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
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 outer parts, all the other things. Therefore, being persuaded rather than persuading myself with that noble and saving persuasion, which indeed made the man known to me and described him more perfectly and bound us in an unspeakable friendship, pushing {the man} and being elbowed, I have entered. It was necessary, then, to speak also about the other things and to make the narrative in detail, to mark what was said, to show what happened, to recall what was proposed, not to omit what occurred, the good rhythm, the gladness, the joy, the solemn smiles, and then thus to turn the discourse to the man. But embracing brevity (for the philosopher Aristotle suggests that I love this) I omit most of what happened, or rather, imitating the geometers, I leave aside the external things, and look only to the aim of the matter; for they too are accustomed †to take on only† those things that contribute to them in the proposed books or theorems, and to disregard all the rest. So those who had read before were departing, about whom I have no account, having observed nothing of account in them. But when this man had entered with that wonderful gait, with his customary and universal gravity, with his downward-looking eye, oh, that grace and simplicity! oh, the smile of the gently smiling cheek! oh, those eyes that see with calm and perfect purity! oh, the sight, the look, the meeting, and the other things it is not lawful to speak of! For I immediately and instantly recognized the man, and the small sign has given me the whole testimony; for he was not such as the one who entered having stepped into the place of reading, nor did he remain with the solemn posture and the restrained-towards-all disposition, but as if having put on the nobility of a wild beast, he turned up the rag on his hand, which indeed we usually call a neck-cloth, and taking the wax tablet he was shown to be steady in his purpose, almost addressing us through his posture and showing what sort one who is obliged to read must certainly be; for he had not yet spoken the title of the discourse, and he had given the indication of the whole. And just as definitions, being from a genus and its constituent differences, present to us the natures of things, so indeed this man also, from the very enunciation of the title, presented and made known the whole to us. Some, then, have this as a sign of readers and as an unfailing testimony, overlooking the other things or not knowing them, perhaps from ignorance or a similar disposition. For if someone knows how to shout loudly, so as to pursue wild beasts or to wake the sleeping, they immediately give him the first place among readers and hold him in honor, as it were, and consider him the leader of the chorus, knowing badly and very dangerously; just as if someone praises the instrument and extols the melody and delights in the lyre-playing and exults in the songs, but puts the one who plays it far from blessing, when it is necessary to attribute the whole of the grace to this one and to consider him above all praise. But I myself do not thus judge and discern things; for I am not like the many, nor do I know how to look at what is set before me for the sake of favor, nor am I carried and fanned by breezes, nor have I desired to say many things but be found inferior in deeds, but I am by nature a companion of reason and have honored education as nothing else and daily apply myself to discourses and with these I nourish the soul before the body. And perhaps many others who are in harmony with this purpose will bear witness for me; and my diligence certainly shows this to me, and my relationship with these men, so to speak. For would someone admire even that one who only this
εὐαρέστησιν, ἀλλ' ἦσαν πάντα πάντων μεστά- ἡ πρώτη σκηνή, τὸ ἱλαστήριον, τὸ καταπέτασμα, ὁ ναός, τὰ παρασκήνια, οἱ πρόνεῳ,
τὰ ἐκτός, τἆλλα σύμπαντα. πεισθεὶς οὖν μᾶλλον ἢ πείσας αὐτὸς τὴν καλὴν ἐκείνην πειθὼ καὶ σωτήριον, ἣ δή μοι καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα
ἐγνώρισε καὶ ἱστόρησε τελεώτερον καὶ εἰς φιλίαν συνέδησεν ἄφατον, ὠθῶν {τὸν ἄνδρα} καὶ παραγκωνιζόμενος εἰσελήλυθα. Ἦν μὲν
οὖν δέον καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων εἰπεῖν καὶ κατὰ μέρος ποιήσασθαι τὴν ἀφήγησιν, τά τε λεχθέντα διασημᾶναι, τά τε σύμβαντα παραδηλῶσαι,
τὰ προτεθέντα διαναμνῆσαι, τὰ γεγονότα μὴ παραλεῖψαι, τὴν εὐρυθμίαν, τὴν εὐφροσύνην, τὴν χαρμονήν, τὰ σεμνὰ μειδιάματα, εἶθ'
οὕτως τὸν λόγον καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα μεταγαγεῖν. ἀλλὰ τὸ φιλοσύντομον ἀσπαζόμενος (τοῦτο γάρ με καὶ ὁ φιλόσοφος Ἀριστοτέλης
φιλεῖν ὑποτίθησι) τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν συμβάντων ἐῶ, μᾶλλον δὲ τοὺς γεωμέτρας μιμούμενος τὰ μὲν ἐκτὸς καταλιμπάνω, πρὸς μόνον δὲ
τοῦ πράγματος τὸν σκοπὸν ἀφορῶ· εἰώθασι γὰρ κἀκεῖνοι †περὶ μόνων προσλαμβάνειν† τῶν συμβαλλομένων αὐτοῖς ἐν τοῖς προκειμένοις
βιβλίοις ἢ θεωρήμασι, τῶν δ' ἄλλων πάντων ὀλιγωρεῖν. Οἱ μὲν οὖν προανεγνωκότες ἀπῄεσαν, περὶ ὧν μοι λόγος οὐδεὶς λόγου μηδὲν
ἐν αὐτοῖς κατοπτεύσαντι. ἐπεὶ δὲ οὗτος εἰσεληλύθει μετὰ τοῦ θαυμασίου ἐκείνου βαδίσματος, μετὰ τῆς συνήθους καὶ παγκοσμίου
σεμνότητος, μετὰ τοῦ κάτω βλέποντος ὄμματος, βαβαὶ τῆς χάριτος ἐκείνης καὶ τῆς ἁπλότητος, βαβαὶ τοῦ τῆς ὑπογελώσης παρειᾶς
μειδιάμα τος, βαβαὶ τῶν ὀμμάτων ἐκείνων τῶν γαληνὸν ὁρώντων καὶ καθαρώτατον, βαβαὶ τῆς ὁράσεως, τῆς προσβλέψεως, τῆς ἐντεύξεως,
τῶν ἄλλων ἅπερ λέγειν οὐκ ἔξεστιν. εὐθὺς γὰρ τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ παραυτίκα διέγνωκα καὶ τὸ βραχὺ σημεῖον τὴν ὅλην μοι μαρτυρίαν
παρέσχηκεν· οὐδὲ γὰρ τοιοῦτος ἦν ὁποῖος εἰσέδυ τὸν τόπον πατήσας τῆς ἀναγνώσεως, οὐδὲ μετὰ τοῦ σεμνοῦ παρέμενε σχήματος καὶ
τοῦ συνεσταλμένου πρὸς πάντα φρονήμα τος, ἀλλὰ θηρὸς ὥσπερ μεταμφιασάμενος γενναιότητα τό τε ῥάκος τῆς χειρὸς ἐπανέστρεψεν,
ὃ δὴ συνήθως περιαυχένιον ὀνομάζομεν, καὶ τὸν κηρὸν λαβὼν σταθηρὸς τὴν γνώμην ἐδέδεικτο, μονονουχὶ διὰ τοῦ σχήματος προσφθεγγόμενος
καὶ τυπῶν ὁποῖον δεῖ πάντως τὸν ἀναγινώσκειν ὀφείλοντα γίγνεσθαι· οὔπω γὰρ τοῦ λόγου τὴν ἐπιγραφὴν εἴρηκε καὶ τοῦ παντὸς ἐδεδώκει
τὴν δήλωσιν. καὶ ὥσπερ ἡμῖν τὰς τῶν πραγμάτων φύσεις παριστῶσιν οἱ ὁρισμοὶ ἐκ γένους ὄντες καὶ τῶν συστατικῶν διαφορῶν, οὕτω
δὴ καὶ οὗτος ἀπ' αὐτῆς τῆς ἐκφωνήσεως τοῦ προγράμμα τος τὸ πᾶν ἡμῖν παρέστησε καὶ ἐγνώρισε. Τινὲς μὲν οὖν τοῦτο δεῖγμα τῶν
ἀναγινωσκόντων ἔχουσι καὶ μαρτύριον ἀψευδές, τἆλλα παρορῶντες ἢ μὴ εἰδότες ἐξ ἀμαθίας ἴσως ἢ ἀναλόγου φρονήματος. ἢν γάρ τις
μέγα βοᾶν ἐπίσταται, ὥστε θῆρας μεταδιώκειν ἢ τοὺς καθεύδοντας ἀνιστᾶν, εὐθὺς τὰ πρῶτα τῶν ἀναγινωσκόντων διδόασι καὶ τιμητικῶς
ὥσπερ ἔχουσι καὶ κορυφαῖον τῆς χορείας λογίζονται, κακῶς εἰδότες καὶ λίαν ἐπικινδύνως· ὡσπερεὶ τὸ μὲν ὄργανον ἐπαινεῖ τις
καὶ τῆς μελῳδίας κατεκθειάζει καὶ τέρπεται τοῖς φορμίσμασι καὶ ἐπαγάλλεται ταῖς ᾠδαῖς, τὸν δὲ κινοῦντα τοῦτο τοῦ μακαρισμοῦ
πόρρω τίθησι, δέον πρὸς τοῦτον τὸ πᾶν ἀνάγειν τῆς χάριτος καὶ πάσης ὕπερθεν εὐφημίας λογίζεσθαι. ἀλλ' αὐτὸς οὐχ οὕτω κρίνω
καὶ διακρίνω τὰ πράγματα· οὐδὲ γὰρ κατὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς ἶσός εἰμι, οὐδὲ πρὸς χάριν οἶδα βλέπειν τὰ προτιθέμενα, οὐδ' αὔραις φέρομαι
καὶ ῥιπίζομαι, οὐδὲ πολλὰ μὲν λέγειν ἐπόθησα, ἥττων δὲ τῶν ἔργων εὑρίσκεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ λόγου σύντροφος πέφυκα καὶ τὴν παιδείαν
ὡς οὐκ ἄλλο τετίμηκα καὶ λόγοις καθ' ἡμέραν προστίθεμαι καὶ τούτοις τρέφω τὴν ψυχὴν πρὸ τοῦ σώματος. καὶ μαρτυρήσουσιν ἴσως
μοι τῷ σκοπῷ πολλοὶ καὶ ἄλλοι τούτῳ συνᾴδον τες· τοῦτο δέ μοι πάντως ἡ ἐπιμέλεια δείκνυσι καὶ ἡ πρὸς τούτους σχέσις, ἵν' οὕτως
εἴποιμι. Ἢ γὰρ κἀκεῖνον θαυμάσειέ τις τὸν τοῦτο μόνον
