Oration XXXIII.

 I.  Where are they who reproach us with our poverty, and boast themselves of their own riches who define the Church by numbers, and scorn the little

 II.  Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened?  “O my people what have I done unto thee, or wherein hav

 III.  What tumultuous mob have I led against you?  What soldiers have I armed?  What general boiling with rage, and more savage than his employers, an

 IV.  What wild beasts have we let loose upon the bodies of Saints,—like some who have prostituted human nature,—on one single accusation, that of not

 V.  And to speak of older things, for they too belong to the same fraternity whose hands living or dead have I cut off—to bring a lying accusation ag

 VI.  Now since your antecedents are such, I should be glad if you too will tell me of my crimes, that I may either amend my life or be put to shame. 

 VII.  Why do you not also mention the convenience of the site, and what I may call the contest between land and sea as to which owns the City, and whi

 VIII.  Do you also find fault with the raggedness of my dress, and the want of elegance in the disposition of my face? for these are the points upon w

 IX.  But I am so old fashioned and such a philosopher as to believe that one heaven is common to all and that so is the revolution of the sun and the

 X.  I was deceived too by the Ramah of Samuel, that little fatherland of the great man which was no dishonour to the Prophet, for it drew its honour

 XI.  But perhaps some one who is very circumscribed and carnally minded will say, “But our herald is a stranger and a foreigner.”  What of the Apostle

 XII.  My friend, every one that is of high mind has one Country, the Heavenly Jerusalem, in which we store up our Citizenship.  All have one family—if

 XIII.  It is thus then and for these reasons that I, who am small and of a country without repute, have come upon you, and that not of my own accord,

 XIV.  And if I am doing wrong in this, that when tyrannized over I endure it, forgive me this wrong I have borne to be tyrannized over by others too

 XV.  Moreover this also I reckoned and still reckon with myself and do you see if it is not quite correct.  I have often discussed it with you before

 XVI.  These I call by name (for they are not nameless like the stars which are numbered and have names), and they follow me, for I rear them up beside

 XVII.  These words let everyone who threatens me to-day concede to me the rest let whoever will claim.  The Father will not endure to be deprived of

VI.  Now since your antecedents are such, I should be glad if you too will tell me of my crimes, that I may either amend my life or be put to shame.  My greatest wish is that I may be found free from wrong altogether; but if this may not be, at least to be converted from my crime; for this is the second best portion of the prudent.  For if like the just man I do not become my own accuser in the first instance,16    Prov. xviii. 17. yet at any rate I gladly receive healing from another.  “Your City, you say to me, is a little one, or rather is no city at all, but only a village, arid, without beauty, and with few inhabitants.”  But, my good friend, this is my misfortune, rather than my fault;—if indeed it be a misfortune; and if it is against my will, I am to be pitied for my bad luck, if I may put it so; but if it be willingly, I am a philosopher.  Which of these is a crime?  Would anyone abuse a dolphin for not being a land animal, or an ox because it is not aquatic, or a lamprey because it is amphibious?  But we, you go on, have walls and theatres and racecourses and palaces, and beautiful great Porticoes, and that marvellous work the underground and overhead river,17    Valens had constructed an Aqueduct, partly subterranean, partly raised on arches, for the supply of water to the Capital. and the splendid and admired column,18    A magnificent column on which stood an equestrian statue of Constantine the Great. and the crowded marketplace and a restless people, and a famous senate of highborn men.

#2ʹ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τοιαῦτα τὰ σὰ, καὶ οὕτως ἔχοντα, λέγε μοι καὶ τὰς ἐμὰς ἀδικίας, ἵν' ἢ παύσωμαι κακὸς ὢν, ἢ αἰσχύνωμαι. Ὡς ἔγωγε μάλιστα μὲν εὔχομαι μηδὲν ἁμαρτεῖν: εἰ δ' οὖν, καὶ ἀδικῶν ἐπανάγεσθαι: δευτέρα μερὶς αὕτη τῶν εὖ φρονούντων. Καὶ γὰρ εἰ μὴ κατήγορος ἐμαυτοῦ κατὰ τὸν δίκαιον ἐν πρωτολογίᾳ γίνομαι, χαίρω γε ὑπ' ἄλλου θεραπευόμενος. Μικρά σοι, φησὶν, ἡ πόλις, καὶ οὐδὲ πόλις, ἀλλὰ χωρίον ξηρὸν, καὶ ἄχαρι, καὶ ὀλίγοις οἰκούμενον. Τοῦτο πέπονθα μᾶλλον, ὦ βέλτιστε, ἢ πεποίηκα, εἴπερ ἔστι δεινόν: καὶ εἰ μὲν ἄκων, ἀνέχομαι δυστυχῶν (λεγέσθω γὰρ οὕτως): εἰ δὲ ἑκὼν, φιλοσοφῶ. Πότερον τούτων ἔγκλημα; Εἰ μὴ καὶ τὸν δελφῖνα κακίζοιτό τις, ὅτι μὴ χερσαῖος: καὶ τὸν βοῦν, ὅτι μὴ πελάγιος: καὶ τὴν μύραιναν, ὅτι ἀμφίβιος. Ἡμῖν δὲ, φησὶ, τείχη καὶ θέατρα, καὶ ἱππικὰ, καὶ βασίλεια, καὶ κάλλη στοῶν καὶ μεγέθη, καὶ τὸ ἄπιστον τοῦτο ἔργον, ὁ ὑποχθόνιος καὶ ἀέριος ποταμὸς, καὶ ὁ λαμπρὸς στύλος οὑτοσὶ καὶ ἀπόβλεπτος, καὶ ἀγορὰ πλήθουσα, καὶ δῆμος κυμαίνων, καὶ ἀνδρῶν εὐγενῶν συνέδριον ἐπαινούμενον.