Address to the Greeks

 And let such men philosophize. 3.1 For I would not accept Heraclitus who said, I taught myself, because he was self-taught and arrogant, nor would I

 according to the not yet created creation, he was alone but inasmuch as all power of things visible and invisible was itself substance with him, he h

 an encomiast of the good things that remain. And since men and angels followed one who was wiser than the rest because he was first-born, and they dec

 so that they might be thought themselves to live in heaven and might show the irrational way of life on earth to be reasonable through the placement o

 of pleasure and of inferiority. The rich man sows, and the poor man partakes of the same seed the richest die and the beggars have the same end of li

 Babylonians by prognostication listen to us speaking, even as to an oracle-giving oak. And the things previously mentioned are the counter-sophistrie

 a rational animal, receptive of mind and knowledge for according to them, even irrational creatures will be shown to be receptive of mind and knowled

 Of the sympathies and antipathies according to Democritus, what can we say but this, that according to common speech, an Abderologue is a man from Abd

 to robbers. For just as it is their custom to take some captive, then to restore the same ones to their families for a ransom, so also the so-called g

 a light unapproachable by the men from here. Those, therefore, who have elaborated geographies, have made a description of the regions as far as was p

 You revile those who share in your practices. I do not wish to gape when many are singing, and I do not want to be in accord with one who nods and mov

 as you have hated the most defiled? Among us there is no cannibalism you who have been educated have become false witnesses but among you Pelops bec

 her lion that was killed by Heracles? What profit would there be in Attic diction and heaps of philosophers and plausible syllogisms and measures of t

 Herodotus of Halicarnassus and Dionysius of Olynthus, and after them Ephorus of Cyme and Philochorus the Athenian and Megacleides and Chamaeleon the P

 the pursuits and through the women's quarters behaves unseemly. For Lysippus wrought in bronze Praxilla, who said nothing useful through her poems, an

 eyes? for she was a courtesan. Lais committed fornication, and the fornicator made her a monument of her fornication. Why do you not respect the forni

 is of the age of Moses. 38.1 But there are accurate records of the Egyptians' chronologies, and the interpreter of their writings is Ptolemy, not the

 of the Cretan, who came to Sparta, and of Aristaeus of Proconnesus who wrote the *Arimaspeia* and of Asbolus the Centaur and of Bacis and of Drymon an

Address to the Greeks

Tatian's Address to the Greeks. 1.1 Do not be so hostilely disposed towards the barbarians, O men of Greece, nor be envious of their doctrines. For what pursuit among you did not get its origin from barbarians? For the most renowned of the Telmessians invented divination by dreams, the Carians prognostication by the stars, the Phrygians and the most ancient Isaurians the flight of birds, the Cyprians the art of sacrifice; the Babylonians astronomy, the Persians magic, the Egyptians geometry, the Phoenicians instruction by letters. Therefore cease calling imitations inventions. For Orpheus taught you to practice poetry and to sing, and the same man also to be initiated into the mysteries; the Tuscans to sculpt, the annals of the times among the Egyptians to compose histories. From Marsyas and Olympus you took away the art of flute-playing; and both were 1.2 Phrygians; rustics put together the harmony of the pipe. The Tyrrhenians the trumpet, the Cyclopes the smith's art, and to compose letters the woman who once ruled the Persians, as Hellanicus says; and her name was Atossa. Lay aside, therefore, this arrogance, and do not put forward the elegance of your phrases, you who, praised by yourselves, possess advocates at home. But it is right for the man who has sense to await testimony from others, and to be in harmony also in the utterance of his speech. But now it has fallen out that you alone do not even speak the same language in your conversations. For the speech of the Dorians is not the same as that of the men of Attica, and the Aeolians do not speak in the same way as the Ionians; and since there is such division among those where 1.3 there ought not to be, I am at a loss whom I ought to call a Greek. For what is most absurd of all, you have honoured your unrelated modes of speech, and sometimes using barbaric words, you have made your dialect a confused medley. For this reason we have renounced the wisdom that is among you, even if someone was very august in it. For according to the comic poet, these things are _t_w_i_g_s_ _a_n_d_ _c_h_a_t_t_e_r_i_n_g_s_,_ _m_u_s_e_u_m_s_ _o_f_ _s_w_a_l_l_o_w_s_,_ _d_e_s_t_r_o_y_e_r_s_ _o_f_ _a_r_t_, and those who apply themselves to it strain their throats and emit the voices of crows. For you have established rhetoric for injustice and slander, selling for hire the freedom of your speeches and often representing what is now just as again not good; and poetry, so that you might compose battles of gods and loves and 1.4 corruption of the soul. 2.1 For what noble thing have you produced while philosophizing? And which of the very earnest ones has stood outside of boastfulness? Diogenes, who boasted of his self-sufficiency with the pride of his tub, died seized by a colic from the passion of eating a raw octopus due to his intemperance. Aristippus, walking about in a purple robe, practiced debauchery in a credible manner. Plato the philosopher was sold by Dionysius on account of gluttony. And Aristotle, who ignorantly set a limit to providence and defined happiness in those things which pleased him, very rudely flattered Alexander, that raging youth, who, in a very Aristotelian manner, imprisoned his own friend for not wishing to prostrate himself before him, and carried him about like a bear or a leopard. Indeed, he was very obedient to the doctrines of his teacher, displaying his manliness and virtue at banquets, and piercing his own and very 2.2 dearest friend with a spear, and then weeping and starving himself on the pretext of grief, so that he might not be hated by his own people. And I would laugh at those who even now follow his doctrines, who say that things below the moon are without providence, while being themselves nearer the earth than the moon and below its course, they take thought for things that are without providence; and among whom there is no beauty, no wealth, no strength of body, no nobility of birth, among these there is, according to Aristotle, no happiness.

Oratio ad Graecos

Τατιανοῦ πρὸς Ἕλληνας. 1.1 Μὴ πάνυ φιλέχθρως διατίθεσθε πρὸς τοὺς βαρβάρους, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, μηδὲ φθονήσητε τοῖς τούτων δόγμασιν. ποῖον γὰρ ἐπιτήδευμα παρ' ὑμῖν τὴν σύστασιν οὐκ ἀπὸ βαρβάρων ἐκτήσατο; Τελμησσέων μὲν γὰρ οἱ δοκιμώτατοι τὴν δι' ὀνείρων ἐξεῦρον μαντικήν, Κᾶρες τὴν διὰ τῶν ἄστρων πρόγνωσιν, πτήσεις ὀρνίθων Φρύγες καὶ Ἰσαύρων οἱ παλαίτατοι, Κύπριοι θυτικήν, ἀστρονομεῖν Βαβυλώνιοι, μαγεύειν Πέρσαι, γεωμετρεῖν Αἰγύπτιοι, τὴν διὰ γραμμάτων παιδείαν Φοίνικες. ὅθεν παύσασθε τὰς μιμήσεις εὑρέσεις ἀποκαλοῦντες. ποίησιν μὲν γὰρ ἀσκεῖν καὶ ᾄδειν Ὀρφεὺς ὑμᾶς ἐδίδαξεν, ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς καὶ μυεῖσθαι· Τουσκανοὶ πλάττειν, ἱστορίας συντάττειν αἱ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις τῶν χρόνων ἀναγραφαί. Μαρσύου δὲ καὶ Ὀλύμπου τὴν αὐλητικὴν ἀπηνέγκασθε· Φρύγες δὲ 1.2 οἱ ἀμφότεροι· τὴν διὰ σύριγγος ἁρμονίαν ἄγροικοι συνεστήσαντο. Τυρρηνοὶ σάλπιγγα, χαλκεύειν Κύκλωπες, καὶ ἐπιστολὰς συντάσσειν ἡ Περσῶν ποτε ἡγησαμένη γυνή, καθά φησιν Ἑλλάνικος· Ἄτοσσα δὲ ὄνομα αὐτῇ ἦν. καταβάλετε τοιγαροῦν τοῦτον τὸν τῦφον μηδὲ προβάλλεσθε ῥημάτων εὐπρέπειαν, οἵτινες ὑφ' ὑμῶν αὐτῶν ἐπαινούμενοι συνηγόρους τοὺς οἴκοι κέκτησθε. χρὴ δὲ τὸν νοῦν ἔχοντα τὴν ἀφ' ἑτέρων περιμένειν μαρτυρίαν συνᾴδειν τε καὶ ἐν τῇ τοῦ λόγου προφορᾷ. νῦν δὲ μόνοις ὑμῖν ἀποβέβηκε μηδὲ ἐν ταῖς ὁμιλίαις ὁμοφωνεῖν. ∆ωριέων μὲν γὰρ οὐχ ἡ αὐτὴ λέξις τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀττικῆς, Αἰολεῖς τε οὐχ ὁμοίως τοῖς Ἴωσι φθέγγονται· στάσεως δὲ οὔσης τοσαύτης παρ' οἷς 1.3 οὐκ ἐχρῆν ἀπορῶ τίνα με δεῖ καλεῖν Ἕλληνα. καὶ γὰρ τὸ πανατοπώτατον, τὰς μὴ συγγενεῖς ὑμῶν ἑρμηνείας τετιμήκατε, βαρβαρικαῖς τε φωναῖς ἔσθ' ὅτε καταχρώμενοι συμφύρδην ὑμῶν πεποιήκατε τὴν διάλεκτον. τούτου χάριν ἀπεταξάμεθα τῇ παρ' ὑμῖν σοφίᾳ κἂν εἰ πάνυ σεμνός τις ἦν ἐν αὐτῇ. κατὰ γὰρ τὸν κωμικὸν ταῦτά ἐστιν _ἐ_π_ι_φ_υ_λ_λ_ί_δ_ε_ς_ _κ_α_ὶ_ _σ_τ_ω_μ_ύ_λ_μ_α_τ_α_,_ _χ_ε_λ_ι_δ_ό_ν_ω_ν_ _μ_ο_υ_σ_ε_ῖ_α_,_ _λ_ω_β_η_τ_α_ὶ_ _τ_έ_χ_ν_η_ς, λαρυγγιῶσί τε οἱ ταύτης ἐπιέμενοι καὶ κοράκων ἀφίενται φωνήν. ῥητορικὴν μὲν γὰρ ἐπ' ἀδικίᾳ καὶ συκοφαντίᾳ συνεστήσασθε, μισθοῦ πιπράσκοντες τῶν λόγων ὑμῶν τὸ αὐτεξούσιον καὶ πολλάκις τὸ νῦν δίκαιον αὖθις οὐκ ἀγαθὸν παριστῶντες· ποιητικὴν δέ, μάχας ἵνα συντάσσητε θεῶν καὶ ἔρωτας καὶ 1.4 ψυχῆς διαφθοράν. 2.1 Τί γὰρ σεμνὸν φιλοσοφοῦντες ἐξηνέγκατε; τίς δὲ τῶν πάνυ σπουδαίων ἀλαζονείας ἔξω καθέστηκεν; ∆ιογένης πιθάκνης καυχήματι τὴν αὐτάρκειαν σεμνυνόμενος πολύποδος ὠμοβορίᾳ πάθει συσχεθεὶς εἰλεῷ διὰ τὴν ἀκρασίαν ἀποτέθνηκεν. Ἀρίστιππος ἐν πορφυρίδι περιπατῶν ἀξιοπίστως ἠσωτεύσατο. Πλάτων φιλοσοφῶν ὑπὸ ∆ιονυσίου διὰ γαστριμαργίαν ἐπιπράσκετο. καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης ἀμαθῶς ὅρον τῇ προνοίᾳ θεὶς καὶ τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ἐν οἷς ἠρέσκετο περιγράψας, λίαν ἀπαιδεύτως Ἀλέξανδρον τὸ μεμηνὸς μειράκιον ἐκολάκευεν, ὅστις Ἀριστοτελικῶς πάνυ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ φίλον διὰ τὸ μὴ βούλεσθαι προσκυνεῖν αὐτὸν καθείρξας ὥσπερ ἄρκτον ἢ πάρδαλιν περιέφερε. πάνυ γοῦν ἐπείθετο τοῖς τοῦ διδασκάλου δόγμασιν τὴν ἀνδρείαν καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν ἐν συμποσίοις ἐπιδεικνύμενος καὶ τὸν οἰκεῖον καὶ πάνυ 2.2 φίλτατον διαπείρων τῷ δόρατι καὶ πάλιν κλαίων καὶ ἀποκαρτερῶν προφάσει λύπης, ἵν' ὑπὸ τῶν οἰκείων μὴ μισηθῇ. γελάσαιμι δ' ἂν καὶ τοὺς μέχρι νῦν τοῖς δόγμασιν αὐτοῦ καταχρωμένους, οἳ τὰ μετὰ σελήνην ἀπρονόητα λέγοντες εἶναι, προσγειότεροι παρὰ τὴν σελήνην ὑπάρχοντες καὶ κατώτεροι τοῦ ταύτης δρόμου, προνοοῦσι τῶν ἀπρονοήτων· παρ' οἷς δὲ οὐκ ἔστι κάλλος, οὐ πλοῦτος, οὐ ῥώμη σώματος, οὐκ εὐγένεια, παρὰ τούτοις οὐκ ἔστι κατὰ τὸν Ἀριστοτέλην τὸ εὔδαιμον.