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
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 diseases. In peace it contributes, in wars it is an ally; for nothing is done without it, no wedding, no banquet, no feast, no festival, nor public assembly; for what salt is in foods, that is wine both to salt itself and to the other viands. this gladdens the heart, this rouses to thanksgiving and provokes to hymns and creates compunction and calls forth a tear propitiating the divine, and it contributes decisively even in wars. for a man sated with wine and food, poetry says, fights all day long, that is, he overcomes the enemy and sets up a trophy. For Hector must be ridiculed for refusing the indispensable and disregarding his mother's advice and ignoring the experience which can truly say something wiser than the young. Wherefore also he immediately reaped the fruit of his disobedience and had no benefit from his untimely temperance; for when single combat was proclaimed, Ajax advanced smiling with a grim face, but his own heart pounded in his breast, and when the engagement occurred, his shield is broken, and his neck is wounded, and finally, struck in the knees, he is stretched out on his back, something which perhaps another, even if drunk, would not have suffered. another clearer proof of the man's folly; being pursued by Achilles along the wall like a fawn by a lion cub, though he could have gone inside, with everyone urging him to, he neglected to, whether because he was robbed of his senses by fear, or because he wished to escape the future contest; of course the wretch is killed, that man having counselled wisely neither for himself nor safely for his fatherland, which he perhaps would have saved had he survived, leaving it without a general and easy for the besiegers to capture. But Nestor was not so, nor Odysseus, by whose counsel the city of king Priam was taken, but indeed they urge others to drink sparkling wine and they themselves partake of it, and though the Pylian was old, his mind is in no way impaired by it; for not even the cry of battle, though he was drinking, escaped his notice. To me, then, it seems so concerning wine, and surely to all who have a share in reason. But if some water-drinker (and it is the same to say suffering from dropsy and frenzy) says, "it is possible to live even without this," we will not dispute with him nor will we need a counter-argument, as he fights against the obvious and, in the words of Aristotle, is in need of perception, and choosing to live like beasts through bad taste or vainglory. For not on account of drunkenness, as one might say, should wine also be dishonored. For then fire too would be dishonored, because it destroys those who approach it immoderately and who do not enjoy its heat according to need, although it is the finest of the elements, into which even the universe is resolved, as seemed right to the wise men of the Stoa, as it is more powerful than the others. Therefore wine is not to be refused; but intemperance must be shunned, by those who know that moderation is best in all things and that likewise excess and deficiency are worst in all things. It was necessary, being content with what has been said, not to string together more, nor to try to exalt by comparison with other things that which is peerless and incomparable, but, in the words of the wise Plato, having spoken at the right time, to depart. For such another good from God has neither come to men nor ever will come. But since it seems good to the art, we will add this also: what of the things that spring from the earth is the finest, which is also at once the sweetest and the best for the healing of our body and its composition, might one say? But that wine is these things, and in this respect the finest of all, it is not difficult to see from the fact that each of the others serves one of the senses (for there is not much to say of fruits, whose enjoyment is for a short time and almost ceases with the season), while this one ministers to two at once, both the necessary ones and through them the whole man. For even if we say sight is queen, yet we would agree that smell and taste are no less necessary, if not even more so; and
ἐκεῖνος ἐπιβουλευόμενος ἦν τῶν ἔνδον αὐτῷ στασιαζόντων τῷ μὴ παρεῖναι τὸν ἁρμοστὴν καὶ τῆς ὑγείας ὑπασπιστὴν καὶ τῶν νόσων
ἀντίπαλον. Ἐν εἰρήνῃ συντελεῖ, ἐν πολέμοις συμμαχεῖ· οὐδὲν γὰρ τούτου χωρίς, οὐ γάμος οὐκ εἰλαπίνη οὐκ ἔρανος οὐχ ἑορτή τις
οὐδὲ πανήγυρις· ὃ γὰρ οἱ ἅλες ἐν βρώμασι τοῦτο οἶνος καὶ αὐτοῖς ἁλσὶ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐδέσμασιν. οὗτος εὐφραίνει καρδίαν, οὗτος
διεγείρει πρὸς εὐχαριστίαν καὶ πρὸς ὕμνους ἐρεθίζει καὶ κατάνυξιν ἐμποιεῖ καὶ δάκρυον ἐκκαλεῖται τὸ θεῖον ἐξιλεούμενον, συμβάλλεται
δὲ κἀν τοῖς πολέμοις τὰ καίρια. ὃς γὰρ ἀνὴρ οἴνοιο κορεσσάμενος καὶ ἐδωδῆς, ἡ ποίησίς φησι, πανημέριος πολεμίζει, καταγωνίζεται
δηλαδὴ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς καὶ τρόπαιον ἵστησι. τοῦ γὰρ Ἕκτορος καταγελαστέον παραιτουμένου τὸν ἀπαραίτητον καὶ μητρικὴν συμβουλὴν
ἀθετοῦντος καὶ ἀγνοοῦντος τὴν ἐμπειρίαν ἔχουσαν ὄντως εἰπεῖν τι τῶν νέων σοφώτερον. διὸ καὶ τῆς ἀπειθείας παρὰ πόδας ἐδρέψατο
τὸν καρπὸν καὶ τῆς ἀκαίρου ἐγκρατείας ἀπώνατο· μονομαχίας γὰρ κηρυχθείσης Αἴας μὲν ἐπῄει βλοσυροῖσι προσώποισι μειδιῶν, αὐτῷ
δὲ θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσε, καὶ συμβολῆς γενομένης ἡ μὲν ἀσπὶς κατ άγνυται, ὁ αὐχὴν δὲ τιτρώσκεται καὶ τὰ γόνατα τελευταῖον
βληθεὶς ὕπτιος ἐκτανύεται, ὅπερ οὐκ ἂν καὶ μεθύων ἕτερος ἴσως ἔπαθεν. ἄλλο σαφέστερον δεῖγμα τῆς τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀβουλίας· διωκόμενος
ὑπ' Ἀχιλλέως παρὰ τὸ τεῖχος ὡς ὑπὸ σκύμνου νεβρός, ἐξὸν εἰσιέναι πάντων αὐτῷ παραινούντων ἠμέ λησεν, εἴθ' ὑπὸ δέους καὶ τὸ
φρονεῖν συληθείς, εἴτε τὸν πρὸς τὸ μέλλον ἀγῶνα διαφυγεῖν βουληθείς· ἀμέλει καὶ κτείνεται ὁ ἄθλιος οὔθ' ἑαυτῷ συνε τῶς ἐκεῖνος
οὔτε τῇ πατρίδι βουλευσάμενος ἀσφαλῶς, ἣν ἔσωσεν ἂν περι ὼν ἴσως, ἀστρατήγητον ἀπολιπὼν καὶ τοῖς πολιορκοῦσιν ἁλώσιμον. ὁ
δὲ Νέστωρ οὐχ οὕτως, οὐδ' Ὀδυσσεύς, ὧν βουλῇ πόλις ἥλω Πριάμοιο ἄνακτος, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἄλλοις παρακελεύονται πίνειν αἴθοπα
οἶνον καὶ αὐτοὶ τούτου μετέχουσι, καὶ γηραιὸς ὢν ὁ Πύλιος οὐδὲν ἐκ τούτου τὸν νοῦν παραβλάπτεται· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡ τῆς μάχης αὐτὸν
ἰαχή, κἂν ἔπινεν, ἔλαθεν. Ἐμοὶ μὲν οὕτω περὶ τοῦ οἴνου δοκεῖ καὶ πᾶσι πάντως οἷς λόγου μέτεστιν. εἰ δέ τις ὑδροποτῶν (ταὐτὸν
δὲ εἰπεῖν ὑδεριῶν καὶ φρενιτιῶν) «ἔξεστι», λέγει, «καὶ δίχα τούτου βιοῦν», οὐδὲν διοισόμεθα πρὸς αὐτὸν οὐδ' ἀνθυπο φορᾶς δεησόμεθα
τοῖς ἐναργέσι μαχόμενον καί, τὸ τοῦ Ἀριστοτέλους, αἰσθήσεως χρῄζοντα καὶ ζῆν ἶσα καὶ κτήνεσι δι' ἀπειροκαλίαν ἢ κενο δοξίαν
αἱρούμενον. οὐδὲ γὰρ διὰ τὴν μέθην, ὡς ἄν τις εἴπῃ, καὶ τὸν οἶνον ἀτιμαστέον. ἦ γὰρ ἂν καὶ τὸ πῦρ, ὅτι δὴ τοὺς ἀμέτρως αὐτῷ
πελάζοντας καὶ μὴ κατὰ χρείαν τῆς θερμότητος ἀπολαύοντας ὄλλυσι, καίτοι στοιχείων τὸ κάλλιστον ὄν, εἰς ὃ καὶ ἀναλύεσθαι τὸ
πᾶν τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς ἐδόκει σοφοῖς, ὡς τῶν ἄλλων ἐπικρατέστερον. οὔκουν τὸν οἶνον παραιτητέον· ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀκρασίαν φευκτέον
τὸ πᾶν μέτρον ἄριστον ἐπισταμένοις καὶ κάκιστον ὁμοίως ἐν ἅπασιν ὑπερβολήν τε καὶ ἔλλειψιν. Ἔδει μὲν ἀρκεσθέντας τοῖς εἰρημένοις
μὴ πλείω συνείρειν μηδ' ἐπαίρειν πειρᾶσθαι τῇ πρὸς ἕτερα παραθέσει τὸ ἀπαράμιλλον καὶ ἀσύγκριτον, ἀλλά, τὸ τοῦ σοφοῦ Πλάτωνος,
κατὰ καιρὸν εἰπόντας ἀπαλλαγῆναι. τοιοῦτο γὰρ ὄντως ἄλλο παρὰ θεοῦ ἀγαθὸν οὔτε ἧκε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις οὔθ' ἥξει πώποτε. ἐπεὶ δὲ
τῇ τέχνῃ δοκεῖ, κἀκεῖνο προσθήσομεν· τί τῶν ἐκ γῆς ἀναδιδομένων τὸ κάλλιστον ὃ καὶ ἥδιστον ἅμα καὶ κράτιστον πρὸς θεραπείαν
ἡμῖν τοῦ σώματος καὶ συγκρότησιν εἴποι τις ἄν; ὅτι δὲ ταῦτα ὁ οἶνος καὶ πάντων ταύτῃ τὸ κάλλιστον, οὐ χαλεπόν ἐστι συνιδεῖν
ἐκ τοῦ τῶν ἄλλων μὲν ἕκαστον μιᾷ τῶν αἰσθήσεων λειτουργεῖν (τῶν γὰρ ὀπωρῶν οὐ πολὺς λόγος, ὧν ἡ ἀπόλαυσις πρὸς βραχὺ καὶ τῇ
ὥρᾳ σχεδὸν συνεκλεί πουσα), τοῦτον δὲ δύο θεραπεύειν ὁμοῦ, καὶ τὰς ἀναγκαίας καὶ ὅλον δι' ἐκείνων τὸν ἄνθρωπον. εἰ γὰρ καὶ
βασιλίδα φαμὲν τὴν ὄψιν, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ἧττον χρειώδεις τὴν ὄσφρησιν εἶναι καὶ τὴν γεῦσιν, ὅτι μὴ καὶ μᾶλλον, ὁμολογήσαιμεν· καὶ
