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
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 as linear right away and having likened the earth to a cube, water to the icosahedron, air to the octahedron, and the pyramid to fire, and the dodecahedron to the ethereal world or, as some say, to the whole, then, as if forgetting, describes all their wholes as spherical; and they brought forward other things more difficult to grasp than these. But what the many say when contending with some and boasting about something, this indeed I saw in his case; for he knew everything better than each one knows his own name. But let these things be put aside. While we were still conversing, a certain other person, having interrupted the gathering, turned the focus back to the man under discussion, and after a few words a certain bishop took up the dialogue (the people are accustomed to call him Taurinus, but I am silent about the reason now); for some of those present there said, "Great indeed is this solitary man, but the fame of this other has reached the ears of all." We, at any rate, were contending against this and we insisted, "not even whoever he might be will be found to surpass this man; for there is something better than the good, but what ever will appear greater than this man?" The argument, then, was at first disputed, giving many points and counterpoints and admitting of no resolution from any side; for I had not yet heard of the man, but those who had experience of him fought back strongly. For the time being, at any rate, the prizes were then awarded to both (for in doubtful cases, he says, one must incline toward what is humane), and having learned to be defeated gracefully, we said nothing more in opposition except that with these men present no one else would have a chance to read. And indeed between white and black many colors might make a bold appearance, grey, red, all the others, and between health and sickness the neutral state among physicians would acquire a place (for they say that recoveries from sickness are neither health nor do they function as things of healthy people), but between these two men none of the others would desert to the other side nor will ever be able to raise his voice. But here too I leave out the greater part. On the following day, at any rate (I mean the Preparation day after this), I heard him reading; for the word went out to everyone that the bishop had taken up the reading. Having arrived, therefore, I put my suppositions to shame and being present with the one who was present I annulled my previous assumption. For the old man was indistinct in his voice and similar to an all-devouring crow, and in some parts (but let no one blame me for this, lest he perhaps call me a reviler and a scoffer) he did not even preserve the train of thought, but rather went off on a tangent in some places, if he found something better to add; and so that I may not describe the man's bad and most unfitting character, he differed from the former as much as universals from particulars, and eternal things from perishable ones, and knowledge from perception. But if some resist, saying that matters of judgment are not so and that we have not known the man accurately, let them talk as much nonsense as they wish; for among the uneducated, boldness is on the right, while cowardice has been allotted the left-hand portion; but if it is because this man is the first reader and was held in high esteem by many, yet also when light is not present, a shadow is much desired; and let what is said perhaps be granted and let the account speak freely. But Greece also once flourished, as we hear, but the Macedonians took away all its strength; and the affairs of the Persians were prosperous, but a single day overthrew that great kingdom; Egypt once breathed splendidly, but its prosperity passed by like a cloud. What wonder is it then if, when he was formerly successful, another has now taken up his success? I, therefore, admire this most about the man, that being such a person and possessing so many gifts as to almost surpass all mortals, he never said anything boastful nor
συμπάθειαν ἄρρητον καὶ αὖθις ἀντιπαθεῖ ὡς ἑνὸς ζῴου τοῦ κόσμου τυγχάνοντος, καὶ πῶς ὁ Πλάτων εὐθὺς γραμμικὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα θέμενος
καὶ τὴν γῆν κύβῳ εἰκάσας, τὸ δὲ ὕδωρ τῷ εἰκοσαέδρῳ, τὸν δὲ ἀέρα τῷ ὀκταέδρῳ, καὶ τὴν πυραμίδα μὲν τῷ πυρί, τὸ δὲ δωδεκάεδ
ρον τῷ αἰθερίῳ κόσμῳ ἤ, ὡς ἔνιοί φασι, τῷ παντί, εἶτα ὥσπερ ἐπιλαθόμενος σφαιρικὰς ξυμπάσας τὰς ὁλότητας αὐτῶν ἀναγράφεται·
καὶ ἄλλα τούτων δυσληπτότερα προσεπέφερον. ἀλλ' ὅ φασιν οἱ πολλοὶ πρὸς ἐνίους διαφερό μενοι καὶ περί τινος ἐγκαυχώμενοι, τοῦτο
δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπ' αὐτοῦ ἑώρων· κάλλιον γὰρ ἐγίνωσκεν ἅπαντα ἢ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἕκαστος ὄνομα. ἀλλ' ἀφείσθω ταῦτα. Ἔτι γοῦν συνομιλούντων
ἡμῶν ἕτερός τις διακόψας τὸν σύλλογον ἐπὶ τὸν προκείμενον ἄνδρα τὸν σκοπὸν ἐπανέστρεψε, καὶ μετ' ἐνίους τῶν λόγων ἐπίσκοπός
τις διεδέξατο τὸν διάλογον (Ταυρηνὸν τοῦτον ὁ δῆμος οἶδε καλεῖν, τὴν αἰτίαν δὲ σιγῶ νῦν)· ἔνιοι γὰρ τῶν παρεστώτων ἐκεῖ «μέγας
μέν», ἔφασαν, «καὶ ὁ μονάζων οὗτος ἀνήρ, ἀλλ' ἡ τούτου φήμη τὰς πάντων κατέλαβεν ἀκοάς». ἡμεῖς γοῦν πρὸς τοῦτο διεμαχόμεθα
καὶ «οὐδ' ἂν ὅστις καὶ εἴη», διανιστάμεθα, «ὁ τοῦτον ὑπερβαλλόμενος εὑρεθή σεται· ἔστι μὲν γὰρ καὶ τοῦ καλοῦ κάλλιον, ἀλλὰ
τούτου τί ποτε κρεῖττον ἀναφανήσεται;» ἦν μὲν οὖν ὁ λόγος ἀμφιβαλλόμενος πρότερον καὶ πολλὰς διδοὺς λαβὰς καὶ ἀντιλαβὰς καὶ
μηδαμόθεν πῆξιν δεχόμενος· ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οὔπω τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἤμην ἀκηκοώς, ἀλλ' οἱ πεῖραν εἰληφότες τούτου ἰσχυρῶς ἀπεμάχοντο. τέως
γοῦν ἀμφοτέροις τηνικαῦτα τὰ βραβεῖα διεβραβεύθησαν (ἐν τοῖς ἀμφιβόλοις γάρ, φησί, χρὴ νεύειν πρὸς τὸ φιλάν θρωπον), καὶ καλῶς
ἡττᾶσθαι μαθόντες οὐδέν τι πλέον ἀντείπομεν ἀλλ' ἢ ὡς παρόντων τούτων οὐδεὶς ἄλλος γε χώραν λήψεται πρὸς ἀνάγνωσιν. καὶ μεταξὺ
μὲν λευκοῦ καὶ μέλανος πολλὰ ἂν παρρησιάσαιντο χρώματα, τὸ φαιόν, τὸ ἐρυθρόν, πάντα τἆλλα, καὶ ὑγείας καὶ νόσου τὸ παρὰ τοῖς
ἰατροῖς οὐδέτερον τόπον κτήσαιτο (τὰς γὰρ ἐκ νόσου· ἀναλήψεις οὔτε ὑγείας φασὶν οὗτοι οὔτε τὰ ὑγιαινόντων διενεργούσας), μέσον
δὲ τούτων οὐδεὶς τῶν ἄλλων αὐτομολήσειεν οὐδ' ἆραι στόμα δυνήσεταί ποτε. ἀλλὰ κἀνταῦθα καταλιμπάνω τὰ πλείονα. Τὴν γοῦν ἐπιοῦσαν
ἡμέραν (λέγω δὲ τὴν μετὰ ταύτην παρασκευήν) κἀκείνου ἀναγινώσκοντος ἤκουσα· ἔρρει γὰρ ὁ λόγος πρὸς πάντας ὡς ὁ ἐπίσκοπος τὴν
ἀνάγνωσιν εἴληφε. παραγεγονὼς οὖν τὰς ὑπολήψεις κατῄσχυνα καὶ τῷ παρεστὼς παρεστῶτι τὸ προδραμὸν ἐπανέλυσα. ἄναρθρός τε γὰρ
τὴν φωνὴν ὑπῆρχεν ὁ γέρων καὶ κορώνῃ παμφάγῳ παρόμοιος, ἔν τισι δέ (ἀλλὰ μηδείς μοι κἀν τούτῳ μέμψοιτο μὴ λοίδορον ἴσως καλέσοι
καὶ φιλοσκώμμονα) οὐδὲ τὸν εἱρμὸν τῶν λόγων διέσῳζεν, ἀλλ' ἐπλαγίαζε μᾶλλον ἐνιαχοῦ, εἴ τι κάλλιον προσεξεύρισκε· καὶ ἵνα
μὴ τὸν ἄνδρα χαρακτηρίζω τὸν κακὸν χαρακτῆρα καὶ ἀτοπώτατον, τοσοῦτον διήλλαττε τοῦ προτέρου ὅσῳ καὶ τὰ καθόλου τῶν μερικῶν
καὶ τὰ ἀίδια τῶν φθαρτῶν καὶ ἡ ἐπιστήμη τῆς αἰσθήσεως. εἰ δέ τινες ἀνθίστανται λέγοντες ὡς οὐχ οὕτως ἐστὶ τὰ τῆς κρίσεως οὐδ'
ἀκριβῶς τὸν ἄνδρα ἐγνώκαμεν, ληρείτωσαν ὅσα βούλονται· παρὰ γὰρ τοῖς ἀπαιδεύτοις καὶ τὸ θράσος μὲν δεξιόν, ἡ δειλία δὲ τὴν
λαιὰν μερίδα λελάχηκεν· εἰ δ' ὅτι πρῶτος οὗτος ἀναγνώστης ἐστὶ καὶ πολὺν ἔσχε λόγον παρὰ πολλοῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ φωτὸς μὴ παρόντος
ἡ σκιὰ περιπόθητον· δεδόσθω δ' ἴσως καὶ τὸ λεγόμενον καὶ παρρησίαν ὁ λόγος ἐχέτω. ἀλλ' ἤκμασέ ποτε καὶ ἡ Ἑλλάς, ὡς ἀκούομεν,
Μακεδόνες δ' αὐτῆς τὴν πᾶσαν ἰσχὺν ἀφείλαντο· καὶ τὰ Περσῶν εὐτυχῶς εἶχεν, ἀλλὰ μία ἡμέρα τὴν πολλὴν ἐκείνην βασιλείαν καθεῖλεν·
ἔπνευσέ ποτε λαμπρὸν ἡ Αἴγυπτος, ἀλλ' ὡς νέφος αὐτῆς ἡ εὐπραγία παρῆλθε. τί γοῦν θαυμαστὸν εἰ κἀκείνου πρότερον εὐτυχοῦντος
νῦν ἄλλος τὴν εὐτυχίαν ἀνέλαβεν; Ἔγωγ' οὖν κἀκεῖνο θαυμάζω τοῦ ἀνδρὸς μάλιστα ὅτι τοιοῦτος ὢν καὶ τοσαῦτα κεκτημένος τὰ χαρίσματα,
ὡς μικροῦ καὶ πάντας ὑπεραίρειν βροτούς, οὐδέποτέ τι κομπαστικὸν ἔφησεν οὐδὲ
