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
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 before his command, for he had come to manhood as no other and was a leader of strategic counsels. But when a foreign war was proclaimed for the Laconians, since it seemed best so to the authorities, they chose others to be generals, and they had despised him; and when the election was over, he appeared more dignified than the others and showed himself more cheerful to those he met, and when someone asked the reason for his cheerfulness, "With my motherland," he says, "I rejoice in her good fortune; for I, being of such quality, have not yet been numbered among the three hundred chosen men." But ambition made Romulus the murderer of his brother, and he himself almost perished along with him, had he not recalled his spirit by the entreaties of his maternal grandfather. And what need have you of external examples? For statues of kindred fellowship have been raised for you: the divine and sacred pair, I mean your father and your uncle, of whom each is at once alive and dead; for he who has departed is both there where he has gone, and also in the memories of his brother and in unchanging likeness to him, he seems not yet to have been parted; and he who is with us, this brilliant sun of the high priesthood, both travels the allotted portion of his life and dwells in spirit in the abodes of his brother. I know that you are very proud of your uncle; and how could you not be, whom most men, if they should see him even from afar, have considered this a very great good fortune? But how can I lament for you that you, being perfect, did not associate with your perfect father? I, therefore, having often been in his company, admired his appearance, and was exceedingly fond of his character, and exceedingly loved the cheerfulness of his soul, which was made venerable by a profound mind. For the uncle (but do not speak against me to him) straight from his earliest youth stood apart from the many and happened to be superior to worldly thinking and gave signs of what was to be. He, therefore, turned the tracks of his character inward, but the other—but who was like him in understanding or more skilled in rhetoric? And he sacrificed to the Muses and the Graces, lacking in no part of a good education and charming every soul with his conversation; and his face—but as soon as one saw him, one imagined his soul dancing within. Therefore, both conquering all others, each was both conquered by and depended on the other, and so great was the inseparability between them, that what the story says about Phocion (but he was a Roman and an outright hero and superior to the seasons and a pure philosopher); being ashamed that he was in a body, for this reason he always kept his hands under his cloak, and whenever he exposed any part of himself, just as astronomers do with comets, so indeed those who saw this considered it a sign of extreme heat. Accordingly, then, it was a marvel to see if one of the brothers should walk without the other, and each glorified the other; and if someone chose to praise the one who was present, he would immediately blush to his cheeks, being ashamed that his brother did not share in this praise with him. Both, therefore, served their father, and both inherited their father's prayers, and they became better than others, but were by far overcome by envy. and they shared in common both their good repute and the storm that befell them, and then for the first time they were cruelly divided from each other, they who had remained for each other; but the Erinys that raged against them (for allow me to show passion even in my words) inflicted sudden death on the one, and on the other speechlessness and terror. But for you the first things are sufficient for imitation, but may God not bring the last things upon you. Achilles, therefore, in order to be instructed in the art of the hoplite, did not refuse that half-human Chiron as both instructor and disciplinarian; but for you the will is sufficient for the better reformation of your characters and, what the original tablet is for painters, let your paternal narratives be this for you. and that the whole of the advice
ἀποτυγχάνων δὲ σεμνυνέσθω ὅτι κρείττων αὐτοῦ τυγχάνει ὁ ἀδελφός. Ἀγησίλαος τὰ πρῶτα τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἡγεμονίας
ἐτύγχανεν ὤν, ἤνδρωτο γὰρ ὡς οὐκ ἄλλος καὶ βουλευμάτων ἦρχε στρα τηγικῶν. πολέμου δὲ κηρυχθέντος ὑπερορίου τοῖς Λάκωσι, δόξαν
οὕτω τοῖς τέλεσιν, ἑτέρους στρατηγεῖν εἵλοντο, τοῦ δὲ καταπεφρονήκεσαν· καὶ τῆς ἀρχαιρεσίας λυθείσης σεμνότερος οὗτος τῶν
ἄλλων ἐφαίνετο καὶ ἱλαρώτερος τοῖς ἀπαντῶσιν ἐδείκνυτο, καί τινος ἠρωτηκότος τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς διαχύσεως, «τῇ ἐνεγκούσῃ», φησί,
«τῆς εὐδαιμονίας συνεπαγάλλομαι· οὔπω γὰρ τηλικοῦτος ὢν μετὰ τριακοσίων λογάδων ἠρίθμημαι». τὸν δέ γε Ῥωμύλον φονέα τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ
πεποίηκε τὸ φιλότιμον, καὶ μικροῦ δεῖν καὶ αὐτὸς συναπώλετο, εἰ μὴ ταῖς τοῦ μητροπάτορος παρακλήσεσιν ἀνεκαλέσατο τὴν ψυχήν.
Καὶ τί δεῖ τῶν ἔξω παραδειγμάτων ὑμῖν; ἀγάλματα γὰρ ὑμῖν ἀνεστᾶσι τῆς ὁμογενοῦς συμφυΐας ἡ θεία καὶ ἱερὰ συζυγία, τὸν πατέρα
καὶ τὸν θεῖόν φημι, ὧν ἑκάτερος ζῇ τε ἅμα καὶ τέθνηκεν· ὅ τε γὰρ ἀπελθὼν ἐκεῖσέ τέ ἐστιν οἷ ἀπελήλυθε καὶ ταῖς τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ
μνήμαις καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἀπαραλλάκτοις ἰσότησιν οὔπω ἀπηλλάχθαι· δοκεῖ· ὅ τε σὺν ἡμῖν οὗτος τῆς ἀρχιερωσύνης ὁ διαυγὴς ἥλιος
τό τε λαχὸν τοῦ αἰῶνος μέρος πορεύεται καὶ ταῖς τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ μοναῖς τῷ φαντάσματι συναυλίζεται. οἶδ' ὅτι μέγα φρονεῖτε τῷ θείῳ·
καὶ πῶς γὰρ οὔ, ὃν οἱ πλείους, εἰ καὶ πόρρω θεάσαιντο, εὐτύχημα τοῦτο μέγιστον ἥγηνται; ἀλλὰ πῶς ἂν ὑμᾶς ἀποδύρωμαι ὅτι μὴ
τελείῳ τέλειοι συνωμιλήκατε τῷ πατρί; ἔγωγ' οὖν πολλάκις ἐκείνῳ παραγενόμενος τό τε εἶδος ἐθαύμασα καὶ τὸ ἦθος ὑπερηγάσθην
καὶ τὸ ἱλαρὸν ὑπερηγάπησα τῆς ψυχῆς βαθεῖ φρονήματι σεμνυνόμενον. ὁ μὲν γὰρ θεῖος (ἀλλὰ μή μου κατείπητε πρὸς αὐτόν) ἐκ πρώτης
ἡλικίας εὐθὺς τοῖς τε πολλοῖς ἀπέξεστο καὶ τοῦ πολιτικοῦ φρονήματος κρείττων ἐτύγχανε καὶ τὸ ἐσόμενον ὑπεσήμαινεν. οὗτος μὲν
οὖν ἔσω τὰ ἴχνη τῶν ἠθῶν ἔστρεφεν, ὁ δέ-ἀλλὰ τίς ἐκείνῳ ἢ τὴν σύνεσιν ὅμοιος ἢ τὴν γλῶτταν ῥητορικώτερος; ἔθυε δὲ καὶ Μούσαις
καὶ Χάρισιν, εὐπαιδευσίας τε μὴ ἀπολειπόμενος συμπάσης καὶ ταῖς ὁμιλίαις πᾶσαν καταγοητεύων ψυχήν· τὸ δὲ πρόσωπον-ἀλλ' ὁμοῦ
τις ἐκεῖνον εἶδε καὶ χορεύουσαν ἔνδον εἴκασε τὴν ψυχήν. τοὺς ἄλλους οὖν ἄμφω νικῶντες ἑκάτερος ἑκατέρου ἥττητό τε καὶ ἀπεκρέματο,
καὶ τοσοῦτον ἦν τὸ ἀδιάστατον ἐπ' ἀμφοῖν, ὥσθ' ὅ φησιν ὁ λόγος περὶ Φωκίωνος (Ῥωμαῖος δὲ οὗτος ἦν καὶ ἥρως ἄντικρυς καὶ κρείττων
ὡρῶν καὶ φιλό σοφος καθαρῶς)· αἰσχυνόμενος ὅτιπερ ἐν σώματι εἴη, διὰ ταῦτα ὑπὸ τὴν περιβολὴν εἶχε τὰς χεῖρας ἀεί, ὁπότε δέ
τι καὶ μέρος οὗτος γυμνώσειεν, ὥσπερ τοὺς κομήτας οἱ ἀστρολόγοι, οὕτω δὴ καὶ οἱ τοῦτο θεασάμενοι σημεῖον ὑπερβολῆς ἐτίθεσαν
καύματος. κατὰ ταῦτα δὴ τέρας ἦν ἰδεῖν, εἴ τις τῶν ἀδελφῶν θατέρου βαδίζοι χωρίς, ἑκάτερος δὲ τὸν ἕτερον ἀπεσέμνυ νεν· εἰ
δέ τις ἐπαινεῖν εἵλετο τὸν ὁρώμενον, τὰς γνάθους οὗτος εὐθὺς ἠρυθαίνετο, αἰδούμενος ὅτι μὴ συγκοινωνοίη τούτῳ τῆς εὐφημίας
ὁ ἀδελφός. Ἄμφω μὲν οὖν ὑπηρετησάτην τῷ πατρί, ἄμφω δὲ τὰς πατρικὰς ἐκληρονο μησάτην εὐχάς, καὶ τῶν μὲν ἄλλων κρείττους ἐγενέσθην,
τοῦ δὲ φθόνου ἥττους παρὰ πολύ. οἱ δὲ κοινῇ μὲν καὶ τῆς εὐδοξίας, κοινῇ δὲ καὶ τοῦ συμπεσόντος χειμῶνος συμμετεσχήκασι, καὶ
τότε πρῶτον κακῶς διῃρέθησαν ἀπ' ἀλλήλων οἱ ἀλλήλοις ἐναπομείναντες· ἀλλ' ἡ ἐπιμανεῖσα τούτοις Ἐριννύς (δότε γάρ μοι παθητιᾶν
κἀν τοῖς ῥήμασι) τῷ μὲν ἀθρόον ἐπέβαλε θάνατον, τῷ δὲ ἀφωνίαν καὶ ἔκπληξιν. Ἀλλ' ὑμῖν τὰ πρῶτα ἀπόχρη πρὸς μίμησιν, τὰ δὲ
τελευταῖα μὴ ἐπενέγκοι θεός. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀχιλλεύς, ἵνα τὴν ὁπλιτικὴν παιδευθῇ, τὸν μιξάνθρωπον ἐκεῖνον Χείρωνα οὐ παρῃτεῖτο
παιδευτήν τε ὁμοῦ καὶ σωφρονιστήν· ὑμῖν δὲ ἀρκεῖ τὸ βούλημα πρὸς τὴν καλλίονα τῶν ἠθῶν μεταρρύθμισιν καί, ὃ τοῖς γραφεῦσιν
ὁ ἀρχέτυπος πίναξ καθέστηκε, τοῦτο ὑμῖν τὰ πατρικὰ ἔστωσαν διηγήματα. καὶ ἵνα τὸ πᾶν τῆς ὑποθήκης
