VI.  Now since your antecedents are such, I should be glad if you too will tell me of my crimes, that I may either amend my life or be put to shame.  My greatest wish is that I may be found free from wrong altogether; but if this may not be, at least to be converted from my crime; for this is the second best portion of the prudent.  For if like the just man I do not become my own accuser in the first instance,16    Prov. xviii. 17. yet at any rate I gladly receive healing from another.  “Your City, you say to me, is a little one, or rather is no city at all, but only a village, arid, without beauty, and with few inhabitants.”  But, my good friend, this is my misfortune, rather than my fault;—if indeed it be a misfortune; and if it is against my will, I am to be pitied for my bad luck, if I may put it so; but if it be willingly, I am a philosopher.  Which of these is a crime?  Would anyone abuse a dolphin for not being a land animal, or an ox because it is not aquatic, or a lamprey because it is amphibious?  But we, you go on, have walls and theatres and racecourses and palaces, and beautiful great Porticoes, and that marvellous work the underground and overhead river,17    Valens had constructed an Aqueduct, partly subterranean, partly raised on arches, for the supply of water to the Capital. and the splendid and admired column,18    A magnificent column on which stood an equestrian statue of Constantine the Great. and the crowded marketplace and a restless people, and a famous senate of highborn men.

#2ʹ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τοιαῦτα τὰ σὰ, καὶ οὕτως ἔχοντα, λέγε μοι καὶ τὰς ἐμὰς ἀδικίας, ἵν' ἢ παύσωμαι κακὸς ὢν, ἢ αἰσχύνωμαι. Ὡς ἔγωγε μάλιστα μὲν εὔχομαι μηδὲν ἁμαρτεῖν: εἰ δ' οὖν, καὶ ἀδικῶν ἐπανάγεσθαι: δευτέρα μερὶς αὕτη τῶν εὖ φρονούντων. Καὶ γὰρ εἰ μὴ κατήγορος ἐμαυτοῦ κατὰ τὸν δίκαιον ἐν πρωτολογίᾳ γίνομαι, χαίρω γε ὑπ' ἄλλου θεραπευόμενος. Μικρά σοι, φησὶν, ἡ πόλις, καὶ οὐδὲ πόλις, ἀλλὰ χωρίον ξηρὸν, καὶ ἄχαρι, καὶ ὀλίγοις οἰκούμενον. Τοῦτο πέπονθα μᾶλλον, ὦ βέλτιστε, ἢ πεποίηκα, εἴπερ ἔστι δεινόν: καὶ εἰ μὲν ἄκων, ἀνέχομαι δυστυχῶν (λεγέσθω γὰρ οὕτως): εἰ δὲ ἑκὼν, φιλοσοφῶ. Πότερον τούτων ἔγκλημα; Εἰ μὴ καὶ τὸν δελφῖνα κακίζοιτό τις, ὅτι μὴ χερσαῖος: καὶ τὸν βοῦν, ὅτι μὴ πελάγιος: καὶ τὴν μύραιναν, ὅτι ἀμφίβιος. Ἡμῖν δὲ, φησὶ, τείχη καὶ θέατρα, καὶ ἱππικὰ, καὶ βασίλεια, καὶ κάλλη στοῶν καὶ μεγέθη, καὶ τὸ ἄπιστον τοῦτο ἔργον, ὁ ὑποχθόνιος καὶ ἀέριος ποταμὸς, καὶ ὁ λαμπρὸς στύλος οὑτοσὶ καὶ ἀπόβλεπτος, καὶ ἀγορὰ πλήθουσα, καὶ δῆμος κυμαίνων, καὶ ἀνδρῶν εὐγενῶν συνέδριον ἐπαινούμενον.