Orationes forenses et acta

 Each one of you has received benefits from him, that having set this forth here with goodwill toward him you might sway the votes, and by showing favo

 Having beset it and stirred herself up to be divinely inspired and worked herself into a bacchic frenzy. now, that the many are deceived by this, i do

 Of her, nor anything else of the things forbidden to me, but which are proclaimed and honored by them. for someone might perhaps excuse him for the fi

 To be enumerated? for divination is for the time being sufficient. but i think, if this had happened before, he would have nobly recorded these things

 Of the difference of theurgies, at the end he adds: one must remove in advance all obstacles to the visitation of the gods and impose a total tranqui

 In these matters i would gladly ask of you, whether it is permitted for a priest to be initiated into such mysteries and to be deemed worthy of such r

 Immediately, therefore, all blushed, or rather, indeed, they shouted with their voices and condemned the leaders of the impiety and named their writin

 Has he discerned? but if indeed the part of the synod has not joined with the senate council nor with the chosen of the nazirites—for this part was no

 Aristotle's theology and the psychogony of plato and the new numbers and the remodeling of doctrines and the expense of the divisible, who of all ever

 What argument is left to you concerning this, or how is it that you dispute with one another over matters of such importance and postpone the decision

 And i gladly admire in you the encomium of the good man in your memorandum. for where he holds on to the whole and bears the burden of common cares, y

 All those, with whom we disagree, have advocated for confusions or divisions. for what do matter and ideas have in common with our doctrines? but sinc

 And of the one who is lifted up and of the one seated on it. know the cherubic and seraphic wings, the perfection of their number, the symbolic coveri

 They have shaken. for if they happened to be uninitiated in our doctrines and completely uninstructed in the mysteries of the spirit, perhaps, having

 For he who receives a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, from the contrary and greater, he who receives an impious man will receive the punishme

 He has despised all things equally, although the law, standing as it were at his ears, cried out: let no one teach or learn profane things. and agai

 He both strung together and vomited up, this twenty-third writing he thinks, or rather he places it between those who were then in every way our own p

 Depicting the madness of nestorian rage. i have left it to you to compare it with the dogmas of the massalians. i brought forth to them from the inner

 The patriarch has acted impiously, clearly and openly. and it is not permitted for any of you who wish, nor for those zealous on his behalf, to defend

 And having brought over certain forces from the west, he stirred them up for war, and they come face to face with each other from both sides. and a fi

 Delaying he is persuaded and is moderate and descends with them. and he dares against two emperors, of whom the one the imperial court held, adorned w

 Being torn apart. but pilate sat judging my divinely-moved emperor, the lord's anointed, who was being considered, not hesitating, not washing his han

 To kill the emperor, unless he came down quickly and bowed his head to him, but he, fearing the tyrannical cruelty and cowering lest he suffer anythin

 An innovative rank and would come to be below. there, then, the morning star raged against the first goodness, but here the evening star has attacked

 Demonic in his life. but again i have turned to you, the judges, and again i ask: has anything been dared by this man or not? you will surely say the

 Then failing to achieve their purpose, they chose to strike and kill. is it not clear to all that, while digging through and breaking into the houses

 Ruin, if he should object saying that he neither urged these things nor wished them, but even punished many of those who dared with all punishments, w

 In the parts on the right, somewhere near the entrance, but you have immediately ascended into heaven on earth itself, as if considering it a terrible

 Disregarding the divine temples, he was destroying them? and he did not cease, piling one on top of another and making them abandoned ruins. for not o

 Leaning together walls collapsed together with their icons and statues. and everything was as if in a great earthquake, the air being darkened, the e

 And the remains of the apostle luke are burned by fire and reduced to dust. i fear that the bodies of martyrs also lay here. i am afraid that some of

 I shall grant you this also. he had no need, it is true, of the burial robes. i admit it, since they had all already decayed. but he did have need of

 Let us not even examine the scene after that, but let these things be considered by him as theaters and hunts. but where the mercy-seat is, and around

 Seeing what was happening was exulting and rejoicing, like of old the whelp of the beast, i mean the one from isauria. but you consider for me what a

 Fire was burning us and the zeal of the lord was consuming us, long ago the man would have perished, or rather, he would not even have had access to t

 To me the macedonian, to the right the spear, at a walk the half-file leader, captain, wheel around. and nothing new nor incredible for one who has

 I pray with the high priest, but the mixture and the sheath which has grown with us turns the mind, being raised aloft, back toward itself. therefore

 He would trace his genealogy from cronus and rhea and from those even further back, i mean hericapaeus and phanes and that orphic night and he traced

 And the same color over all, none of which moved or influenced him? but never to converse even with the more divine words nor to unroll any tablet, th

 The emperor's treasury is not supplied only from mines nor from the recesses of the earth, nor do tributes alone fill it, nor contributions from land

 And to speak of the audacity, or rather—but how could i speak, intertwining things?—and the diligently pursued plot, through which almost everything w

 Granting that you may meet with more benevolent judges above. and then the drink of deposition here will truly appear to you as a purification. and ma

 Suspicious to many. but if he has nothing in common with the one he has chosen to accuse, nor has anything come between them, it is somehow still unac

 They anticipate my tongue, scattering against me the things they did wrong on account of their own greed, and i confidently awaited the court, as one

 To vote against a priest on the spot the penance exceeds all punishment the examination and the penance must proceed canonically. and, as it seems,

 Of the whole age, an unbeliever, so that i may speak truly, to believe against a believer? for this would be far from reason and thought. for where we

 But i, but what might i say about this? he living the life of a private citizen, but i clothed in the high-priestly vestment. and such a man is agains

 With misfortunes and your example, for the sake of argument, let someone come forward as a condemned man to have his neck cut. and let the sword be ha

 Do you receive? for the pardon testifies that the deposition did not seem so even to himself. for if, according to you, it is like a cutting off, what

 Is the cause the comparison of the matter to a beheading? for from this, one absurdity having been granted, these many nonsensical things were consequ

 An evil tale about me for years, leave me to my former wounds, do not card new ones upon me. so may the lord heal you, if indeed there is anything in

 This is the law of accusation and defense, and from this the precise examination of matters is found. but he introduced a new kind of writing into the

 Of voice, for not even this is unworthy of the art, and with a rhythmic turn of the tongue, you perhaps might only approach him, you who indeed gaped

 Has been debarred from studies? but for you in deep old age, what share is there of education? who of all people has known you, as far as i know, afte

 Which they say came into being of their own accord. but these things are not acceptable to you, and for this reason we shall laugh at you again, havin

 Ever, not in courts, not in counsels, not in public, not in private. for this was not even without accusation, but the speech had some defense. from w

 And the nature of fire did not burn, and the steep rock sent forth springs, and the wood here sweetened the bitterness, and there lightened the heavy

 Did he transcend this time? and it is likely, o best one, for christ possessed a nature more free even according to human standards. whether, then, th

 From himself, having allotted a great portion of reason to his soul this man, therefore, having long ago established for himself a little adopted dau

 A contest, but more brilliant was the victory of elpidius, and he went away having overcome the vestarches by all votes and crowning himself with the

 Receiving. when the most compassionate soul heard this supplication, since she also knew the circumstances concerning the bestarches, and that for man

 I will let my tongue go from forbidden deeds. and first i shame myself relating unspeakable and improper things, since i will also become a stumbling

 The amounts owed will be reckoned against each other, and the fine will be reckoned to elpidios in place of the protospatharios's fee, and the protosp

 Having received a seaside property from him, i give back to him in exchange a mainland one as a permanent dwelling by gift. but the kalai property was

 Most complete, not measured by time, not defined by partial successions nor by these alienations or those, but eternal, sufficient for all successions

 Indicating by the documents, which it is also necessary to go through in order. and so that we may make the summaries concise, and not, by going throu

 At that time for the ruler to ratify to her through a gift of a golden bull the property which he had previously granted to the man, not having been i

 But the rest testified that they themselves were not present at such a sale, but had heard from the subscribing witnesses in the confirmatory document

 He marveled at our western setting sun as a morning sunrise, and with the unspeakable pangs of his soul he discerned the ineffable will of god concern

 On both sides the gift is valid for those who received it from there. for the estate was perhaps of the daughters of nicholas’s wife through paternal

 Harmony, who of all could dissolve such a great bond, or rather these wonderful and in reality altogether indissoluble connections? for the first and

 He has made known by an agreement to whom indeed you also entrusted everything under oath and, whatever they themselves should do, you have promised

 Emperor of the romans, doukas. konstantinos, in christ the god faithful emperor of the romans, doukas. ioannes, most humble archbishop of constantinop

indicating by the documents, which it is also necessary to go through in order. And so that we may make the summaries concise, and not, by going through each one in part, weary the listener with long speeches, one document had that protospatharios Stephen Iberitzes, the grandfather of the plaintiff, selling the property to Michael, the brother of Leo the kouboukleisios, in the month of October of the 14th indiction of the year 6509, after which there was also his receipt for the price of what was sold; and in both, on the one, “I wrote,” and on the other, “I signed,” was the seller himself who had received the price of the thing sold. The writings were also compared with each other, at the plaintiff’s own suggestion, and the similarity was exact; for not only was the character of the letters the same, and the distinctive style of the hand, but also the unconventional spelling was the same, and there was a kind of correct spelling in the incorrect spelling. For just as those who have practiced or naturally developed a sharp or rounded script always form it the same way when writing, so too the hand of the signatory, as if a particular feature of his own style, kept it consistent and uniform with itself. And so much for those documents. Another document was a contract of legal union, in which the buyer Michael himself joined his daughter Maria to a man, and had given as dowry that very much-discussed suburban estate. Another had the wife of the protospatharios Stephen Iberitzes, after her husband’s death, ratifying for the daughter of Michael, to whom the estate was dowered, the sale her husband had made to her father. The date for this legal document was 6521. and another showed Maria herself, along with her own husband, selling this to the father of the manglabites, Pikrides. and since this was flawed, the flaw was cured by another legal instrument. For she who had acted illegally regarding the sale, and who by a remedial law was entitled to the recovery of the estate, brought a lawsuit against Pikrides after her husband's death, but before a decision was issued, having received some coins from him, she settled completely. And upon the settlement, a memorandum was released by the judge himself; after which she herself again executed a second legal sale of the estate to the same Pikrides, after which also certain other legal documents have come forth that are superfluous to the account. For why must one genealogize endlessly those who succeeded to the estate, or rather, enumerate the documents? But the plaintiff Iberitzes, though acting maliciously, cleverly took hold of a certain matter; for, going back to the time when the chrysobull was made, and making it clash with the time of the sale, he fabricated a certain suspicion of forgery against it. For the suburban estate had been sold in the year 6509, but the chrysobull decree had been made in the year 6515. The plaintiff therefore attacked the sale as forged. For how was it likely that his grandfather would sell what he had not yet received through the chrysobull grant? And he introduced no small disturbance and uproar into the court, until a more accurate reading of the chrysobull calmed the disturbance. For before the chrysobull was issued, the estate had been granted to Iberitzes not by a chrysobull, but by a pittakion, in the year 6504; and after he had become master of it in this manner, the chrysobull was issued. The sale was somehow in the middle of the two grants, which differed in manner. Therefore Iberitzes sold the estate validly; and the chrysobull itself was made after the death of Iberos. For that patrikios Xiphias, being the son-in-law of that Iberos, since the latter had passed away from among men, while his wife was still living, he, ratifying this for his mother-in-law, petitions the

σημαινόντων τοῖς γράμμασιν, ἃ καὶ διεξιέναι καθεξῆς ἀναγκαῖον. Καὶ ἵνα κεφαλαιώδεις ποιήσωμεν τὰς ἐπιτομάς, καὶ μὴ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐν μέρει διεξιόντες ταῖς μακρηγορίαις κόπτωμεν τὸν ἀκούοντα, τὸ μὲν εἶχε τὸν πρωτοσπαθάριον ἐκεῖνον Στέφανον τὸν Ἰβηρίτζην τὸν τοῦ ἐγκαλέσαντος πάππον πωλοῦντα τὸ κτῆμα Μιχαὴλ τῷ ἀδελφῷ Λέοντος κουβουκλεισίου κατὰ τὸν ὀκτώβριον μῆνα τῆς ιδʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος τοῦ ϛφθʹ ἔτους, μεθ' ὃ καὶ ἀπόδειξις ἦν αὐτοῦ ἀποληπτικὴ τῆς τοῦ πεπραμένου τιμῆς· ἐν ἀμφοτέροις δέ, τῷ μέν, "ἐπέγραψα", τῷ δέ, "ὑπέγραψα", αὐτὸς δὴ ὁ πωλήσας καὶ τὸ τοῦ πραθέντος ἀπολαβὼν τίμημα. συνεκρίθη δὲ καὶ τὰ γράμματα πρὸς ἄλληλα, αὐτοῦ δὴ τοῦ ἐγκαλέσαντος τοῦτο προτειναμένου, καὶ ἦν ἡ ὁμοιότης ἀπαράλλακτος· οὐ γὰρ μόνον ὁ αὐτὸς χαρακτὴρ τοῖς γράμμασιν ἐπεφαίνετο, οὐδὲ τὸ αὐτὸ ἰδίωμα τῆς χειρός, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ παρὰ τὸν κανόνα γραφὴ ἡ αὐτή, καὶ ἦν τις ὀρθογραφία ἐν μὴ ὀρθογραφίᾳ. ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ τὸν ὀξύρυγχον ἢ στρογγῦλον χαρακτῆρα ἐπιτηδευσάμενοι ἢ αὐτοματίσαντες, τὸν αὐτὸν ἀεὶ ἐπισημαίνονται γράφοντες, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἡ τοῦ ὑπογράψαντος χείρ, ὥσπερ τινὰ ἰδιάζοντα χαρακτῆρα τῆς ἰδιωτίας, ἶσον πρὸς ἑαυτὸν καὶ σύμφωνον ἐφυλάξατο. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν τοιαῦτα τὰ ἔγγραφα. ἕτερον δὲ νομίμου συναφείας συμβόλαιον ἦν, αὐτοῦ δὴ τοῦ ἠγορακότος Μιχαὴλ συνάψαντος ἀνδρὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ θυγατέρα Μαρίαν, καὶ δεδωκότος εἰς προῖκα αὐτὸ δὴ τὸ τεθρυλλημένον προάστειον. ἄλλο δὲ εἶχε τὴν τοῦ πρωτοσπαθαρίου Στεφάνου τοῦ Ἰβηρίτζη γαμετὴν μετὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τελευτὴν ἐπικυροῦσαν τῇ τοῦ Μιχαὴλ θυγατρὶ ᾗ ἐπροικίσθη τὸ κτῆμα, τὴν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς πρᾶσιν ἣν πρὸς τὸν ἐκείνης πατέρα πεποίηκε. χρόνος δὲ τούτῳ τῷ δικαιώματι ὁ ϛφκαʹ. καὶ ἕτερον, αὐτὴν τὴν Μαρίαν ἅμα τῶ οἰκείῳ ἀνδρὶ διαπωλήσασαν τοῦτο τῷ τοῦ μαγγλαβίτῃ πατρὶ τῷ Πικρίδῃ. καὶ ἐπεὶ τοῦτο ἐνόσει, ἑτέρῳ δικαιώματι τὸ νοσοῦν τεθεράπευτο. αὐτὴ γὰρ ἡ πρὸς τὴν πρᾶσιν παρανομήσασα, καὶ διὰ τὸν βοηθοῦντα νόμον εἰς τὴν ἀνάληψιν δικαιουμένη τοῦ κτήματος, ἀγῶνα μὲν δικαστηρίου μετὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀποβίωσιν κατὰ τοῦ Πικρίδου ἐκρότησε, πρὶν ἢ δὲ ἐξενεχθῆναι ἀπόφασιν νομίσματά τινα παρ' αὐτοῦ λαβοῦσα, καθαρῶς διελύσατο. ἐπὶ δὲ τῇ διαλύσει παρ' αὐτοῦ δὴ τοῦ δικάζοντος ἀπελύθη ὑπόμνημα· μεθ' ὃ ἡ αὐτὴ πάλιν δευτέραν ἔννομον πρᾶσιν τοῦ κτήματος πρὸς τὸν αὐτόν Πικρίδην ἐξέθετο, μεθ' ὃ καὶ ἕτερά τινα δικαιώματα προβεβήκασι παρέλκοντα τῇ γραφῇ. Τί γὰρ χρὴ εἰς ἀπέραντον γενεαλογεῖν τοὺς τὸ κτῆμα διαδεξαμένους, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀπαριθμεῖσθαι τὰ ἔγγραφα; ἀλλ' ὁ ἐνάγων Ἰβηρίτζης ἐθελοκακῶν μέν, εὐφυῶς δέ τινος ἀντελαμβάνετο πράγματος· ἀναποδίζων γὰρ εἰς τὸν χρόνον καθ' ὃν τὸ χρυσόβουλλον γένοιτο, καὶ συγκρούων αὐτὸν τῷ χρόνῳ τῆς πράσεως, ὑποψίαν τινὰ πλαστογραφίας τούτῳ προσέπλαττε. τὸ μὲν γὰρ προάστειον πέπρατο εἰς τὸ ϛφθʹ ἔτος, ὁ δὲ χρυσόβουλλος λόγος γεγένητο κατὰ τὸ ϛφιεʹ. ἐπελαμβάνετο οὖν ὁ ἐνάγων τῆς πράσεως ὡς πλαστῆς. πῶς γὰρ ἦν εἰκὸς πωλεῖν τὸν πάππον αὐτοῦ ὃ μήπω διὰ τῆς χρυσοβούλλου δωρεᾶς εἴληφε; καὶ οὐ μικράν τινα ταραχὴν καὶ θόρυβον παρεισήγαγε τῷ δικαστηρίῳ μέχρις ἂν ἡ ἀκριβεστέρα τοῦ χρυσοβούλλου ἀνάγνωσις τὸ ταράττον κατεύνασε. πρὶν ἢ γὰρ προβῆναι τὸ χρυσόβουλλον, τὸ κτῆμα τῷ Ἰβηρίτζῃ οὐ διὰ χρυσοβούλλου, ἀλλὰ διὰ πιττακίου δεδώρητο κατὰ τὸ ϛφδʹ ἔτος· μεθ' ὃ δὲ τούτου τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ ἐδέσποσε, προέβη τὸ χρυσόβουλλον. ἡ δὲ πρᾶσις μέση πως ἦν τῶν διττῶν καὶ διαλλαττουσῶν κατὰ τὸν τρόπον δωρεῶν. καλῶς οὖν ὁ Ἰβηρίτζης τὸ κτῆμα ἐπώλησε· καὶ αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ χρυσόβουλλον μετὰ τὴν τοῦ Ἴβηρος γέγονε τελευτήν. ὁ γὰρ πατρίκιος ἐκεῖνος ὁ Ξιφίας, γαμβρὸς ἐπὶ θυγατρὶ ὢν τοῦ Ἴβηρος ἐκείνου, ἐπεὶ οὗτος μὲν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἠφάνιστο, ἡ δὲ ἐκείνου σύμβιος ἔτι τῷ βίῳ περιῆν, ἐπικυρῶν οὗτος τῇ πενθερᾷ, αἰτεῖται τὸν