223

BATTLE I think it necessary first of all to begin from the top, from the first foundation of the philosophers among the Greeks, and to learn about those called physical philosophers who came before Plato, who they were and what sort of leaders of reason their philosophy happened to have, then to pass on to the succession of Plato and who these men were, and to examine their verbal battles with each other, and also to survey the disagreements of the other schools and the oppositions of their opinions, in which I shall show the noble men boxing and contentiously wrangling, as if 14.2.2 on a stage for the spectators. For instance, let us at once see how Plato mocked his predecessors, and how others mocked Plato’s own circle and successors, and again, how Plato’s companions refuted the clever subtleties of Aristotle’s great intellect, and how those who prided themselves on Aristotle and the Peripatos showed that the opinions of those who advocate the opposite 14.2.3 were nothing. And you will see the clever and precise subtleties of the Stoics in turn ridiculed by others, and everyone from every side covered in dust against their neighbors and engaging most manfully in battle and wrestling, so that they now fortify the war against each other with hands and tongue, or rather with pen and ink, all but striking 14.2.4 and being struck with the spears and panoplies of words. And the stadium in this athletic contest will contain for us, in addition to those mentioned, stripped of all truth, those who have taken up arms against all the dogmatic philosophers at once: I mean those around Pyrrho, who declared that nothing is comprehensible among men, and those of Aristippus’ school, who say that only the passions are comprehensible, and again, those of Metrodorus’ and Protagoras’ school, who assert that one must trust only the senses of the body. 14.2.5 But in opposition to these we shall strip for the contest those around Xenophanes and Parmenides, who drew up in opposition and abolished the senses. 14.2.6 Nor shall we pass over the champions of pleasure, but we shall also count Epicurus, the chief of these, along with those mentioned. And against all of them together we shall set up the refutation against them with their own arrows. 14.2.7 And I shall bring to light the disagreements of the doctrines and the useless learning of the zeal of all the so-called physical philosophers together, not at all because I am a hater of Greeks or a hater of reason, far from it, but clearing myself of the charge of slander, that having laid very little claim to Greek wisdom we have preferred the oracles of the Hebrews.

14.3.1 3. CONCERNING THE AGREEMENT OF THE HEBREWS The Hebrews, for their part, having from above, from a long age and from the very first generation of man, so to speak, investigated the true and pious philosophy, have preserved it uncorrupted also for those who came after, as a child from a father receiving and guarding a treasure of true words, so that no one dared either to add 14.3.2 to or take away from what had been once for all decided. Neither, then, the all-wise Moses, who was shown in the preceding books to be the most ancient of all the Greeks, and the last in age of the Hebrews who lived before him, contemplated moving or changing anything of the opinions of his forefathers concerning dogmatic theology, except so far as to establish for the people under him a way of life suited to them, and a legislation of a certain intermediate polity, 14.3.3

223

ΜΑΧΗΣ Ἡγοῦμαι δὲ δεῖν πρώτιστα πάντων ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης καταβολῆς τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι φιλοσόφων ἀπάρξασθαι καὶ τοὺς πρόσθεν ἢ Πλάτωνα γενέσθαι φυσικοὺς ἐπικληθέντας φιλοσόφους καταμαθεῖν, τίνες ποτὲ γεγόνασι καὶ ὁποίων ἔτυχεν ἡ κατ' αὐτοὺς φιλοσοφία προστατῶν τοῦ λόγου, εἶτ' ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Πλάτωνος παρελθεῖν διαδοχὴν καὶ τίνες ποτ' ἦσαν καὶ οἵδε τάς τε πρὸς ἀλλήλους λογομαχίας αὐτῶν ἐπισκέψασθαι, ἐπιθεωρῆσαι δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων αἱρέσεων τὰς διαστάσεις τῶν τε δοξῶν τὰς ἀντικαταστάσεις, ἐν αἷς πυκτεύοντας τοὺς γενναίους καὶ φιλοτίμως διαπληκτιζομένους ὥσπερ 14.2.2 ἐπὶ σκηνῆς τοῖς θεαταῖς παραδείξω. αὐτίκα γοῦν μάλα θεασώμεθα ὅπως μὲν ὁ Πλάτων τοὺς αὐτοῦ πρώτους ἔσκωπτεν, ὅπως δὲ τοὺς Πλάτωνος οἰκείους τε καὶ διαδόχους ἄλλοι καὶ αὖ πάλιν ὅπως οἱ Πλάτωνος ἑταῖροι τὰ σοφὰ τῆς Ἀριστοτέλους πολυνοίας ἀπήλεγχον ὅπως θ' οἱ τὸν Ἀριστοτέλην καὶ τὸν Περίπατον αὐχοῦντες τὰ δοκοῦντα τοῖς τὴν ἐναντίαν πρε14.2.3 σβεύουσι τὸ μηθὲν ὄντα παρίστων. καὶ τὰ δεινὰ δὲ καὶ ἀκριβῆ τῆς τῶν Στωϊκῶν λεπτολογίας ὑφ' ἑτέρων αὖ πάλιν ὄψει καταγελώμενα πάντας τε πανταχόθεν κατὰ τῶν πέλας κονιομένους καὶ μάχην καὶ πάλην ἀνδρικώτατα συνισταμένους, ὡς διὰ χειρῶν ἤδη καὶ γλώττης ἢ μᾶλλον διὰ καλάμου καὶ μέλανος τὸν κατὰ ἀλλήλων αὐτοὺς πόλεμον ἐπιτειχίζεσθαι, μονονουχὶ βάλ14.2.4 λοντας καὶ βαλλομένους τοῖς διὰ λόγων δόρασί τε καὶ παντευχίαις. περιέξει δ' ἡμῖν τὸ στάδιον ἐν τῷ γυμνικῷ τῷδε ἀγῶνι γυμνοὺς ἀληθείας ἁπάσης πρὸς τοῖς δηλωθεῖσι καὶ τοὺς πᾶσιν ὁμοῦ τοῖς δογματικοῖς φιλοσόφοις ἐξ ἐναντίας ἀραμένους τὰ ὅπλα, τοὺς ἀμφὶ Πύρρωνα λέγω, μηδὲν εἶναι καταληπτὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἀποφηναμένους, καὶ τούς τε κατ' Ἀρίστιππον μόνα λέγοντας τὰ πάθη εἶναι καταληπτὰ καὶ αὖ πάλιν τοὺς κατὰ Μητρόδωρον καὶ Πρωταγόραν μόναις δεῖν φάσκοντας ταῖς τοῦ σώματος πιστεύειν 14.2.5 αἰσθήσεσιν. ἔμπαλιν δὲ τούτοις συναποδύσομεν τοὺς ἀμφὶ Ξενοφάνην καὶ Παρμενίδην τὴν ἐναντίαν παραταξαμένους καὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἀνελόν14.2.6 τας. οὐ παρήσομεν δὲ οὐδὲ τοὺς τῆς ἡδονῆς προμάχους, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων τὸν ἀριστέα Ἐπίκουρον σὺν τοῖς εἰρημένοις καταλέξομεν. πρὸς ἅπαντας δὲ ὁμοῦ τοῖς σφετέροις αὐτῶν βέλεσι τὸν κατ' αὐτῶν ἀντιθήσομεν 14.2.7 ἔλεγχον. καὶ τῶν ἐπίκλην δὲ φυσικῶν ἁπάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν τε δογμάτων τὰς διαφωνίας καὶ τῆς σπουδῆς τὴν ἀχρηστομάθειαν εἰς φανερὸν οἴσω, οὔ τί που μισέλλην οὐδὲ μισόλογος τις ὤν πολλοῦ γε δέω, διαβολῆς δ' αἰτίαν ἀπολυόμενος, ὅτι δὴ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς ἥκιστα σοφίας μεταποιηθέντες τὰ Ἑβραίων λόγια προτετιμήκαμεν.

14.3.1 γʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΚΑΘ' ΕΒΡΑΙΟΥΣ ΣΥΜΦΩΝΙΑΣ Οἱ μέν γε Ἑβραῖοι ἄνωθεν ἐξ αἰῶνος μακροῦ καὶ αὐτῆς, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, ἀπὸ πρώτης ἀνθρωπογονίας τὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ εὐσεβῆ φιλοσοφίαν ἀνηρευνηκότες, ἀκήρατον καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς μετέπειτα ταύτην διατετηρήκασι, παῖς παρὰ πατρὸς θησαυρὸν λόγων ἀληθῶν ὑποδεξάμενοί τε καὶ φυλάξαντες, ὡς μήτ' ἐπιθεῖναι 14.3.2 μήτ' ἀφελεῖν τινα τοῖς ἅπαξ κεκριμένοις τολμῆσαι. οὔτ' οὖν ὁ πάνσοφος Μωσῆς, πάντων μὲν Ἑλλήνων πρεσβύτατος ἀποφανθεὶς διὰ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν, πάντων δὲ ὕστατος τὴν ἡλικίαν τῶν πρὶν Ἑβραίων γεγονώς, κινῆσαί τι καὶ μεταθεῖναι τῶν τοῖς προπάτορσι δοξάντων τῆς δογματικῆς πέρι θεολογίας διανενόηται, πλὴν ὅσον τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτὸν ἀνθρώποις ἀγωγῆς βίου καταλλήλου τρόπον καί τινος μέσης πολιτείας νομοθεσίαν καταβαλέσθαι, 14.3.3