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

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 together, but my speech hesitates to say what follows, but it will be said nonetheless; that one outran his fellow traveler and companion, and entered the tomb first; O the concord of the brothers and the indivisible union before! O the final separation and, as it were, the cutting of one body and one nature. But the one, having lived here for what seemed to reason a brief span—for so it must be said, since he was also using things for but a short time—having finished his allotted age in a young body, was transferred to the ageless life. But the other, broken off from what was grown together with him, was cut off from that one, but was wholly for all, adding to his former power and having taken up the whole yoke of virtue. And he stood like some painter between two models, I mean, divine ones, of equal value in the contemplation of the beautiful, but having certain commonalities, and also differences, for the nature of virtue is not of a single form, but both its graciousness and its austerity, are both beautiful, yet different; and to some, these qualities belonged unmixed, but some, as in a mixing bowl, blended them both. For the one who had adorned the city of Claudius, with whom I myself often associated, just as with the other, both turned the traces of his virtues inward, and no less also had his tongue adorned with graces, and the best blend of character, such as no other has been fortunate to have; he was versatile in speech, and if anyone happened to be with him, he was immediately filled with graces. Such was this one. But the other, was completely turned away from the things here below, and wholly turned toward God; having nobly contended against body, against nature, against other necessities, and having completely conquered them all, full of squalor, as one who has struggled mightily in the dust against his opponents, and covered with the sweat of an athlete or a martyr, yielding nothing in matters requiring boldness of speech, but though he knew the form of imperial power, when it was time to speak publicly and to resist nobly, he spoke to the rulers not from a lesser or submissive position, but from a most lofty mindset. The one being praised, using such models for all kinds of beauty, not as if between two boundless seas, leaving the one and heading for the other, but sailed through both; how and in what manner? Just as if a painter, wishing to imitate blond hair, would mix the extreme colors, so too did the wise man blend the one and the other quality of the soul; for the mixture from opposites partook of both extremes. So therefore my wise John, taking the grace of the one, the unbending stance of the other, and the intentness of the one, the flexibility of the other, and of this one the complete turning towards what is better, and of that one the ability to give order to affairs and to manage discourse, and to undertake the leadership of many, and taking the most particular qualities of each, he blended them into his own single soul, and being free from both extremes, with the mixture he had conquered both, surpassing the gracefulness of the one with solemnity, and the solemnity of the other with grace. and now this same one is divided between and united in both manners. For who was better than he in social gatherings and conversations at setting up a mixing bowl full of graces, and at bringing forth speech that sweetened the hearing, and at using a story, and at recounting a subject with pleasure, and at smiling as much as is fitting, and at granting some favor even to the many, so that he might not seem unsociable or ill-omened even to them? but who was more wonderful in greater matters, at philosophizing about virtue, and at showing the definition of the beautiful and the good that lies beyond, and how the former is in the vestibule of the latter? and who was more precise at speaking about nature and the bodies under nature, and the souls above nature, and about Being and whence existence first came to it? But lest before the foundations

καὶ οὐ πολλοστῷ μηνὶ τῶν σπερμάτων, ἀλλὰ παραυτίκα κομιζομένω τὸ θέρος· καὶ ἵνα τὸ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου εἴποιμι, ἔτρεχον μὲν οἱ δύο ὁμοῦ, τὸ δ' ἐφεξῆς ὀκνεῖ μὲν ὁ λόγος ἐρεῖν, εἰρήσεται δ' οὖν· προέλαβεν ἐκεῖνος τὸν συνοδοιπόρον καὶ σύννομον, καὶ εἰσῆλθε πρῶτος εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον· ὢ τῆς ὁμονοίας τῶν ἀδελφῶν καὶ τῆς ἀδιαιρέτου συζυγίας τὸ πρότερον· ὢ τῆς τελευταίας διαζεύξεως καὶ οἱονεὶ τομῆς ἑνὸς σώματος καὶ μιᾶς φύσεως. Ἀλλ' ὁ μέν, ὁπόσον ἐδόκει τῷ λόγῳ παραβιώσας ἐνταῦθα, οὕτω γὰρ δέον ἐρεῖν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῖς πράγμασι παραχρώμενος ἦν, τὸν κεκληρωμένον αἰῶνα καταλελυκὼς ἐν νέῳ τῷ σώματι, πρὸς τὴν ἀγήρω μετετέθη ζωήν. ὁ δ' ἀπερρωγὼς τοῦ ξυμφυοῦς, ἐκείνῳ μὲν ἀπετέμητο, ὅλος δὲ τοῖς σύμπασιν ἦν, τῇ τε προτέρᾳ δυνάμει προσθεὶς καὶ ὅλον τὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀναδεδεγμένος ζυγόν. εἱστήκει δὲ οἷά τις γραφεὺς δυοῖν μέσον παραδειγμάτων, φημὶ δὴ τῶν θείων, ὁμοτίμων μὲν τὴν τοῦ καλοῦ θεωρίαν, ἐχόντων δέ τινας ὥσπερ δὴ κοινότητας, οὕτω δὴ καὶ διαφοράς, οὐ γὰρ μονοειδὴς ἡ τῆς ἀρετῆς φύσις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ χάριεν αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ ἀμειδές, ἄμφω μὲν καλά, διάφορα δέ· καὶ τοῖς μέν, ἄκρατα ταῦτα προσεγεγόνει, οἱ δέ τινες, ὥσπερ ἐν κρατῆρι ἄμφω συνεκεράσαντο. ὁ μὲν γὰρ τὴν Κλαυδίου πόλιν κεκοσμηκώς, ᾧ δὴ πολλάκις καὶ αὐτὸς πεπλησίακα, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ θατέρῳ, ἔσω τε τὰ ἴχνη τῶν ἀρετῶν ἔστρεψε, καὶ οὐδὲν ἧττον καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν ἐκεκόσμητο χάρισιν, ἠθῶν τε κράσιν ἀρίστην καὶ οἵαν οὐκ ἄλλος εὐτύχησε· παντοδαπός τε τὸν λόγον ἦν, καὶ εἴ τις αὐτῷ παρετύγχανεν, εὐθὺς χαρίτων ἐμπέπληστο. Τοιοῦτος μὲν οὗτος. ἅτερος δέ, οὐδὲν ὅτι μὴ τὸ ὅλον τῶν τῇδε μὲν ἀπεστραμμένος, ὅλος δὲ ἐπεστραμμένος πρὸς τὸν θεόν· διηγωνισμένος γενναίως πρὸς σῶμα, πρὸς φύσιν, πρὸς ἑτέρας ἀναγκαιότητας, καὶ τοῖς ὅλοις ὅλους νενικηκώς, αὐχμοῦ πλέως ἅτε ἰσχυρῶς πρὸς τοὺς ἀνταγωνιστὰς κονισάμενος, καὶ ἀθλητικοῖς ἢ μαρτυρικοῖς ἱδρῶσι περιρρεόμενος, οὐδὲν ὑφιέμενος τοῖς ὅπῃ δεῖ παρρησίας, ἀλλὰ σχῆμα μὲν ᾔδει βασιλείας, οὗ δὲ καιρὸς ἦν λόγον δημοσιεῦσαι καὶ ἀντιστῆναι γενναίως, οὐκ ἐκ τοῦ ἐλάττονος οὐδ' ἐκ τοῦ ὑφειμένου, ἀλλ' ἐξ ὑπερυψήλου τοῖς κρατοῦσιν ὡμίλει φρονήματος. Τοιούτοις ὁ ἐγκωμιαζόμενος χρώμενος πρὸς τὸ παντοδαπὸν καλὸν παραδείγμασιν, οὐχ ὥσπερ δυοῖν πελάγοιν ἀπείροιν, τὸ μέν, μεθῆκεν, ἐς τὸ δ' ἀφῆκεν, ἀλλ' ἄμφω διέπλευσε· πῶς καὶ τίνα τρόπον; ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ καὶ ζωγράφος βουλόμενος ξανθὰς τρίχας ἀπομιμήσασθαι, τὰ ἄκρα συγκεράσειε χρώματα, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὁ σοφὸς ταὐτὸν καὶ θάτερον τῆς ψυχῆς συνεκέρασε· τὸ γὰρ ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων κρᾶμα ἀμφοῖν τῶν ἄκρων μετέσχεν. οὕτω τοιγαροῦν ὁ ἐμὸς σοφὸς Ἰωάννης, τοῦ μὲν τὴν χάριν, τοῦ δὲ τὴν ἀκλινῆ στάσιν, καὶ τοῦ μὲν τὸ ἀτενές, τοῦ δὲ τὸ εὐκαμπές, καὶ τούτου μὲν τὴν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον, τελείαν ἐπιστροφήν, [τούτου δὲ] ὅσον τάξιν ἐνθεῖναι πράγμασι καὶ λόγον οἰκονομῆσαι, καὶ προστασίαν πολλῶν ἀναδέξασθαι, καὶ ἑκάστου τὰ ἰδιαίτατα συλλαβὼν εἰς μίαν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν ἐκεράσατο, καὶ ἀπολελυμένος ἀμφοῖν τῶν ἄκρων, τῷ κράματι ἀμφοτέρους ἐνενικήκει, τοῦ μὲν τὸ χάριεν τῷ σεμνῷ, τοῦ δὲ τῇ χάριτι ὑπερβαλόμενος τὸ σεμνόν. καὶ νῦν ὁ αὐτὸς ἀμφοῖν τοῖν τρόποιν διῄρηται καὶ συνήνωται. τίς γὰρ τούτου καλλίων ἐν συνουσίαις καὶ διαλόγοις κρατῆρα χαρίτων γέμοντα στήσασθαι, καὶ λόγον ἐξενεγκεῖν καταμελιτοῦντα τὴν ἀκοήν, καὶ μύθῳ χρήσασθαι, καὶ μεθ' ἡδονῆς ὑπόθεσιν ἀφηγήσασθαι, καὶ ἐπιμειδιᾶσαι ὅσον εἰκός, καί τι καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς χαρίσασθαι, ἵνα μηδὲ τούτοις δόξῃ ἀξύμβολος ἢ δυσοιώνιστος; τίς δὲ τὰ κρείττω θαυμασιώτερος, ἀρετῆς τε πέρι φιλοσοφῆσαι, καὶ τοῦ καλοῦ δεῖξαι τὸν ὅρον καὶ τὸ ὑπερκείμενον ἀγαθόν, καὶ ὡς ἐν προθύροις τοῦτο ἐκείνου; τίς δὲ ἀκριβέστερος περί τε φύσεως ἐρεῖν καὶ τῶν ὑπὸ τὴν φύσιν σωμάτων, καὶ τῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν φύσιν ψυχῶν, καὶ περὶ τοῦ ὄντος καὶ ὅθεν πρώτως τούτῳ ὕπαρξις; Ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ πρὸ τῶν κρηπίδων