In Bonum patricium

To Bonus the patrician and lieutenant of the emperor

Of old, Heracles had Eurystheus as a master of small contests, as it seems to me; for what common good for life did a slain boar or a strangled lion benefit? But today, as a contribution of better things, the world-savior Heracles entrusts to you, his companion in arms, a worldly struggle; for he knows you not as an archer skilled in killing, but as a great craftsman in saving. Hence he rightly decrees that you should carry out these contests on behalf of all, not out of necessity; for how could a soul, wounding and wounded with longing, suffer violence? But where toils run together more, converging to the same point, there the ardor of those who long is kindled more, and the circumstance of necessities introduces to them the pledge of a more secure longing, and the toils escape the notice of the loving, stealing or stolen away in the relationship; for if the material union of bodies makes divided flesh one, how could one express the psychic union, where spirit runs together with spirit and, with the immaterial instruments combined, from the noble intellectual union one soul is attached to two bodies? For we know that guilty desires do not hold such sway, but are like a dream; even if some fire-bearer kindles them, he has in a short time turned the torch to soot; even if it should rush in swift and winged, like a bird it is lifted up and swiftly flies away and drawing its bow for pleasure, as the story goes, it has let fly a blow for the wounded one alone; But that steady and mind-ruling love, having made the mutual relationship substantial, knows no hesitation, does not put forward fear, does not consider unseen circumstances, is not wary of fortune on her sphere, but as if composed within the heart it both sails around and journeys with it often, and considers everything distant to be near, and considers itself present with the absent, and everywhere shows the common relationship; for it is not split, nor indeed is it divided, but it is outside while within, just as the master is in you, even if he seems to be distant. But O clear eye of the inhabited world, having your mind as a vehicle of innate light, even if you are separated towards the Persian cloud and are entangled with the barbarian hail, come to us, and let the world see the sun of Rome, and innovating the season, shine in winter, and you will direct the spring. Pity us, whom you rescued of old, for whom you had so many toils of birth-pangs, wishing to make fruitful with a foreign seed the world made childless by a tyrant, pity us, as blameless infants; for often even babies are insolent in the simplicity of childish babblings; nevertheless the relationship constrains what is grievous; for nature, being pricked, has forgiveness, even if the baby does something infantile; for the mother who gave birth is often struck, and she turns benevolently to the child, and remembering again, as it seems, the former birth-pangs, she conceals and covers all things, and she has by no means any childish grief, but with her face she forms a look of fear, feigning anger for the sake of instruction only; and a father too will endure blows, and he welcomes these things rather gladly, if indeed he looks upon his children being sullen. But these things are not similar with respect to your power, you who not even to the point of seeming angry have raised up your fear against us, but to such an extent do you set afire the things of longing, that in a short time you have run across the inhabited world, and against so many barbarians unceasingly to toil through winter and to seem to have as gladness that long despair; for it is not possible to find a place idle of your care for us, but you run over all as if on a circuit of a cosmic illness, and for the common wounds of the sick you yourself have been established everywhere as a surgeon, afflicting yourself with misfortunes

In Bonum patricium

Εἰς Βόνον πατρίκιον καὶ τοποτηρητὴν τοῦ βασιλέως

Πάλαι μὲν εἶχεν Ἡρακλῆς Εὐρυσθέα μικρῶν ἀγώνων, ὡς δοκεῖ μοι, προστάτην· τί γὰρ τὸ κοινὸν ὠφέλησε τοῦ βίου κάπρος φονευθεὶς ἢ λέων πεπνιγμένος; ἀντεισφορᾷ δὲ σήμερον τῶν κρειττόνων σοί, τῷ συνόπλῳ, κοσμικὴν ἀγωνίαν ὁ κοσμορύστης Ἡρακλῆς ἐπιτρέπει· οὐκ εἰς φόνους γὰρ τεχνικόν σε τοξότην, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸ σῴζειν οἶδε τεχνίτην μέγαν. ἐντεῦθεν ὑμᾶς τοὺς ἀγῶνας εἰκότως τοὺς ἀντὶ πάντων ἐκτελεῖν ψηφίζεται, οὐκ ἐξ ἀνάγκης· πῶς γὰρ ἂν πάθοι βίαν ψυχὴ πόθῳ τρώσασα καὶ τετρωμένη; ἀλλ' ἔνθα μᾶλλον συντρέχουσιν οἱ πόνοι εἰς ταὐτὸ συννεύοντες, ἐνταῦθα πλέον ἡ τῶν ποθούντων θερμότης ἀνάπτεται, καὶ πίστιν αὐτοῖς ἀσφαλεστέρου πόθου ἡ τῶν ἀναγκῶν εἰσάγει περίστασις, καὶ λανθάνουσι τοὺς φιλοῦντας οἱ πόνοι ἐν τῇ σχέσει κλέψαντες ἢ κεκλεμμένοι· εἰ σωμάτων γὰρ ὑλικὴ συνουσία τὴν σάρκα ποιεῖ τὴν διεστῶσαν μίαν, τὴν ψυχικήν τις πῶς ἕνωσιν ἐκφράσοι, ὅπου τὸ πνεῦμα συντρέχει τῷ πνεύματι καὶ τῶν ἀΰλων συντεθέντων ὀργάνων ἐκ τῆς νοητῆς εὐγενοῦς συνουσίας ψυχὴ μία πρόσεστι σώμασιν δύο; οὐ γὰρ τοσοῦτον τοὺς ὑπαιτίους πόθους κρατοῦντας ἴσμεν, ἀλλ' ἐνυπνίου δίκην· εἰ καί τις αὐτοὺς ἐξανάψει πυρφόρος, ἀπῃθάλωσεν ἐν βραχεῖ τὴν λαμπάδα· εἰ καὶ ταχύς τε καὶ πτερωτὸς εἰσβάλοι, ὡς πτηνὸς ἀρθεὶς ὀξέως ἀφίπταται πρὸς ἡδονὴν δὲ τόξον ἕλκων, ὡς λόγος, πληγὴν ἀφῆκε τῷ τετρωμένῳ μόνον· ὁ δ' αὖ βεβηκὼς καὶ φρενοκρατὴς ἔρως, συνουσιώσας τὴν φιλάλληλον σχέσιν, οὐκ οἶδεν ὄκνον, οὐ προβάλλεται φόβον, οὐ τὰς ἀδήλους ἐννοεῖ περιστάσεις, οὐκ εὐλαβεῖται τὴν ἐπὶ σφαίρας τύχην, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἔνδον συντεθεὶς τῇ καρδίᾳ καὶ συμπεριπλεῖ καὶ συνοδεύει πολλάκις, καὶ πᾶν τὸ μακρὰν πλησίον λογίζεται, καὶ τοῖς ἀποῦσι συμπαρὼν λογίζεται, καὶ πανταχοῦ δείκνυσι τὴν κοινὴν σχέσιν· οὐ σχίζεται γάρ, οὔτε μὴν μερίζεται, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἐκτὸς ἔνδον, ὡς ὁ δεσπότης ἔνεστιν ἐν σοί, κἂν δοκῇ διεστάναι. ἀλλ' ὦ διαυγὲς ὄμμα τῆς οἰκουμένης, τὸν νοῦν ἔχων ὄχημα φωτὸς ἐμφύτου, εἰ καὶ διέστης πρὸς τὸ Περσικὸν νέφος καὶ τῇ χαλάζῃ συμπλέκῃ τῇ βαρβάρῳ, γενοῦ πρὸς ἡμᾶς, καὶ βλέπει τὸν ἥλιον Ῥώμης ὁ κόσμος, καινοτομῶν δὲ τὸν χρόνον χειμῶνι λάμψον, καὶ κατευθύνεις ἔαρ. οἴκτειρον ἡμᾶς, οὓς ἐλυτρώσω πάλαι, δι' οὓς τοσούτους ἔσχες ὠδίνων πόνους, τὸν ἐκ τυράννου κόσμον ἠτεκνωμένον ξένῳ θελήσας τεκνοποιῆσαι σπόρῳ, οἴκτειρον ἡμᾶς, ὡς ἀνέγκλητα βρέφη· θρασύνεται γὰρ πολλάκις καὶ νήπια ἐν ἁπλότητι παιδικῶν ψελλισμάτων· ὅμως τὸ λυποῦν ἡ σχέσις βιάζεται· ἡ γὰρ φύσις νυγεῖσα συγγνώμην ἔχει, εἰ καί τι δράσει νηπιῶδες τὸ βρέφος· ῥαπίζεται γὰρ ἡ τεκοῦσα πολλάκις, καὶ πρὸς τὸ τέκνον εὐμενῶς ἐπιστρέφει, καὶ τῶν πρίν, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὠδίνων πάλιν μνησθεῖσα πάντα συγκαλύπτει καὶ στέγει, καὶ παιδικὴν μὲν οὐδαμῶς λύπην ἔχει, τῷ δὲ προσώπῳ σχηματίζει τὸν φόβον πλάττουσα θυμὸν εἰς ἐπιστήμην μόνον· ἀνέξεται δὲ καὶ πατὴρ ῥαπισμάτων, καὶ ταῦτα μᾶλλον ἡδέως ἀσπάζεται, εἴπερ τὰ τέκνα στυγνιῶντα προσβλέπει. πλὴν οὐχ ὅμοια ταῦτα πρὸς τὸ σὸν κράτος, ὃς οὐδὲ μέχρι τοῦ δοκοῦντος ὀργίλου τὸν σὸν καθ' ἡμῶν ἐξανέστησας φόβον, ἀλλ' εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐκπυροῖς τὰ τοῦ πόθου, ὡς ἐν βραχεῖ δραμεῖν σε τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ πρὸς τοσούτων βαρβάρων ἀνενδότως χειμῶνα κάμνειν καὶ δοκεῖν θυμηδίαν ἔχειν ἐκείνην τὴν μακρὰν ἀθυμίαν· τόπον γὰρ ἀργὸν τῆς ἀφ' ἡμῶν φροντίδος οὐκ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν, ἀλλ' ἐπιτρέχεις ὅλους ὡς ἐν περιόδῳ κοσμικῆς ἀρρωστίας, καὶ πρὸς τὰ κοινὰ τῶν νοσούντων τραύματα χειρουργὸς αὐτὸς πανταχοῦ κατεστάθης, θλίβων σεαυτὸν συμφοραῖς