Georges Pisides, The Persian Expedition

I will be judged for my hope, as not describing even these things in my speech nor going forward and speaking the crucial things. You made the roads i

securely the battalions, the walls of armed formations were seen, and when all the armies clashed, sword against shield and swords pushed against shie

Thus your mind is armed in various ways and often campaigns with its reasonings, using clemency rather than the sword and drawing the faithless barbar

It was a way out of necessity, but from perplexity he then turned the mass of his arrogance to humiliation. For on the one hand an agitated mind then

your insatiability was not a desire for foods but for saving. Thus you safely despised those things, providing supplies both so great and strange, so

They persuaded him that the armies of Persia would again prevail in the battle. But these devious counsels of deceit in their midst did not benefit hi

in the interval between the armies, and each one of us easily looked toward the false battlements of the ravines, in which the multitude of poured-out

the dragon Chosroes having been bound unless one should receive the ministration of justice so that if he were given over to you, he might escape the

Guard, O Christ, the branches <the> of the king from so great a malice of envy, watch over them with peaceful protection, having remembrance of patern

On the Persian expedition

To Heraclius the emperor and to the Persian wars and when he was setting out from the City

1 O Trinity, who directs the immaterial armies of the heavens with a light-bearing word towards a fiery and fixed station, for by word you know how to show their natures, set afire, as immaterial matter, filling the heavens and setting fire to the aether and binding the inhabited world, and being present everywhere without moving, and contained nowhere yet contained where prayer from the depths flies up, give to the dim instruments of our thoughts the sound of a trumpet and a speaking shield. Teach us to wield a well-aimed sword, a tongue against enemies, a sharpened weapon; guide us where it is possible to record the wonders of your power. For the emperor, trusting in your command, has set himself against the struggles of the lawless barbarians, for whom it is law to worship creatures above you, the Creator; for whom it is genuine to cling to what is illegitimate, and utterly illegitimate to approach what is genuine; among whom a god is senselessly considered to be an armed horse, worshipped in vain, which, as a refutation of the deceptive worship, is now worshipped and again flogged. O wretched affliction of the heart; how do they assign both honor and punishment to that which is impiously honored by them? And of the one it does not partake when worshipped, but for the other it suffers additional pain when frequently flogged. And water and fire, opposing natures, they introduce as gods destructive of one another, worshipping the dissolution of contrary things.

But, O commander of wise counsels, receive my words with goodwill; for they are free from flatteries, having learned from you not to speak hypocrisies. Therefore appear as a true judge of true matters for this campaign; become a judge more than the Celtic Rhine for I think you will refute nothing as illegitimate, become a judge; but give pardon, for those things in which you suffer loss through us; for the tones of the thoughts within us are too weak to recount the varied resolutions and divisions of your labors, and the spiritual courage through all things, which you rightly fitted to the struggles, broadening your mind in the narrowness of affairs. If they say, not unreasonably, that prosperities raised to the height are precarious, may the affairs of Persia henceforth lie in evils, and conversely may the difficult things of our affairs be turned to prosperity; for the ever-flowing stream of life brings reversals and changes, so that what is stable, being preserved everywhere, may be guarded by God alone of all creation. Swift words run through all things, painting their natures with subtlety; but when they attempt the course towards you, they run with longing and are slow with fear; and often having painted you, they write again, not writing accurately. Homer, whom they call the fount of words—for that man widens the babbling veins, and gushing forth, he waters and irrigates and nourishes the thoughts of the youthful mind, and he remains full though often emptied, he divides at any rate the sister and kindred virtues into two literary works; but out of necessity; for he did not touch upon a time that showed both courage and prudence and a common dwelling-place with them. But if he had been well-supplied with your image and found the perfect nature, as was needed, leaving aside the many myths of his stories, having added the spiritual formation which you possess to the whole, he would have shown one four-formed image of the connected virtues through you. For if, when Nestor spoke pleasantly, he likens his mouth to the works of bees, how would he not have come to the height of wonder, seeing in you the immaterial honey-making of the mind in its sweetness? The

De expeditione Persica

Εἰς Ἡράκλειον τὸν βασιλέα καὶ εἰς τοὺς Περσικοὺς πολέμους καὶ ὅτε ἐξήρχετο ἀπὸ τῆς Πόλεως

1 Ὦ τὰς ἀΰλους τῶν ἄνω στρατηγίας Τριὰς διευθύνουσα φωσφόρῳ λόγῳ πρὸς ἔμπυρόν τε καὶ πεπηγμένην στάσιν λόγῳ γὰρ αὐτῶν ἐκπυροῦσα τὰς φύσεις ὕλην ἄϋλον δεικνύειν ἐπίστασαιτοὺς οὐρανοὺς πληροῦσα καὶ τὸν αἰθέρα πυροῦσα καὶ σφίγγουσα τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ πανταχοῦ παροῦσα μὴ κινουμένη, καὶ μηδαμοῦ χωροῦσα καὶ χωρουμένη ὅπου δέησις ἐκ βάθους ἀνίπταται, δὸς τοῖς ἀμυδροῖς τῶν λογισμῶν ὀργάνοις σάλπιγγος ἦχον καὶ λαλοῦσαν ἀσπίδα. δίδαξον ἡμᾶς εὔστοχον κινεῖν ξίφος, γλῶσσαν κατ' ἐχθρῶν, ὅπλον ἠκονημένον· ἴθυνον ἡμᾶς ἔνθα τῆς ἐξουσίας τῆς σῆς ἔνεστι συγγράφειν τὰ θαύματα. σῷ γὰρ πεποιθὼς ὁ βασιλεὺς προστάγματι πρὸς τοὺς ἀγῶνας τῶν ἀθέσμων βαρβάρων ἑαυτὸν ἀντέταξεν, οἷς τὰ κτίσματα ὑπὲρ σὲ τὸν κτίσαντα προσκυνεῖν νόμος· οἷς γνήσιον μὲν ἀντέχεσθαι τῶν νόθων, νόθον δὲ πάντῃ προσβαλεῖν τοῖς γνησίοις· παρ' οἷς θεός τις ἀφρόνως νομίζεται ἔνοπλος ἵππος προσκυνούμενος μάτην, ὃς εἰς ἔλεγχον τοῦ πλάνου σεβάσματος νῦν προσκυνεῖται καὶ πάλιν μαστίζεται. ὦ καρδίας σύμπτωσις ἠθλιωμένη· πῶς τῷ παρ' αὐτῶν δυσσεβῶς τιμωμένῳ τιμὴν ὁμοῦ νέμουσι καὶ τιμωρίαν; καὶ τῆς μὲν οὐ μετέσχε προσκυνούμενος, τῇ δὲ προσαλγεῖ πυκνὰ μαστιγούμενος. ὕδωρ δὲ καὶ πῦρ, τὰς ἐναντίας φύσεις, θεοὺς παρεισάγουσιν ἀλληλοφθόρους, λύσιν σέβοντες πραγμάτων ἐναντίων.

ἀλλ', ὦ στρατηγὲ τῶν σοφῶν βουλευμάτων, μετ' εὐμενείας τοὺς ἐμοὺς δέχου λόγους· ἐλεύθεροι γάρ εἰσιν ἐκ θωπευμάτων, ἐκ σοῦ μαθόντες μὴ λαλεῖν ὑποκρίσεις. ὡς οὖν ἀληθὴς τῶν ἀληθῶν πραγμάτων κριτὴς φάνηθι τῆσδε τῆς στρατηγίας· γενοῦ δικαστὴς Κελτικοῦ Ῥήνου πλέον οἶμαι γὰρ οὐδὲν ἐξελέγξεις ὡς νόθον, γενοῦ δικαστής· ἀλλὰ συγγνώμην δίδου, ἐφ' οἷς δι' ἡμῶν ζημίαν ὑφίστασαι· τῶν γὰρ λογισμῶν τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν οἱ τόνοι ἐξασθενοῦσιν ἱστορεῖν σου τῶν πόνων τὰς ποικίλας γνώμας τε καὶ διαιρέσεις, καὶ τὴν διὰ πάντων ψυχικὴν εὐτολμίαν, ἣν τοῖς ἀγῶσιν εὐθέτως συνήρμοσας τὸν νοῦν πλατύνας ἐν στενώσει πραγμάτων. εἰ τὰς ἐπ' ἄκρον ἠρμένας εὐεξίας ἐσφαλμένας λέγουσιν οὐκ ἀπεικότως, κείσθω τὸ λοιπὸν ἐν κακοῖς τὰ Περσίδος, ἀντιστρόφως δὲ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς πραγμάτων τὰ δυσχερῆ τραπεῖεν εἰς εὐεξίαν· ἀεὶ γὰρ ἡ ῥέουσα τοῦ βίου χύσις ἀντιστροφάς τε καὶ μεταπτώσεις φέρει, ὅπως τὸ πάγιον πανταχοῦ σεσωσμένον μόνῳ φυλαχθῇ τῷ Θεῷ τῶν κτισμάτων. πάντας διατρέχουσιν οἱ ταχεῖς λόγοι τῇ λεπτότητι ζωγραφοῦντες τὰς φύσεις· ὅταν δὲ πειραθῶσι τοῦ πρὸς σὲ δρόμου, πόθῳ τρέχουσι καὶ βραδύνουσιν φόβῳ· καὶ πολλάκις σὲ ζωγραφήσαντες πάλιν γράφουσι, μὴ γράφοντες ἠκριβωμένως. Ὅμηρος, ὃν λέγουσι πηγὴν τῶν λόγων τὰς γὰρ λάλους ἐκεῖνος εὐρύνει φλέβας, καὶ τοὺς λογισμοὺς τῆς νεαζούσης φρενὸς βλύζων ἐπάρδει καὶ ποτίζων ἐκτρέφει, μένει τε πλήρης πολλάκις κενούμενος, τὰς αὐταδέλφους <γοῦν> ἀρετὰς καὶ συντρόφους διττοῖς μερίζει τῶν λόγων πονήμασι· πλὴν ἐξ ἀνάγκης· οὐ γὰρ ἥψατο χρόνου δείξαντος ἀνδρίας τε καὶ φρονήσεως καὶ τῶν σὺν αὐταῖς κοινὸν οἰκητήριον. ἀλλ' εἴπερ ηὐπόρησε τῆς σῆς εἰκόνος καὶ τὴν τελείαν εὗρεν, ὡς ἔδει, φύσιν, ἀφεὶς τὰ πολλὰ τῶν λόγων μυθεύματα, τὴν ψυχικὴν μόρφωσιν, ἣν ἔχεις, ὅλοις προσθεὶς ἐδείκνυ τῶν ἀρετῶν συνημμένων μίαν δι' ὑμῶν τετράμορφον εἰκόνα. εἰ Νέστορος γὰρ συλλαλοῦντος ἡδέως ἔργοις μελιττῶν ἐξομοιοῖ τὸ στόμα, πῶς οὐ πρὸς ἄκρον ἦλθε θαύματος βλέπων ἄϋλον ἐν σοὶ τῶν φρενῶν μελουργίαν ἐν τῷ γλυκασμῷ; τὸν