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
Intently and from every side examining subtleties, I was investigating the extensions, the releases, the intonations, the transitions, the displacements, and from every side it preserved for me its integrity. For at one time it seemed as if smooth, at another it was considered a certain breeze; for it provided breath to the speech, and it made tones, and it was often roughened, and it gave wings to the voice, and with melodious rhythms it delighted those present; and some things it advanced somehow in combination, others in single parts, and others without joining, and the endings of all the phrases, which indeed the philosophers call ends of words or syllables, accordingly, it provided according to the appropriate principles. Therefore there is no one who, having come there and heard the man, was not immediately changed in soul and transformed to cheerfulness, even if he were a stone, or a rock, or iron, or a bloodthirsty and untamable beast. For such great grace dripped from his lips, and so harmonious was he in his voice, and thus he enchanted the listeners and charmed the wise, so that, even if someone (for permit me to boast a little about the man) had to endure the misfortunes of Odysseus, he would immediately fill his whole soul with them and with delight. For with the sweet song of his voice he surpassed the so-called oupingas there, which they say is the hymn of Artemis and of Hippolytus, and the melodious strains of the Thracian Orpheus and the Colophonian songs and the melodies of the Sirens and their enchantments; for as if they were Paeonian remedies for inflamed souls †he filled melodies like certain suspended charms†. So if Aelian speaks the truth about a certain Polymnastus, saying that by his song he made even winds blowing hard to be charmed and calmed in their impulse, and the sea, often swelling, to be stilled, this is perhaps unclear or rather unbelievable; but what I myself have seen and what I have found out by careful inquiry (for I am not a false judge of such things; let no one ever think this), this indeed I have both marveled at and I have sent it to the learned as a marvel. The treatise, then, setting boundaries and rules for those who read, as if smoothing the paths for them and guiding their feet or showing the way to suitable resting places, "Tragedy," it says, "you will read heroically, and comedy in a Boeotian manner, and elegies shrilly, and epic vigorously, and <δὲ> lyric poetry melodiously, and laments in a subdued and mournful manner; for things not done according to the observation of these things," it says, "both casts down the virtues of the poets and" along with other things "makes the habits of the readers ridiculous." But if this is indicative of perfection and a sign of more intelligent and eloquent men, as if blowing against it from another direction, I myself utter the opposite. But he who collected and observed all these things, as no other in all things, and daily explained them to others who were ignorant, and having found other ways better than speech, of whom the digressions are more longed-for, and the novelties of his speech are loved by all, and the combinations of his words are more lovely than the uncombined, of what and how much account would he be worthy? So let others say other things of the man, even if with all of them speaking it is impossible to express his qualities clearly and to present the most exact truth; But I, seeing many learned men there at that time looking steadfastly at him, being among the chosen ones, as many as the synod holds and as many as they call of the senate, then, having learned the cause and the manner of the contest and that unspeakable desire (for they seemed to hang upon the man and all thought they lived for him), from them I have received the truth. For they said that "if you seek what is exact and the whole confession of the matter and the truly direct truth that knows not how to deceive the sense, no one here for the sake of favor, even if it is bold to say, of those present
ἀτενῶς καὶ πάντοθεν λεπτολογούμενος ἀνηρεύνων εἰς τὰς ἐκτάσεις, εἰς τὰς ἀφέσεις, τὰς ὑποκρίσεις, τὰς μεταβάσεις, τὰς ἐκτοπίσεις,
καὶ πάντοθέν μοι διέσῳζε τὸ ἀκέραιον. νῦν μὲν γὰρ λεῖος ὥσπερ ἐφαίνετο, νῦν δέ τις αὔρα νενόμιστο· πνεῦμά τε γὰρ παρεῖχε τῷ
λόγῳ, καὶ ἐποίει τόνους ἐτραχύνετό τε πολλάκις καὶ τὴν φωνὴν ἐπτέρου καὶ τοῖς εὐήχοις ῥυθμοῖς τοὺς παρόντας κατέτερπε· καὶ
τὰ μὲν κατὰ συμπλοκήν πως προῆγε, τὰ δὲ κατὰ μονομέρειαν, τὰ δ' ἄλλα συμβολῆς ἄτερ, τὰς δὲ πτώσεις πάντων τῶν λόγων, ἅσπερ
δὴ πέρατα λέξεων ἢ συλλαβῶν ἀναλόγως ὀνομάζουσιν οἱ φιλόσοφοι, κατὰ τοὺς εἰκότας λόγους παρείχετο. Οὐκ ἔστιν οὖν ὅστις ἐκεῖσε
παραγενόμενος καὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀκούσας οὐκ εὐθὺς τὴν ψυχὴν ἠλλάγη καὶ πρὸς εὐθυμίαν μετεληλύθει, κἂν λίθος ἦν, κἂν πέτρα, κἂν
σίδηρος, κἂν θὴρ αἱμοβόρος καὶ ἀκατάσχετος. τοσαύτη γὰρ χάρις τῶν τούτου χειλέων ἀπέσταζε καὶ τοιοῦτος ὑπῆρχε τὴν φωνὴν ἐναρμόνιος
καὶ οὕτως κατέθελγε τοὺς ἀκούοντας καὶ κατεκήλει τοὺς εὔφρονας, ὥστε, κἂν εἴ ποτέ τις (δότε γάρ μοι καὶ βραχύ τι καυχήσασθαι
περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρός) τὰς τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως εἶχε κακότητας ἀπολαβεῖν, αὐτὰς αὐτίκα καὶ θυμηδίας ἐμπλῆσαι τὴν ψυχὴν ἅπασαν. ὑπερενίκα
γὰρ τῇ τῆς φωνῆς εὐμολπίᾳ τὰς καλουμένας ἐκεῖσε οὐπίγγας, ἃς δὴ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ὕμνον εἶναι καὶ τοῦ Ἱππολύτου φασί, καὶ τὰ τοῦ
Θρᾳκὸς Ὀρφέως ἐμμελῆ κρούματα καὶ τὰς Κολοφωνείους ᾠδὰς καὶ Σειρηναῖα μέλη καὶ κη λητήρια· οἱονεὶ γὰρ φλεγμαινουσῶν ψυχῶν
φάρμακα παιώνεια †ἐπίμπλη ὥς τινα καταιονήματα μέλη†. εἰ μὲν οὖν Αἰλιανὸς ἀληθεύει περί τινος Πολυμνάστου λέγων ὅτι καὶ ἀνέμους
σκληρὸν πνέοντας κηλεῖσθαί τε καὶ πραΰνεσθαι τὴν ὁρμὴν τῇ ᾠδῇ θελγομένους ἐποίει καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν πολ λάκις οἰδαίνουσαν καταστρώννυσθαι,
ἄδηλον ἴσως ἢ μᾶλλον ἄπιστον· ὃ δ' οὖν αὐτὸς καθεώρακα καὶ ὃ πολυπραγμονήσας ἀνεύρηκα (οὐδὲ γὰρ ψευ δὴς ἐγὼ τῶν τοιούτων κριτής·
μὴ τοῦτό τις οἰηθείη ποτέ), τοῦτο δὴ καὶ τεθαύμακα καὶ τοῖς φιλολόγοις εἰς θαῦμα παρέπεμψα. Ὁ μὲν οὖν λόγος ὅρους καὶ κανόνας
τιθεὶς τοῖς ἀναγινώσκουσιν, οἷον αὐτοῖς τὰς τρίβους καταλεαίνων καὶ ποδηγῶν ἢ καθοδηγῶν ἐπὶ προσήκοντα καταλύματα, «τὴν μὲν
τραγῳδίαν ἡρωικῶς», φησίν, «ἀναγνώσεις, τὴν δὲ κωμῳδίαν Βοιωτικῶς, τὰ δὲ ἐλεγεῖα λιγυρῶς, τὸ δὲ ἔπος εὐτόνως, τὴν <δὲ> λυρικὴν
ποίησιν ἐμμελῶς, τοὺς δὲ οἴκτους ὑφειμένως καὶ γοερῶς· τὰ γὰρ μὴ παρὰ τὴν τούτων γινόμενα», φησί, «παρατήρησιν καὶ τὰς τῶν
ποιητῶν ἀρετὰς καταρριπτεῖ καὶ» μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων «καταγελάστους τὰς ἕξεις τῶν ἀναγινωσκόντων ἐργάζεται.» εἰ δὲ τοῦτο παραστατικόν
ἐστι τελειότητος καὶ δεῖγμα συνετωτέρων καὶ λογιωτέρων ἀνδρῶν, ὥσπερ ἑτέρωθεν ἀντιπνεύσας αὐτὸς τἀναντία ἐπαναφθέγγομαι. ὁ
δὲ ταῦτα πάντα συλλεξάμενος καὶ τηρήσας, ὡς οὐκ ἄλλος ἐν ἅπασι, καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀγνοοῦσιν ὁσημέραι διεξηγούμενος καὶ τρόπους
ἑτέρους εὑρηκὼς λόγου κρείττονας, οὗ καὶ μᾶλλον αἱ παρατροπαὶ περιπόθητοι καὶ τὰ καινὰ τοῦ λόγου παρὰ πᾶσι φιλούμενα καὶ αἱ
συμπλοκαὶ τῶν λόγων τῶν ἀσυμπλόκων ἐρασμιώτεραι, τίνος ἂν εἴη καὶ πόσου λόγου κατάξιος; Ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν ἄλλα λεγέτωσαν τοῦ ἀνδρός,
κἂν εἰ πάντων λεγόντων ἀδύνατον τὰ ἐκείνου καθαρῶς ἐξειπεῖν καὶ παραστῆσαι τὸ ἀκριβὲς ἀληθέστατον· ἐγὼ δὲ πολλοὺς ἐκεῖσε τηνικαῦτα
ὁρῶν ἀκλινὲς πρὸς αὐτὸν βλέποντας ἄνδρας λογίους καὶ τῶν λογάδων ὑπάρχοντας, ὅσους τε σύνοδος ἔχει καὶ ὅσους τῆς γερουσίας
κικλήσκουσιν, εἶτα δὴ καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν πυθόμενος καὶ τὸν τρόπον τὸν ἐναγώνιον καὶ ἐπιθυμίαν ἐκείνην τὴν ἄφατον (οἱονεὶ γὰρ ἐξεκρέμαντο
τοῦ ἀνδρὸς καὶ ἐπ' ἐκείνῳ ζῆν ἐνόμιζον ἅπαντες), παρ' αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τὸ ἀληθὲς ἐπανείληφα. ἔφασαν γὰρ ὡς «εἰ τὸ ἀκριβὲς ζητεῖς
καὶ τὴν πᾶσαν τοῦ πράγματος ὁμολόγησιν καὶ τὴν ἄμεσον ὄντως ἀλήθειαν καὶ μὴ πλανᾶν εἰδυῖαν τὴν αἴσθησιν, οὐδεὶς ἐνταῦθα διὰ
χάριν, εἰ καὶ τολμηρὸν φάναι, τῶν παρόντων
