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
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 another apelike, and in another like a hawk as well; and in one way he leaps, as it were, in another he rejoices, in another he smiles, and in another he even dances; a voice more impressionable than wax and sometimes surpassing in sound the trumpets of the son of Nun. Whence these things are and how and from whom, I am at a loss, and what they say about the partial soul, that having fallen to earth and been seized by forgetfulness, then hastening to the recollection of former things, it becomes a subject sometimes for grammar, sometimes for medicine and for the other arts likewise (for having a middle rank between things entirely material and things not of such a kind, whenever it is removed from bodies a definition will not apply to it, but whenever, having fallen into matter, it forgets, then it will apply; and there is nothing strange), this I too will now dare to say myself. For as long as he is with us and converses on friendly matters and discusses familiar things and stirs up words of joy and scoffs at the things of others, if ever he should hear anyone talking nonsense (for among other things he also shuns the hater of beauty), he seems to be himself to us and not another; but whenever he should enter a temple and approach the book and, taking the wax tablet, begin the divine narrative, some other nature seems alien to the human; for narrating generations and enumerating progenitors and describing the position of a fatherland and the lives of those who have lived piously, setting forth parables and making inquiries and adapting proverbs and myths to his speech, and chattering resourcefully and uncovering the symbols and often clarifying the obscure, it is not possible to say what sort he is, nor will one ever find what to call him; for he surpasses every beauty and is seen to be beyond comparison.” It is my custom to converse with learned men and never to stand aloof from their discourse; for they knew my affairs, just as I knew theirs, and often they approach me and ask about certain things and receive like things from me. And <δέ> I happen upon a certain man knowledgeable in all wisdom; for he did not know this and this, but not that, nor did he walk the path of logic as if on one foot, but he appeared complete in all things and through all things and knows all things better than the many know one thing; For one who knows one of the parts, but is ignorant of the other (so that I may speak somewhat superfluously, or rather, speak the truth) would not be entirely wise, but as a natural philosopher he will perhaps know the substance of the subject, but will be ignorant of the form and the principles of its existence and would not even ascend beyond bodies. But if someone should pursue arithmetic, having neglected the others, he will not know the precise mean of the proportions, nor, by placing the numbers into planes and solids, would he ever know to what things these names properly belong by nature; and so too the geometer and the musician and he who has studied the figures of the stars and he who makes a precise study of moral philosophy; but the student of optics and mechanics, or whoever else might belong to the four disciplines, will be far from knowing the subjects without using the superincumbent principles for demonstration. But this man, and he is so-and-so, has walked every path, as I myself, having tracked him down at that time, have discerned. For immediately upon seeing him chattering and interpreting the things at hand rather more beautifully and elevating the diction and magnifying the thoughts than others who write these things, I was roused in my soul and brought forward philosophical questions and secretly touched upon higher things and ran down the man from all sides, saying, what are the principles of being, what are those of the first propositions and of the so-called immediate axioms, what is the division of intelligible substance, and how one part of it is essential, another intellectual, another of the imagination, another of opinion, and if all things are defined, if they are demonstrated, if they are divided, if they are analyzed, and how all the parts of the whole are in harmony with one another according to
καὐτός, ὁποῖα δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ ἀγνοῶ. σχῆμά τε γὰρ ὁρῶ ἀνθρωπίνης ὕπερθε φύσεως, καὶ βλέμμα πῃ μὲν χερουβικόν, πῃ δὲ λεόντειον,
πῃ δὲ πιθήκειον, πῃ δὲ παρόμοιον καὶ ἱέρακι· καί πῃ μὲν ὥσπερ σκιρτᾷ, πῃ δὲ γέγηθε, πῃ δὲ μειδιᾷ, πῃ δὲ καὶ ἀνορχεῖται· φωνὴν
εὐτυπωτέραν κηροῦ καὶ τὰς τοῦ Ναυῆ σάλπιγγας καθυπερηχοῦσαν ἐνίοτε. ὅθεν δὲ ταῦτα καὶ ὅπως καὶ παρὰ τίνος ἐπαπορῶ, καὶ ὃ περὶ
τῆς μερικῆς ψυχῆς λέγουσιν, ὅτι πεσοῦσα μὲν εἰς γῆν καὶ λήθῃ κατασχεθεῖσα, εἶτα εἰς ἀνάμνησιν τῶν προτέρων ἐπειγομένη, γίνεται
ὑποκείμενον ποτὲ μὲν γραμματικῇ, ποτὲ δὲ ἰατρικῇ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις τέχναις ὁμοίως (μέσην γὰρ ἔχουσα τάξιν πρός τε τὰ πάντῃ ἔνυλα
καὶ τὰ μὴ τοιαῦτα, ὅταν μὲν ἐξῄρηται τῶν σωμάτων οὐκ ἐφαρμόσει αὐτῇ ὁρισμός, ὅταν δὲ πεσοῦσα ἐν ὕλῃ ἐπιλανθάνηται τηνι καῦτα
ἐφαρμόσει· καὶ οὐδὲν ἄτοπον), τοῦτο νῦν τολμήσας ἐρῶ καὶ αὐτός. ἕως μὲν γὰρ μεθ' ἡμῶν ἐστιν οὗτος καὶ συνομιλεῖ τὰ φίλα καὶ
τὰ συνήθη προσδιαλέγεται καὶ χαρμοσύνης λόγους κινεῖ καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἐπισκώπτει, εἴ ποτέ τινος ληροῦντος ἀκούσειε (καὶ γὰρ
μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ τὸν μισόκαλον ἀποστρέφεται), αὐτὸς ἡμῖν εἶναι δοκεῖ καὶ οὐκ ἄλλος· ὁπηνίκα δὲ εἰς νεὼν εἰσέλθοι καὶ τῇ
βίβλῳ προσπλησιάσει καὶ τὸν κηρὸν λαβὼν τῆς θείας ἀπάρξεται διηγήσεως, ἑτέρα τις φύσις δοκεῖ τῆς ἀνθρω πίνης ἀλλότριος· γένη
τε γὰρ διηγούμενος καὶ γεννήτορας καταλέγων καὶ πατρίδος θέσιν διεπιγράφων καὶ ἀναστροφὰς τῶν ὁσίως βιοτευσάντων παραβολάς
τε τιθεὶς καὶ ἐρωτήσεις ποιῶν καὶ παροιμίας τῷ λόγῳ καὶ μύθους διεφαρμόζων εὐστρόφως τε στωμυλλόμενος καὶ ἀνακαλύπτων τὰ σύμβολα
καὶ πολλάκις σαφηνίζων τὰ ἀσαφῆ, οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὁποῖός ἐστιν οὐδ' ὅ τι καλέσει τις τοῦτον εὑρήσει ποτέ· πᾶν γὰρ ὑπεραίρει
καλὸν καὶ συγκρίσεως ἐπέκεινα κατοπτεύεται.» Ἔθος δέ μοι τοῖς λογίοις ἀνδράσι συνομιλεῖν καὶ μηδέποτε τῆς τούτων ἀφίστασθαι
διαλέξεως· καὶ γὰρ ᾔδεισαν τὰ ἐμὰ κἀκεῖνοι, καθάπερ τὰ ἐκείνων ἐγώ, καὶ πολλάκις μοι προσίενται καὶ περί τινων ἐρωτῶσι καὶ
παρ' ἐμοῦ τὰ ὅμοια δέχονται. ἀνδρὶ <δέ> τινι ἐντυγχάνω σοφίας πάσης εἰδήμονι· οὐδὲ γὰρ τόδε μὲν ᾔδει καὶ τόδε, τόδε δὲ οὔ,
οὐδ' ὥσπερ ἑνὶ ποδὶ τὴν λογικὴν τρίβον ἐβάδιζεν, ἀλλ' ἄρτιος ἐν πᾶσι καὶ διὰ πάντων ἐφαίνετο καὶ οἶδε κάλλιον ἅπαντα ἤπερ
ἓν οἱ πολλοί· ὁ μὲν γὰρ θάτερον τῶν μερῶν εἰδώς, θάτερον δὲ ἀγνοῶν (ἵνα τι καὶ περιττολογήσω, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀληθεύσω) οὐκ ἂν εἴη
πάντως σοφός, ἀλλ' ὡς φυσικὸς τὴν οὐσίαν μὲν ἴσως τοῦ ὑποκειμένου γνώσεται, ἀγνοήσει δὲ τὸ σχῆμα καὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς τῆς ὑπάρξεως
καὶ οὐδ' ὑπεραναβαίη τὰ σώματα. εἰ δέ τις ἀριθμητικὴν μετίοι τῶν ἄλλων κατολιγωρήσας, οὐ τὴν ἀκριβῆ μεσότητα τῶν ἀνα λογιῶν
γνώσεται οὐδὲ τοὺς ἀριθμοὺς εἰς ἐπίπεδα καὶ στερεὰ θέμενος ὅποι ταῦτα κυριώνυμα πέφυκε γνοίη ἄν ποτε· οὕτω δὲ καὶ ὁ γεωμέτρης
καὶ ὁ μουσικὸς καὶ ὁ περὶ τὰ σχήματα τῶν ἄστρων ἐσπουδακὼς καὶ ὁ τὴν ἠθικὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἐξακριβούμενος· ὁ δέ γε κατοπτρικὸς
καὶ μηχανι κός, ἢ ὅστις ἕτερος ὑπὸ τὰ τέσσερα τελοίη μαθήματα, πολλοῦ γε δεήσει γνῶναι τὰ ὑποκείμενα μὴ χρησάμενος εἰς ἀπόδειξιν
ταῖς ὑπερκειμέναις ἀρχαῖς. ὁ δὲ ἀνὴρ οὗτος, ἐστὶ δὲ ὁ δεῖνα, διὰ πάσης τρίβου βεβάδικεν, ὡς αὐτὸς ἐξανιχνεύσας τηνικαῦτα τοῦτον
διέγνωκα. εὐθὺς γὰρ στωμυλευόμε νον θεασάμενος καὶ κάλλιον μᾶλλον τὰ προστυχόντα διερμηνεύοντα καὶ τὴν λέξιν εἰς ὕψος ἀνάγοντα
καὶ μεγεθύνοντα τὰ νοήματα ἢ ταῦτα ξυγγράφοντες ἕτεροι, ἀνέστηκα τῇ ψυχῇ καὶ φιλοσόφους ἐρωτήσεις ἐπῆγον καὶ τῶν ὑψηλοτέρων
λεληθότως ἡπτόμην καὶ πάντοθεν κατέτρεχον τοῦ ἀνδρός, ποῖαι, λέγων, αἱ τοῦ ὄντος ἀρχαί, τίνες αἱ τῶν πρώτων προτάσεων καὶ
τῶν λεγομένων ἀμέσων ἀξιωμάτων, ποία ἡ τῆς νοητῆς οὐσίας διαίρεσις, καὶ πῶς τὸ μὲν αὐτῆς οὐσιῶδες, τὸ δὲ νοερόν, τὸ δὲ φανταστόν,
τὸ δὲ δοξαστόν, καὶ εἰ ὁρίζεται πάντα, εἰ ἀποδεικνύεται, εἰ διαιρεῖται, εἰ ἀναλύεται, καὶ πῶς τὰ μέρη σύμπαντα τοῦ παντὸς
ὁμονοεῖ πρὸς ἄλληλα κατὰ
