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 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 concerning the scandals and the burning anxieties, if [anyone] should wish, he might speak of him most loudly, and so great for him are the matters of burning anxiety, that he has allowed no one henceforth to be scandalized, neither concerning the greater things nor concerning the lesser; for he has removed for all the thorns and the stumbling blocks, and dissolved the barriers in between, and made peace with all, and blended all with each other into harmony, and having become weak with the weak, now, being strong and entirely healthy, he rejoices with his flock that is altogether in good condition. However, the concern for all the churches, no one could take this from the man, making as proof of such care the fact that he so cared for his own, as to set an example for others, should they wish to engage in similar actions. For to the one who has been faithful in one thing, according to the gospel, it suffices for [authority] over many things. For not as one driven by ambition did he increase and adorn his own church in all kinds of ways, so that he might be exalted over the others, but as one holding to the whole divine purpose, he made known his own zeal through this one church; and if it were permitted, and all were granting it, he would not have hesitated to go everywhere, and to exalt and beautify every metropolitan see. Moreover, this same thing was at once both easy and laborious for the man: the one, because of the care of his soul which wasted away his flesh; the other, because of the dignity of his judgment, with all yielding and submitting to him. In this, at least, he has an advantage over Paul, that to the one, because of the abundance of the revelations, an angel of Satan was given, lest he should imagine something better about himself or be exalted—whoever this Satan and this thorn in the flesh may be—whereas for this man, no one at all rises up against him, but wherever he might go, all things are most easy and ready, no less than for the son of Amphitryon who traversed every land and cleansed it of its curse. And I also use Hellenic sayings in some places, not unaware of this, that the boundaries of Mysia and Phrygia are separate, nor that one must not compare salty waters with drinkable ones, but since our own matters abound in wonders, I make use of their hyperboles, so that I might be able to show that not through what the Greeks invent at will, do we agree upon less in the matter of truth; so be it. But concerning the ascent to the third heaven and the translation from there to paradise, and the unutterable words which can neither be comprehended by the mind nor spoken by the tongue nor contained by the ear, what could one say, and how could one bring the one being praised to the same level as the Apostle? Therefore I will not falsify the comparison here, nor will I suffer the same as the extravagant sophists, <who> by their excess of plausibility and power of speaking bring incompatible things to the same level, wherein they both insult the greater and lie about the lesser. Paul, then, since he had obtained a divine nature and was enriched with the greater grace of the divine spirit, and was proclaimed as truly the younger Benjamin, in a trance was lifted up to heaven—I mean the third one—having crossed the air above our heads, and the ethereal body which the church is fond of calling the firmament, and having drawn near to that which was made in the beginning by the creator, but for this man the exaltation was not such, since it was not for any other man, not of those now, nor of those ever before—for who could become like Paul? but if there is a certain contemplation and ascent of the mind, and a partial comprehension of existing things, according to which those who are thus lifted up seem both to hear certain voices and to be with certain more godlike powers, according to this he too has been lifted up, having gone beyond the mist of generation, and crossed into the height of knowledge. For just as the final summit of action is joined to the first of contemplation, so also if one were to contemplate accurately, he immediately has the better things,

τῶν δὲ καὶ ἑτέροις μεταδιδόναι. Καὶ θαλαττίους μὲν ἴσως οὐχ ὑπέμεινε κλύδωνας, τοῖς δὲ κατ' ἤπειρον καμάτοις ἐστὶν ὅπη παραμετρηθείη τῷ Παύλῳ. περὶ δὲ τῶν σκανδάλων καὶ τῶν πυρώσεων, εἰ βούλοιτό [τις] ἄν, εἴπῃ περὶ αὐτοῦ μεγαλοφωνότατα, καὶ τοσοῦτον αὐτῷ τὰ περὶ τῆς πυρώσεως, ὅτι μηδενὶ τοῦ λοιποῦ σκανδαλίζεσθαι δέδωκεν, οὔτε περὶ τῶν μειζόνων οὔτε περὶ τῶν ἐλαττόνων· ἀνεῖλε γὰρ τὰ σκῶλα πᾶσι καὶ τὰ προσκόμματα, καὶ διέλυσε τοὺς ἐν μέσῳ φραγμούς, καὶ πᾶσιν ἐσπείσατο, καὶ πάντας ἀλλήλοις εἰς ὁμόνοιαν συνεκέρασε, καὶ συνασθενήσας τοῖς ἀσθενοῦσι, νῦν ἐρρωμένος καὶ ὅλος ὑγιὴς εὐεκτοῦντι παντάπασι τῷ ποιμνίῳ συνήδεται. τὸ μέντοιγε περὶ πασῶν μεριμνᾷν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν, τοῦτο οὐκ ἄν τις ἀφέλοιτο τοῦ ἀνδρός, τεκμήριον τῆς τοιαύτης φροντίδος ποιούμενος τὸ οὕτω φροντίσαι τῆς ἑαυτοῦ, ὡς παράδειγμα τοῖς ἄλλοις στῆσαι, εἰ βούλοιντ' ἂν τῶν ὁμοίων ἔχεσθαι πράξεων. τῷ γὰρ περὶ ἓν πιστῷ γεγονότι κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ἀρκεῖ πρὸς τὸ κατὰ πολλῶν ἢ ἐπὶ πολλοῖς. οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ φιλοτιμούμενος τὴν κατ' αὐτὸν ἐκκλησίαν παντοδαποῖς τρόποις συνηύξησε καὶ ἐκόσμησεν, ἵν' ἔχοι κατὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἐπαίρεσθαι ἀλλ' ὡς παντὸς ἐχόμενος τοῦ θείου σκοποῦ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ζῆλον διὰ μιᾶς ταύτης ἐγνώρισε· καὶ εἴ γε ἐξῆν, καὶ πάντες ἐδίδοσαν, οὐκ ἂν ὤκνησεν ἁπανταχῆ διαβῆναι, καὶ πᾶσαν ὑψῶσαι καὶ καλλῦναι μητρόπολιν. ἔτι δὲ ταὐτὸ τοῦτο καὶ ῥᾷστον ὁμοῦ καὶ ἐπίπονον τῷ ἀνδρί, τὸ μέν, διὰ τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς φροντίδα τὰς σάρκας ἐκτήκουσαν, τὸ δέ, διὰ τὸ τῆς γνώμης ἀξίωμα, πάντων ὑποχωρούντων καὶ ὑποστελλομένων αὐτῷ. Τοῦτο γοῦν ἔχει πλέον τοῦ Παύλου, ὅτι τῷ μὲν δι' ὑπερβολὴν τῶν ἀποκαλύψεων, ἄγγελος ἐδόθη Σατάν, ἵνα μὴ φαντασθείη τι κρεῖττον περὶ ἑαυτοῦ μηδ' ὑπεραίρηται, ὅστις ὁ Σατὰν οὗτος καὶ ὁ τῆς σαρκὸς σκόλοψ, τῷ δέ, οὐδεὶς τῶν πάντων ἀντεπανίσταται, ἀλλ' ὅπῃ δὴ καὶ χωρήσειε, ῥᾷστα πάντα καὶ ἕτοιμα, οὐδὲν ἔλαττον ἢ τῷ τοῦ Ἀμφιτρύωνος πᾶσαν γῆν ἐπιόντι καὶ τοῦ ἄγους καθαίροντι. χρῶμαι δὲ καὶ τοῖς Ἑλληνικοῖς λόγοις ἐνιαχοῦ, οὐ τοῦτο ἀγνοῶν, ὅτι χωρὶς τὰ Μυσῶν καὶ Φρυγῶν ὁρίσματα, οὐδ' ὅτι μὴ δεῖ τοῖς ποτίμοις ὕδασι συγκρίνειν τὰ ἁλμυρά, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τὰ παρ' ἡμῖν ὑπερβάλλει ἐν θαύμασιν, ἀποχρῶμαι ταῖς παρ' ἐκείνοις ὑπερβολαῖς, ἵν' ἔχοιμι δεικνύειν ὅτι μὴ δι' ὧν Ἕλληνες ἐπ' ἐξουσίας συμπλάττουσιν, ἔλαττον ἡμεῖς ἐπὶ τῆς ἀληθείας συνομολογούμεθα· εἶεν. Περὶ δὲ τῆς εἰς τρίτον οὐρανὸν ἀναβάσεως καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν εἰς τὸν παράδεισον μεταθέσεως, καὶ τῶν ἀρρήτων ῥημάτων τῶν οὔτε νῷ ληπτῶν οὔτε γλώσσῃ ῥητῶν οὔτε ἀκοῇ χωρητῶν, τί ἄν τις εἴπῃ, καὶ πῶς εἰς ταὐτὸν ἀγάγοι τῷ Ἀποστόλῳ τὸν εὐφημούμενον; οὔκουν ἐγὼ τὴν ἐνταῦθα σύγκρισιν ψεύσομαι, οὐδὲ ταὐτὸν πείσομαι τοῖς περιττοῖς σοφισταῖς, <οἱ> τῷ περιόντι τῆς πιθανότητος καὶ τῆς περὶ τὸ λέγειν δυνάμεως εἰς ταὐτὸν ἄγουσι τὰ ἀσύμβατα, ἔνθα καὶ τὸ μεῖζον ὑβρίζουσι καὶ τοῦ ἐλάττονος κατεψεύδονται. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Παῦλος, ἅτε δὴ καὶ θείαν φύσιν λαχὼν καὶ κρείττονα χάριν τοῦ θείου πεπλουτηκὼς πνεύματος, καὶ Βενιαμεὶν τῷ ὄντι νεώτερος προκηρυχθείς, ἐν ἐκστάσει ἐπῆρται πρὸς οὐρανόν, λέγω δὴ τὸν τρίτον, τόν τε ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς ἀέρα διαβεβηκώς, καὶ τὸ αἰθέριον σῶμα ὃ δὴ στερέωμα τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ φίλον καλεῖν, καὶ τῷ ἐν ἀρχῇ πεποιημένῳ παρὰ τοῦ ποιήσαντος πεπλησιακώς, τούτῳ δὲ οὐ τοιαύτη ἡ ἔπαρσις, ἐπεὶ μηδέ τῳ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων, οὐ τῶν νῦν, οὐ τῶν πώποτε, τίς γὰρ ἂν Παύλῳ γένοιτο παραπλήσιος; ἀλλ' εἴ τίς ἐστι νοῦ θεωρία τις καὶ ἀνάβασις, καὶ μερικὴ τῶν ὄντων κατάληψις, καθ' ἣν οἱ οὕτως αἰρόμενοι καὶ φωνῶν τινων δοκοῦσιν ἀκούειν καὶ συνεῖναί τισι θεοειδεστέραις δυνάμεσιν, ἦρται κατὰ ταύτην καὶ οὗτος, καὶ ὑπερβὰς τὴν ἀχλὺν τῆς γενέσεως, καὶ εἰς τὸ ὕψος τῆς γνώσεως διαβάς. ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ τελευταῖον ἄκρον τῆς πράξεως τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς θεωρίας συνάπτεται, οὕτω καὶ εἴ τις ἀκριβῶς θεωρήσειεν, εὐθὺς ἔχει τὰ κρείττονα,