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De laudibus Constantini

Prologue to the Praises of Constantine. Pro.1 But it is not I who have come, having fashioned myths or traps for the ear with eloquence of words, to charm ears with a Siren's voice, nor in golden goblets, with beautiful flowers of rhetoric in finely adorned phrasing, will I offer potions of pleasure to the friends of these things, but obeying the wise, I advise to flee and turn aside from the public roads, and I exhort not to be jostled by the crowd. Pro.2 I have come indeed to begin among you a newer song of royal hymns. And while countless others hasten on the same path as I, I myself, avoiding the beaten track of men, will walk the untrodden way, which it is not lawful to tread with unwashed feet. The vulgar sort, pursuing discourses trodden by the sophistries of youths and embracing a sweet and common Muse, may charm mortal ears with mortal narratives, having surrendered their judgment to pleasure; but the initiates of universal wisdom itself, being skilled in the knowledge of things both divine and human, having placed the choice of the better part in the lot of the good, both preferred and chose the divinely-fitting virtues and God-loving deeds of the emperor himself over human things, yielding to others to celebrate in song the second-best of excellent things. Pro.3 For since there is wisdom of both divine and human things in the soul of the emperor, and some pertain to God and others to men, let those who stand outside the sacred precincts—they who are indeed fit for such things—minister to human affairs, which are august nonetheless and extraordinary and beneficial to life; for all things of the emperor are good, though still falling short of the more divine things. Pro.4 But let those who have passed within the holy palaces, into the innermost sanctuaries and inaccessible places, having closed the doors to profane ears, relate the emperor's secret initiations to their own initiates alone, and let these, having cleansed their ears with the streams of piety and supported their intellect on the soaring wing of the soul itself, dance around the King of all, celebrating the divine rites in silence. Pro.5 And let the oracles of the sacred words, spoken not from divination or rather the madness of a deranged man but by the inspirations of one possessed by God, be our teachers of the rites concerning kingship itself, and concerning the King Most High, and the divine escort surrounding the King of all, and concerning our own royal paradigm and the one whose image is debased, and the company that attends each one. By which things indeed, celebrating the divinely-fitting rites as hierophants, we shall in this way touch upon the divine mysteries. 1.1 This is a festival of a great king. Let us, the royal children, rejoice in it, divinely inspired by the teachings of sacred words, and the great king leads our festival. And I call him a great king who is truly great; and this one I say is—and the emperor who is present will not be indignant, but will even join in applauding the theology—the one beyond all things, the highest of all, the most supreme, the exceedingly great, whose thrones of his kingdom are the celestial arches, and the earth is the footstool of his feet. .. if anyone could conceive of him worthily, but light flashing around him with the ineffable glimmers of its rays bars the sight of his divinity from everyone. 1.2 Heavenly armies patrol around him, and super-cosmic powers attend him as bodyguards, acknowledging their own master and lord and king, and infinite multitudes of angels and companies of archangels and choirs of holy spirits are illumined, drawing as it were from ever-flowing fountains of light from the splendors around him. And all the lights and the divine and intellectual races of incorporeal lights which have been allotted the region beyond heaven, the great king with the highest and divinely fitting

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De laudibus Constantini

Πρόλογος τῶν εἰς Κωνσταντῖνον ἐπαίνων. Pro.1 Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐγὼ μύθους, οὐκ ἀκοῆς θήρατρα, λόγων εὐγλωττίαν πλασάμενος πάρειμι κηλήσων ὦτα φωνῇ Σειρήνων, οὐδὲ χρυσέοις δεπάεσσιν, ὡραίοις ἄνθεσι ῥημάτων φράσει κεκαλλιεπημένοις, ἡδονῆς φάρμακα τοῖς τῶνδε προπιοῦμαι φίλοις, σοφοῖς δὲ πειθόμενος παραγγέλλω τὰς λεωφόρους φεύγειν καὶ ἐκτρέπεσθαι, μηδὲ τῷ πλήθει συνωθεῖσθαι διακελεύομαι. Pro.2 ἥκω δὴ βασιλικῶν ὕμνων καινοτέρας ᾠδῆς ἐν ὑμῖν ἀπαρξόμενος. μυρίων δ' ἀμφὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐμοὶ σπευδόντων πορείαν, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων αὐτὸς τὴν ἀτριβῆ βαδιοῦμαι, ἧς οὐ θέμις ἀνίπτοις ἐπιβαίνειν ποσίν. οἱ μέν γε δημώδεις μειρακίων τε σοφίσμασι πεπατημένους μετιόντες λόγους μοῦσάν τε ἡδεῖαν καὶ πάνδημον ἀσπαζόμενοι θνητὰς ἀκοὰς θνητοῖς διηγήμασι θελγόντων, ἡδονῇ τὸ κριτήριον ἀποδόντες· οἱ δ' αὐτῆς μύσται τῆς καθόλου σοφίας, θείων ἐπιστήμης ἅτε καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων ἐπήβολοι, τὴν τοῦ κρείττονος ἐκλογὴν ἐν ἀγαθοῦ μοίρᾳ θέμενοι τὰς αὐτοῦ βασιλέως θεοπρεπεῖς ἀρετὰς φιλοθέους τε πράξεις τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων προὐτίμησάν τε καὶ εἵλοντο, δευτέροις ἀνυμνεῖν τὰ δεύτερα τῶν καλῶν παραχωρήσαντες. Pro.3 θείων γάρ τοι καὶ ἀνθρωπείων σοφίας οὔσης καὶ ἐν βασιλέως ψυχῇ, καὶ τῶν μὲν εἰς θεὸν τῶν δ' εἰς ἀνθρώπους τεινόντων, τοῖς μὲν ἐκτὸς περιβόλων ἱερῶν ἑστῶσιν οἵπερ δὴ ἐπιτήδειοι τὰ ἀνθρώπεια διακονείσθων, σεμνὰ μὲν ὅμως καὶ ὑπερφυῆ βιωφελῆ τε καὶ ταῦτα· πάντα γὰρ τὰ βασιλέως καλά, πλὴν ἔτι λειπόμενα τῶν θειοτέρων. Pro.4 οἱ δ' ἀνακτόρων ἁγίων εἴσω ἀδύτων τε καὶ ἀβάτων μυχῶν ἐντὸς διαβεβηκότες, θύρας βεβήλοις ἀκοαῖς ἀποκλείσαντες, τὰς ἀπορρήτους βασιλέως μυήσεις τοῖς τούτων μύσταις διηγείσθων μόνοις, οἱ δὲ τὰ ὦτα νάμασιν εὐσεβείας καθηράμενοι ψυχῆς τε αὐτῆς μεταρσίῳ πτερῷ τὸ νοερὸν ἐπερείσαντες ἀμφὶ τὸν πάντων βασιλέα χορευόντων, σιγῇ τὰ θεῖα τελούμενοι. Pro.5 λογίων δὲ χρησμοί, οὐκ ἐκ μαντείας μᾶλλον δὲ μανίας παράφρονος φωτὸς δ' ἐπιπνοίαις ἐνθέου προσπεφωνημένοι, τῶν τελετῶν ἡμῖν γενέσθωσαν διδάσκαλοι ἀμφὶ βασιλείας αὐτῆς ἀμφί τε βασιλέως τοῦ ἀνωτάτω δορυφορίας τε θείας ἀμφὶ τὸν πάντων βασιλέα τοῦ τε καθ' ἡμᾶς βασιλικοῦ παραδείγματος καὶ τοῦ τὸ χάραγμα κεκιβδηλευμένου τῶν θ' ἑκατέρῳ συνομαρτούντων τάγματι. οἷς δὴ τὰς θεοπρεπεῖς τελετὰς ἱεροφαντούμενοι ὧδέ πη θείων ὀργίων ἐφαψόμεθα. 1.1 Πανήγυρις μὲν αὕτη βασιλέως μεγάλου. χαίρωμεν δ' ἐν αὐτῇ θειάζοντες λόγων ἱερῶν παιδεύμασιν οἱ βασιλικοὶ παῖδες, ἐξάρχει δ' ἡμῖν τῆς ἑορτῆς ὁ μέγας βασιλεύς. μέγαν δ' ἐγὼ βασιλέα καλῶ τὸν ἀληθῶς μέγαν· τοῦτον δ' εἶναί φημι οὐ νεμεσσήσει δὲ παρὼν βασιλεύς, ἀλλὰ καὶ συνευφημήσει τῇ θεολογίᾳ τὸν ἐπέκεινα τῶν ὅλων, τὸν πάντων ἀνώτατον, τὸν ὑπέρτατον, τὸν ὑπερμεγέθη, οὗ θρόνοι μὲν τῆς βασιλείας ἁψῖδες οὐράνιοι, γῆ δ' ὑποπόδιον αὐτοῦ τῶν ποδῶν. .. εἴ τις ἐπαξίως νοῆσαι τοῦτον δύναιτο, φῶς δ' ἀμφ' αὐτὸν ἀπαστράπτον ἀρρήτοις ἀκτίνων μαρμαρυγαῖς παντί τῳ τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος ἀπείργει τὴν θέαν. 1.2 τοῦτον στρατιαὶ περιπολοῦσιν οὐράνιοι, δορυφοροῦσι δ' ὑπερκόσμιοι δυνάμεις, τὸν αὐτῶν δεσπότην καὶ κύριον καὶ βασιλέα γνωρίζουσαι, ἀγγέλων τε ἄπειρα πλήθη θίασοί τε ἀρχαγγέλων καὶ πνευμάτων ἁγίων χοροὶ τῶν ἀμφ' αὐτὸν μαρμαρυγῶν ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀενάων φωτὸς πηγῶν ἀρυτόμενοι καταυγάζονται. φῶτά τε πάντα καὶ φώτων ἀσωμάτων θεῖα καὶ νοερὰ γένη τὸν ἐπέκεινα χῶρον οὐρανοῦ λαχόντα τὸν μέγαν βασιλέα τοῖς ἀνωτάτω καὶ θεοπρεπέσιν