Bellum Avaricum

On the attack that occurred of the barbarians and on their failure their failure}

1 If one of the painters wishes to show the trophies of the battle, let him set forth the one who gave birth without seed alone and paint her image; for she alone knows always how to conquer nature, first by birth and second by battle; for it was necessary for her, just as then she gave birth without seed, so now to bring forth salvation without arms, so that through both she might be found both a virgin and, in battle, as steadfast as in childbirth. But I, having gathered small accounts of the struggles, like roses from the thorns of battle, have profitably chosen to offer them to you, the sower of mind-sown words, so that long time may not wash away the movements of the wonders among us. Already indeed, like base offshoots of Turks, savage branches having been broken off, and having been grafted like shoots onto our most noble places, they have produced fruits in the cultivated plants, nourishing a savage nature. But when at last the root of the branches, having been stretched out, seized the boundaries of the land, and became a forest of many barbarians, the harm was not tolerable to the neighbors, but, just as torches having fallen to the ground, the kindled flame of that race consumed the delightful flower of the places. Nevertheless, the neighboring Ister of the Pontus was barely strong enough to hold back such savagery, like a fluid barrier and a new wall; for the waves rose up as a wall against them, and a standing barrier in a perpetually flowing nature. For a time, then, the stream, by an unwritten decree, dividing them, fixed these boundaries, but how great a harm the state suffered from the lawless barbarians, with them wanting always to shake the fixed boundaries, and the power of the Romans barring their entrances against us. Previously it was written concisely by others by how many things creeping time showed the safe suspicion of those who had gone before; but I, having encountered recent times, personally touch upon the matters, if some divine grace might grant us to provide a garment of skillful proportion to the immeasurability of so many deeds. Scarcely, then, had the irrepressible and life-destroying dragon of tyranny been extinguished, which led many necks to harm, more than that famed Hydra, who to this day sow and, though cut off, grow again—for their ichors, dripping again, bring forth new harm; and this, though many have been cut off many times by our pious Heracles. Nevertheless, the disease, taking this opportunity from our affairs, made many divisions of the parts, and the whole body, stained with its own blood, was consumed by its pains. From there, the barbarians, surrounding us like bees, like gnats, were eager to take every city, but first Anthousa as the first city. As long, then, as the root of the offshoot in the seized places of the Scythians put on the old man's audacity, the City of necessity had a burden, but the grieving thing was, by appearance, defined; for even the weight of harm is lightened if it knows a defined measure in evils; thus, then, we had the ordered weight as long as old age constrained the Scythian. But when the dust lifted up the soil, and he journeyed toward the house of burial, dragging the earth <δ'> he was dragged from it, the branch of the fallen one returned again to the savage life of cruelty; for nature knows how to flow back, like the Euripus, to its own channels, even if someone by force should compel it to make its stream contrary to itself. From here what speech will suffice for us, or sinews of voice, or a ten-tongued mouth through which I might tell of the strangely-sown monster, the irrepressible offspring of the old man, or the thunderbolt, or the living surge, to which a tongue is attached

Bellum Avaricum

Εἰς τὴν γενομένην ἔφοδον τῶν βαρβάρων καὶ εἰς τὴν αὐτῶν ἀστοχίαν αὐτῶν ἀστοχίαν}

1 Τῶν ζωγράφων τις εἰ θέλει τὰ τῆς μάχης τρόπαια δεῖξαι, τὴν Τεκοῦσαν ἀσπόρως μόνην προτάξοι καὶ γράφοι τὴν εἰκόνα· ἀεὶ γὰρ οἶδε τὴν φύσιν νικᾶν μόνη, τόκῳ τὸ πρῶτον καὶ μάχῃ τὸ δεύτερον· ἔδει γὰρ αὐτήν, ὥσπερ ἀσπόρως τότε, οὕτως ἀόπλως νῦν τεκεῖν σωτηρίαν, ὅπως δι' ἀμφοῖν εὑρεθῇ καὶ παρθένος καὶ πρὸς μάχην ἄτρεπτος ὡς πρὸς τὸν τόκον. ἐγὼ δὲ μικροὺς τῶν ἀγώνων, ὡς ῥόδα, λόγους συνάξας ἐξ ἀκανθῶν τῆς μάχης, σοὶ τῷ φυτουργῷ τῶν φρενοσπόρων λόγων τούτους προσάξαι συμφερόντως εἱλόμην, ὅπως ὁ μακρὸς μὴ παρεκλύσῃ χρόνος τὰ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς θαυμάτων κινήματα. ἤδη μὲν ὥσπερ δυσγενεῖς ἀποσπάδες Τούρκων ἀποσχισθέντες ἄγριοι κλάδοι, καὶ τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς εὐγενεστάτοις τόποις παρεντεθέντες ὥσπερ ἐμφυλίσματα, καρποὺς παρεβλάστησαν ἐν τοῖς ἡμέροις φυτοῖς ὑποτρέφοντας ἀγρίαν φύσιν. ἐπεὶ δὲ λοιπὸν ἐκταθεῖσα τῶν κλάδων ἡ ῥίζα τῆς γῆς τοὺς ὅρους ὑφήρπασεν, ὕλη δὲ πολλῶν βαρβάρων ἐγίνετο, οὐκ ἦν ἀνεκτὴ τοῖς παροίκοις ἡ βλάβη, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ εἰς γῆν ἐμπεσοῦσαι λαμπάδες ἡ φλὸξ ἐκείνου τοῦ γένους ἀνημμένη τὸ τερπνὸν ἄνθος τῶν τόπων ἐβόσκετο. ὅμως ἐπισχεῖν τὴν τοσαύτην ἀγρίαν ὁ Ποντογείτων Ἴστρος ἴσχυσεν μόλις ὡς ῥευστὸν ἀντίφραγμα καὶ τεῖχος νέον· τεῖχος γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἀντέβη τὰ κύματα καὶ φραγμὸς ἑστὼς εἰς ἀείδρομον φύσιν. τέως μὲν οὖν τὸ ῥεῖθρον ἀγράφῳ κρίσει τούτους μεσάζον τοὺς ὅρους ἐπήξατο, ὅσην δὲ λοιπὸν ἡ πολιτεία βλάβην ἐκ τῶν ἀθέσμων βαρβάρων ὑφίστατο, τῶν μὲν θελόντων τοὺς πεπηγμένους ὅρους ἀεὶ σαλεύειν, τοῦ δὲ Ῥωμαίων κράτους εἴργοντος αὐτοῖς τὰς καθ' ἡμῶν εἰσόδους. ἔμπροσθεν ἄλλοις εὐσυνόπτως ἐγράφη ὅσοις ἔδειξε συμπαρέρπων ὁ χρόνος τὴν τῶν φθασάντων ἀσφαλῶς ὑποψίαν· ἐγὼ δὲ τοῖς ἔναγχος ἐντυχὼν χρόνοις αὐτοπροσώπως πραγμάτων ἐφάπτομαι, εἴπερ τις ἡμῖν ἔνθεος δοίη χάρις τῇ τῶν τοσούτων πράξεων ἀμετρίᾳ στολὴν παρασχεῖν τεχνικῆς εὐμετρίας. μόλις μὲν οὖν ἔσβεστο τῆς τυραννίδος ὁ δυσκάθεκτος καὶ βιοφθόρος δράκων ὃς ἦγε πολλοὺς εἰς τὸ βλάπτειν αὐχένας ὕδρας ἐκείνης τῆς λαλουμένης πλέον, οἳ μέχρι νῦν σπαίρουσι καὶ τετμημένοι φύουσιν αὖθιςοἱ γὰρ ἰχῶρες πάλιν στάζοντες ὠδίνουσι τὴν καινὴν βλάβην· καὶ ταῦτα πολλῶν πολλάκις τετμημένων ἐκ τοῦ παρ' ἡμῖν εὐσεβοῦς Ἡρακλέους. ὅμως δὲ ταύτην τὴν ἀφορμὴν ἡ νόσος ἐκ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς προσλαβοῦσα πραγμάτων πολλὰς ἐποίει τῶν μερῶν διαιρέσεις καὶ τοῖς ἑαυτῶν αἵμασιν πεφυρμένον ὅλον τὸ σῶμα τοῖς πόνοις ἐβόσκετο. ἐντεῦθεν ἡμᾶς, ὡς μέλιτται, βάρβαροι κύκλῳ περισφίγξαντες ἐμπίδων δίκην σπουδὴν μὲν εἶχον πᾶσαν ἐξᾶραι πόλιν, πρώτην δὲ τὴν Ἄνθουσαν ὡς πρώτην πόλιν. ἕως μὲν οὖν ἡ ῥίζα τῆς ἀποσπάδος ἐν τοῖς ὑφαρπαγεῖσι τῶν Σκυθῶν τόποις τὸ τοῦ γέροντος ἐθρασεύετο θράσος, ἄχθος μὲν εἶχεν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἡ Πόλις, ἀλλ' ἦν τὸ λυποῦν τῷ δοκεῖν ὡρισμένον· κουφίζεται γὰρ καὶ τὸ τῆς βλάβης βάρος εἰ μέτρον οἶδεν ἐν κακοῖς ὡρισμένον· οὕτω μὲν οὖν τὸ τακτὸν εἴχομεν βάρος ἕως τὸ γῆρας τὸν Σκύθην παρεκράτει. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸν χοῦν ἀντεπῆρεν ἡ κόνις καὶ πρὸς τὸν οἶκον τῆς ταφῆς ὡδοιπόρει, τὴν γῆν <δ'> ὑφέλκων ἐξ ἐκείνης εἵλκετο, μετῆλθεν αὖθις εἰς τὸν ἄγριον βίον τῆς ὠμότητος τοῦ πεσόντος ὁ κλάδος· παλινδρομεῖν γὰρ οἶδεν Εὐρίπου δίκην εἰς τοὺς ἀγωγοὺς τοὺς ἑαυτῆς ἡ φύσις, εἰ καί τις αὐτὴν ἐκ βίας ἐναντίαν ποιεῖν ἑαυτῇ τὴν ῥοὴν ἀναγκάσει. ἐντεῦθεν ἡμῖν ποῖος ἀρκέσει λόγος ἢ νεῦρα φωνῆς ἢ δεκάγλωττον στόμα δι' οὗ φράσαιμι τὸ ξενόσπορον τέρας τὸ τοῦ γέροντος δυσκάθεκτον ἔγγονον, ἢ τὸν κεραυνὸν ἢ τὸν ἔμψυχον σάλον ᾧ γλῶττα μὲν πρόσεστι