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

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 un-hallowed, and shall remain unsung, un-psalmed, unaddressed, and unspoken to, because he suffered nothing at your ruin, but set his face like a solid rock, so that he himself might know, even if now, as it seems, he has forgotten, so that I might speak in a human and impassioned way, that he both became man and took on bodily things. But you, the honorable sons of Zion, the ministers and priests and offerers of the great and new sacrifice, and whatever else there is in the company and assembly of deacons and subdeacons, and those who carry and cleanse the vessels, and composers of melodies and singers of hymns and psalms, who, as Jeremiah says, carry the high praises of God in your throat, where have you now been moved? where do you gather? how has your joy been turned into mourning, how have your feasts into lamentation? Was it not good and holy for you, as it seemed both to me and to all, to die beforehand or to die along with the calamity? But since God has granted you to live and left you to us as a remnant, I seek where your sacred solemnity now sits or stands, where is the synod, where the assembly, where the discussion of the scriptural sayings, what do you philosophize about that misfortune, about good pleasure, about permission, about the divine economy. about the inscrutable judgments. if any word has been given to you or revealed, tell us also and do not let us attend only to the fragment of the sacred hymn, saying, "There is not at this time a prince, or a prophet, or a leader, nor whole burnt offering, nor sacrifice, nor oblation, nor incense, no place to bring fruit before you and to find mercy". But may you be saved and see the new Jerusalem being raised up on high and being renewed, and may you labor together in prayers and be glorified in it and be made splendid. And you, sun and moon, and you stars, where now do you appear, where do you shine, where, raising your rays, do you send them? What other house now receives or accepts you? In what do you now delight? To what do you shine in response? In what work do you take pride? Who, looking up, would wish to see you? Who does not rather, stooping in darkness, pass through and turn away from the light? Did it not behoove you to clothe yourself in that mournful darkness now a second time, O best and greatest of luminaries, O sun, and you, full moon, to run under some conical shadow and be hidden or be eclipsed? But you have so overlooked what has happened as if it had not happened. And where will you be glorified? I therefore often saw you in that brilliant temple; and seeing, I was amazed and investigated the cause for which you underwent this, and I learned that the beauty of the temple was the cause of that delay. And yet I thought you were hard to love and unloved; but once you appeared to me for the whole day, O sun, lingering there and turning and shining, and you did not willingly depart or move away, bringing your successor, the moon. And seeing this I reasoned that the psalmist David proclaimed you beforehand as both a giant and a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; for he too foresaw you loving that all-radiant temple and sang these things to you. And now were you not ashamed of this one falling, through whom you were greater, through whom more glorious, through whom more brilliant? You too will surely be without glory, you will be humbled a little and will be gloomy at its fall, so that you yourself may learn that you have become alterable and changeable and subject to decay. But whether this one will be raised up and exalted and established or will be completed and beautified is not for me to know; but as for me, whether I will survive, whether I will enter, whether I will see, whether I will worship, whether I will call upon God, this and that God then knows. 36 Against Olympus (10)

ἀναφερόμενον οὐκ ἐπεστράφη; οὐ κατενύγη ἐπὶ σοὶ ὁ εὔσπλαγχνος; ἄθυτος διὰ τοῦτο ἔσται καὶ ἀκαλλιέρητος καὶ διαμενεῖ ἀμελῴδητος καὶ ἄψαλτος καὶ ἀπροσφώνητος καὶ ἀπροσαύδητος, ἀνθ' ὧν οὐκ ἔπαθέ τι ἐπὶ τῇ συντριβῇ σου, ἀλλ' ἔθηκε τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ὡς στερεὰν πέτραν, ἵν' εἰδῇ καὶ αὐτός, εἰ καὶ νῦν ὡς ἔοικεν ἐπιλέλησται, ἵν' ἀνθρωπίνως εἴπω καὶ περιπαθῶς, ὡς ἄνθρωπός τε ἐγένετο καὶ τὰ σωματικὰ ἀνεδέξατο. Ὑμεῖς δέ, οἱ υἱοὶ Σιὼν οἱ τίμιοι, οἱ λειτουργοὶ καὶ ἱερεῖς καὶ θύται τοῦ μεγάλου καὶ καινοῦ θύματος, καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον ἐν διακόνοις καὶ ὑποδιακό νοις καὶ τοῖς αἴρουσι τὰ σκεύη καὶ καθαίρουσι καὶ μελουργοῖς καὶ ὑμνῳδοῖς καὶ ψάλταις σύστημά τε καὶ πλήρωμα, οἱ, ὡς Ἱερεμίας φησί, τὰς ὑψώσεις τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῷ λάρυγγι περιφέροντες, ποῦ νῦν μετετέθητε; ποῦ ἀθροίζεσθε; πῶς ἐτράφη εἰς πένθος ἡ χαρὰ ὑμῶν, πῶς αἱ ἑορ ταὶ εἰς θρῆνον; οὐ καλὸν ἦν ὑμῖν καὶ ὅσιον, ὡς καὶ ἐμοὶ καὶ πᾶσιν ἔδο ξε, προαποθανεῖν ἢ συναποθανεῖν τῷ συμπτώματι; ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ θεὸς ζῆν ὑμῖν ἔδωκε καὶ ἐγκατάλειμμα ἡμῖν ὑμᾶς ὑπελείπετο, ζητῶ ποῦ τὸ ἱερὸν ὑμῶν κάθηται νῦν ἢ ἵσταται σεμνολόγημα, ποῦ ἡ σύνοδος, ποῦ ἡ συνέλευ σις, ποῦ ἡ συζήτησις τῶν γραφικῶν ῥητῶν, τί περὶ τῆς συμφορᾶς ἐκείνης φιλοσοφεῖτε, περὶ εὐδοκήσεως, περὶ παραχωρήσεως, περὶ οἰκονομίας. περὶ τῶν ἀνεφίκτων κριμάτων. εἴ τις ἐδόθη ὑμῖν ἢ ἀπεκαλύφθη λόγος, εἴπατε καὶ ἡμῖν καὶ μὴ ἐάσητε μόνῳ τῷ ἀποσπάσματι τοῦ ἱεροῦ ὕμνου προσανέχειν, «οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ» λέγοντες «ἄρχων καὶ προ φήτης καὶ ἡγούμενος, οὐδὲ ὁλοκαύτωσις οὐδὲ θυσία οὐδὲ προσφορὰ οὐδὲ θυμίαμα, οὐ τόπος τοῦ καρπῶσαι ἐνώπιόν σου καὶ εὑρεῖν ἔλεος». ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς μὲν καὶ σῴζοισθε καὶ ἴδοιτε τὴν νέαν Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἀναγομένην τε εἰς ὕψος καὶ ἀνακαινιζομένην, καὶ ταῖς εὐχαῖς συγκάμοιτε καὶ δοξασθήσοισθε ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ λαμπρυνθήσοισθε. Σὺ δὲ ἥλιε καὶ σελήνη καὶ ἀστέρες ὑμεῖς, ποῦ ποτε ἄρτι φαίνεσθε, ποῦ αὐγάζετε, ποῦ τὰς ἀκτῖνας ἀνίσχοντες πέμπετε; ποῖος ὑμᾶς ἕτερος οἶκος ἀρτίως ἐκδέχεται ἢ ἀποδέχεται; τίνι ἐναβρύνεσθε νῦν; τίνι ἀντιλάμ πετε; ποίῳ ἔργῳ ἐνσεμνύνεσθε; τίς ἰδεῖν ὑμᾶς ἄνω βλέπων ἐθέλοι; τίς οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἐν σκότει κύπτων διαπορεύεται καὶ φῶς ἀποστρέφεται; οὐκ ἔδει σε περιβαλέσθαι σκότος τὸ πένθιμον ἐκεῖνο τοῦτο ἤδη δεύτερον, ὦ φωστήρων ἄριστε καὶ μέγιστε ἥλιε, οὐχὶ σέ, πανσέληνε, κωνοειδεῖ τινι σκιάσματι ὑποδραμεῖν καὶ ὑποκρυβῆναι ἢ ἐκλεῖψαι; ἀλλ' οὕτω παρείδετε τὸ γεγονὸς ὡς ἀγένητον. καὶ ποῦ δοξασθήσεσθε; ἔγωγ' οὖν πολλάκις ὑμᾶς εἶδον ἐν τῷ σελασφόρῳ ἐκείνῳ ναῷ· καὶ ἰδὼν ἐθαύμασα καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν ἠρεύνησα δι' ἣν τοῦτο ὑπέστητε, καὶ τὸ τοῦ νεὼ κάλλος αἴτιον ἔμαθον τῆς διατριβῆς ἐκείνης. καίτοι δυσέρωτας ὑμᾶς ᾤμην εἶναι καὶ ἀνέρωτας· ποτὲ δέ μοι καὶ δι' ὅλης ἐφάνης τῆς ἡμέρας, ἥλιε, ἐμφιλοχωρῶν ἐκεῖσε καὶ στρεφόμενος καὶ λάμπων, καὶ ἑκὼν οὐκ ἀφίστασο ἢ μεθίστασο τὴν διάδοχόν σου σελήνην φέρων. καὶ τοῦτο ἐγὼ βλέπων ἐλογιζόμην ὅτι καὶ γίγαντα καὶ νυμφίον ἐκ τοῦ παστοῦ ἐξερχόμενον ὁ μελῳδὸς ∆αυίδ σε προανεφώνησε· προεῖδε γάρ σε κἀκεῖνος τοῦ παμφαοῦς ἐκείνου ναοῦ ἐρῶντα καὶ ἐπῇδέ σοι ταῦτα. καὶ νῦν τοῦτον οὐκ ἐνετράπης πίπτοντα δι' ὃν ἦς μείζων, δι' ὃν ἐνδοξότερος, δι' ὃν φαιδρότερος; ἔσῃ καὶ σὺ πάντως ἀδόξαστος, ταπεινωθήσῃ μικρὸν καὶ στυγνάσεις ἐπὶ τῷ πτώματι, ἵνα μάθῃς ἀλλοιωτὸς καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ τρεπτὸς γεγονὼς καὶ φθορᾷ ὑποκεί μενος. Οὗτος δὲ εἰ μὲν ἀναστήσεται καὶ ὑψωθήσεται καὶ ἑδραιωθήσεται ἢ συντελεσθήσεται καὶ καλλωπισθήσεται οὐκ ἐμὸν εἰδέναι· τὸ δὲ ἐμὸν εἰ ἐπιβιώσω, εἰ εἰσέλθω, εἰ ἴδω, εἰ προσκυνήσω, εἰ θεοκλυτήσω, θεοῦ ἄρα τοῦτο κἀκεῖνο εἰδότος. 36 Τὰ πρὸς Ὄλυμπον (ι)