shall speak so much in praise of him from this point, that two teachers became for him of virtue and education alike, his uncles by birth and in the true power of the name, having been dedicated to them from his swaddling clothes, not cast upon the pavement of the divine temple, but immediately established within the inner sanctuary; both wise in things divine and human, equal in honor for their virtue, ambidextrous by nature, both partaking of graces; of whom the one, having steered the rudders of the church in Claudiopolis from the very first starting-point, looking toward the torches above, both established it in unswept harbors, and not long ago was poured back into the divine and first light. The other is entrusted with an apostolic inheritance, and with splendid hopes is sent from the city that presides over all cities to those formerly called Scythian nomads, but then named Bulgars; he did not disappoint the hopes of those who sent him, or only so much as that he became better than their hopes, purely reshaping an entire nation toward God, no less than Didymus did for all of India. Under such teachers this man is educated for both knowledge and virtue, not being trained for the better things alone, but also his brother as a companion, divine from his first hair both in nature and in soul, was broken in under the same yoke with him; and they both were carrying their education on their shoulders and plowing the field of reason,

ἀρορμὰς προειλήφαμεν, ἔτι δὲ ἀτοπώτερον, εἰ τοῖς μὲν τελευτήσασι τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ γενναίων ἀνδρῶν εὐφημίας ἀποδιδόαμεν, ὧν τε εἰρήκασιν ἐφ' οἷς πεπράχασι, καὶ ὧν πεπράχασιν ἐφ' οἷς εἰρήκασι, τοὺς ζῶντας δὲ τοῦ λόγου στερήσομεν, ὃς τήν γε ἀρετὴν τούτοις δημοσιεύσειε, καὶ προσέτι ὁδὸν εὐρεῖαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν ὑπανοίξομεν πράξεων. ἐκείνοις μὲν γὰρ ἄδηλον εἴ τις ἐμφανιεῖ λέγων τὰς φιλικὰς χάριτας, ἐνταῦθα δὲ καταφανὴς ἡ ἀντίδοσις τοῦ καλοῦ· κἀκεῖ μὲν δυοῖν θάτερον πράττεται, τοῦ τε ἐγνῶσθαι τοῖς ἐγκωμιαζομένοις τὸν λόγον, καὶ τοῦ τοῖς ἄλλοις γενέσθαι ἀφορμὴν τοῦ καλοῦ τὸ ἐγκώμιον, τοῦτο δὴ μόνον, οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὸ πρῶτον ὁμολογουμένην ἔχει τὴν δήλωσιν· εἰ δέ τις ἐγκωμιάζειν τοὺς ἔτι περιόντας ἐπιχειρεῖ, τούτοις τε λαμπρὰν τὴν χάριν ἐπιδεικνύει, καὶ τοὺς ἀκούοντας ὡς πρὸς ἔμψυχον ἐπαναφέρει τοῦτον παράδειγμα, ἵνα καὶ ὧν ἀκούοιεν, καὶ οὓς ὁρῷεν ἄμφω πρὸς ὁδηγίαν τοῦ κρείττονος ἔχοιεν. Σὺ δέ μοι φίλτατε πάντων ἀνδρῶν καὶ σοφώτατε, εἰπεῖν δὲ καὶ θεοειδέστατε, καρτέρει γενναίως τὴν εὐφημίαν, καὶ μὴ προεξαναστῇς τοῦ λόγου, μηδ' ἐπικλείσῃς τὰ ὦτα, ὅπερ δὴ ποιεῖν εἴωθας ἐν τοῖς κοινοῖς διαλόγοις, μηδὲ τὸν βραχύτατον ἔπαινον προσιέμενος. εἰ δ' οὖν, ἀλλὰ τοσοῦτόν μοι φιλοσόφησον, μὴ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀποστερῆσαι τὴν ἐκ τοῦ λόγου ὠφέλειαν· οὐ γὰρ ὥστε σοι χαρίσασθαι ὑφαίνω τὴν σὴν εὐφημίαν, ἀλλὰ δυοῖν τούτοιν ἕνεκα, τοῦ τε σοὶ τὸ χρέος τῆς διδασκαλίας ἀφοσιώσασθαι καὶ τοὺς μισθοὺς ἐκτίσασθαι καθὼς ἂν δυναίμην, καὶ τοῦ τοῖς ἄλλοις ὑπόδειγμά σε καὶ ἀρετῆς καὶ γνώσεως καταστήσασθαι, ὁποτέρας βούλοιτό τις ἀκούειν, εἴτε τῆς ἐκ θεωρημάτων συναγομένης, εἴτε τῆς μετὰ τὴν τελείωσιν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναφαινομένης, ὧν ἡ μὲν τὰ κάλλη ἐπιδεικνύει τῆς φύσεως, ἡ δέ, τῶν ὑπὲρ φύσιν δείκνυσι τὰς ἀρχάς. Τοσοῦτον δὲ ὁ λόγος ἐπιστραφεὶς πρὸς τὸν ἐπαινούμενον, κεκλίσθω πρὸς ἑαυτὸν καὶ ὃ προὔθετο περαινέτω. ἡ δὲ πρόθεσις ἀνδρὸς λόγον καὶ πρᾶξιν ἐγκωμιάσαι· ἃ δὴ πρὸς ἄλληλα μόλις ἀντικρινόμενα, οὐδ' ἐγγὺς ἐλθεῖν αὐτῶν τοῖς ἄλλοις διδόασι. καὶ εἰ μέν μοι καὶ τοῦτο ἦν παρ' αὐτοῦ δεδομένον καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἔξωθεν λαμπροτήτων συγκροτῆσαι τούτῳ τὴν εὐφημίαν, οὐδενὸς ἂν τῶν ἐνταῦθα σεμνοτέρων ἠπόρησα, οὔτε βασιλείων αὐλῶν, οὔτε θρόνων ὑψηλοτέρων, οὔτ' ἰδίων, οὔτε δημοσίων καλῶν. ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐ μᾶλλον σεμνύνεται τούτοις ὁ ἐγκωμιαζόμενος, ἢ αἰσχύνεται, ὅς γε μικροῦ δεῖν καὶ ἐπιλέλησται ὅθεν γεγένηται, τοσοῦτον ἐντεῦθεν τοῦτον σεμνολογήσομεν, ὅτι δύο τινὲ καθηγητὰ ἐγενέσθην αὐτῷ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὁμοῦ καὶ παιδεύσεως, θείω μὲν τὸ γένος αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ἀληθῆ τοῦ ὀνόματος δύναμιν, ἐκ σπαργάνων ἀνατεθειμένῳ αὐτοῖς, οὐ τῷ ἐδάφει προσερριμμένῳ τοῦ θείου νεώ, ἀλλ' εὐθὺς ἔνδον τῶν ἀδύτων καθιδρυμένῳ· σοφὼ ἄμφω καὶ τὰ θεῖα καὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, ὁμοτίμω τὴν ἀρετήν, περιδεξίω τὴν φύσιν, χαρίτων ἄμφω μετέχοντες· ὧν ὁ μέν, τῆς ἐν Κλαυδιουπόλει ἐκκλησίας ἰθύνας τοὺς οἴακας ἐκ πρώτης εὐθὺς ἀφετηρίας, πρὸς τοὺς ἄνω πυρσοὺς ἀποβλέψας, ἐκείνην τε ἐς ὅρμους ἀκλύστους κατέστησε, κἀκεῖνος οὐ πολὺς ἐξ οὗ χρόνος τῷ θείῳ καὶ πρώτῳ ἀνεχύθη φωτί. ὁ δέ, ἀποστολικὴν κληροδοσίαν πιστεύε[ται, καὶ μ]ετὰ λαμπρῶν τῶν ἐλπίδων ἐς τοὺς πρὶν νομάδας κεκλημένους Σκύθας, ἔπειτα δὲ Βουλγάρους ὠνομασμένους ἐκ τῆς προκαθημένης συμπασῶν τῶν πόλεων πέμπεται· οὐκ ἔψευσε τὰς ἐλπίδας τοῖς ἀποστείλασιν, ἢ τοσοῦτον, ὅτι κρείττων ἐκείνων ἐγένετο, ὅλον ἔθνος καθαρῶς μεταπλάσας πρὸς τὸν θεόν, οὐδὲν ἔλαττον ἢ τὴν Ἰνδῶν ὁ ∆ίδυμος σύμπασαν. Ὑπὸ τοιούτοις οὗτος καθηγηταῖς καὶ πρὸς γνῶσιν καὶ πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐκπαιδεύεται, οὐ μόνος πρὸς τὰ κρείττω παιδοτριβούμενος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ ἑταῖρος, θεῖος ἐκ πρώτης τριχὸς καὶ τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν ψυχήν, ὑπὸ τὸν αὐτὸν τούτῳ ἐπωλοδαμνεῖτο ζυγόν· καὶ ἤστην ἄμφω κατωμαδὸν ἀραμένω τὴν παίδευσιν καὶ ἀροτριῶντε τὸν λόγον,