Himerius, Orations

ToposText · Himerius · 532 sections

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§ 36.18 He suffered from a disease that was greater than his fortune but not lesser than his wickedness. Let no one be amazed if, in his sickness, he acted thus against this man. From time immemorial, lesser men have been finding fault with excellent public officials. Cleon falsely accused Pericles, Nicias had to defend himself against Hyperbolus, Demades brought Demosthenes to trial, Cleophon indicted Alcibiades, a man of Seriphus reproached Themistocles. For those who envy the outstanding good fortune of others are forced to make up by their boldness for what they lack in merit....
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§ 36.19 Then he really showed what the difference is between virtue and a knavish character....
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§ 36.20 For favors that are done with ease, even if they are great ones, are naturally regarded as small ones because they require no inconvenience at all....
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§ 36.21 Alexander, desiring to raise up a city in Egypt after experiencing great ordeals, fulfilled his wish merely by laying the groundwork for it....
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§ 36.A1 What cities have not experienced the virtuous actions of Flavianus?... [A2] [He?] conducted a day-long procession through Carthage illuminated by fire and torches.... [A3] What unusual lyre tune can we ever come up with that, at one and the same time, bids a person adieu and welcomes his arrival?
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§ 38.i [To the Proconsul Cervonius] This is the first talk (λαλιά) in Athens that he [ Himerius ] gave in the praetorium. It was addressed to the proconsul [of Greece], Cervonius, who set the theme for him and restored the city. [ Himerius ] upbraids, in a controlled manner, [his rival] sophists and those who had recently derided him.
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§ 38.1 Behold now, O noble one [i.e., Cervonius], the Muses’ arts are reviving themselves together with this new city of yours. They were laboring to appear to the Greeks earlier—for nothing beautiful, I think, wishes to be hidden—but “‘twas on thine account,” as one of the lyric poets has already sung, that they saved the fruit of their labor for you, so that they could display it in its maturity and in due season.
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§ 38.2 They say that, before the god Apollo appeared to humankind, this neighboring island of Delos was hidden in the deep, moving and tossing about under the sea. But after the god appeared and brought [the island] to light, it immediately came up from the depths to the surface, stood firm in the midst of the waves, and no longer swam about.
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§ 38.3 Come, then, my boys, for this man also brings me to light. He is like the gods whom poets often transform into various human forms and shapes and bring into the midst of cities and peoples, gods “who come upon both the insolence and the good order of humankind” [Hom. Od. 17.487]. (For example, Homer thus put Athena on display, as Anacreon and Euripides did Dionysus.) In like manner, this man appears and commands me to pay no regard to the silence or to the confinement of eloquence in darkness, conditions that obtained before his arrival. He orders me to make eloquence public, to bring it out onto center stage for the Greeks; and eloquence is indeed about to strip for the Muses’ racecourse, as though obeying a divine command. Now I do not believe that I am a poet. But I am a friend of the divine chorus of poets. So let me tell you an Attic tale, like a prenomic song sung before the contest itself begins.
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§ 38.4 There was a time when the Athenians more than anyone else welcomed the sophists, when the sophists and their activities were everything to them. Thus those who practiced this art came to Athens from everywhere and hastened to associate and spend their time there with the young. Various auditors were enthralled by various sophists, some by Gorgias of Leontini, others by Prodicus of Ceos. Some thought that they should study under Hippias of Elis, since he advertised a resourceful and multiform kind of wisdom.
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§ 38.5 I hear that Socrates was also alive at that time, a man of true wisdom and an extraordinary lover of eloquence—not the eloquence made for the general populace and the masses, but the kind that, when it enters into the delicate souls of the young, causes them to bear fully formed fruit in season. When a few young men happened upon Socrates as he was conversing and marveled at how accomplished he was in eloquence and learning, they would decide that they should no longer go to the sophists but should stay with Socrates himself and philosophize and converse with him.
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§ 38.6 When this was revealed to the sophists, well, I cannot say whether or not they got angry at him, for I do not like bringing accusations against these very wise men now. But certainly people like Callicles and Thrasymachus, men connected with Gorgias, often set to work at slandering and making fun of Socrates. Some of them joked about his face, saying that he was snub-nosed and had an unpleasant appearance. These sorry individuals did not know that Socrates used to pray to the gods that he would have an internal beauty! Other sophists latched onto some other outrageous slander against him, trying in this way to turn him away from associating with the young.
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§ 38.7 Their device almost worked. What prevented it from doing so was that one of Socrates’ friends happened to go to Delphi to the god [ Apollo ], and he asked him who was wise among those currently alive. The god, from his very tripod, gave Socrates [himself ] this designation in a truthful and loud voice. Being a prophet and brother of the Muses, the god knew precisely, I think, who had true wisdom and who had a spurious and fraudulent wisdom. His pronouncement reached the ears of all Greeks, and Socrates was encouraged and began to make his eloquence public. It was all over for Callicles. This, then, is the Attic tale I have for you, my boys.
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§ 38.8 And what, eloquence, will you do for this noble man [Cervonius]. He has brought you, hidden and invisible to the Greeks, out into the light and into their midst. It is not right for you to be silent; but if you speak, you will inevitably be put to shame if you do not maintain his reputation. So I shall now want to sing him a paean or short song that I have composed, as if to some god. Then on some other occasion, if God grants it, I shall pay the debt of gratitude owed to him with full rites.
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§ 38.9 O eye of Justice and of Right ( Themis )! O priest of the Muses and of Hermes! O most beautiful creature of Athena herself, to whom you beautifully make a return for your trophies! Neither Pindar himself nor that Siciliote [ Theron ] to whom the Boeotian lyric poet gave the title “upholder of the city” [Ol. 2.7] would resent the fact that we call you by that same title. Because of you, this city is young again and awakened after being much in decline. After shedding tears and lamenting, it begins to feast and dance, as if the earth had just freed it to do so. The Naiad nymphs, as a daring poet would say, have left their groves and play on Attic streets. Everything shines and has bloomed as in a vernal meadow. Flocks of youths who before were recklessly leaping about are now quietly grazing, are now quietly housed in their pens, as if Orpheus’s or Amphion’s lyre had been plucked.
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§ 38.10 Now every Siren is moved on your account, every barbitos and lyra sounds, peoples and cities sing of your deeds. Now the sacred vessel departs for Delos, carrying an Attic chorus to the god [ Apollo ], the kind they say Theseus established for him after leaving Crete. Let that chorus sing a hymn asking that this man govern Greeks for a very long time. This is what I sing to you for now, you person dear to the gods. And if the Delian god [ Apollo ] grants me the favor, I shall pay my debt to you in full in the future.
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§ 39.i [The Discourse in Thessalonica ] [ Himerius ] delivered this [discourse] in Thessalonica when, upon the summons of the emperor Julian, he was hastening to the East. He was officially invited by the city and [two] dignitaries, the vicar [of the diocese of Macedonia ] and former sophist Musonius, and the consularis [of the province of Macedonia ] Calliopius. He addressed the end of the oration to the Musonius who had been proconsul of Greece [ Achaia ] and was present on the occasion.
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§ 39.1 Once, when Simonides was hastening to Pisa to honor Zeus with a hymn, the Eleans got hold of his lyre, and the populace publicly ordered him to sing of Zeus’s city before singing of Zeus himself. So what, friends, tell me, what do you order me to do? Do you want me to interrupt my hurried course for a short while and give you a taste of my Attic pipe? This is certainly what some of you are praying for, and they are true neighbors of Pieria.
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§ 39.2 Well, then, I gladly submit to your command, and I regard your pressuring me to be to my advantage; for nothing that the beloved does is a burden or troublesome to his lover. When Anacreon was on his way to Polycrates’ court, he was glad to address the great Xanthippus [at Athens first], and Pindar was pleased to salute Hieron before addressing Zeus. Alcman, who joined the Dorian lyre with Lydian song, happened to be carrying his songs through Sparta on his way to the shrine of Zeus Lycaeus; but he did not pass by Sparta before greeting both the city itself and the Dioscuri.
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§ 39.3 I also hear a story about Ismenias the piper, who was summoned from Thebes by Alexander [the Great] to make the latter’s victory celebration resound with song after a slaughter of the Persians. Ismenias learned in Phocis that the Delphians were celebrating the Pythian games with sacrifices. When a Delphian embassy promptly approached him and asked him not to pass by their festivities in silence, he welcomed the embassy and honored the city with song. This was a favorable sign for the king [ Alexander ] since [ Ismenias’s song] was a victory prize for Apollo.
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§ 39.4 We, then, would not sail past a city that is brimming with so much virtue; for silence is not Attic, nor is it worthy of the talkative city [of Athens ]. Xerxes, admiring the foliage of a plane tree in Lydia, bedecked it with gold. He did not know how to speak; he was as poor in eloquence as he was rich in gold. But from us it is only reasonable that your city demand the gifts that our rulers have at their disposal.
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§ 39.5 Such gifts suit this city of yours because of all its virtuous behavior and not least of all because of the zeal that it displays for wisdom, even though it is surrounded by people who almost all speak foreign languages. To the north the Paeonians press upon it. The next neighbors of the city are the Illyrians, who in turn pass that role on to the Moesians. Thrace borders so closely on this city of yours that it touches its suburbs. Your city, in isolation, maintains the Greek language like a golden center point and keeps it free of contamination by any neighboring tongue. Thus I censure and find fault with the Thracian tale that robs this city of Orpheus, Calliope, and awards him to the mountains of Thrace. Because there are no human beings there to listen to him, the tale creates an assembly of wild animals for him.
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§ 39.6 So everything about this city is Greek—its language, its walls, its dress. It begins high in the mountains, lifting the ridge above it, like a peak, high up into the middle of the heavens. It then comes down to the shore, where it divides itself into countless cities, scattered round about, but it peoples the central area with one city. It rides at anchor on the very waves, as if annoyed because the adjacent sea does not allow it to spread out as much as it wishes.
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§ 39.7 Your city, of such great size, is adorned on all sides: here there are places of assembly (ajgorai)v,48 nearby there are baths, colonnades are found throughout the city, and religious shrines everywhere. One would be unable to decide what to marvel at first. Just as those who observe the vernal sky have to look at every single part of it because of the beauty of the sight, and whatever first overpowers an observer holds his attention, so too this city astonishes people both as a whole and in all its individual parts.
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§ 39.8 But I have not yet proclaimed the greatest feature of the city’s Greek fortune. An Attic Muse shepherds the city. The sophist’s chair has embellished the vicar’s chair; rhetorical skill has given more grace to the good luck [of office] than it has got from it. For a helmet is more glorious when it protects a glorious head, a shield when it covers an Ajax’s chest, a tribunal when a Cyrus gives judgment from it, a lyre if a Pindar or an Anacreon plucks its strings.
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§ 39.9 Look all around you, by the gods, and see how the Greeks, who once conquered everyone with their weapons, now do so with the virtues of their men in office. The advantage of having every city guided by the Muses’ rudders for the whole world. But since this was impossible, he has taken the single most beautiful possession he has [i.e., Musonius ] and has given it as a gift to this victorious city. In so doing he has aroused my rhetorical skills more than they say that the olive crown aroused the Olympic victor Cylon. That man wanted to be a tyrant but fell short of his desire; but you, [ Musonius ], have conquered by surrendering yourself to an emperor, and even before having armed yourself.
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§ 39.10 In representing the life of Achilles, Homer has him take up the lyre on one occasion and the spear on another; and you too, [sir], have intermingled your deeds and actions with your words. This is how Pericles led the people; this is how Themistocles governed. The platform held the orator, and the arena of war held the general. Oratory stood before the assembly, and trophies stood in the face of the enemy.
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§ 39.11 I understand that just such a mix of talents characterized Alcibiades. When he was full of the Lyceum and of what he had learned in the Lyceum, the image he projected was that of a very skilled speaker. He dazzled everyone into submission to himself. After leaving the Lyceum, he gave himself to the vicissitudes and activities of a public life. When he gave as much effort to arms as he had given to his studies, he became a military victor. The Hellespont saw his name inscribed on two trophies. The great king [of Persia ], the Macedonians, Thrace, and all humankind saw him get the better of everyone—now militarily, now verbally. That is why he was the only general deemed worthy of a Pythian proclamation.
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§ 39.12 But since Alcibiades, eloquence, Athens, the Lyceum, an Attic sophist [i.e., the vicar Musonius ], and auditoria filled with his presence have been mentioned, come let us also honor Nicias by our words— Nicias, who was Alcibiades’ colleague, and whom we revere as a good general over the whole course of his life. Rather, if it is agreeable to all of you, I will give you a full account of him. When the city of the Athenians was at its height, with the Lacedaemonians lying dead at Pylos and the [ Athenian ] people directing everything, Alcibiades and Nicias shared the generalship. They were rivals of one another, when doing so was to the benefit of the city.
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§ 39.13 With such a pair in control of everything, the city was filled with true happiness. The council deliberated under the guidance of the laws, there was prosperity in the marketplace, sacred processions were held and divine rites celebrated, vice was nowhere in sight, the rule of law and the rudder of reason were everywhere. Alcibiades spoke, and Nicias drafted laws. The one was general in the city, the other sailed around the Peloponnesus. Alcibiades was quick to understand [what the situation demanded], and Nicias was skilled at converting those views into a finished piece of legislation. They jointly held the generalship and jointly manned the rudders—just as when waters that emerge from a single source split into two rivers in the course of their flow but are connected with one another by the beauty of their nature.
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§ 39.14 Well, I would love to remain among you for a year and keep composing speeches. For whether one is seeking the islands of the blessed or an Ethiopian meadow of boundless fertility or the horn of Amaltheia, your city would satisfy everyone’s desire. And so I forgive and pardon Odysseus for having composed a very long speech at Alcinous’s palace; by prolonging his stay there he was delighting in his love of the place. Yet how much more worthy of respect than Homer’s Alcinous is your own—I mean the man with the same name [as your vicar].
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§ 39.15 Despite the remarkable qualities of this city, who will not [also] praise a man who has honestly guided the rudders of the Greeks in the company of a sweet Siren; for a persuasiveness always sits upon his lips. Who is warmer in friendship? Who is as well-suited for whatever fortune may bring? Who is as great when fortune comes with favorable winds, but no less stately if the breeze dies down?
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§ 39.16 Wait! The sound of chariots seems to strike me; “the din of swiftfooted horses strikes my ears” [Hom. Il. 10.535]. I seem to hear the emperor saying, “Think of your great-hearted return [to Constantinople ], glorious Odysseus.” So accept this cup of friendship for now, however little it contains. If the gods ever permit me to return, I shall address the city again after seeing the emperor, as I have now done before seeing him.
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§ 40.i The Discourse (Διάλεξις) in Philippi [ Himerius ] delivered this [discourse] extempore in Philippi when, having been summoned by the emperor Julian, he went off to the court. The first part of the speech [is aimed] at the city, the last part at [ Himerius’s] pupil Severus, who arranged for the oratorical display (ἐπιδείξεως) to be given.
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§ 40.1 Sometimes the swan sings by the ocean and, with its melody, outdoes the loudly resounding sea. Sometimes it sings by the eddies of the Cayster River and the waters of the Hermus or the Hyllus. On occasion it finds a small spring of pure and translucent water; it is delighted by the spring and, after washing its wing, honors the waters with song.
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§ 40.2 Will a sophist, then, appear to be less vocal than a swan? Will he rush past an ancient city in silence. Philippi, you know, was a city [of the] ancient [world] even before Philip. Its population was Attic. It was the work of Callistratus, who gave the city the language it deserved. Rather, let me say that, given that there are two blessings universally held in high regard, wisdom and good fortune, your city has obtained one of these from each of your two founders; through the Athenians it got wisdom, and through Philip it took pride in its power and good fortune.
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§ 40.3 Come, then, let me set up a krater here for Zeus, god of friendship. Let me pay back the altar of Zeus, god of hospitality, with a gift of eloquence. For this is an ancient law, that one should pay back those who have initiated a friendship from the resources one has. The husbandman honors others with sheaves of grain, the grape-presser with bunches of grapes, the hunter with his bag; all honor others with all the things from which they make a living. The guest swallow comes with her melody, the cicada with his song, the nightingale with her Attic odes, no doubt to remind those who speak Attic Greek of Athens. She does not judge locations in which to exercise her voice on the basis of their size; she is happy with any grove that can resound with her songs.
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§ 40.4 Of course, even Homer knew this law to which I am referring. Thus, wishing to inscribe this law on everyone, he imposes wandering on no one but an orator, so that [that orator], Odysseus, may, by speaking, make the ordinance unshakable. So Odysseus spoke on Ogygia and filled the great island with his eloquence. Again, he spoke among the Phaeacians and made Alcinous’s city great by means of his oratory.
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§ 40.5 When Gorgias of Leontini —for, as it advances, my oration has discovered that a sophist and not a poet was the originator of the law we are considering— when Gorgias went on an embassy from Sicily to Athens, he amazed the city with his oratory. He had to proceed from Athens through Boeotia, but he did not pass by Plataea before addressing that ancient city.
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§ 40.6 Now since our rule has been ratified by the customary practice of a sophist and the utterance of a poet, come let us also get the approval of philosophy. There was a man named Hermias, of the stock of Atarneus. Atarneus is a city of the Mysians, not large but a splendid place to see, and named after a Mysian king. Now Hermias was a pupil of the Stagirite [i.e., Aristotle ], one of those most closely attached to him. With all the virtue Hermias possessed, he affected his mentor deeply, causing Aristotle to love him from the bottom of his heart. Aristotle gave many indications, as one can hear told, of his love of Hermias. He trained him thoroughly in eloquence and taught him virtue, and Hermias was the only one of Aristotle’s pupils whose death he honored with an elegiac poem. But let me tell you now about the strongest evidence Aristotle gave of his devotion to Hermias.
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§ 40.7 The great philosopher happened to be summoned to Asia by Alexander [the Great] to be both herald and observer of his Persian victories. When in the course of his journey he reached Atarneus and saw that the whole of that small city was thirsting for virtue and wisdom, he did not pass by it in silence but saluted the city and Hermias with a short composition.
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§ 40.8 This, O friends, is my thank-offering for your hospitality. If the gods permit it, I shall set up fuller kraters for the city on another occasion.
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§ 41.i [The Oration in Constantinople ] [ Himerius ] went to give a display of his eloquence in Constantinople when he was traveling to the emperor Julian’s court, to which he had been summoned. He was initiated in the Mithraic mysteries before giving his oratorical display. He then delivered his oration to the city and to the emperor who had established the initiatory rite [in Constantinople ].63
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§ 41.1 I have cleansed my soul through Mithra the Sun, and through the gods I have spent time with an emperor [ Julian ] who is a friend of the gods. So let me now light not a torch, but an oration for the emperor and the city. Attic law commands initiates to carry light and stalks of grain to Eleusis as signs of a civilized life. But for our [fellow Mithraic] initiates let me propose an oration as a thank-offering, since Apollo and the Sun, I think, are one and the same, and words are children of Apollo. Having begun, then, with the gods, let us now address the city.
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§ 41.2 Again there are Attic Muses [i.e., Himerius ] in your midst; again Athens addresses its own progeny. It seems to me that the whole of learning is a friend of this city. That is why, when Constantinople was about to bring forth a man divinely fated to be emperor [i.e., Julian ], the city left it to the Muses to be the midwives of his character, so that he might surpass [all] those who had ever prided themselves on the good fortune [of the imperial throne]—surpass them, I mean, in virtue rather than in [mere] good fortune. My own learning was destined, as if by some better fate from on high, to belong to this city. Let me tell you what the greatest proof of that is. When this learning of mine, after enduring Attic contests and winning the great garlands of the virgin goddess [ Athena ], had to leave Attica and sow the rest of the earth with the seeds of learning it got there, fate did not take it to the Rhine in the West, nor did it carry it to the fabulous waters of Ocean. No, fate brought it, while still in its prime and sprouting its first beard, to you, so that it might plait together a hymn for the city from still tender buds. But when its hair turned gray, when it got gray locks, it praised the emperor on his own, so that this city might again be a prelude to the hymns of praise to be offered to him. Let us now, then, first address the city, beginning with what it is proud of and rejoices in.
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§ 41.3 O city that lit the torch of freedom for all humankind! O city that conceived and brought forth a fortunate infant! O city that brought into the light a child who was even better than one whom your mother-city itself brought forth! For the first offspring of your mother-city was Cecrops. He was not yet a genuine human being, since, from the waist down, he had his mother’s [serpentine] coils, and he did not yet speak Attic Greek. But your offspring, of course, has an unmixed nature. In him there is a conjunction of the highest good fortune and the highest virtue; both shaped his birth, I think, and they were present, not in half measure, but in full.
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§ 41.4 All lyres have made the island of Delos, which had the honor of being the place of Apollo’s divine birth, the subject of poem and song, even though it is a small island, almost hidden by the waves. But you are not what people call an island or an [ordinary] city; you are almost a complete continent that has given rise to a city, and what poet or prosewriter would not hymn you with good reason? I marvel and am amazed at all your other features, too. For you are the beginning of Europe and also its end, and you have been allotted the same role in Asia. With you the billowy [ Euxine (Black)] Sea comes to a halt, and the Aegean issues forth from you.
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§ 41.5 The great Bosporus is your neighbor—straits that all poets and all orators vie with one another in praising, straits that calmed the sea for Zeus’s beloved [ Io ] and, in my opinion, prophesied that they would nurse in their bosom an emperor sprung from Zeus. For it is said that it was by Zeus’s decision that Inachus’s daughter Io was transformed from a maiden into a cow and swam these waters, giving the straits their name as an indication of what her fortune had been on that occasion.
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§ 41.6 Who could find great or beautiful enough words with which to hymn your great size or beauty? This city begins to be bathed by the waters that are almost halfway across the straits. It extended itself quite a distance to the west, making a great city out of the mainland that welcomed it and leaving not even its crannies vacant nor the that circumscribes whole peninsula. Once spread out over the whole shoreline and all the plains, it then actually turned the sea itself into part of the mainland and forced it to become part of the city; it has turned what by its nature is rolling and constantly on the move [i.e., the sea] into something immobile.
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§ 41.7 Now when Homer wanted to make Sparta’s great size clear in his poetry by giving it an appropriate epithet, he call it κητωέσσαν, meaning “of considerable magnitude.” If this really is the right word to use to describe a city’s size, then I should apply it to you, [ Constantinople ], not Homer to Sparta, although this city, in my view, does not have size. For just as in a necklace gold the gems, so too Constantinople combines the flower of beauty with its great size. Hence the city’s gold causes people to look now here, now there. The wonders of its craftsmanship attract those who behold them. Its senate- house shines forth, its baths are enchanting, its theaters also win people’s favor. Everything here is, quite simply, Aphrodite’s kestos!
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§ 41.8 I have not yet mentioned the greatest and most beautiful ornament of the city, an ornament that shines on the city’s splendor more brightly than any gold and makes its beauty more colorful than any artificial dye. I am referring to the divine emperor. The city that brought him forth is every day the recipient of countless favors from him, and countless ornaments and crowns from him wreath its head. He does not favor it merely with great and beautiful buildings. He has also washed away by his virtue the darkness that was preventing us from lifting our hands up to the Sun and has thereby given us the gift of raising us up to heaven as if from some Tartarus or lightless life. He has raised up temples to the gods, has established religious rites from abroad in the city, and has made sacred the mysteries of the heavenly gods introduced into the city. He did not heal everything gradually, as those with human skills heal the sick, but all at once with benefits of [spiritual] health that took immediate effect. After all, one would have expected someone who links his nature with the Sun both to give light and to reveal a better life.
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§ 41.9 He also builds up the reputation of the city by his daily actions and deeds, just as the deeds of Romulus exalt Romulus’s city, and the famous trials of virtue endured by Heracles exalt Heracles’ city. If anyone should ask the Athenians why they are so much more high-spirited than other people, they begin with Theseus and trace their long line of successes from him. Danaus is an ornament to the Argives, just as Lycurgus is to the Spartiates. Lycurgus was the beginning of Sparta, for before his time people almost refused to live there. The Amphipolitans, reassigning their city from Hagnon to Brasidas, pride themselves more on the virtue of that Laconian [i.e., Brasidas ] than on the marvelous features of their land that nature has given them. What better ornament is there for this city than such a great emperor, who is so proud of his native land?
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§ 41.10 In building up [a verbal picture of ] an Assyrian city, the Carian Muse —I mean Herodotus’s Muse [Hdt. 1.178–80], almost superior to poetry—divides and walls the city by means of a barbarian river [i.e., the Euphrates ]. But your wall is a great emperor and the sea, the emperor making a wall of arms for the city and the sea protecting it with its waves.
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§ 41.11 The population of a city of such size had to be proportionately large. For if the stars are an adornment to the heavens, a city’s glory is its inhabitants. Those who call themselves a race sprung from their native land trace their cities’ origins back to a mythical founder. They invent stories that go against the laws of nature because they lack any connection with higher beings. This was your condition. But a family that derived from the gods mated with unstable humanity and by mating produced a family of heroes. This stock commingled with you and truly made this city a reflection of some heavenly world.
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§ 41.12 Consequently—and given that the whole city is so attentive to it—philosophy dwells among you, both foreign-born and native philosophy. Like a good bee from undefiled meadows making honey, it feeds on the whole city. Now it buzzes in the theaters and through its personal efforts unites you to the Academy and to Ariston’s son [ Plato ]; then it fills the souls of the young with the whole of virtue, just as they say that Pythagoras did when he was fortifying Italy against the Lyceum.
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§ 41.13 When poets were building Athena’s ship the Argo, the first vessel and the one that opened up your shores, they favored it, I think, with a divine cargo; for this vessel, which alone was the work of Athena, had to be rowed by heroes. Like the Argo, you too, [ Constantinople ], have a divine crew—not the crew of a single trireme, but that of a whole city. The nature of this cargo of yours is such that from beginning to end it is made pure by the gods.
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§ 41.14 And where in the chorus shall we place [i.e., the prefect] of this city? Clearly in first place. Think, for comparison, of a circular shield: whatever point you touch along the edge that runs around it is regarded as the first. Thus it is clearly quite essential that he who will sit at the rudders of the city be a master helmsman. If a city is small, then a man who is a counterfeit governor and uninitiated in the art of governing is only a small danger; for any damage he does, minimized by the city’s fortune, is hidden from general view. But I think that a city of high rank needs a person of high rank to steer such a great sea of a city. Let the city’s helmsman be gentle (h[pioˇ), to use Homer’s word, so that he may have this paternal designation that comes to him. Let him be mild in his words but quick in his actions so that he will not give offense by shouting but will be seen in action before people even expect any action to be taken. Let him build up the city, but only if its inhabitants rejoice in his projects and are not distressed by their cost; for if the city rejoices in his projects, it will not have the feeling that any money is being spent. Let him deepen the harbors and surround them with porticoes, which are a welcome relief for sailors from their toils at sea. Let him build temples to the gods; may he propitiate the higher powers and make them friendly to the city. Let him extend the portico whose royal character is confirmed, I think, by its beauty and size. Let him shun unjust gain because of an inclination to be just, not out of fear of the laws; for the latter motivation is a mark of cowardice, whereas the former is a mark of temperance.
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§ 41.15 It is reasonable to expect that he will be properly motivated if he is of noble birth, has been raised with a proper education and exposure to good literature, has plenty of royal standards to guide him, has so great an emperor as a witness to virtue, and receives the honor of office as a reward for his justice and not for a payment of gold. Homer has represented the man of Pylos [i.e., Nestor ] as having a sweeter voice than the other speakers at Troy. But this [urban prefect of ours], who holds such a great office, governs such a great city, and keeps the whole senate subject to his scepter, has a voice sweeter than honey, whomever he talks to. Thus he clearly outdoes Nestor, because, however much he is outdone by Nestor in age, he is superior to him in the charm of his eloquence.
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§ 41.16 Well, I have yielded to my love of the city, and I see that my words are leaping without restraint around their beloved. I fear that, if they stay here longer, they may suddenly end up suffering from forgetfulness, as if among some Lotus-eaters. So let me, let me now skillfully corral them in and set my eyes on the emperor. And let my love [of the city] be stirred up once again, [on another occasion], by all the arrows it wants to be the target of.
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§ 42.1 A Discourse (Διάλεξις) Addressed to the Prefect Salutius Who after Themistocles is wise, and who after Miltiades is earnest, and who after Aristides can resist a temptation of gain? Who outdoes Pericles in eloquence, who is more fervent in action than Alcibiades? Who is as fortunate in generalship as Nicias? Who has the mark of Phocion, an excellent judgment? Who is as untouched by accusers as was Cephalus — something he always boasted about? Who, with the same disposition as the Laconian, is so good to his friends?...
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§ 42.2 If I had the excess of gold that everyone says Croesus the Lydian, Midas the Phrygian, and Cinyras the Cyprian had...
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§ 42.3 They say that such was the friendship of Heracles and Theseus,165 who breathed one breath on behalf of the whole of humanity and, by their virtue, cleansed the whole earth and sea...
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§ 42.4 King Agesilaus, too, who was lucky to have Antandrus as a secretary and adviser, was once so exalted among the Ionians that Agesilaus himself seemed to be [their] king, while all of the Ionians loved him, for they knew that in times of need he would speak out against [their enemies]. Likewise, we see the great sun move in conjunction with the change of seasons so that, by its light, it may sustain each season as the latter peaks in line with time’s movements; yet the sun still remains unmoved in its nature. Likewise again, I think, they say that Themistocles yielded command of the fleet to Eurybiades yet seemed actually to remain its commander throughout.
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§ 43.1 To Flavianus the Proconsul Homer, wanting to honor virtue through the person of Odysseus, composed a whole poem [about him]....
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§ 43.2 Peleus, already old and no longer able to wield the ashen spear, sent Achilles to Troy to fight in the army....
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§ 43.3 But you, while wielding the inspired ashen spear in your vigorous right hand, were yourself seen to be father and teacher of the Attic race....
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§ 43.4 Now Pindar’s lyre, which sang its strains to Hieron, the tyrant of Sicily, ensures that that tyrant will always be a subject of song among human beings; and the tongue, which outdoes all the Muses and all trumpets and has hymned you with words, will never allow forgetfulness to challenge your deeds over the course of time....
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§ 43.5 See how Attic eloquence distinguishes you with a golden wild-olive branch, like some Olympic victor such as Glaucus or Timasarchus or [like] the gloriously triumphant one himself; see how it binds your brows with chaplets and wreaths from the Lyceum and the Academy....
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§ 43.6 So when the Egyptians see that Apis is born, they form a judgment about their future prosperity from the signs on the bull....
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§ 43.7 Iolaus, helping Heracles with his tasks as the latter struggled through his labors, was fitting for him, and so was Patroclus for [ Achilles ], son of Peleus.
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§ 44.i On the Birthday of His Students A talk (λαλιά) on the birthday of his students, which [ Himerius ] presented when about to depart for his fatherland [ Prusias ].
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§ 44.1 Although Homer’s Odysseus was longing for his fatherland and the memory of his kin, Alcinous the game-master induced him to display his prowess in return for the hospitality shown to him. The festivities were a public event; the sport was being dedicated to the gods; and in the midst of everything were all the Phaeacians, clad in white. Now Odysseus was present only in body, because yearning for the land that had reared him was taking hold of his mind. Still, he did not shrink from the competition, preparing himself to perform while the king [ Alcinous ] was watching him. The explanation of his frame of mind is as follows: although he loved his alone, the inducement he found for [prolonging further] his absence [from his fatherland] when he was thus summoned to action [among the Phaeacians ] was that he would be leaving a memorial of himself behind.
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§ 44.2 Now, my friends, isn’t my situation the same as that of Odysseus. Couldn’t our predicaments be similarly represented? Come, then, let me, with one and the same effort, both celebrate a birthday and make my separation [from home] less painful, as I emulate in word that man of Ithaca, who long ago competed in deed. A display of the voice’s music is similar, I think, to a demonstration of the body’s strength.
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§ 44.3 O most beautiful and revered season of the whole year, in which Demeter and Bacchus, [who represent] the choice products of the land, join together! Demeter has already been working at the threshing-floor and is bringing her work to an end; Bacchus begins before she finishes and causes his gift [the grape] to succeed hers. Hail to these two stewards of life, who have assigned a single time of the year [to their work]. This [young] man of mine belongs in their company, in third place. I am ashamed to refer to him as a mortal, yet I refrain from calling him a god; the latter would subject me to the charge of brazenness, the former would be putting forth a lie. I’ll call him a hero, and I am convinced that I shall thus be able to give him both mortal and divine praise. [Young man], your mind takes no delight in pretending that praises that belong to others are yours.
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§ 44.4 You do not have, as a distinguishing mark, the ivory shoulder of the descendants of Pelops. We cannot praise you for the very sharp swiftness of foot that belonged to the descendants of Perseus. Your badge is not the golden knot of hair worn at the top of the head by the descendants of Cecrops. No, what you have is self-respect, grace, and nobility of character.
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§ 44.5 Now if you deemed Egypt worthy of your birthday and [yet] are celebrating this pleasant festivity here [in Athens ], [at least] hear about what is most excellent in that land. And what would that be? What is it that has adorned that land? You are familiar with the Nile’s love life, for you have heard the sound of his waters and furthermore have seen that marvelous river with your own eyes. You are familiar with the Nile’s consort too, who carries in her womb and brings forth all manner of fruit. The greatest aspect of their relationship is that, when the river recedes, it does not withdraw so much that it cannot still love and be loved by its consort. Also, people have stood to contemplate the size of the pyramids, and they have marveled at Apis, in the form of a bull, as he predicts the future. Meroe’s sound and the din of the Cataracts would often detain travelers by their wondrousness. That marble statue of Memnon, which produces through an inanimate sound an animate utterance, has been regarded as a divinity who salutes the divine Sun. These are the great excellences of Egypt; these are what adorn your [birthday] celebration.
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§ 44.6 Add to these wonders my modest Muse, if you wish, a Muse that may be pleasing to many but prefers one person alone. Tradition holds that the most sweet-sounding Xenophon, he who outdid swarms of bees in his eloquence and imitated oozing honey in his narrative, did not regard the hero Alcibiades as a friend, even though the son of Cleinias [i.e., Alcibiades ] was his classmate and loved [him] alone and had heard Socrates’ teachings together with Xenophon. Tradition also holds that Xenophon was not keen on associating with the magisterial Plato, for he knew that Plato had many friends in his philosophical circle and would transfer his love [from the resourceless] to the wealthy. Xenophon would associate only with Cyrus, and he provided Cyrus with an excellent arena in which to be schooled. I don’t know from my own experience whether Cyrus recognized Xenophon’s worth. But I do find that Cyrus is constantly honored by Xenophon.
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§ 44.7 Now, most excellent fellow—for you outstrip my eloquence by your resources of character—do not judge this thank-offering of mine by its length, but rather by its intention; ascribe the weakness of my song solely to the [limited] time I have for it. The men of Andros, a people not unversed in expressing gratitude, once experienced kind fortune from Apollo. When they subsequently wanted to pay the god back, they merely lit a fire, since they had no better sacrifice to make. The god was pleased with their manner of thanking him, accepted the fire’s flame alone, and preferred this symbol of their homage to a drink-offering. I, O friends, speak only a few words, but there are greater sentiments within me to which I am giving birth. I hope to present them to you, [young man], when they are mature and it is the season for them.
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§ 45.i A Talk (λαλιά) Given upon His Student’s [Recovery of His Health. The talk includes a treatment of envy.
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§ 45.1 The swallow opens the theater of its voice after the winter’s cold and does not hide the song produced by its beautiful tongue once it sees that luscious spring has bloomed again. Cicadas sing in the walks once the month hostile to budding passes, the month I have heard poets call “leaf-shedding.”61
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§ 45.2 Thus it is not unfitting for me to play my appropriate role too and once again to greet those I love with song after they have been ill. What a day that was that recently presented itself to me, when an attack of fever seemed to plague everything! I shared in the suffering, my friends; I got a taste of the disease through my love [of its victim]. I was not physically ill, but my mental suffering was worse than any physical suffering. And I cannot fault my mind for having been in that state
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§ 45.3 for, as Demosthenes said, when the head is ill, every ailment suddenly befalls you. So too, when the helmsman is ill, the whole ship suffers with him; and when the leader of a chorus lies sick, the chorus remains joyless. So naturally at that time I beheld the sun rather dimly. The Nile seemed to me to be dejected, even though it was in flood. It was as though I had exchanged my present existence for the very dark life of the Cimmerians. But now we have dismissed the envy [of fortune], and festivity takes over the future.
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§ 45.4 My friends, I want to tell you a story that has a bearing on what has happened. Dionysus was still young, and the race of “ Telchines ” sprung up against the god. Bacchus started growing up, and all the Titans were bursting with envy. Finally, not able to contain themselves, they wanted to tear the god apart. They prepared snares and readied drugs and the stings of slander against him and tried to trick him about who they were. They hated Silenus and Satyrus, I believe, and they called them sorcerers because they pleased Bacchus. So what happened as a result of this? Dionysus lay wounded, I think, and bemoaned the serious blow he had suffered. The vine was dejected, wine was sad, grapes seemed to be crying, and Bacchus’s ankle was not yet in any condition to move. But crying did not win out in the end, nor did victory go to the enemy. For Zeus the overseer had his eye on everything. He got Dionysus back on his feet, as we are told, and let the myths drive the Titans off.
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§ 46.i To Those Individuals Laying Snares for Him and to the Proconsul Basilius [ Himerius ] gave this talk (ἐλάλησε), coming forward to speak after the other sophists. The first part is directed, in an ironic and, at the same time, striking manner, at those who were laying snares for him; the last part, at the proconsul [of Greece], Basilius, the son of Basilius, who set the theme. [ Himerius ] hints that he developed the topic extempore.
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§ 46.1 What love of my eloquence, dear friend, has got hold of you? Who persuaded you to let my Muse, cast out and dishonored as she is, into your ears like something great and splendid? By the very Muses, haven’t you taken notice of my situation? (Perhaps I still have left to me the option of invoking these free and happy goddesses. For the hostile proclamation issued against me has not reached them. They do love the champions of Apollo and Hermes and sport with them. And a malicious and harsh command may have force over human beings—although not over those who are highly noble—but surely such a command is shooed away from any chorus of gods.)
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§ 46.2 In any case, do you understand, my friend— and I call you, as well as the Muses, my friend—that it is just as if I am under a long siege? For the whole population is at war with me, some of their own accord, some by agreement with others. I have no idea of what complaint against me has caused this war. They say that they hear it said that I want to dance in honor of the Muses.
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§ 46.3 Now the Libethrii, who lived near Mt. Pangaeum, admired and took delight in the Thracian Orpheus, the son of Calliope, before he revealed to them the songs he had learned from his mother the Muse. But once he took up his lyre and sang a divinely inspired melody to them, the wretches were overcome by envy. Having dared to commit an act of womanly insolence against him and his melodious songs, they were subsequently turned into women in story.
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§ 46.4 They also say that the Phrygian storyteller Aesop, who was laughed at and made fun of not because of some of his tales, but on account of his looks and the sound of his voice, was very wise and therefore a priest of Apollo, and that the people of Delphi, even though they lived next to the prophetic god [ Apollo ], were so ignorant of the man that, by an unjust decree they got passed against him, they hurled him down from a rocky precipice and did away with him.
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§ 46.5 But neither did Orpheus’s mother neglect him after [having taught him how to play] the lyre, nor did Apollo neglect the Phrygian [ Aesop ]. Instead of Orpheus’s lyre, which they chose to dishonor, the Libethrii got madness, a lack of music, and silence. Song fled from them, it went into the wilderness and won over oak trees, rocks, country birds, and a small band of shepherds. Even though [his country associates] uttered few sounds, Orpheus delighted in them more than he did in the voices of the Libethrii, because, being musical and quietly listening to his song, they sounded forth clearly in response to his lyre. As for the people of Delphi, they paid a penalty to their ancestral god [ Apollo ] for their violent treatment of Aesop.
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§ 46.6 These matters were and will be a concern to the gods of eloquence. But now we must compare you to the leader of the Muses himself [i.e., Apollo ], taking Sappho and Pindar as our models. In their poems they equip him with golden hair and a lyre and escort him to Mt. Helicon, carried by swans, so that he may dance there with the Muses and the Graces. Or we could imitate poets inspired by the Muses who, once spring has first shone forth, crown Bacchiotes—this is the name lyric poetry calls him by, meaning Dionysus —with vernal flowers and clusters of ivy berries. These poets lead the god, now to the high peaks of the Caucasus and to the vale of Lydia, now to the crags of Mt. Parnassus and the Delphic rock, as he leaps and leads the Bacchae in the cry “euoi.” While this is going on, we are told, the earth, as if aware of the god’s coming, flows with honey and milk and with rivers of nectar itself for Satyrs and Bacchae to draw from. It smiles sweetly and with golden gleam and swells everywhere with flowers, so that the god can leap and play in them. And it seems to me that earth does all this appropriately for the god.
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§ 46.7 Do you desire to see my eloquence? Am I getting a sign from you to speak? Yes, I obey you. Because of that sign I have persuaded my eloquence to have no fear of the contest, to produce something, to show others what it has conceived, and to allow [what it produces] to reside in your sacred precincts, just like the gods’ sacred birds residing in [hallowed] groves. In fact—and I accuse myself before you [in saying this]— that eloquence of mine has threatened even more, that, once kindled and having dared to strip [for action], it will wound itself and you, its father. Look, it is emboldened, rises up, puts together all its charm for you, and sets its spells in motion. It is already dancing and, through me, is singing a song to you.
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§ 46.8 O son of a divine person! O offspring of a consular father! O you who have received the scepter of your father’s virtue, and no less a scepter than that which Homer [Il. 2.204–5] gives to the king of the Achaeans, bringing that accoutrement to Agamemnon from Zeus on high! You are an evening star, I think, “of all stars the most beautiful.”179 This is Sappho’s song the evening star [frag. 104b Campbell].
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§ 46.9 They say that Peleus of Thessaly, already old and because of his age not ready for war, bedecked his son Achilles with his own arms when the latter was still young and just getting a beard. He sent Achilles to Troy to be a general to the Greeks, and he sent him, not from the girls’ apartments and the house of Lycomedes —let us not believe the myths on this point—but from Mt. Pelion and from Chiron. Hence right in the midst of battle Achilles played his lyre
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§ 46.10 and sang what the Centaur [ Chiron ] had taught him. He frightened the Trojans with his golden weapons and saved the Greeks. But you come to the Greeks for our benefit, not with golden weapons for us, but with a golden Justice and a golden Right ( Themis ), the assessors of your father. Justice and Right received you in their bosoms when you were born; right from the time when you were in swaddling clothes they nursed you, not with bees’ honey, but with respect for law and with learning, by which the soul’s nature is reared and fostered. They first led you to Zeus’s daughter [ Athena ], and they [now] proudly bring you to the goddess [i.e., to Athens ] as their offspring.
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§ 46.11 It was a poet’s role to give wings to Fame, to send her westwards through the skies and announce to your father your reputation and what the Greeks are saying about you, and to organize a chorus of swans around Fame and make you the subject of the birds’ song. But these things to poets; I sing my own melody now and perhaps shall do so again.
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§ 47.i To the Same Basilius during the Panathenaea at the Beginning of Spring
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§ 47.1 “Hail, dear light, who in your smile display such beauty of face!. Having taken a song from lyric, I shall sing it to you at your arrival. I would have gladly persuaded my words to become lyrical and poetic, so that I could say something about you that has a youthful verve to it, as Simonides or Pindar did about Dionysus and Apollo. But my [prosaic] words are proud and hold their heads up high; they frolic without the restraint and beyond the confines of meter. So I made a little request of poetry, to give me a song of Teos (for I love this Muse ), something from the stores of Anacreon. I come to you bearing this hymn, and I have added something to the song myself: “O light of the Greeks, of us who dwell on the sacred plain of Pallas [ Athena ] and in the groves of the Muses!”
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§ 47.2 For you persuade me now to speak and sing. You appeared to us, yes, you appeared as Homer [Il. 7.4–6] says a fair wind comes to exhausted sailors, or just as the evening star is likely to appear to those about to dance in honor of Aphrodite. People who are worn out as [those sailors were] yearn for a messenger of peace; people who are fleeing from storms and clouds desire to see the bright sun.
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§ 47.3 Now, my boys, spring has really come. Now I feel that season in the air. Now the nightingales’ songs seem to me to be a joyful ode, not a lament; and I agree with those who say that the birds are striking up a song in praise of the gods, not for the boy [ Itys ]. I leave that Thracian myth to the Attic swallows. I am convinced that they, along with the nightingales, are also striking up a vernal song, not a mournful ode.. Now the waters of the Ilissus are ample and clear, and perhaps the river is again portending the mysteries of Deo. If swans ever made song with the Zephyr around the banks of the Ilissus, as they do at the Cayster and the Hebrus, they will fill these banks with their music now more than before. And even if a person never saw these birds at the river [ Ilissus ] on a previous occasion, he is predicting that their music will [now] come to Attic meadows.
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§ 47.5 Who of you has seen how the very earth is blooming and has sprouted? Crops appear before their season for you, [Basilius], and show their mature spikes, when even their vernal [spikelet] flowers seemed wondrous to those who saw them. The earth is crowned and adorned, not with the anemone, violets, and the rest, but with the gifts of Dionysus and the gleaming wreath of Deo,186 as if, it seems to me, the gods are giving these gifts to the Greeks because of you, [Basilius].

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Robert J. Penella (1947 - ). Composed ca. 380 CE. Licence: copyright Robert J. Penella, used by permission. Source.