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
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 sponges do, having slipped entirely under the membrane of the head, escaped the capture; for it holds on tight with its feet and not even any protrusion is seen on the surface, but having made itself entirely smooth with the epidermis, the tyrant showed the wall-storming hands to be empty. So one animal feeds on one of the things that grow on the earth, but this one feeds on the finest of all things; for whatever is served to a human, these things set a second table for it. For us, then, the hands of chefs prepare the dishes and those who make pastries prepare the other foods; but we stand in the place of cooks and caterers for the louse, for we transform the foods for it, making them into chyle, turning them into blood, steaming them, so that the food might become suitable for it. And if we serve it excellently, it partakes of what has been set before it; but if we offer the food unprepared, it sends it away, and treats us as purchased slaves and whipping-boys, now scraping the head with its feet, now striking with its mouth. So while we rule over other animals, the louse rules over us. And while our eyes see all things, this one alone remains unseen. And while its visible body is feeble, it is honored among the incorporeal beings. It dies when we have died, as if its table is failing, and it is buried in the tomb of the head; and from whence it came to be, there it also departs from life. But see that perhaps the whole thing is a certain ambition of rhetoric, and that the art displays its power even in the smallest things. For I was not eager to compose an encomium for a louse (may I not be so mad), but to show you how much rhetoric is capable of, so that you might both have the example before you and sharpen yourselves for the more humble of subjects and apply yourselves to imitation. 29 Encomium on Bedbugs But many people revile bedbugs because they exude a certain heavy smell from their skin, not knowing that what crests and stingers and horn and tusk are for other animals, this very emission is for them. For nature implants some remedies in animals so that they not be caught, and mixes others; for not even for cuttlefish is their black ink poured out in vain, but with this they both flee their captors and hunt those for whom they lie in wait. But if for you the foul odor has become a cause for blame, you would quickly erase most of the things of nature from which we have benefited the most. For thus indeed you would revile in your speech both pennyroyal and the drug from India, or the other saps and resins which are by nature opposed to diseases, and consign them to the worse portion. A flea, then, when ambushed, leaps and flees the trap or the hands of its hunters, and a louse enters the pores of the body and seems a part of where it is hidden; but bedbugs did not acquire from nature the ability to leap (nor are they so cowardly and ready for flight), but just as those hoplites armed on all sides, having pushed themselves into the middle of the battle line, have become invulnerable to those wishing to strike them, so indeed this creature, trusting in its weapon from nature, does not fear the hands of its enemies. For lions trust in their natural impulses, and elephants in the size of their body, and boars in their tusks, and if any other animal, in the fire sent from its nostrils; but bedbugs have not inherited their strength from some part of their body, but just as the more precise of those who have philosophized, discoursing on the nature of the imaginative spirit, say that through its whole self it both sees and hears and perceives other things, so
φυλάττουσιν οἱ ἀνθέρικες, οὕτω δὴ καὶ τῆς φθειρὸς αἱ τρίχες πᾶν τὸ πλημμελὲς ἀποκρούονται. κἂν ἐν χρῷ ἡ θήρα γένηται, ἡ δέ,
ὥσπερ τοὺς σπόγγους φασί, τὸν τῆς κεφαλῆς ὅλη ὑποδῦσα ὑμένα τὴν ἄγραν διέφυγεν· ἀπρίξ τε γὰρ ἔχεται τοῖς ποσὶ καὶ οὐδὲ προσθήκη
τις τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ δείκνυται, ἀλλ' ὅλην ἑαυτὴν τῇ ἐπιδερμίδι ἀπολειώσασα κενὰς ἡ τύραννος τὰς τειχομάχους χεῖρας ἀπέδειξεν.
Ἄλλο μὲν οὖν τῶν ζῴων ἄλλο τι τῶν κατὰ γῆν φυομένων νέμεται, ἡ δὲ πάντων τὰ κάλλιστα· ὅσα γὰρ ἀνθρώπῳ προσφέρεται, ταῦτα ἐκείνῃ
δευτέραν τίθεται τράπεζαν. ἡμῖν μὲν οὖν ὀψοποιῶν χεῖρες τὰ ὄψα σκευά ζουσι καὶ οἱ τὰ πέμματα ποιοῦντες τὰς ἄλλας τροφάς· ἡμεῖς
δὲ τῇ φθειρὶ ἀντὶ μαγείρων καὶ ὀψαρτυτῶν καθεστήκαμεν, μεταβάλλομεν γὰρ αὐτῇ τὰς τροφάς, χυλοποιοῦντες, ἐξαιματοῦντες, ἀτμίζοντες,
ἵνα τὸ βρῶμα ταύτῃ κατάλληλον γένηται. κἂν μὲν ἄριστα ταύτῃ ὑπηρετησώμεθα, χρῆται τοῖς παρατεθειμένοις· εἰ δὲ ἀκατέργαστον
τὸ βρῶμα προσάξομεν, τὸ μὲν ἀποπέμπεται, ἡμῖν δὲ χρῆται ὡς ἀργυρωνήτοις καὶ μαστιγοῖς, τὰ μὲν τοῖς ποσὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν παραξύουσα,
τὰ δὲ τῷ στόματι πλήτ τουσα. Τῶν μὲν οὖν ἄλλων ἡμεῖς ἄρχομεν ζῴων, ἡμῶν δὲ κατάρχει ἡ φθείρ. καὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν πάντα ὁρώντων
ἀθέατος αὕτη μόνη καθέστηκεν. καὶ σῶμα μέν ἐστι τὸ φαινόμενον ἀδρανές, μετὰ δὲ τῶν ἀσωμάτων τετίμηται. τελευτᾷ δὲ τεθνηκότων
ἡμῶν, ὥσπερ τῆς τραπέζης ἐπιλειπούσης, καὶ τῷ τῆς κεφαλῆς θάπτεται σήματι· καὶ ὅθεν δὴ καὶ γεγένηται, ἐκεῖσε δὴ καὶ ἀποβιοῖ.
Ἀλλ' ὁρᾶτε μήποτε τὸ πᾶν φιλοτιμία τίς ἐστι λόγου, καὶ ἡ τέχνη κἀν τοῖς ἐλαχίστοις τὴν δύναμιν παραδείκνυσιν. οὐ γὰρ ἐγκώμιον
φθειρὸς προεθυμήθην καταβαλέσθαι (μὴ οὕτω μανείην), ἀλλ' ὑμῖν ἐνδείξασθαι ὅσα ὁ λόγος δεδύνηται, ἵν' ἔχοιτε καὶ τὸ παράδειγμα
βλέποντες καὶ πρὸς τὰ εὐτελέστερα τῶν ὑποκειμένων παραξέειν ἑαυτοὺς καὶ προσαρτᾶν πρὸς τὴν μίμησιν. 29 Ἐγκώμιον εἰς τοὺς κόρεις
Οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ τοὺς κόρεις κακίζουσιν ὅτι βαρύ τι ἀπόζουσι τοῦ χρωτός, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι ὃ τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις λόφοι καὶ κέντρα
καὶ κέρας καὶ χαυλιόδους τοῦτο ἐκείνοις ἡ ἀποφορὰ πέφυκεν αὕτη. φάρμακα γὰρ ἡ φύσις τοῦ μὴ ἁλίσκεσθαι τοῖς ζῴοις τὰ μὲν ἐντίθησι,
τὰ δὲ κεράννυσιν· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ ταῖς σηπίαις τὸ μέλαν μάτην ἐκκέχυται, ἀλλὰ τούτῳ καὶ φεύγουσι τοὺς ἁλίσκοντας καὶ θηρῶσιν
οἷς ἐνεδρεύουσιν. εἰ δέ σοι τὸ δύσοδμον ὑπόθεσις ψόγου καθέστηκε, τάχ' ἂν τὰ πλείω διαγράφοις τῆς φύσεως ἐξ ὧν τὰ μέγιστα
ὠφελήμεθα. οὕτω γάρ τοι καὶ πόλιον καὶ τὸ ἐξ Ἰνδίας φάρμακον, ἢ τἆλλα τῶν χυμῶν τε καὶ τῶν δακρύων ἃ δὴ ἐξάντη πέφυκε τοῖς
νοσήμασι, κακίσαις τῷ λόγῳ καὶ εἰς τὴν μερίδα πέμψαις τὴν χείρονα. Ψύλλα μὲν οὖν ἐνεδρευομένη ἅλλεται καὶ φεύγει τὸν λόχον
ἢ τὰς χεῖρας τῶν θηρευόντων, καὶ φθεὶρ δὲ τοῖς τοῦ σώματος πόροις ἐνδύεται καὶ μέρος δοκεῖ οὗ κατακρύπτεται· οἱ δέ γε κόρεις
ἅλλεσθαι μὲν παρὰ τῆς φύσεως οὐκ ἐκτήσαντο (οὐδ' οὕτως εἰσὶ δειλοὶ καὶ πρὸς φυγὴν ἕτοιμοι), ἀλλ' ὥσπερ οἱ πάντοθεν τεθωρακισμένοι
τῶν ὁπλιτῶν εἰς μέσην ἑαυτοὺς ὤσαντες τὴν παράταξιν ἀνάλωτοι τοῖς βάλλειν ἐθέλουσι καθεστήκασιν, οὕτω δὴ καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ζῷον
τῷ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ὅπλῳ θαρροῦν τὰς τῶν πολεμίων χεῖρας οὐ δέδιε. λέοντες μὲν γὰρ ταῖς φυσικαῖς ἐπιθαρροῦσιν ὁρμαῖς καὶ ἐλέφαντες
τῷ μεγέθει τοῦ σώματος καὶ τοῖς ὀδοῦσιν οἱ σύες, καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο ζῷον τῷ ἐκ τῶν ῥινῶν πεμπομένῳ πυρί· οἱ δέ γε κόρεις οὐκ ἐκ
μέρους τινὸς τοῦ σώματος τὴν ἰσχὺν ἐκληρώσαντο, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ οἱ ἀκριβέστεροι τῶν φιλοσοφησάντων περὶ τοῦ φανταστικοῦ φυσιολογοῦντες
πνεύματος δι' ὅλου φασὶν ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ὁρᾶν καὶ ἀκούειν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα αἰσθά νεσθαι, οὕτω
