I praised the reasonable course of advancing to imperial rule, and that such is the order: action, then indeed contemplation, and the practical man first, then the theoretical, and of those who have reigned, the most and the best were elevated from the rank of Caesar to the imperial rule. 7.29 But when some replied to my speech, that this ascent is that of a private citizen, but this man had already been allotted to rule; “But he has not yet reigned,” I answered immediately, “and if you are not too burdensome with your objections, not even a praiseworthy name is suited to his position according to you;” for I was afraid to speak of the tyranny by name; then indeed, taking up the argument: “And you will cast off,” I had said, “even the title, and you will reign in a better fashion.” And when I also brought up the adoption promised by the emperor: “But how,” they said, “will the son of an emperor be deprived of power?” - “Yes,” I say, “for thus have the better emperors acted, even concerning their own legitimate children.” And immediately I remembered the divine Constantine and certain other emperors who had first honored their sons as Caesars, and then indeed elevated them to the imperial dignity, and so concluding my argument, I made the comparison in a more argumentative style: “And they treated those from their own loins thus, but this one is adopted;” and omitting the name from my speech, I left the sentence hanging. 7.30 But they had understood, and they enumerated many reasons for the commotion (for so they euphemistically put it); and I, not immediately objecting to their words, but as if agreeing with them and increasing the misfortunes for them: “For I know these things,” I had said, “and often on account of these things my heart has been torn apart, and your anger is just,” I said, “and your despondency at what you have suffered.” So then, having thus smoothed over their opinions, I immediately attacked them obliquely, saying that those things were terrible, but not sufficient for tyranny, nor does anything else at all have a defense for this; “But if you yourself, when ruling,” I added, shifting the argument to the emperor, “should become most wrathful, and if we should wish this man to be first of the senatorial or military order, and then he, having taken on conspirators and accomplices of his ill will, should enact some plot against your power, setting forth in opposition all that he had suffered and how he had been dishonored, would the counter-argument seem sufficient to you for the plot?” And when he said no; “But you,” I said, “were not even dishonored, except insofar as you failed to obtain what you had planned. But as for the terrible things you say you have suffered, they have other culprits, not the present emperor.” And when he was silenced, for he yielded not so much to plausible speaking, but to hearing more truthful words; “Therefore change,” I added, “your position, and be of a better mind, and care for your father in his old age, so that you may lawfully inherit the scepter.” 7.31 And when I had persuaded him by speaking, and I had added many other things, a voice was raised from behind, which I have not yet shaken from my ears; and the voice was a mixture, with different people ascribing different things to me, some invincible rhetoric, others power of speech, and others strength of arguments; and I for my part replied with words to none of these; but the emperor, silencing them with his hand: “But the man,” he said, “has said nothing that either shows a kind of sorcery or bewitches us; but following the facts, he has related these things in a simple voice; therefore it is not right for the assembly to make a clamor, nor to confuse the dialogue.” He spoke thus, but some of those around him, wanting to shake my soul: “But, O emperor,” they said, “you must save the orator who is about to perish, for the majority have drawn their swords against him and as he goes out they will tear him to pieces.” I smiled on hearing this speech, and: “If I,” I said, “having conveyed an empire to you, and you, having received so great a power

ἐπῄνουν τε τὸ κατὰ λόγον ἐπὶ τὴν βασίλειον ἀρχὴν προχωρεῖν, καὶ ὡς τοιοῦτον ἡ τάξις· πρᾶξις, εἶτα δὴ θεωρία, καὶ ὁ πρακ τικὸς πρότερον, εἶθ' ὁ θεωρητικὸς, καὶ τῶν βασιλευσάντων οἱ πλείους τε καὶ καλλίους ἐκ τῆς τοῦ καίσαρος τάξεως εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν ἀνήχθησαν. 7.29 Ὡς δέ μοι ἔνιοι πρὸς τὸν λόγον ἀπήντησαν, ὡς ἰδιωτικὴ ἡ ἀνάβασις αὕτη, οὗτος δὲ ἤδη βασιλεύειν εἰλήχει· «Ἀλλ' οὔπω βεβασίλευκε, ἀπεκρινάμην εὐθὺς, εἰ δὲ μὴ πάνυ φορτικοὶ τὰς ἀντιθέσεις ἐστὲ, οὐδ' ἐπαινούμενον ὄνομα τῷ καθ' ὑμᾶς προσήρμοσται σχήματι·» ἐδεδίειν γὰρ ὀνομαστὶ εἰρηκέναι τὴν τυραννίδα· εἶτα δὴ ὑπολαβών· Ἀποβαλεῖς δὲ, εἰρήκειν, καὶ τὴν προσηγορίαν, καὶ βασι λεύσεις ἐπὶ κρείττονι σχήματι.» Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐπαγγελ θεῖσαν υἱοθεσίαν παρὰ τοῦ κρατοῦντος ἐπήνεγκα· «Ἀλλὰ πῶς, ἔφασαν, βασιλέως υἱὸς τοῦ κράτους ἀποστερήσεται; - Ναὶ, φημὶ, οὕτω γάρ τε οἱ κρείττους τῶν βασιλέων καὶ περὶ τοὺς γνησίους τῶν παίδων πεπράχασι.» Καὶ αὐτίκα ἐμε μνήμην Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ θείου καί τινων ἑτέρων αὐτοκρα τόρων καίσαρας τὴν πρώτην τοὺς υἱοὺς τετιμηκότων, εἶτα δὴ εἰς τὴν βασίλειον ἀναγαγόντων περιωπὴν, καὶ τὸν λόγον οὕτω συναγαγὼν ἐνθυμηματικώτερον ἐποιούμην τὴν σύγ κρισιν· «Κἀκεῖνοι μὲν τοὺς ἐκ τῶν σπλάγχνων οὕτως δι έθεσαν, οὗτος δὲ εἰσποίητος·» καὶ τὸ ἐπώνυμον τῷ λόγῳ ἀφεὶς ἀπεκρέμασα τὴν περίοδον. 7.30 Οἱ δ' ἐγνώκεισαν, καὶ πολλὰς αἰτίας τῆς συγκι νήσεως, οὕτω γὰρ εὐφήμως εἰρήκασι, διηρίθμησαν· κἀγὼ μὴ εὐθὺς πρὸς τοὺς λόγους ἐνστὰς, ἀλλ' οἷον συντιθέμενος ἐκείνοις καὶ ἐπαυξάνων τούτοις τὰς συμφοράς· «Οἶδα γὰρ ταῦτα, εἰρήκειν, καὶ πολλάκις ἐπὶ τούτοις διεσπάραγμαι τὴν καρδίαν, καὶ δικαία, ἔφησα, ὑμῖν ἡ ὀργὴ καὶ τὸ ἀθυμεῖν ἐφ' οἷς ἐπεπόνθειτε.» Οὕτω γοῦν αὐτοῖς διομαλίσας τὰς γνώμας, εὐθὺς πλαγίως ἐπέσεισα, δεινὰ μὲν ἐκεῖνα φήσας, οὐ μὴν ἀποχρῶντα πρὸς τυραννίδα, ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἄλλο τι τῶν πάντων ἀπολογίαν ἔχει πρὸς τοῦτο· «Εἰ δὲ βασιλεύων αὐτὸς, προσεθέμην πρὸς τὸν κρατοῦντα μεταβιβάσας τὸν λόγον, ἐπιχολώτατος γένοιο, κἂν ἢν βουληθῶμεν τὸν πρῶτον εἶναι τοῦτον τῆς συγκλητικῆς ἢ στρατιωτικῆς τάξεως, εἶτα δὴ ἐκεῖνος συνωμότας προσειληφὼς καὶ τῆς κακονοίας συλλήπτορας, ἐπιβουλήν τινα κατὰ τοῦ σοῦ κράτους δραμα τουργήσειεν, ἀντιτιθεὶς ὁπόσα πεπόνθει καὶ ὅπως ἠτί μαστο, ἆρα ἂν αὐτάρκης πρὸς τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν ἡ ἀντίθεσις δόξῃ σοι;» Ὡς δὲ ἀπέφησεν· «Σὺ δὲ, ἔφην, οὐδὲ ἠτίμασο, εἰ μὴ ὅσον ἀποτετυχήκοις ὧν προβεβούλησαι· ἃ δὲ φὴς δεινὰ πεπονθέναι ἑτέρους ἔχει τοὺς αἰτίους, ἀλλ' οὐ τὸν νῦν βασιλεύοντα.» Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐπεστόμιστο, ἐδίδου γὰρ οὐ το σοῦτον τῷ πιθανῶς λέγειν, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀληθεστέρων λόγων ἀκούειν· «Μετάλλαξαι οὖν, προσεθέμην, τὸ σχῆμα, καὶ γενοῦ τῆς κρείττονος γνώμης, καὶ γηροκόμησον τὸν πατέρα, ἵνα ἐννόμως τοῦ σκήπτρου κληρονομήσῃς.» 7.31 Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐπεπείκειν λέγων, πολλὰ δὲ προσειρή κειν ἕτερα, αἴρεται κατόπιν φωνὴ, ἣν οὐδέπω τῶν ὤτων ἀπεσεισάμην· ἡ δὲ φωνὴ συμμιγὴς, ἄλλων ἄλλο τι προστρι βόντων ἐμοὶ, οἱ μὲν ῥητορείαν ἀνίκητον, οἱ δὲ λόγου δύνα μιν, οἱ δὲ ἐνθυμημάτων ἰσχύν· κἀγὼ μὲν πρὸς οὐδένα τούτων τοῖς λόγοις ἀπήντησα· ὁ δέ γε βασιλεὺς τῇ χειρὶ τούτους κατασιγάσας· «Ἀλλ' οὐδέν τι ὁ ἀνὴρ, ἔφησεν, εἰρήκει, οὔτε οἷον γοητείαν ἐμφαῖνον, οὔτε κατεπᾷδον ἡμῶν· ἑπόμενος δὲ τοῖς πράγμασιν, ἀφελεῖ ταῦτα φωνῇ διηγήσατο· οὐ χρὴ οὖν τὸν σύλλογον θορυβεῖν, οὐδὲ συγχεῖν τὸν διάλογον.» Ὁ μὲν οὕτως, τῶν δὲ περὶ αὐτὸν ἔνιοι δια σεῖσαί μοι βουλόμενοι τὴν ψυχήν· «Ἀλλ' ὦ βασιλεῦ, ἔφα σαν, σὺ δὲ ἀπολούμενον αὐτίκα σῶσον τὸν ῥήτορα, ἐσπά σαντο γὰρ οἱ πλείους ἐπ' αὐτὸν τὸ ξίφος καὶ ἐξιόντα διασπαράξουσιν.» Ἐμειδίασα τοῦτον ἀκούσας τὸν λόγον, καὶ· «Εἰ βασιλείαν, ἔφην, διακομίσας ὑμῖν, δυναστείαν τε ὁπόσην παραλαβόντες