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
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 death. “Sanctify to me every firstborn,” God says to Moses, that is, dedicate for a sacrifice, separate from all, not necessarily here the first in respect of time (for the word is one of those with multiple meanings), but signifying that which is first in worth; for he who was speaking was not ignorant that many of the first-born are imperfect conceptions and miscarriages. And these things were of old and according to the law; but after these things, what? For the sacred rite bread and wine are taken, which would not be, unless they were preferred as first and greater than the others, and these being offered after the shadow and type in the true worship and mystery. But the fact that bread is also offered brings no diminution to the wine; for here each has need of the other, or rather, to speak simply, in every need. If one were to separate the bread from the wine, he has deprived the body of the soul. And even if I seem to some to be saying something rather new and sophistical, there are times when wine alone without bread is sufficient for the sacrifice, and the proof is that the pagans poured out only wine as a libation to their own gods. And our patriarch anointed a pillar to God with oil, consecrating the sacrifice when wine was not present. How then wine surpasses the other things that are useful for life, and that it is beneficial everywhere and among all people, the argument has manifestly demonstrated. But whether the one gifted to us by you surpasses any wine whatsoever, let us examine this further. Of wines, some are fragrant, others only pleasant to the taste, and others having both, but moderately and falling far short of the perfect; but the one that has both and in each respect is so supreme as no other is in either respect, surpassing the pleasant ones in its fragrance and the fragrant ones in its pleasantness, and surpassing those that partake of both moderately in its perfection in both respects, how then is this one not to be preferred and praised above the others and more worthy to be admired? whose qualities indeed we find acceptable to the divine nature and not to be rejected; for the Lord smells a fragrant aroma according to the scripture, and David, the ancestor of God, implores that his prayer be directed as incense, but also that his meditation on him be sweet to the Lord and he says that the words of God are sweet to him. For why should I now bring forward the things from outside (I mean fragrant altars and frankincense and ambrosia and nectar), with which the sons of the Hellenes feast and attend to their own gods? I think I will pass over also the lotus of Homer, of which some, having only tasted, were difficult to tear away like cattle and forgetting their homeland. And what of the Epicureans who also laid down as a dogma that pleasure is the end of all things, perhaps they too indicating wine as being the most pleasant and delightful of all things? I will say one thing on top of all, and the greatest, and indisputable even for the skeptics themselves; nothing is at all greater than or equal to wine, which prefigures the divine blood in the mystical sacred rites, the purification of sin and the salvation of the whole world. These things I say to you about wine, perhaps for the sake of exercise, but for the most part to demonstrate our disposition towards you, by which we were urged to praise it to your glory; for to whom the gift is praiseworthy, the giver is also worthy of praise. But if the discourse is not burdensome to you, wearying your hearing, we would not hesitate to say something even greater in addition to what has been said, something witty and not without charm. A certain man, not at all a stranger, neither unpleasant in speech nor inept at drinking, but also initiated in the rites of Dionysus, if anyone ever was, as he showed, came to visit us yesterday; and since he found us dining, saying “of his own accord he came” (the poetic phrase), and adding that he was no poor judge of the hour, he himself sat down and dined with us. But when a cup of your wine was given to him and he had only just drunk, he could no longer be restrained, but standing up he danced like a satyr the “euoi”
τοῦτο δῆλον τῷ καὶ δίχα μὲν ἐκείνης ἐξεῖναι ζῆν καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις αἰσθήσεσιν εὐεκτεῖν, τὴν δὲ τούτων ἀργίαν νόσον ἀποτίκτειν
καὶ θάνατον. «Ἁγίασόν μοι πᾶν πρωτότοκον» τῷ Μωυσεῖ φησιν ὁ θεός, τουτέστιν ἀφιέρωσον εἰς θυσίαν, ἐκ πάντων ἀπόκρινον, οὐ
τὸ κατὰ χρόνον πάντως ἐνταῦθα τοῦ πρώτου (τῶν γὰρ ὁμωνύμων ἡ λέξις), ἀλλὰ τὸ κατ' ἀξίαν σημαίνοντος· οὐ γὰρ ὁ λέγων ἠγνόει
τὰ πολλὰ τῶν πρωτογόνων ἀτελῆ ὄντα κυήματα καὶ ἀμβλώματα. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν πάλαι καὶ κατὰ νόμον· μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα τί; πρὸς ἱερουργίαν
ἄρτος καὶ οἶνος λαμβάνεται, οὐκ ἄν, εἰ μὴ πρῶτα καὶ μείζω τῶν ἄλλων ἦν προκριθέντα, καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ σκιὰν καὶ τύπον ἐπὶ τῆς
ἀληθοῦς λατρείας καὶ τελετῆς προσφερόμενα. τὸ δὲ προσάγεσθαι καὶ ἄρτον οὐδὲν τῷ οἴνῳ φέρει πρὸς ὕφεσιν· ἑκάτερον γὰρ ἐνταῦθα
τοῦ ἑτέρου δεῖται, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ πάσης ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν χρείας. εἴ τις τοῦ οἴνου τὸν ἄρτον διέλοι, σῶμα ψυχῆς ἀπεστέρησε.
κἂν εἰ καί τισι δόξω καινότερόν τι καὶ σοφιστικώτερον λέγειν, ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ ἄρτου χωρὶς μόνος ὁ οἶνος ἀπόχρη πρὸς τὴν θυσίαν,
καὶ ἡ ἀπόδειξις ὅτι τοῖς ἑαυτῶν οἱ ἔξω θεοῖς οἶνον μόνον ἔσπενδον. καὶ ὁ ἡμέτερος δὲ πατριάρχης στήλην ἤλειψε τῷ θεῷ δι' ἐλαίου,
τὴν θυσίαν οἴνου μὴ παρόντος ἀφοσιούμενος. Ὅπως μὲν οὖν τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα χρήσιμα πρὸς τὸ ζῆν ὁ οἶνος ὑπερτερεῖ, καὶ ὅτι πανταχοῦ
καὶ παρὰ πᾶσι λυσιτελεῖ, περιφανῶς ὁ λόγος ἀπέδειξεν. εἰ δ' ὁ παρὰ σοῦ δωρηθεὶς ἡμῖν παντὸς οὑτινοσοῦν κρατεῖ οἴνου, τοῦτο
προσεξετάσωμεν. Τῶν οἴνων οἱ μὲν εὐώδεις, οἱ δ' ἡδεῖς μόνον, οἱ δὲ ἄμφω μὲν ἔχοντες, μέσως δὲ καὶ πολλῷ τοῦ τελείου λειπόμενοι·
ὁ δὲ καὶ ἀμφότερα καὶ οὕτω καθ' ἑκάτερον ἄκρως ὡς οὐδὲ καθ' ἕτερον ἄλλος, τοὺς μὲν ἡδεῖς τῷ εὐώδει τῇ δὲ ἡδύτητι τοὺς εὐώδεις
νικῶν, καὶ τῶν μετρίως ἀμφοῖν μετ εχόντων τῇ περὶ ἄμφω καθυπερτερῶν τελειότητι, πῶς οὖν οὐ προτιμητέος καὶ ὑπερεπαινετέος
τῶν ἄλλων οὗτος καὶ θαυμάζεσθαι μᾶλλον ἄξιος; οὖ δὴ καὶ παρὰ τῇ θείᾳ φύσει τὰς ποιότητας δεκτὰς καὶ οὐκ ἀποβλήτους εὑρίσκομεν·
καὶ γὰρ ὀσφραίνεται κύριος ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας κατὰ τὴν γραφήν, καὶ ὁ θεοπάτωρ ∆αυὶδ ὡς θυμίαμα δυσωπεῖ κατευθυνθῆναι τὴν προσ ευχήν,
ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡδυνθῆναι κυρίῳ τὴν αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον διαλογὴν καὶ γλυκέα εἶναι αὐτῷ φησὶ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγια. Τί γάρ μοι νῦν παράγειν
καὶ τὰ τῶν θύραθεν (βωμοὺς λέγω θυήεντας καὶ λιβανωτὸν καὶ ἀμβροσίαν καὶ νέκταρ), οἷς τοὺς ἑαυτῶν Ἑλλήνων παῖδες θεοὺς εὐωχοῦσι
καὶ θεραπεύουσι; παραλείψειν δοκῶ μοι καὶ τὸν Ὁμήρου λωτόν, οὗ γευσάμενοι μόνον τινὲς δυσαποσπάστως εἶχον ὡς θρέμματα καὶ
τῆς πατρίδος ἐπιλαθόμενοι. τί δὲ καὶ τὸ τῶν Ἐπικουρείων οἳ καὶ τέλος τοῦ παντὸς τὴν ἡδονὴν ἐδογμάτισαν, τὸν οἶνον τάχα κἀκεῖνοι
παραδηλοῦντες ὡς ὄντα πάντων ἡδύτερόν τε καὶ χαριέστερον; ἓν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἐρῶ καὶ μέγιστον καὶ αὐτοῖς ἂν ἐφεκτικοῖς ἀναμφίλεκτον·
οὐδὲν οἴνου καθάπαξ οὔτε μεῖζον οὔτ' ἰσοστάσιον, αἷμα τυποῦντος τὸ θεῖον ἐν ταῖς μυστικαῖς ἱερουργίαις, τὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας καθάρσιον
καὶ παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου σωτήριον. Ταῦτά σοι καὶ περὶ τοῦ οἴνου, τυχὸν μὲν καὶ γυμνασίας χάριν, τὸ πλέον δὲ πρὸς παράστασιν τῆς
ἡμετέρας περὶ σὲ διαθέσεως, ὑφ' ἧς κἀκεῖνον ἐγκωμιάζειν εἰς δόξαν παρωρμήθημεν σήν· οἷς γὰρ τὸ δῶρον ἐπαινετὸν καὶ ὁ διδοὺς
ἀξιέπαινος. εἰ δέ σοι μὴ ἐπαχθὴς ὁ λόγος ἀποκναι σθέντι τὴν ἀκοήν, οὐκ ἂν ὀκνήσαιμεν πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἔτι μεῖζον εἰπεῖν,
ἀστεῖον ὂν καὶ οὐκ ἄχαρι. Ἀνήρ τις τῶν οὐ πάνυ ἀσυνήθων οὔτε τὸν λόγον ἀηδὴς οὔτε πρὸς πότον ἀφυής, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ τοῦ ∆ιονύσου
τετελεσμένος, εἰ καί τις ἄλλος, ὡς ἔδειξε, χθὲς παρ' ἡμᾶς ἐφοίτησεν· ἐπεὶ δὲ δειπνοῦντας κατέλαβεν, «αὐτόματος δέ οἱ ἦλθε»
(τὸ ποιητικόν) εἰπών, καὶ ὡς οὐ φαῦλος γνώμων εἴη τῆς ὥρας προσθείς, συνεδείπνει καὶ αὐτὸς καθεσθείς. ὡς δ' ἐπεδόθη αὐτῷ κύλιξ
τοῦ οἴνου τοῦ σοῦ καὶ μόνον ἔπιεν, οὐκ ἦν ἔτι καθεκτός, ἀλλ' ἀναστὰς ὠρχεῖτο σατυρικῶς τὸ «εὐοῖ»
