Philostratus the Athenian, Life of Apollonius of Tyana

ἀδελφὰ γὰρ τούτοις ἐπιτηδεύσαντα Ἀπολλώνιον καὶ θειότερον ἢ ὁ Πυθαγόρας τῇ σοφίᾳ προσελθόντα τυραννίδων τε ὑπεράραντα καὶ γενόμενον κατὰ χρόνους οὔτʼ ἀρχαίους οὔτʼ αὖ νέους οὔπω οἱ ἄνθρωποι γιγνώσκουσιν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθινῆς σοφίας, ἣν φιλοσόφως τε καὶ ὑγιῶς ἐπήσκησεν, ἀλλʼ ὁ μὲν τό, ὁ δὲ τὸ ἐπαινεῖ τοῦ ἀνδρός, οἱ δέ, ἐπειδὴ μάγοις Βαβυλωνίων καὶ Ἰνδῶν Βραχμᾶσι καὶ τοῖς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ Γυμνοῖς συνεγένετο, μάγον ἡγοῦνται αὐτὸν καὶ διαβάλλουσιν ὡς βιαίως σοφόν, κακῶς γιγνώσκοντες· Ἐμπεδοκλῆς τε γὰρ καὶ Πυθαγόρας αὐτὸς καὶ Δημόκριτος ὁμιλήσαντες μάγοις καὶ πολλὰ δαιμόνια εἰπόντες οὔπω ὑπήχθησαν τῇ τέχνῃ, Πλάτων τε βαδίσας ἐς Αἴγυπτον καὶ πολλὰ τῶν ἐκεῖ προφητῶν τε καὶ ἱερέων ἐγκαταμίξας τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ λόγοις καὶ καθάπερ ζωγράφος ἐσκιαγραφημένοις ἐπιβαλὼν χρώματα οὔπω μαγεύειν ἔδοξε καίτοι πλεῖστα ἀνθρώπων φθονηθεὶς ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ. οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ προαισθέσθαι πολλὰ καὶ προγνῶναι διαβάλλοι ἂν τὸν Ἀπολλώνιον ἐς τὴν σοφίαν ταύτην, ἢ διαβεβλήσεταί γε καὶ Σωκράτης ἐφʼ οἷς παρὰ τοῦ δαιμονίου προεγίγνωσκε καὶ Ἀναξαγόρας ἐφʼ οἷς προὔλεγε· καίτοι τίς οὐκ οἶδε τὸν Ἀναξαγόραν Ὀλυμπίασι μέν, ὁπότε ἥκιστα ὗε, παρελθόντα ὑπὸ κωδίῳ ἐς τὸ στάδιον ἐπὶ προρρήσει ὄμβρου οἰκίαν τε, ὡς πεσεῖται, προειπόντα μὴ ψεύσασθαι, πεσεῖν γάρ, νύκτα τε ὡς ἐξ ἡμέρας ἔσται καὶ ὡς λίθοι περὶ Αἰγὸς ποταμοὺς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐκδοθήσονται, προαναφωνήσαντα ἀληθεῦσαι; καὶ σοφίᾳ ταῦτα τοῦ Ἀναξαγόρου προστιθέντες ἀφαιροῦνται τὸν Ἀπολλώνιον τὸ κατὰ σοφίαν προγιγνώσκειν καί φασιν, ὡς μάγῳ τέχνῃ ταῦτʼ ἔπραττεν. δοκεῖ οὖν μοι μὴ περιιδεῖν τὴν τῶν πολλῶν ἄγνοιαν, ἀλλʼ ἐξακριβῶσαι τὸν ἄνδρα τοῖς τε χρόνοις, καθʼ οὓς εἶπέ τι ἢ ἔπραξε, τοῖς τε τῆς σοφίας τρόποις, ὑφʼ ὧν ἔψαυσε τοῦ δαιμόνιός τε καὶ θεῖος νομισθῆναι. ξυνείλεκται δέ μοι τὰ μὲν ἐκ πόλεων, ὁπόσαι αὐτοῦ ἤρων, τὰ δὲ ἐξ ἱερῶν, ὁπόσα ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ ἐπανήχθη παραλελυμένα τοὺς θεσμοὺς ἤδη, τὰ δὲ ἐξ ὧν εἶπον ἕτεροι περὶ αὐτοῦ, τὰ δὲ ἐκ τῶν ἐκείνου ἐπιστολῶν. ἐπέστελλε δὲ βασιλεῦσι σοφισταῖς φιλοσόφοις Ἠλείοις Δελφοῖς Ἰνδοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις ὑπὲρ θεῶν ὑπὲρ ἐθῶν ὑπὲρ ἠθῶν ὑπὲρ νόμων, παρʼ οἷς ὅ τι ἁμαρτάνοιτο, ἐπηνώρθου. τὰ δὲ ἀκριβέστερα ὧδε συνελεξάμην·

For Apollonius, who pursued practices akin to these, who approached wisdom in a more divine way than Pythagoras, who rose above tyrannies, and who lived at a time neither ancient nor yet recent, people do not yet recognise for the true wisdom which he practised as a philosopher and soundly; but one praises one thing about the man, another another, while some, because he associated with the Magi of the Babylonians, the Brahmans of the Indians and the Naked [Sages] in Egypt, consider him a magos [magician] and slander him as one whose wisdom works by force, judging wrongly; for Empedocles and Pythagoras himself and Democritus associated with Magi and uttered many inspired things, and yet were never charged with the art; and Plato, who went to Egypt and mixed much of what the prophets and priests there taught into his own discourses, and, like a painter, laid colours on what had been sketched in outline, was never thought to practise magic, although he was envied for his wisdom more than any man. Nor would his having perceived and foreknown many things in advance bring Apollonius into disrepute for this kind of wisdom; or else Socrates too will be discredited for what he foreknew from his daimonion [divine sign], and Anaxagoras for what he foretold. And yet who does not know that Anaxagoras at Olympia, when there was least likelihood of rain, came into the stadium wearing a fleece as a prediction of rain; that he foretold that a house would fall and was not wrong, for it fell; and that he announced beforehand that there would be night out of day and that stones would be let fall from the sky around Aegospotami, and was proved right? And while they ascribe these things to the wisdom of Anaxagoras, they deny Apollonius foreknowledge through wisdom, and say that he did these things by a magician's art. It seems right to me, then, not to overlook the ignorance of the many, but to give an exact account of the man, both of the times at which he said or did anything and of the ways of wisdom through which he came to be thought superhuman and divine. I have collected [my material] partly from the cities that loved him, partly from the shrines whose rites had already lapsed and were restored by him, partly from what others have said about him, and partly from his own letters. He wrote letters to kings, sophists, philosophers, Eleans, Delphians, Indians and Egyptians, about gods, about customs, about morals, about laws, and corrected whatever was being done wrong among them. The more exact details I have collected as follows.

ὁποῖοι μὲν δὴ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες καὶ ὅπως οἰκοῦντες τὸν ὄχθον, αὐτὸς ὁ ἀνὴρ δίεισιν· ἐν μιᾷ γὰρ τῶν πρὸς Αἰγυπτίους ὁμιλιῶν εἶδον φησὶν Ἰνδοὺς Βραχμᾶνας οἰκοῦντας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ οὐκ ἐπʼ αὐτῆς, καὶ ἀτειχίστως τετειχισμένους, καὶ οὐδὲν κεκτημένους ἢ τὰ πάντων ταυτὶ δὲ ἐκεῖνος μὲν σοφώτερον ἔγραψεν, ὁ δέ γε Δάμις φησὶ χαμευνίᾳ μὲν αὐτοὺς χρῆσθαι, τὴν γῆν δὲ ὑποστρωννύναι πόας, ἃς ἂν αὐτοὶ αἱρῶνται, καὶ μετεωροποροῦντας δὴ ἰδεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἐς πήχεις δύο, οὐ θαυματοποιίας ἕνεκα, τὸ γὰρ φιλότιμον τοῦτο παραιτεῖσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας, ἀλλʼ ὁπόσα τῷ Ἡλίῳ ξυναποβαίνοντες τῆς γῆς δρῶσιν, ὡς πρόσφορα τῷ θεῷ πράττοντας. τό τοι πῦρ, ὃ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀκτῖνος ἐπισπῶνται καίτοι σωματοειδὲς ὂν οὔτε ἐπὶ βωμοῦ καίειν αὐτοὺς οὔτε ἐν ἰπνοῖς φυλάττειν, ἀλλʼ ὥς2περ τὰς αὐγάς, αἳ ἐξ ἡλίου τε ἀνακλῶνται καὶ ὕδατος, οὕτω μετέωρόν τε ὁρᾶσθαι αὐτὸ καὶ σαλεῦον ἐν τῷ αἰθέρι. τὸν μὲν οὖν δὴ Ἥλιον ὑπὲρ τῶν ὡρῶν, ἃς ἐπιτροπεύει αὐτός, ἵνʼ ἐς καιρὸν τῇ γῇ ἴωσι καὶ ἡ Ἰνδικὴ εὖ πράττῃ, νύκτωρ δὲ λιπαροῦσι τὴν ἀκτῖνα μὴ ἄχθεσθαι τῇ νυκτί, μένειν δέ, ὡς ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ἤχθη. τοιοῦτον μὲν δὴ τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίου τὸ ἐν τῇ γῇ τε εἶναι τοὺς Βραχμᾶνας καὶ οὐκ ἐν τῇ γῇ. τὸ δὲ ἀτειχίστως τετειχισμένους δηλοῖ τὸν ἀέρα, ὑφʼ ᾧ ζῶσιν, ὑπαίθριοι γὰρ δοκοῦντες αὐλίζεσθαι σκιάν τε ὑπεραίρουσιν αὑτῶν καὶ ὕοντος οὐ ψεκάζονται καὶ ὑπὸ τῷ ἡλίῳ εἰσίν, ἐπειδὰν αὐτοὶ βούλωνται. τὸ δὲ μηδὲν κεκτημένους τὰ πάντων ἔχειν ὧδε ὁ Δάμις ἐξηγεῖται· πηγαί, ὁπόσαι τοῖς βάκχοις παρὰ τῆς γῆς ἀναθρώσκουσιν, ἐπειδὰν ὁ Διόνυσος αὐτούς τε καὶ τὴν γῆν σείσῃ, φοιτῶσι καὶ τοῖς Ἰνδοῖς τούτοις ἑστιωμένοις τε καὶ ἑστιῶσιν· εἰκότως οὖν ὁ Ἀπολλώνιος τοὺς μηδὲν μὲν ἐκ παρασκευῆς, αὐτοσχεδίως δέ, ἃ βούλονται, ποριζομένους, ἔχειν φησίν, ἃ μὴ ἔχουσιν. κομᾶν δὲ ἐπιτηδεύουσιν, ὥσπερ Λακεδαιμόνιοι πάλαι καὶ Θούριοι Ταραντῖνοί τε καὶ Μήλιοι καὶ ὁπόσοις τὰ Λακωνικὰ ἦν ἐν λόγῳ, μίτραν τε ἀναδοῦνται λευκήν, καὶ γυμνὸν αὐτοῖς βάδισμα καὶ τὴν ἐσθῆτα ἐσχηματίζοντο παραπλησίως ταῖς ἐξωμίσιν. ἡ δὲ ὕλη τῆς ἐσθῆτος ἔριον αὐτοφυὲς ἡ γῆ φύει, λευκὸν μὲν ὥσπερ τὸ Παμφύλων, μαλακώτερον δὲ τίκτει, ἡ δὲ πιμελὴ οἷα ἔλαιον ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ λείβεται. τοῦτο ἱερὰν ἐσθῆτα ποιοῦνται καὶ εἴ τις ἕτερος παρὰ τοὺς Ἰνδοὺς τούτους ἀνασπῴη αὐτό, οὐ μεθίεται ἡ γῆ τοῦ ἐρίου. τὴν δὲ ἰσχὺν τοῦ δακτυλίου καὶ τῆς ῥάβδου, ἃ φορεῖν αὐτοὺς ἄμφω, δύνασθαι μὲν πάντα, δύω δὲ ἀρρήτω τετιμῆσθαι.

What sort of men they are and how they live on the hill, the man himself describes; for in one of his discourses to the Egyptians he says: “I saw Indian Brahmans living on the earth and not on it, walled without walls, and possessing nothing but what belongs to all.” This he wrote rather cleverly; but Damis says that they sleep on the ground, but spread under them on the ground grasses of their own choosing; and that he actually saw them walking in the air two cubits above the ground, not for the sake of working wonders, for these men disdain that kind of ambition, but because whatever they do while rising from the earth together with the Sun they do as acts fitting for the god. As for the fire which they draw down from the ray, although it is corporeal, they neither burn it on an altar nor keep it in ovens, but, like the gleams that are reflected from the sun and from water, so it is seen hanging aloft and flickering in the air. The Sun, then, [they entreat by day] concerning the seasons, which he himself governs, that they may come to the earth in due time and India may prosper; and at night they beseech the ray not to be vexed at the night, but to stay as it was brought down by them. Such, then, is the meaning of Apollonius' saying that the Brahmans are on the earth and not on the earth. “Walled without walls” refers to the air under which they live; for though they seem to camp in the open, they raise a shade over themselves, and when it rains they are not wetted, and they are in the sun whenever they themselves wish. That they possess nothing and yet have what belongs to all, Damis explains thus: springs, such as leap up out of the earth for the Bacchants when Dionysus shakes both them and the earth, flow also for these Indians when they feast or give feasts; so Apollonius rightly says that men who provide what they want without preparation, on the spot, have what they do not have. They make a practice of wearing their hair long, as the Spartans did long ago, and the Thurians, the Tarentines, the Melians and all who held Laconian ways in esteem, and they bind on a white headband; they go barefoot, and they arranged their clothing like the exōmis [one-shouldered tunic]. The material of the clothing is a wool that the earth grows of itself, white like the Pamphylian kind, but it bears it softer, and a grease like olive oil drips from it. This they make into a sacred garment, and if anyone other than these Indians tries to pull it up, the earth does not let go of the wool. As for the power of the ring and the staff, both of which they carry, [he says] it can do everything, and both are honoured as secrets.

μεταξὺ δὲ τῶν λόγων τούτων ἐφίσταται τοῖς σοφοῖς ὁ ἄγγελος Ἰνδοὺς ἄγων σωτηρίας δεομένους. καὶ παρῆγε γύναιον ἱκετεῦον ὑπὲρ παιδός, ὃν ἔφασκε μὲν ἑκκαίδεκα ἔτη γεγονέναι, δαιμονᾶν δὲ δύο ἔτη, τὸ δὲ ἦθος τοῦ δαίμονος εἴρωνα εἶναι καὶ ψεύστην. ἐρομένου δέ τινος τῶν σοφῶν, ὁπόθεν λέγοι ταῦτα, τοῦ παιδὸς τούτου ἔφη τὴν ὄψιν εὐπρεπεστέρου ὄντος ὁ δαίμων ἐρᾷ καὶ οὐ ξυγχωρεῖ αὐτῷ νοῦν ἔχειν, οὐδὲ ἐς διδασκάλου βαδίσαι ἐᾷ ἢ τοξότου, οὐδὲ οἴκοι εἶναι, ἀλλʼ ἐς τὰ ἔρημα τῶν χωρίων ἐκτρέπει, καὶ οὐδὲ τὴν φωνὴν ὁ παῖς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἔχει, ἀλλὰ βαρὺ φθέγγεται καὶ κοῖλον, ὥσπερ οἱ ἄνδρες, βλέπει δὲ ἑτέροις ὀφθαλμοῖς μᾶλλον ἢ τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ. κἀγὼ μὲν ἐπὶ τούτοις κλάω τε καὶ ἐμαυτὴν δρύπτω καὶ νουθετῶ τὸν υἱόν, ὁπόσα εἰκός, ὁ δὲ οὐκ οἶδέ με. διανοουμένης δέ μου τὴν ἐνταῦθα ὁδόν, τουτὶ δὲ πέρυσι διενοήθην, ἐξηγόρευσεν ὁ δαίμων ἑαυτὸν ὑποκριτῇ χρώμενος τῷ παιδί, καὶ δῆτα ἔλεγεν εἶναι μὲν εἴδωλον ἀνδρός, ὃς πολέμῳ ποτὲ ἀπέθανεν, ἀποθανεῖν δὲ ἐρῶν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ γυναικός, ἐπεὶ δὲ ἡ γυνὴ περὶ τὴν εὐνὴν ὕβρισε τριταίου κειμένου γαμηθεῖσα ἑτέρῳ, μισῆσαι μὲν ἐκ τούτου τὸ γυναικῶν ἐρᾶν, μεταρρυῆναι δὲ ἐς τὸν παῖδα τοῦτον. ὑπισχνεῖτο δέ, εἰ μὴ διαβάλλοιμι αὐτὸν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, δώσειν τῷ παιδὶ πολλὰ ἐσθλὰ καὶ ἀγαθά. ἐγὼ μὲν δὴ ἔπαθόν τι πρὸς ταῦτα, ὁ δὲ διάγει με πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον καὶ τὸν ἐμὸν οἶκον ἔχει μόνος οὐδὲν μέτριον οὐδὲ ἀληθὲς φρονῶν. ἤρετο οὖν ὁ σοφὸς πάλιν, εἰ πλησίον εἴη ὁ παῖς, ἡ δὲ οὐκ ἔφη, πολλὰ μὲν γὰρ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀφικέσθαι αὐτὸν πρᾶξαι ὁ δʼ ἀπειλεῖ κρημνοὺς καὶ βάραθρα καὶ ἀποκτενεῖν μοι τὸν υἱόν, εἰ δικαζοίμην αὐτῷ δεῦρο.θάρσει, ἔφη ὁ σοφός οὐ γὰρ ἀποκτενεῖ αὐτὸν ἀναγνοὺς ταῦτα καί τινα ἐπιστολὴν ἀνασπάσας τοῦ κόλπου ἔδωκε τῇ γυναικί, ἐπέσταλτο δὲ ἄρα ἡ ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς τὸ εἴδωλον ξὺν ἀπειλῇ καὶ ἐκπλήξει.

In the middle of these conversations the messenger came up to the sages, bringing Indians who were in need of deliverance. And he brought forward a poor woman pleading on behalf of her son, who she said was sixteen years old and had been possessed by a demon for two years; the demon's character, she said, was sly and lying. When one of the sages asked her on what grounds she said this, she said: “This boy of mine is rather good-looking, and the demon is in love with him, and does not let him keep his wits, nor allow him to go to school or to the archery master, nor to stay at home, but drives him off into desolate places; and the boy does not even keep his own voice, but speaks deep and hollow, like grown men, and he looks out with other eyes rather than his own. At this I weep and tear my cheeks, and admonish my son as far as is fitting, but he does not know me. When I was planning the journey here (and I planned it last year), the demon revealed himself, using the boy as his actor, and indeed he said that he was the ghost of a man who had once died in war, and that he had died in love with his own wife; but when his wife outraged their bed by marrying another man when he had lain dead only three days, from then on he came to hate loving women, and flowed over into this boy. And he promised that, if I did not denounce him to you, he would give the boy many fine and good things. I was somewhat swayed by this; but he has been stringing me along for a long time now, and has my house to himself, with no moderate or honest intent.” So the sage asked again whether the boy was nearby, and she said no; for she had done a great deal to get him to come, “but he threatens cliffs and chasms, and to kill my son, if I take him to court here.” “Take heart,” said the sage, “for he will not kill him once he has read this.” And drawing a letter from the fold of his robe, he gave it to the woman; and the letter, it turned out, was addressed to the ghost, with threats and menace.

τοιούτοις μὲν δὴ λόγοις ξυνεῖχε τὴν Σμύρναν, ἐπεὶ δὲ ἡ νόσος τοῖς Ἐφεσίοις ἐνέπεσε καὶ οὐδὲν ἦν πρὸς αὐτὴν αὔταρκες, ἐπρεσβεύοντο παρὰ τὸν Ἀπολλώνιον, ἰατρὸν· ποιούμενοι αὐτὸν τοῦ πάθους, ὁ δὲ οὐκ ᾤετο δεῖν ἀναβάλλεσθαι τὴν ὁδόν, ἀλλʼ εἰπὼν ἴωμεν ἦν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ, τοῦ Πυθαγόρου, οἶμαι, ἐκεῖνο πράττων τὸ ἐν Θουρίοις ὁμοῦ καὶ Μεταποντίοις εἶναι. ξυναγαγὼν οὖν τοὺς Ἐφεσίους θαρσεῖτε, ἔφη τήμερον γὰρ παύσω τὴν νόσον, καὶ εἰπὼν ἦγεν ἡλικίαν πᾶσαν ἐπὶ τὸ θέατρον, οὗ τὸ τοῦ Ἀποτροπαίου ἵδρυται. πτωχεύειν δέ τις ἐνταῦθα ἐδόκει γέρων ἐπιμύων τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τέχνῃ, καὶ πήραν ἔφερε καὶ ἄρτου ἐν αὐτῇ τρύφος, ῥάκεσί τε ἠμφίεστο καὶ αὐχμηρῶς εἶχε τοῦ προσώπου. περιστήσας οὖν τοὺς Ἐφεσίους αὐτῷ βάλλετε τὸν θεοῖς ἐχθρὸν εἶπε ξυλλεξάμενοι τῶν λίθων ὡς πλείστους. θαυμαζόντων δὲ τῶν Ἐφεσίων, ὅ τι λέγοι, καὶ δεινὸν ἡγουμένων, εἰ ξένον ἀποκτενοῦσιν ἀθλίως οὕτω πράττοντα, καὶ γὰρ ἱκέτευε καὶ πολλὰ ἐπὶ ἐλέῳ ἔλεγεν, ἐνέκειτο παρακελευόμενος τοῖς Ἐφεσίοις ἐρείδειν τε καὶ μὴ ἀνιέναι. ὡς δὲ ἀκροβολισμῷ τινες ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ἐχρήσαντο καὶ ʽὁ̓ καταμύειν δοκῶν ἀνέβλεψεν ἀθρόον πυρός τε μεστοὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔδειξε, ξυνῆκαν οἱ Ἐφέσιοι τοῦ δαίμονος καὶ κατελίθωσαν οὕτως αὐτόν, ὡς κολωνὸν λίθων περὶ αὐτὸν χώσασθαι. διαλιπὼν δὲ ὀλίγον ἐκέλευσεν ἀφελεῖν τοὺς λίθους, καὶ τὸ θηρίον, ὃ ἀπεκτόνασι, γνῶναι. γυμνωθέντος οὖν τοῦ βεβλῆσθαι δοκοῦντος ὁ μὲν ἠφάνιστο, κύων δὲ τὸ μὲν εἶδος ὅμοιος τῷ ἐκ Μολοττῶν, μέγεθος δὲ κατὰ τὸν μέγιστον λέοντα ξυντετριμμένος ὤφθη ὑπὸ τῶν λίθων καὶ παραπτύων ἀφρόν, ὥσπερ οἱ λυττῶντες. τὸ μὲν δὴ τοῦ Ἀποτροπαίου ἕδος, ἔστι δὲ Ἡρακλῆς, ἵδρυται περὶ τὸ χωρίον, ἐν ᾧ τὸ φάσμα ἐβλήθη.

With discourses like these, then, he held Smyrna together. But when the plague fell upon the Ephesians and nothing was effective against it, they sent envoys to Apollonius, making him the physician of their affliction; and he did not think he should put off the journey, but saying “Let us go,” he was in Ephesus, doing, I suppose, that famous thing of Pythagoras, being at Thurii and Metapontum at the same time. So he gathered the Ephesians and said, “Take heart, for today I shall stop the plague”; and with these words he led people of every age to the theatre, where the statue of the Averter stands. There an old man appeared to be begging, keeping his eyes shut by artifice; he carried a bag with a crust of bread in it, was dressed in rags, and had a squalid face. So he set the Ephesians around him and said, “Stone this enemy of the gods, gathering as many stones as you can.” The Ephesians wondered what he meant, and thought it a terrible thing to kill a stranger in so wretched a state, for he was pleading and saying much to win pity; but he pressed on, urging the Ephesians to bear down on him and not let up. When some of them had begun to pelt him from a distance, and the man who seemed to have his eyes shut suddenly looked up and showed eyes full of fire, the Ephesians recognized the demon and stoned him so thoroughly that they heaped a mound of stones over him. After a short pause [Apollonius] told them to remove the stones and see what beast they had killed. When the one they thought they had pelted was uncovered, he had vanished, and a dog was seen, like a Molossian hound in form but the size of the largest lion, crushed by the stones and spitting out foam as rabid creatures do. The statue of the Averter (he is Heracles) stands near the spot where the apparition was pelted.

διαλεγομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ περὶ τοῦ σπένδειν παρέτυχε μὲν τῷ λόγῳ μειράκιον τῶν ἁβρῶν οὕτως ἀσελγὲς νομιζόμενον, ὡς γενέσθαι ποτὲ καὶ ἁμαξῶν ᾆσμα, πατρὶς δὲ αὐτῷ Κέρκυρα ἦν καὶ ἐς Ἀλκίνουν ἀνέφερε τὸν ξένον τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως τὸν Φαίακα, καὶ διῄει μὲν ὁ Ἀπολλώνιος περὶ τοῦ σπένδειν, ἐκέλευε δὲ μὴ πίνειν τοῦ ποτηρίου τούτου, φυλάττειν δὲ αὐτὸ τοῖς θεοῖς ἄχραντόν τε καὶ ἄποτον. ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ ὦτα ἐκέλευσε τῷ ποτηρίῳ ποιεῖσθαι καὶ σπένδειν κατὰ τὸ οὖς, ἀφʼ οὗ μέρους ἥκιστα πίνουσιν ἄνθρωποι, τὸ μειράκιον κατεσκέδασε τοῦ λόγου πλατύν τε καὶ ἀσελγῆ γέλωτα· ὁ δὲ ἀναβλέψας ἐς αὐτὸ οὐ σὺ ἔφη ταῦτα ὑβρίζεις, ἀλλʼ ὁ δαίμων, ὃς ἐλαύνει σε οὐκ εἰδότα. ἐλελήθει δὲ ἄρα δαιμονῶν τὸ μειράκιον· ἐγέλα τε γὰρ ἐφʼ οἷς οὐδεὶς ἕτερος καὶ μετέβαλλεν ἐς τὸ κλάειν αἰτίαν οὐκ ἔχον, διελέγετό τε πρὸς ἑαυτὸν καὶ ᾖδε. καὶ οἱ μὲν πολλοὶ τὴν νεότητα σκιρτῶσαν ᾤοντο ἐκφέρειν αὐτὸ ἐς ταῦτα, ὁ δʼ ὑπεκρίνετο ἄρα τῷ δαίμονι καὶ ἐδόκει παροινεῖν, ἃ ἐπαρῴνει τότε, ὁρῶντός τε ἐς αὐτὸ τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίου, δεδοικότως τε καὶ ὀργίλως φωνὰς ἠφίει τὸ εἴδωλον, ὁπόσαι καομένων τε καὶ στρεβλουμένων εἰσίν, ἀφεξεσθαί τε τοῦ μειρακίου ὤμνυ καὶ μηδενὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐμπεσεῖσθαι. τοῦ δὲ οἷον δεσπότου πρὸς ἀνδράποδον ποικίλον πανοῦργόν τε καὶ ἀναιδὲς καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ξὺν ὀργῇ λέγοντος καὶ κελεύοντος αὐτῷ ξὺν τεκμηρίῳ ἀπαλλάττεσθαι τὸν δεῖνα ἔφη καταβαλῶ ἀνδριάντα δείξας τινὰ τῶν περὶ τὴν Βασίλειον στοάν, πρὸς ᾗ ταῦτα ἐπράττετο· ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ ἀνδριὰς ὑπεκινήθη πρῶτον, εἶτα ἔπεσε, τὸν μὲν θόρυβον τὸν ἐπὶ τούτῳ καὶ ὡς ἐκρότησαν ὑπὸ θαύματος τί ἄν τις γράφοι; τὸ δὲ μειράκιον, ὥσπερ ἀφυπνίσαν τούς τε ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔτριψε καὶ πρὸς τὰς αὐγὰς τοῦ ἡλίου εἶδεν αἰδῶ τε ἐπεσπάσατο πάντων ἐς αὐτὸ ἐστραμμένων ἀσελγές τε οὐκέτι ἐφαίνετο, οὐδὲ ἄτακτον βλέπον, ἀλλʼ ἐπανῆλθεν ἐς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν μεῖον οὐδὲν ἢ εἰ φαρμακοποσίᾳ ἐκέχρητο, μεταβαλόν τε τῶν χλανιδίων καὶ λῃδίων καὶ τῆς ἄλλης συβάριδος ἐς ἔρωτα ἦλθεν αὐχμοῦ καὶ τρίβωνος καὶ ἐς τὰ τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίου ἤθη ἀπεδύσατο.

While he was discoursing about libations, there happened to be present at the discussion a youth, one of the dandies, reputed to be so licentious that he had once even become the butt of the wagon-songs; his homeland was Corcyra, and he traced his descent to Alcinous the Phaeacian, Odysseus' host. Apollonius was speaking about libations, and was urging them not to drink from this cup, but to keep it for the gods, undefiled and undrunk from. When he also told them to put handles on the cup and to pour the libation over the handle, the part from which people are least likely to drink, the youth drowned the discourse in loud and licentious laughter. Apollonius looked up at him and said, “It is not you who commit this outrage, but the daimōn [possessing spirit] that drives you without your knowing it.” The youth was in fact possessed by a daimōn without anyone having noticed; for he would laugh at things no one else laughed at, and would change to weeping for no reason, and he talked to himself and sang. Most people thought that skittish youth carried him into these things, but in fact he was acting as the mouthpiece of the daimōn, and the drunken insults he was then uttering seemed [mere] drunkenness. When Apollonius fixed his gaze on him, the phantom let out cries of fear and anger, such as come from people being burned or racked, and swore that it would leave the youth alone and never fall upon any human being. And when Apollonius addressed it angrily, as a master would a shifty, rascally, shameless slave and the like, and ordered it to depart and to give proof of it, “I will throw down that one,” it said, pointing to one of the statues around the Royal Portico, beside which all this was happening; and when the statue first stirred and then fell, why should anyone describe the uproar at this and how they clapped in amazement? But the youth, as if waking from sleep, rubbed his eyes and looked towards the rays of the sun, and was filled with shame, with all eyes turned on him; he no longer appeared licentious, nor did he have a wild look, but he returned to his own nature no less than if he had taken a course of medicine; and giving up his fine cloaks and summer wraps and the rest of his Sybaritic luxury, he came to love squalor and the threadbare cloak, and stripped himself for the way of life of Apollonius.

ἐν Κορίνθῳ δὲ φιλοσοφῶν ἐτύγχανε τότε Δημήτριος ἀνὴρ ξυνειληφὼς ἅπαν τὸ ἐν Κυνικῇ κράτος, οὗ Φαβωρῖνος ὕστερον ἐν πολλοῖς τῶν ἑαυτοῦ λόγων οὐκ ἀγεννῶς ἐπεμνήσθη, παθὼν δὲ πρὸς τὸν Ἀπολλώνιον, ὅπερ φασὶ τὸν Ἀντισθένην πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Σωκράτους σοφίαν παθεῖν, εἵπετο αὐτῷ μαθητιῶν καὶ προσκείμενος τοῖς λόγοις καὶ τῶν αὐτῷ γνωρίμων τοὺς εὐδοκιμωτέρους ἐπὶ τὸν Ἀπολλώνιον ἔτρεπεν, ὧν καὶ Μένιππος ἦν ὁ Λύκιος ἔτη μὲν γεγονὼς πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι, γνώμης δὲ ἱκανῶς ἔχων καὶ τὸ σῶμα εὖ κατεσκευασμένος, ἐῴκει γοῦν ἀθλητῇ καλῷ καὶ ἐλευθερίῳ τὸ εἶδος. ἐρᾶσθαι δὲ τὸν Μένιππον οἱ πολλοὶ ᾤοντο ὑπὸ γυναίου ξένου, τὸ δὲ γύναιον καλή τε ἐφαίνετο καὶ ἱκανῶς ἁβρὰ καὶ πλουτεῖν ἔφασκεν, οὐδὲν δὲ τούτων ἄρα ἀτεχνῶς ἦν, ἀλλὰ ἐδόκει πάντα. κατὰ γὰρ τὴν ὁδὸν τὴν ἐπὶ Κεγχρεὰς βαδίζοντι αὐτῷ μόνῳ φάσμα ἐντυχὸν γυνή τε ἐγένετο καὶ χεῖρα ξυνῆψεν ἐρᾶν αὐτοῦ πάλαι φάσκουσα, Φοίνισσα δὲ εἶναι καὶ οἰκεῖν ἐν προαστείῳ τῆς Κορίνθου, τὸ δεῖνα εἰποῦσα προάστειον, ἐς ὃ ἑσπέρας ἔφη ἀφικομένῳ σοι ᾠδή τε ὑπάρξει ἐμοῦ ᾀδούσης καὶ οἶνος, οἷον οὔπω ἔπιες, καὶ οὐδὲ ἀντεραστὴς ἐνοχλήσει σε, βιώσομαι δὲ καλὴ ξὺν καλῷ. τούτοις ὑπαχθεὶς ὁ νεανίας, τὴν μὲν γὰρ ἄλλην φιλοσοφίαν ἔρρωτο, τῶν δὲ ἐρωτικῶν ἥττητο, ἐφοίτησε περὶ ἑσπέραν αὐτῇ καὶ τὸν λοιπὸν χρόνον ἐθάμιζεν, ὥσπερ παιδικοῖς, οὔπω ξυνεὶς τοῦ φάσματος. ὁ δὲ Ἀπολλώνιος ἀνδριαντοποιοῦ δίκην ἐς τὸν Μένιππον βλέπων ἐζωγράφει τὸν νεανίαν καὶ ἐθεώρει, καταγνοὺς δὲ αὐτὸν σὺ μέντοι εἶπεν ὁ καλός τε καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν καλῶν γυναικῶν θηρευόμενος ὄφιν θάλπεις καὶ σὲ ὄφις. θαυμάσαντος δὲ τοῦ Μενίππου ὅτι γυνή σοι ἔφη ἐστὶν οὐ γαμετή. τί δέ; ἡγῇ ὑπʼ αὐτῆς ἐρᾶσθαι;νὴ Δίʼ, εἶπεν ἐπειδὴ διάκειται πρός με ὡς ἐρῶσα.καὶ γήμαις δʼ ἂν αὐτήν; ἔφη. χαρίεν γὰρ ἂν εἴη τὸ ἀγαπῶσαν γῆμαι. ἤρετο οὖν πηνίκα οἱ γάμοι;θερμοὶ ἔφη καὶ ἴσως αὔριον. ἐπιφυλάξας οὖν τὸν τοῦ συμποσίου καιρὸν ὁ Ἀπολλώνιος καὶ ἐπιστὰς τοῖς δαιτυμόσιν ἄρτι ἥκουσι ποῦ ἔφη ἡ ἁβρά, διʼ ἣν ἥκετε;ἐνταῦθα εἶπεν ὁ Μένιππος καὶ ἅμα ὑπανίστατο ἐρυθριῶν. ὁ δὲ ἄργυρος καὶ ὁ χρυσὸς καὶ τὰ λοιπά, οἷς ὁ ἀνδρὼν κεκόσμηται, ποτέρου ὑμῶν;τῆς γυναικός, ἔφη τἀμὰ γὰρ τοσαῦτα δείξας τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τρίβωνα. ὁ δὲ Ἀπολλώνιος τοὺς Ταντάλου κήπους ἔφη εἴδετε, ὡς ὄντες οὐκ εἰσί;παρʼ Ὁμήρῳ γε, ἔφασαν οὐ γὰρ ἐς Αἵδου γε καταβάντες.τοῦτʼ ἔφη καὶ τουτονὶ τὸν κόσμον ἡγεῖσθε, οὐ γὰρ ὕλη ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ ὕλης δόξα. ὡς δὲ γιγνώσκοιτε, ὃ λέγω, ἡ χρηστὴ νύμφη μία τῶν ἐμπουσῶν ἐστιν, ἃς λαμίας τε καὶ μορμολυκίας οἱ πολλοὶ ἡγοῦνται. ἐρῶσι δʼ αὗται καὶ ἀφροδισίων μέν, σαρκῶν δὲ μάλιστα ἀνθρωπείων ἐρῶσι καὶ παλεύουσι τοῖς ἀφροδισίοις, οὓς ἂν ἐθέλωσι δαίσασθαι. ἡ δὲ εὐφήμει ἔλεγε καὶ ἄπαγε καὶ μυσάττεσθαι ἐδόκει, ἃ ἤκουε, καί που καὶ ἀπέσκωπτε τοὺς φιλοσόφους, ὡς ἀεὶ ληροῦντας. ἐπεὶ μέντοι τὰ ἐκπώματα τὰ χρυσᾶ καὶ ὁ δοκῶν ἄργυρος ἀνεμιαῖα ἠλέγχθη καὶ διέπτη τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἅπαντα οἰνοχόοι τε καὶ ὀψοποιοὶ καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη θεραπεία πᾶσα ἠφανίσθησαν ἐλεγχόμενοι ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίου, δακρύοντι ἐῴκει τὸ φάσμα καὶ ἐδεῖτο μὴ βασανίζειν αὐτό, μηδὲ ἀναγκάζειν ὁμολογεῖν, ὅ τι εἴη, ἐπικειμένου δὲ καὶ μὴ ἀνιέντος ἔμπουσά τε εἶναι ἔφη καὶ πιαίνειν ἡδοναῖς τὸν Μένιππον ἐς βρῶσιν τοῦ σώματος, τὰ γὰρ καλὰ τῶν σωμάτων καὶ νέα σιτεῖσθαι ἐνόμιζεν, ἐπειδὴ ἀκραιφνὲς αὐτοῖς τὸ αἷμα. τοῦτον τὸν λόγον γνωριμώτατον τῶν Ἀπολλωνίου τυγχάνοντα ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐμήκυνα, γιγνώσκουσι μὲν γὰρ πλείους αὐτόν, ἅτε καθʼ Ἑλλάδα μέσην πραχθέντα, ξυλλήβδην δὲ αὐτὸν παρειλήφασιν, ὅτι ἕλοι ποτὲ ἐν Κορίνθῳ λάμιαν, ὅ τι μέντοι πράττουσαν καὶ ὅτι ὑπὲρ Μενίππου, οὔπω γιγνώσκουσιν, ἀλλὰ Δάμιδί τε καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἐκείνου λόγων ἐμοὶ εἴρηται.

At that time Demetrius happened to be teaching philosophy in Corinth, a man who had embraced the whole strength of the Cynic [way], and whom Favorinus later mentioned, not ungenerously, in many of his own discourses; he was affected towards Apollonius as they say Antisthenes was affected towards the wisdom of Socrates: he followed him, eager to be his pupil and devoted to his discourses, and he turned the more distinguished of his own pupils towards Apollonius. Among these was Menippus the Lycian, twenty-five years old, of sound enough judgement and well built in body; at any rate he looked like a handsome athlete of gentlemanly bearing. Most people thought that Menippus was loved by a foreign woman; the woman seemed beautiful and quite refined, and claimed to be rich, but none of this, it turned out, was real; it all only seemed so. For as he was walking alone along the road to Cenchreae, an apparition met him, became a woman and clasped his hand, saying that she had long been in love with him, that she was a Phoenician and lived in a suburb of Corinth, and naming the suburb; “and if you come there in the evening,” she said, “you will have song, with me singing, and wine such as you have never drunk, and no rival will trouble you; and I, a beautiful woman, will live with a beautiful man.” Won over by this (for though he was strong against all other assaults on his philosophy, he was weak in matters of love), the young man went to her towards evening and from then on visited her often, as his darling, not yet understanding that she was a phantom. But Apollonius, looking at Menippus as a sculptor would, was sketching the young man and studying him, and having formed his judgement of him he said, “You, the handsome one who is hunted by handsome women, are cherishing a snake, and a snake is cherishing you.” When Menippus was astonished, he said, “You have a woman who is not your wedded wife. Well then? Do you think she loves you?” “Yes, by Zeus,” he said, “since she behaves towards me like one in love.” “And would you marry her?” he said. “Yes, for it would be delightful to marry a woman who loves me.” So he asked when the wedding was. “Close at hand,” he said, “perhaps tomorrow.” Apollonius therefore watched for the time of the banquet and, coming upon the guests who had just arrived, said, “Where is the refined lady on whose account you have come?” “Here,” said Menippus, and at the same time he rose, blushing. “And the silver and the gold and the other things with which the dining hall is adorned, to which of you two do they belong?” “To the woman,” he said, “for this is all I have,” pointing to his own threadbare cloak. And Apollonius said, “Have you seen the gardens of Tantalus, how they are and are not?” “In Homer, yes,” they said, “for we have not gone down to Hades.” “Think of this adornment too in the same way,” he said, “for it is not matter, but the appearance of matter. And so that you may understand what I mean, this fine bride is one of the empousai [shape-shifting spirits], whom most people think of as lamiai and mormolykiai [bogey-women]. These creatures fall in love, and they love sexual pleasure, but most of all they love human flesh, and they use sexual pleasure as a lure for those they wish to feast on.” And she said, “Hush!” and “Away with you!”, and seemed disgusted at what she heard, and even mocked philosophers as people who are always talking nonsense. But when the golden goblets and the seeming silver were shown to be as empty as wind and all vanished from their eyes, and the wine-pourers and cooks and all such servants disappeared as Apollonius exposed them, the phantom seemed to weep, and begged him not to torture it nor to force it to confess what it was; but when he pressed it and would not let up, it said that it was an empousa and was fattening Menippus with pleasures in order to devour his body, for it was its custom to feed on bodies that were beautiful and young, since their blood is pure. This story, which is the best known of those about Apollonius, I have of necessity told at length; for many people know it, since it took place in the heart of Greece, but they have received it only in summary, that he once caught a lamia in Corinth; but what she was doing, and that it was on account of Menippus, they do not yet know; it has, however, been told by Damis, and from his account by me.

κἀκεῖνο Ἀπολλωνίου θαῦμα· κόρη ἐν ὥρᾳ γάμου τεθνάναι ἐδόκει καὶ ὁ νυμφίος ἠκολούθει τῇ κλίνῃ βοῶν ὁπόσα ἐπʼ ἀτελεῖ γάμῳ, ξυνωλοφύρετο δὲ καὶ ἡ Ῥώμη, καὶ γὰρ ἐτύγχανεν οἰκίας ἡ κόρη τελούσης ἐς ὑπάτους. παρατυχὼν οὖν ὁ Ἀπολλώνιος τῷ πάθει κατάθεσθε ἔφη τὴν κλίνην, ἐγὼ γὰρ ὑμᾶς τῶν ἐπὶ τῇ κόρῃ δακρύων παύσω. καὶ ἅμα ἤρετο, ὅ τι ὄνομα αὐτῇ εἴη. οἱ μὲν δὴ πολλοὶ ᾤοντο λόγον ἀγορεύσειν αὐτόν, οἷοι τῶν λόγων οἱ ἐπικήδειοί τε καὶ τὰς ὀλοφύρσεις ἐγείροντες, ὁ δὲ οὐδὲν ἀλλʼ ἢ προσαψάμενος αὐτῆς καί τι ἀφανῶς ἐπειπὼν ἀφύπνισε τὴν κόρην τοῦ δοκοῦντος θανάτου, καὶ φωνήν τε ἡ παῖς ἀφῆκεν ἐπανῆλθέ τε ἐς τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ πατρός, ὥσπερ ἡ Ἄλκηστις ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἡρακλέους ἀναβιωθεῖσα. δωρουμένων δὲ αὐτῷ τῶν ξυγγενῶν τῆς κόρης μυριάδας δεκαπέντε φερνὴν ἔφη ἐπιδιδόναι αὐτὰς τῇ παιδί. καὶ εἴτε σπινθῆρα τῆς ψυχῆς εὗρεν ἐν αὐτῇ, ὃς ἐλελήθει τοὺς θεραπεύοντας — λέγεται γάρ, ὡς ψεκάζοι μὲν ὁ Ζεύς, ἡ δὲ ἀτμίζοι ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου — εἴτʼ ἀπεσβηκυῖαν τὴν ψυχὴν ἀνέθαλψέ τε καὶ ἀνέλαβεν, ἄρρητος ἡ κατάληψις τούτου γέγονεν οὐκ ἐμοὶ μόνῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς παρατυχοῦσιν.

This too is a wonder of Apollonius. A girl of marriageable age seemed to have died, and her bridegroom was following the bier, crying out as one does over a marriage left unfulfilled, and Rome was mourning with him, for the girl happened to belong to a family of consular rank. Apollonius, then, coming upon the scene of grief, said, “Set down the bier, for I will put an end to your tears over the girl.” And at the same time he asked what her name was. Most people thought he was going to deliver a speech, like the funeral speeches that stir up lamentation; but he did nothing except touch her and say something inaudible over her, and he woke the girl from her seeming death; and the girl spoke and went back to her father's house, like Alcestis brought back to life by Heracles. When the girl's relatives offered him a gift of a hundred and fifty thousand, he said he was giving it to the girl as an addition to her dowry. And whether he found in her a spark of the soul which had escaped the notice of those tending her (for it is said that Zeus was sending a drizzle and a vapour rose from her face), or whether he rekindled the soul when it had been quenched and brought it back, how this happened has proved beyond comprehension, not only for me but also for those who were there.

ὅτι μὲν γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτα δαιμονίᾳ κινήσει προεγίγνωσκε καὶ ὅτι τοῖς γόητα τὸν ἄνδρα ἡγουμένοις οὐχ ὑγιαίνει ὁ λόγος, δηλοῖ μὲν καὶ τὰ εἰρημένα, σκεψώμεθα δὲ κἀκεῖνα· οἱ γόητες, ἡγοῦμαι δʼ αὐτοὺς ἐγὼ κακοδαιμονεστάτους ἀνθρώπων, οἱ μὲν ἐς βασάνους εἰδώλων χωροῦντες, οἱ δʼ ἐς θυσίας βαρβάρους, οἱ δὲ ἐς τὸ ἐπᾷσαί τι ἢ ἀλεῖψαι μεταποιεῖν φασι τὰ εἱμαρμένα, καὶ πολλοὶ τούτων κατηγορίαις ὑπαχθέντες τὰ τοιαῦτα ὡμολόγησαν σοφοὶ εἶναι. ὁ δὲ εἵπετο μὲν τοῖς ἐκ Μοιρῶν, προὔλεγε δέ, ὡς ἀνάγκη γενέσθαι αὐτά, προεγίγνωσκε δὲ οὐ γοητεύων, ἀλλʼ ἐξ ὧν οἱ θεοὶ ἔφαινον. ἰδὼν δὲ παρὰ τοῖς Ἰνδοῖς τοὺς τρίποδας καὶ τοὺς οἰνοχόους καὶ ὅσα αὐτόματα ἐσφοιτᾶν εἶπον, οὔθʼ ὅπως σοφίζοιντο αὐτά, ἤρετο, οὔτʼ ἐδεήθη μαθεῖν, ἀλλʼ ἐπῄνει μέν, ζηλοῦν δʼ οὐκ ἠξίου.

That he foreknew such things by a divine impulse, and that the account of those who think the man a wizard is unsound, is shown by what has already been said; but let us consider the following too. Wizards (and I consider them the most ill-starred of men), some by resorting to the torturing of images, some to barbarous sacrifices, some to chanting a spell or applying an ointment, claim to alter what is fated; and many of them, when brought to trial on charges, have confessed to being skilled in such things. But he followed the decrees of the Fates, and foretold that these things must come to pass, and he foreknew them not by wizardry but from what the gods revealed. And when he saw among the Indians the tripods and the wine-pourers and all the things that I said came in of their own accord, he neither asked how they contrived them nor wished to learn, but he praised them and did not think fit to imitate them.

διαλέγεσθαι μὲν δὴ τὸν Ἀπολλώνιον πλείω τοιαῦτα, ἑαυτὸν δὲ ὁ Δάμις ἀπορεῖν μὲν ὑπὲρ τῶν παρόντων φησί, λύσιν δὲ αὐτῶν ὁρᾶν οὐδεμίαν, πλὴν ὅσαι παρὰ τῶν θεῶν εὐξαμένοις τισὶ κἀκ πολλῷ χαλεπωτέρων ἦλθον, ὀλίγον δὲ πρὸ μεσημβρίας ὦ Τυανεῦ, φάναι, σφόδρα γὰρ δὴ χαίρειν αὐτὸν τῇ προσρήσει τί πεισόμεθα;ὅ γε ἐπάθομεν, ἔφη πέρα δʼ οὐδέν, οὐδὲ ἀποκτενεῖ ἡμᾶς οὐδείς.καὶ τίς εἶπεν οὕτως ἄτρωτος; λυθήσῃ δὲ πότε;τὸ μὲν ἐπὶ τῷ δικάσαντι ἔφη τήμερον, τὸ δὲ ἐπʼ ἐμοὶ ἄρτι. καὶ εἰπὼν ταῦτα ἐξήγαγε τὸ σκέλος τοῦ δεσμοῦ καὶ πρὸς τὸν Δάμιν ἔφη ἐπίδειξιν πεποίημαί σοι τῆς ἐλευθερίας τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ θάρρει. τότε πρῶτον ὁ Δάμις φησὶν ἀκριβῶς ξυνεῖναι τῆς Ἀπολλωνίου φύσεως, ὅτι θεία τε εἴη καὶ κρείττων ἀνθρώπου, μὴ γὰρ θύσαντα, πῶς γὰρ ἐν δεσμωτηρίῳ; μηδʼ εὐξάμενόν τι, μηδὲ εἰπόντα καταγελάσαι τοῦ δεσμοῦ καὶ ἐναρμόσαντα αὖ τὸ σκέλος τὰ τοῦ δεδεμένου πράττειν.

Apollonius, then, discoursed on more matters of this kind; but Damis says that he himself was at a loss over their present situation and saw no release from it, except such releases as have come from the gods to some who prayed, even out of far harder straits; and a little before midday, he says, he asked, “Man of Tyana” (for Apollonius took great delight in this form of address), “what is going to happen to us?” “Just what has happened,” he said, “and nothing beyond it; nor will anyone kill us.” “And who,” he said, “is so invulnerable? And when will you be set free?” “As far as it rests with the judge,” he said, “today; as far as it rests with me, this moment.” And having said this he drew his leg out of the fetter and said to Damis, “I have given you a demonstration of my own freedom; so take heart.” Then for the first time, Damis says, he understood exactly the nature of Apollonius, that it was divine and greater than a man's; for without sacrificing (how could he, in prison?), without praying at all, without even saying a word, he had made a mockery of the fetter, and then, fitting his leg back into it, he behaved like a prisoner.

οἱ δὲ εὐηθέστεροι τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐς τοὺς γόητας ἀναφέρουσι ταῦτα, πεπόνθασι δʼ αὐτὸ ἐς πολλὰ τῶν ἀνθρωπείων· δέονται μὲν γὰρ αὑ̓τῶν̓τῆς ʽτέχνησʼ ἀθληταί, δέονται δὲ ἀγωνισταὶ πάντες διὰ τὸ νικᾶν γλίχεσθαι, καὶ ξυλλαμβάνει μὲν αὐτοῖς ἐς τὴν νίκην οὐδέν, ἃ δὲ ἀπὸ τύχης νικῶσι, ταῦθʼ οἱ κακοδαίμονες αὑτοὺς ἀφελόμενοι λογίζονται τῇ τέχνῃ ταύτῃ, ἀπιστοῦσι δʼ αὐτῇ οὐδʼ οἱ ἡττώμενοι σφῶν, εἰ γὰρ τὸ δεῖνα ἔθυσα καὶ τὸ δεῖνα ἐθυμίασα, οὐκ ἂν διέφυγέ με ἡ νίκη τοιαῦτα λέγουσι καὶ τοιαῦτα οἴονται. φοιτᾷ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ θύρας ἐμπόρων κατὰ ταὐτά, καὶ γὰρ δὴ κἀκείνους εὕροιμεν ἂν τὰ μὲν εὐτυχήματα τῆς ἐμπορίας λογιζομένους τῷ γόητι, τὰ δὲ ἄτοπα τῇ αὑτῶν φειδοῖ καὶ τῷ μὴ ὁπόσα ἔδει θῦσαι. ἀνῆπται δὲ ἡ τέχνη τοὺς ἐρῶντας μάλιστα, νοσοῦντες γὰρ εὐπαράγωγον οὕτω νόσον, ὡς καὶ γραιδίοις ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς διαλέγεσθαι, θαυμαστόν, οἶμαι, οὐδὲν πράττουσι προσιόντες τοῖς σοφισταῖς τούτοις καὶ ἀκροώμενοι σφῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα, οἳ κεστόν τε αὐτοῖς φέρειν διδοῦσι καὶ λίθους, τοὺς μὲν ἐκ τῶν τῆς γῆς ἀπορρήτων, τοὺς δὲ ἐκ σελήνης τε καὶ ἀστέρων ἀρώματά τε ὁπόσα ἡ Ἰνδικὴ κηπεύει, καὶ χρήματα μὲν αὐτοὺς λαμπρὰ ὑπὲρ τούτων πράττονται, ξυνδρῶσι δὲ οὐδέν. ἢν μὲν γὰρ παθόντων τι τῶν παιδικῶν πρὸς τοὺς ἐρῶντας ἢ δώροις ὑπαχθέντων προβαίνῃ τὰ ἐρωτικά, ὑμνεῖται ἡ τέχνη ὡς ἱκανὴ πάντα, εἰ δʼ ἀποτυγχάνοι ἡ πεῖρα, ἐς τὸ ἐλλειφθὲν ἡ ἀναφορά, μὴ γὰρ τὸ δεῖνα θυμιᾶσαι, μηδὲ θῦσαι ἢ τῆξαι, τουτὶ δὲ μέγα εἶναι καὶ ἄπορον. οἱ μὲν οὖν τρόποι, καθʼ οὓς καὶ διοσημίας καὶ ἕτερα πλείω τερατεύονται καὶ ἀναγεγράφαταί τισιν, οἳ ἐγέλασαν πλατὺ ἐς τὴν τέχνην, ἐμοὶ δʼ ἀποπεφάνθω μηδʼ ἐκείνοις ὁμιλεῖν τοὺς νέους, ἵνα μηδὲ παίζειν τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐθίζοιντο. ἀποχρῶσα ἡ ἐκτροπὴ τοῦ λόγου· τί γὰρ ἂν πλείω καθαπτοίμην τοῦ πράγματος, ὃ καὶ φύσει διαβέβληται καὶ νόμῳ;

The more simple-minded of men attribute such things to wizards, and they have the same weakness in many human affairs: for athletes have need of their art, and all competitors have need of it because they long to win; and it contributes nothing to their victory, but what they win by chance these wretches take away from themselves and credit to this art; and not even those of them who lose lose faith in it: “For if I had sacrificed such-and-such and burned such-and-such as incense, the victory would not have escaped me”; such things they say and such things they believe. It comes to the doors of merchants in the same way, for we would find them too crediting the successes of their trade to the wizard, and the mishaps to their own stinginess and to not having sacrificed as much as they should. But the art has fastened above all on lovers; for since they suffer from a sickness so easily led astray that they even talk about it to old women, it is no wonder, I think, that they go to these sophists and listen to such things from them; and these give them a kestos [love-charm girdle] to wear, and stones, some from the hidden depths of the earth, others from the moon and the stars, and all the spices that India grows; and they exact splendid sums from them for these things, but help them in nothing. For if the love affair goes forward because the beloved has felt something for the lover or has been won over by gifts, the art is extolled as capable of anything; but if the attempt fails, the blame is laid on something left undone: “I did not burn such-and-such as incense, or sacrifice or melt it, and that is a great matter and hard to come by.” The ways in which they also fake portents and many other marvels have been recorded by some who laughed heartily at the art; but let it be declared by me that the young should not keep company even with those [writers], so that they may not grow used to such things even in play. Enough of this digression: why should I attack any further a practice condemned both by nature and by law?

ὁ μὲν ἀγὼν ὑπὲρ μεγάλων σοί τε, ὦ βασιλεῦ, κἀμοί· σύ τε γὰρ κινδυνεύεις ὑπὲρ ὧν μήποτε αὐτοκράτωρ, εἰ πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν οὐδεμιᾷ δίκῃ διαβεβλῆσθαι δόξεις, ἐγώ τε ὑπὲρ ὧν μηδὲ Σωκράτης ποτὲ Ἀθήνησιν, ὃν οἱ γραψάμενοι τὴν γραφὴν καινὸν μὲν τὰ δαιμόνια ἡγοῦντο, δαίμονα δὲ οὔτε ἐκάλουν οὔτε ᾤοντο. κινδύνου δὲ ἐφʼ ἑκάτερον ἡμῶν οὕτω χαλεποῦ ἥκοντος οὐκ ὀκνήσω καὶ σοὶ ξυμβουλεύειν, ὁπόσα ἐμαυτὸν πέπεικα· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ κατέστησεν ἡμᾶς ὁ κατήγορος ἐς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα, ἐσῆλθε τοὺς πολλοὺς οὐκ ἀληθὴς περὶ ἐμοῦ τε καὶ σοῦ δόξα· σὲ μὲν γὰρ ᾤοντο ξυμβούλῳ τῆς ἀκροάσεως ὀργῇ χρήσεσθαι, δι’ ἣν κἂν ἀποκτεῖναί με, ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστι τὸ ἀποκτεῖναι, ἐμὲ δʼ ἐκποιήσειν ἐμαυτὸν τοῦ δικαστηρίου τρόποις, ὁπόσοι τοῦ ἀποδρᾶναί εἰσιν, ἦσαν δʼ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, μυρίοι· καὶ τούτων ἀκούων οὐκ ἐς τὸ προκαταγιγνώσκειν ἦλθον, οὐδὲ κατεψηφισάμην τῆς σῆς ἀκροάσεως ὡς μὴ τὸ εὐθὺ ἐχούσης, ἀλλὰ ξυνθέμενος τοῖς νόμοις ἕστηκα ὑπὸ τῷ λόγῳ. τούτου ξύμβουλος καὶ σοὶ γίγνομαι· δίκαιον γὰρ τὸ μὴ προκαταγιγνώσκειν, μηδὲ καθῆσθαι πεπεισμένον, ὡς ἐγώ τί σε κακὸν εἴργασμαι, μηδʼ ὑπὲρ μὲν τοῦ Ἀρμενίου τε καὶ Βαβυλωνίου καὶ ὅσοι τῶν ἐκείνῃ ἄρχουσιν, οἷς ἵππος τε παμπόλλη ἐστὶ καὶ τοξεία πᾶσα καὶ χρυσῆ γῆ καὶ ἀνδρῶν ὄχλος, ὃν ἐγὼ οἶδα, ἀκούειν ξὺν γέλωτι τὸ πείσεσθαί τι ὑπʼ αὐτῶν, ὅ σε καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ταύτην ἀφαιρήσεται, κατʼ ἀνδρὸς δὲ σοφοῦ καὶ γυμνοῦ πιστεύειν, ὥς ἐστι τούτῳ ὅπλον ἐπὶ τὸν Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτορα, καὶ προσδέχεσθαι ταῦτα Αἰγυπτίου συκοφάντου λέγοντος, ἃ μηδὲ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ποτε ἤκουσας, ἣν σεαυτοῦ προορᾶν φῄς, εἰ μή, νὴ Δία, ἡ κολακευτικὴ καὶ τὸ συκοφαντεῖν οὕτω τι νῦν τοῖς ἀλιτηρίοις τούτοις ἐπιδέδωκεν, ὡς τοὺς θεοὺς ὑπὲρ μὲν τῶν σμικρῶν καὶ ὁπόσα ὀφθαλμίαι τέ εἰσι καὶ τὸ μὴ πυρέξαι, μηδʼ ἀνοιδῆσαί τι τῶν σπλάγχνων, ἐπιτηδείους εἶναί σοι ξυμβούλους φάσκειν ἰατρῶν δίκην ἐφαπτομένους καὶ θεραπεύοντας, ὅτου αὐτῶν πονήρως ἔχοις, περὶ δὲ τῇ ἀρχῇ καὶ τῷ σώματι κινδυνεύοντί σοι μηθʼ οὓς φυλάττεσθαι χρὴ ξυμβουλεύειν μήθʼ ὅ τι ἔσται σοι πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὅπλον διδάσκειν ἥκοντας, ἀλλʼ εἶναί σοι τοὺς συκοφάντας αἰγίδα Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ Διὸς χεῖρα, εἰδέναι μὲν ὑπὲρ σοῦ φάσκοντας, ἃ μηδʼ οἱ θεοί, προεγρηγορότας δέ σου καὶ προκαθεύδοντας, εἰ δὴ καθεύδουσιν οὗτοι, κακοῖς, φασιν, ἐπαντλοῦντες κακὰ καὶ τὰς Ἰλιάδας ταύτας ἀεὶ ξυντιθέντες. καὶ τὸ μὲν ἱπποτροφεῖν αὐτοὺς κἀπὶ ζευγῶν ἐς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐκκυκλεῖσθαι λευκῶν καὶ ἡ ἐν ἀργύρῳ καὶ χρυσῷ ὀψοφαγία καὶ γάμοι μυριάδων δύο καὶ τριῶν ἐωνημένα παιδικὰ καὶ τὸ μοιχεύειν μέν, ὃν λανθάνουσι χρόνον, γαμεῖν δέ, ἃς ἐμοίχευσαν, ὅταν ἐπʼ αὐταῖς ληφθῶσι, καὶ οἱ κροτοῦντες αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ ταῖς καλαῖς νίκαις, ἐπειδὰν φιλόσοφός τις ἢ ὕπατος ἀδικῶν οὐδὲν ἁλῷ μὲν ὑπὸ τούτων, ἀπόληται δὲ ὑπὸ σοῦ, δεδόσθω τῇ τῶν καταράτων τρυφῇ καὶ τῷ μήτε νόμων αὐτοῖς ἔτι μήτʼ ὀφθαλμῶν εἶναι φόβον, τὸ δʼ οὕτω τι ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους φρονεῖν, ὡς προγιγνώσκειν βούλεσθαι τῶν θεῶν, ἐγὼ μὲν οὔτʼ ἐπαινῶ καὶ ἀκούων δέδια, σὺ δʼ εἰ προσδέξοιο, γράψονται καὶ σὲ ἴσως ὡς διαβάλλοντα τὴν περὶ τοῦ θείου δόξαν, ἐλπὶς γὰρ καὶ κατὰ σοῦ ξυγκείσεσθαι τοιαύτας γραφάς, ἐπειδὰν μηδεὶς τοῖς συκοφάνταις λοιπὸς ᾖ. καὶ ξυνίημι μὲν ἐπιτιμῶν μᾶλλον ἢ ἀπολογούμενος, εἰρήσθω δέ μοι ταῦθʼ ὑπὲρ τῶν νόμων, οὓς εἰ μὴ ἄρχοντας ἡγοῖο, οὐκ ἄρξεις. τίς οὖν ξυνήγορος ἔσται μοι ἀπολογουμένῳ; εἰ γὰρ καλέσαιμι τὸν Δία, ὑφʼ ᾧ βεβιωκὼς οἶδα, γοητεύειν με φήσουσι καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐς τὴν γῆν ἄγειν. διαλεγώμεθα οὖν περὶ τούτου ἀνδρί, ὃν τεθνάναι μὲν οἱ πολλοί φασιν, ἐγὼ δὲ οὔ φημι· ἔστι δὲ οὗτος ὁ πατὴρ ὁ σός, ᾧ ἐγὼ τοσούτου ἄξιος, ὅσου περ ἐκεῖνος σοί· σὲ μὲν γὰρ ἐποίησεν, ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ δὲ ἐγένετο. οὗτος, ὦ βασιλεῦ, ξυλλήπτωρ ἔσται μοι τῆς ἀπολογίας πολλῷ τἀμὰ βέλτιον ἢ σὺ γιγνώσκων· ἀφίκετο μὲν γὰρ ἐς Αἴγυπτον οὔπω αὐτοκράτωρ, θεοῖς τε τοῖς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ θύσων κἀμοὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀρχῆς διαλεξόμενος. ἐντυχὼν δέ μοι κομῶντί τε καὶ ὧδε ἐσταλμένῳ οὐδὲ ἤρετο οὐδὲ ἓν περὶ τοῦ σχήματος, ἡγούμενος τὸ ἐν ἐμοὶ πᾶν εὖ ἔχειν, ἐμοῦ δʼ ἕνεχʼ ἥκειν ὁμολογήσας ἀπῆλθεν ἐπαινέσας καὶ εἰπὼν μὲν ἃ μὴ πρὸς ἄλλον, ἀκούσας δʼ ἃ μὴ παρʼ ἄλλου, ἥ τε διάνοια, ᾗ ἐς τὸ ἄρχειν ἐχρῆτο, ἐρρώσθη αὐτῷ παρʼ ἐμοῦ μάλιστα, μεθεστηκυῖα ἤδη ὑφʼ ἑτέρων οὐκ ἀνεπιτηδείων μέν, οὐ μὴν σοί γε δόξαι, οἱ γὰρ μὴ ἄρχειν αὐτὸν πείθοντες καὶ σὲ δήπου αὐτὸ ἀφῃροῦντο τὸ μετʼ ἐκεῖνον ταῦτʼ ἔχειν, ἐμοῦ δὲ ξυμβουλεύοντος ἑαυτόν τε μὴ ἀπαξιοῦν ἀρχῆς ἐπὶ θύρας αὐτῷ φοιτώσης ὑμᾶς τε κληρονόμους αὐτῆς ποιεῖσθαι, εὖ ἔχειν τὴν γνώμην φήσας αὐτός τε μέγας ἤρθη καὶ ὑμᾶς ἦρεν· εἰ δὲ γόητά με ᾤετο, οὐδʼ ἂν ξυνῆψέ μοι κοινωνίαν φροντίδων, οὐδὲ γὰρ τοιαῦτα ἥκων διελέγετο, οἷον· ἀνάγκασον τὰς Μοίρας ἢ τὸν Δία, τύραννον ἀποφῆναί με ἢ τεράτευσαι διοσημίας ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ δείξας τὸν ἥλιον ἀνίσχοντα μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ἑσπέρας, δυόμενον δέ, ὅθεν ἄρχεται. οὐ γὰρ ἄν μοι ἐπιτήδειος ἄρχειν ἔδοξεν ἢ ἐμὲ ἡγούμενος ἱκανὸν ταῦτα ἢ σοφίσμασι θηρεύων ἀρχήν, ἣν ἀρεταῖς ἔδει κατακτᾶσθαι. καὶ μὴν καὶ δημοσίᾳ διελέχθην ἐν ἱερῷ, γοήτων δὲ ξυνουσίαι φεύγουσι μὲν ἱερὰ θεῶν, ἐχθρὰ γὰρ τοῖς περὶ τὴν τέχνην, νύκτα δὲ καὶ πᾶν, ὅ τι ἀφεγγές, αὑτῶν προβαλλόμενοι οὐ ξυγχωροῦσι τοῖς ἀνοήτοις οὐδὲ ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχειν οὔτε ὦτα. διελέχθη μοι καὶ ἰδίᾳ μέν, παρετύγχανον δὲ ὅμως Εὐφράτης καὶ Δίων, ὁ μὲν πολεμιώτατά μοι ἔχων, ὁ δʼ οἰκειότατα, Δίωνα γὰρ μὴ παυσαίμην γράφων ἐν φίλοις. τίς ἂν οὖν ἐπʼ ἀνδρῶν σοφῶν ἢ μεταποιουμένων γε σοφίας ἐς γόητας ἔλθοι λόγους; τίς δʼ οὐκ ἂν παραπλησίως φυλάξαιτο καὶ ἐν φίλοις καὶ ἐν ἐχθροῖς κακὸς φαίνεσθαι; καὶ οἱ λόγοι ἦσαν ἐναντιούμενοι τοῖς γόησι· σὺ μὲν γὰρ ἴσως τὸν πατέρα ἡγῇ τὸν σεαυτοῦ βασιλείας ἐρῶντα γόησι μᾶλλον ἢ ἑαυτῷ πιστεῦσαι καὶ ἀνάγκην ἐπὶ τοὺς θεούς, ἵνα τούτου τύχοι, παρʼ ἐμοῦ εὑρέσθαι, ὁ δὲ τοῦτο μὲν καὶ πρὶν ἐς Αἴγυπτον ἥκειν ἔχειν ᾤετο, μετὰ ταῦτα δʼ ὑπὲρ μειζόνων ἐμοὶ διελέγετο, ὑπὲρ νόμων καὶ ὑπὲρ πλούτου δικαίου θεοί τε ὡς θεραπευτέοι καὶ ὁπόσα παρʼ αὐτῶν ἀγαθὰ τοῖς κατὰ τοὺς νόμους ἄρχουσι, μαθεῖν ἤρα· οἷς πᾶσιν ἐναντίον χρῆμα οἱ γόητες, εἰ γὰρ ἰσχύοι ταῦτα, οὐκ ἔσται ἡ τέχνη. προσήκει δέ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, κἀκεῖνα ἐπεσκέφθαι· τέχναι ὁπόσαι κατʼ ἀνθρώπους εἰσί, πράττουσι μὲν ἄλλο ἄλλη, πᾶσαι δʼ ὑπὲρ χρημάτων, αἱ μὲν σμικρῶν, αἱ δʼ αὖ μεγάλων, αἱ δʼ ἀφʼ ὧν θρέψονται, καὶ οὐχ αἱ βάναυσοι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τεχνῶν σοφαί τε ὁμοίως καὶ ὑπόσοφοι πλὴν ἀληθοῦς φιλοσοφίας. καλῶ δὲ σοφὰς μὲν ποιητικὴν μουσικὴν ἀστρονομίαν σοφιστὰς καὶ τῶν ῥητόρων τοὺς μὴ ἀγοραίους, ὑποσόφους δὲ ζωγραφίαν πλαστικὴν ἀγαλματοποιοὺς κυβερνήτας γεωργούς, ἢν ταῖς ὥραις ἕπωνται, καὶ γὰρ αἵδε αἱ τέχναι σοφίας οὐ πολὺ λείπονται. ἔστι ʽδέʼ τι, ὦ βασιλεῦ, ψευδόσοφοί τε καὶ ἀγείροντες, ὃ μὴ μαντικὴν ὑπολάβῃς, πολλοῦ μὲν γὰρ ἀξία, ἢν ἀληθεύῃ, εἰ δʼ ἐστὶ τέχνη, οὔπω οἶδα, ἀλλὰ τοὺς γόητας ψευδοσόφους φημί· τὰ γὰρ οὐκ ὄντα εἶναι καὶ τὰ ὄντα ἀπιστεῖσθαι, πάντα ταῦτα προστίθημι τῇ τῶν ἐξαπατωμένων δόξῃ, τὸ γὰρ σοφὸν τῆς τέχνης ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν ἐξαπατωμένων τε καὶ θυομένων ἀνοίᾳ κεῖται, ἡ δὲ τέχνη φιλοχρήματοι γὰρ πάντες, ἃ γὰρ κομψεύονται, ταῦθʼ ὑπὲρ μισθοῦ σφισιν εὕρηται, μαστεύουσι δʼ ὑπερβολὰς χρημάτων ὑπαγόμενοι τοὺς ὁτουδὴ ἐρῶντας ὡς ἱκανοὶ πάντα. τίνα οὖν, ὦ βασιλεῦ, πλοῦτον περὶ ἡμᾶς ἰδὼν ψευδοσοφίαν ἐπιτηδεύειν με οἴει, καὶ ταῦτα τοῦ σοῦ πατρὸς κρείττω με ἡγουμένου χρημάτων; ὅτι δʼ ἀληθῆ λέγω, ποῦ μοι ἡ ἐπιστολὴ τοῦ γενναίου τε καὶ θείου ἀνδρός; ὅς με ἐν αὐτῇ ᾅδει τά τε ἄλλα καὶ τὸ πένεσθαι. αὐτοκράτωρ Οὐεσπασιανὸς Ἀπολλωνίῳ φιλοσόφῳ χαίρειν. εἰ πάντες, Ἀπολλώνιε, κατὰ ταὐτά σοι φιλοσοφεῖν ἤθελον, σφόδρα ἂν εὐδαιμόνως ἔπραττε φιλοσοφία τε καὶ πενία· φιλοσοφία μὲν ἀδεκάστως ἔχουσα, πενία δὲ αὐθαιρέτως. ἔρρωσο.Ταῦθʼ ὁ πατὴρ ὁ σὸς ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ ἀπολογείσθω, φιλοσοφίας μὲν τὸ ἀδέκαστον, πενίας δὲ τὸ αὐθαίρετον ἐμοὶ ὁριζόμενος, ἐμέμνητο γάρ που καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον·, ὅτʼ Εὐφράτης μὲν καὶ πολλοὶ τῶν προσποιουμένων φιλοσοφεῖν προσιόντες αὐτῷ χρήματα οὐδʼ ἀφανῶς ᾔτουν, ἐγὼ δʼ οὐ μόνον οὐ προσῄειν ὑπὲρ χρημάτων, ἀλλὰ κἀκείνους ἐώθουν ὡς οὐχ ὑγιαίνοντας, διεβεβλήμην δὲ πρὸς χρήματα μειράκιον ὢν ἔτι· τὰ γοῦν πατρῷα, λαμπρὰ δʼ ἦν οὐσία ταῦτα, μιᾶς μόνης ἰδὼν ἡμέρας ἀδελφοῖς τε τοῖς ἐμαυτοῦ ἀφῆκα καὶ φίλοις καὶ τῶν ξυγγενῶν τοῖς πένησι μελετῶν που ἀφʼ Ἑστίας τὸ μηδενὸς δεῖσθαι, ἐάσθω δὲ Βαβυλὼν καὶ Ἰνδῶν τὰ ὑπὲρ Καύκασόν τε καὶ ποταμὸν Ὕφασιν, διʼ ὧν ἐπορευόμην ἐμαυτῷ ὅμοιος· ἀλλὰ τῶν γε ἐνταῦθα καὶ τοῦ μὴ πρὸς ἀργύριον βλέπειν ποιοῦμαι μάρτυρα τὸν Αἰγύπτιον τοῦτον· δεινὰ γὰρ πεπρᾶχθαί τε μοι καὶ βεβουλεῦσθαι φήσας οὔθʼ ὁπόσων χρημάτων ἐπανούργουν ταῦτα, εἴρηκεν, οὔθʼ ὅ τι ἐνθυμηθεὶς κέρδος, ἀλλʼ οὕτως ἀνόητος αὐτῷ δοκῶ τις, ὡς γοητεύειν μέν, ἃ δʼ ὑπὲρ πολλῶν ἕτεροι χρημάτων, αὐτὸς ἀδικεῖν οὐδʼ ἐπὶ χρήμασιν, ἀγοράν, οἶμαι, προκηρύττων τοιαύτην· ἴτε, ὦ ἀνόητοι, γοητεύω γὰρ, καὶ οὐδʼ ὑπὲρ χρημάτων, ἀλλὰ προῖκα, κερδανεῖτε δὲ ὑμεῖς μὲν τὸ ἀπελθεῖν ἕκαστος ἔχων, ὅτου ἐρᾷ, ἐγὼ δὲ κινδύνους καὶ γραφάς. ἀλλʼ ἵνα μὴ ἐς ἀνοήτους ἴωμεν λόγους, ἐρώμεθα τὸν κατήγορον, ὑπὲρ ὅτου χρὴ λέγειν πρώτου. καίτοι τί χρὴ ἐρωτᾶν; διῆλθε γὰρ ὑπὲρ τῆς στολῆς τὰς ἀρχὰς τοῦ λόγου, καί, νὴ Δίʼ, ὧν σιτοῦμαί τε καὶ οὐ σιτοῦμαι. ἀπολογοῦ δὴ ὑπὲρ τούτων, θεῖε Πυθαγόρα, κρινόμεθα γὰρ ὑπὲρ ὧν σὺ μὲν εὗρες, ἐγὼ δὲ ἐπαινῶ. ἀνθρώποις ἡ γῆ φύει, βασιλεῦ, πάντα, καὶ σπονδὰς ἄγειν πρὸς τὰ ζῷα βουλομένοις δεῖ οὐδενός, τὰ μὲν γὰρ δρέπονται αὐτῆς, τὰ δʼ ἀροῦνται κουροτροφούσης, ὡς ταῖς ὥραις ἔοικεν, οἱ δʼ ὥσπερ ἀνήκοοι τῆς γῆς μάχαιραν ἐπʼ αὐτὰ ἔθηξαν ὑπὲρ ἐσθῆτός τε καὶ βρώσεως. Ἰνδοὶ τοίνυν Βραχμᾶνες αὐτοί τε οὐκ ἐπῄνουν ταῦτα καὶ τοὺς Γυμνοὺς Αἰγυπτίων ἐδίδασκον μὴ ἐπαινεῖν αὐτά· ἔνθεν Πυθαγόρας ἑλών, Ἑλλήνων δὲ πρῶτος ἐπέμιξεν Αἰγυπτίοις, τὰ μὲν ἔμψυχα τῇ γῇ ἀνῆκεν, ἃ δʼ αὐτὴ φύει, ἀκήρατα εἶναι φάσκων ἐσιτεῖτο, ἐπιτήδεια γὰρ σῶμα καὶ νοῦν τρέφειν, ἐσθῆτά τε, ἣν ἀπὸ θνησειδίων οἱ πολλοὶ φοροῦσιν, οὐ καθαρὰν εἶναι φήσας λίνον ἠμπίσχετο καὶ τὸ ὑπόδημα κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον βύβλου ἐπλέξατο, ἀπέλαυσέ τε τοῦ καθαρὸς εἶναι πολλὰ μέν, πρῶτον δὲ τὸ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῆς αἰσθέσθαι· γενόμενος γὰρ κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους, οὓς ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἑλένης ἡ Τροία ἐμάχετο, καὶ τῶν τοῦ Πάνθου παίδων κάλλιστος ὢν καὶ κάλλιστα ἐσταλμένος ἀπέθανε μὲν οὕτω νέος, ὡς καὶ Ὁμήρῳ παρασχεῖν θρῆνον, παρελθὼν δʼ ἐς πλείω σώματα κατὰ τὸν Ἀδραστείας θεσμόν, ὃν ψυχὴ ἐναλλάττει, πάλιν ἐπανῆλθεν ἐς ἀνθρώπου εἶδος καὶ Μνησαρχίδῃ ἐτέχθη τῷ Σαμίῳ σοφὸς ἐκ βαρβάρου καὶ Ἴων ἐκ Τρωὸς καὶ οὕτω τι ἀθάνατος, ὡς μηδʼ ὅτι Εὔφορβος ἦν ἐκλελῆσθαι. τὸν μὲν δὴ πρόγονον τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ σοφίας εἴρηκα καὶ τὸ μὴ αὐτὸς εὑρών, κληρονομήσας δὲ ἑτέρου ταῦτʼ ἔχειν. κἀγὼ μὲν οὐ κρίνω τοὺς τρυφῶντας ὑπὲρ τοῦ φοινικίου ὄρνιθος, οὐδʼ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἐκ Φάσιδος ἢ Παιόνων, οὓς πιαίνουσιν ἐς τὰς αὑτῶν δαῖτας οἱ τῇ γαστρὶ χαριζόμενοι πάντα, οὐδʼ ἐγραψάμην πω οὐδένα ὑπὲρ τῶν ἰχθύων, οὓς ὠνοῦνται πλείονος ἢ τοὺς κοππατίας ποτὲ οἱ λαμπροί, οὐδʼ ἁλουργίδος ἐβάσκηνα οὐδενί, οὐδὲ Παμφύλου τινὸς ἢ μαλακῆς ἐσθῆτος, ἀσφοδέλου δέ, ὦ θεοί, καὶ τραγημάτων καὶ καθαρᾶς ὀψοφαγίας γραφὴν φεύγω, καὶ οὐδὲ ἡ ἐσθὴς ἄσυλος, ἀλλὰ κἀκείνην λωποδυτεῖ με ὁ κατήγορος ὡς πολλοῦ ἀξίαν τοῖς γόησι. καίτοι ἀφελόντι τὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμψύχων τε καὶ ἀψύχων λόγον, διʼ ὧν καθαρός τις ἢ μὴ δοκεῖ, τί βελτίων ἡ ὀθόνη τοῦ ἐρίου; τὸ μέν γε πρᾳοτάτου ζῴου ἐπέχθη καὶ σπουδαζομένου θεοῖς, οἳ μὴ ἀπαξιοῦσι τὸ ποιμαίνειν καί, νὴ Δίʼ, ἠξίωσάν ποτε αὐτὸ καὶ χρυσοῦ εἴδους ἢ θεοὶ ἢ λόγοι. λίνον δὲ σπείρεται μέν, ὡς ἔτυχε, χρυσοῦ δὲ οὐδεὶς ἐπʼ αὐτῷ λόγος, ἀλλʼ ὅμως, ἐπειδὴ μὴ ἀπʼ ἐμψύχου ἐδρέφθη, καθαρὸν μὲν Ἰνδοῖς δοκεῖ, καθαρὸν δὲ Αἰγυπτίοις, ἐμοὶ δὲ καὶ Πυθαγόρᾳ διὰ τοῦτο σχῆμα γέγονε διαλεγομένοις εὐχομένοις θύουσι. καθαρὸν δὲ καὶ τὸ ἐννυχεύειν ὑπʼ αὐτῷ, καὶ γὰρ τὰ ὀνείρατα τοῖς, ὡς ἐγώ, διαιτωμένοις ἐτυμωτέρας τὰς αὑτῶν φήμας ἄγει. ἀπολογώμεθα καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς οὔσης ποτὲ ἡμῖν κόμης, ἐπειδή τις γραφὴ καὶ αὐχμοῦ εὕρηται, κρινέτω δὲ μὴ ὁ Αἰγύπτιος, ἀλλὰ τὰ ξανθὰ καὶ διεκτενισμένα μειράκια, τοὺς ἐραστὰς ἐξαψάμενα καὶ τὰς ἑταίρας, ἐφʼ ἃς κωμάζει, καὶ ἑαυτὰ μὲν εὐδαίμονα ἡγείσθω καὶ ζηλωτὰ τῆς κόμης καὶ τοῦ λειβομένου ἀπʼ αὐτῆς μύρου, ἐμὲ δὲ ἀναφροδισίαν πᾶσαν καὶ ἐραστὴν τοῦ μὴ ἐρᾶν. εἰρήσεται γὰρ πρὸς αὐτά· ὦ κακοδαίμονες, μὴ συκοφαντεῖτε τὸ Δωριέων εὕρεμα, τὸ γὰρ κομᾶν ἐκ Λακεδαιμονίων ἥκει κατὰ ʽτοὺσʼ χρόνους ἐπιτηδευθὲν αὐτοῖς, ἐς οὓς μαχιμώτατα αὑτῶν εἶχον, καὶ βασιλεὺς τῆς Σπάρτης Λεωνίδας ἐγένετο κομῶν ὑπὲρ ἀνδρείας καὶ τοῦ σεμνὸς μὲν φίλοις, φοβερὸς δὲ ἐχθροῖς φαίνεσθαι· ταῦτά τοι καὶ ἡ Σπάρτη ἐπʼ αὐτῷ κομᾷ μεῖον οὐδὲν ἢ ἐπὶ Λυκούργῳ τε καὶ Ἰφίτῳ. σοφοῦ δὲ ἀνδρὸς κόμης φειδέσθω σίδηρος, οὐ γὰρ θεμιτὸν ἐπάγειν αὐτόν, οὗ πᾶσαι μὲν αἰσθητηρίων πηγαί, πᾶσαι δʼ ὀμφαί, ὅθεν εὐχαί τε ἀναφαίνονται καὶ σοφίας ἑρμηνεὺς λόγος. Ἐμπεδοκλῆς μὲν γὰρ καὶ στρόφιον τῶν ἁλουργοτάτων περὶ αὐτὴν ἁρμόσας ἐσόβει περὶ τὰς τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀγυιὰς ὕμνους ξυντιθείς, ὡς θεὸς ἐξ ἀνθρώπου ἔσοιτο, ἐγὼ δὲ ἠμελημένῃ κόμῃ χρώμενος καὶ οὔπω τοιῶνδε ὕμνων ἐπʼ αὐτῇ δεηθεὶς ἐς γραφὰς ἄγομαι καὶ δικαστήρια. καὶ τί φῶ τὸν Ἐμπεδοκλέα; πότερʼ ἑαυτὸν ἢ τὴν τῶν ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ ἀνθρώπων εὐδαιμονίαν ᾅδειν, παρʼ οἷς οὐκ ἐσυκοφαντεῖτο ταῦτα; μὴ πλείω διαλεγώμεθα ὑπὲρ τῆς κόμης, ἐτμήθη γὰρ καὶ προὔλαβε τὴν κατηγορίαν ὁ φθόνος, διʼ ὃν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἑτέρας αἰτίας χρὴ ἀπολογεῖσθαι χαλεπῆς οὔσης, καὶ οἵας, ὦ βασιλεῦ, μὴ σοὶ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ Διὶ παρασχεῖν φόβον· φησὶ γὰρ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους θεὸν ἡγεῖσθαί με καὶ δημοσίᾳ τοῦτʼ ἐκφέρειν ἐμβεβροντημένους ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ· καίτοι καὶ πρὸ τῆς αἰτίας ἐκεῖνα διδάσκειν ἔδει, τί διαλεχθεὶς ἐγώ, τί δʼ οὕτω θαυμάσιον εἰπὼν ἢ πράξας ὑπηγαγόμην τοὺς ἀνθρώπους προσεύχεσθαί μοι, οὔτε γάρ, ἐς ὅ τι ἢ ἐξ ὅτου μετέβαλον ἢ μεταβαλεῖ μοι ἡ ψυχή, διελέχθην ἐν Ἕλλησι, καίτοι γιγνώσκων, οὔτε δόξας περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ τοιαύτας ἀπέστειλα, οὔτʼ ἐς λόγια καὶ χρησμῶν ᾠδὰς ἐξῆλθον, οἷα τῶν θεοκλυτούντων φορά, οὐδʼ οἶδα πόλιν οὐδεμίαν, ἐν ᾗ ἔδοξε ξυνιόντας Ἀπολλωνίῳ θύειν. καίτοι πολλοῦ ἄξιος ἑκάστοις ἐγενόμην, ὁπόσα ἐδέοντό μου, ἐδέοντο δὲ τοιαῦτα· μὴ νοσεῖν οἱ νοσοῦντες, ὁσιώτεροι μύειν ὁσιώτεροι θύειν ὕβριν ἐκτετμῆσθαι νόμους ἐρρῶσθαι. μισθὸς δʼ ἐμοὶ μὲν τούτων ὑπῆρχε τὸ βελτίους αὐτοὺς αὑτῶν φαίνεσθαι, σοὶ δὲ ἐχαριζόμην ταῦτα· ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ τῶν βοῶν ἐπιστάται τὸ μὴ ἀτακτεῖν αὐτὰς χαρίζονται τοῖς κεκτημένοις τὰς βοῦς καὶ οἱ τῶν ποιμνίων ἐπιμεληταὶ πιαίνουσιν αὐτὰ ἐς τὸ τῶν πεπαμένων κέρδος νόσους τε ἀφαιροῦσι μελιττῶν οἱ νομεῖς αὐτῶν, ὡς μὴ ἀπόλοιτο τῷ δεσπότῃ τὸ σμῆνος, οὕτω που καὶ ἐγὼ τὰ πολιτικὰ παύων ἐλαττώματα σοὶ διωρθούμην τὰς πόλεις, ὥστʼ εἰ καὶ θεὸν ἡγοῦντό με, σοὶ κέρδος ἡ ἀπάτη εἶχε, ξὺν προθυμίᾳ γάρ που ἠκροῶντό μου, δεδιότες πράττειν, ἃ μὴ δοκεῖ θεῷ. ἀλλʼ οὐχὶ τοῦτο ᾤοντο, ὅτι δʼ ἐστί τις ἀνθρώπῳ πρὸς θεὸν ξυγγένεια, διʼ ἣν μόνον ζῴων θεοὺς οἶδε, φιλοσοφεῖ δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ φύσεως καὶ ὅπη μετέχει τοῦ θείου. φησὶ μὲν οὖν καὶ τὸ εἶδος αὐτὸ θεῷ ἐοικέναι, ὡς ἀγαλματοποιία ἑρμηνεύει καὶ χρώματα, τάς τε ἀρετὰς θεόθεν ἥκειν ἐπʼ αὐτὸν πέπεισται καὶ τοὺς μετέχοντας αὐτῶν ἀγχιθέους τε εἶναι καὶ θείους. διδασκάλους δὲ τῆς διανοίας ταύτης μὴ Ἀθηναίους καλῶμεν, ἐπειδὴ τοὺς δικαίους καὶ τοὺς Ὀλυμπίους καὶ τὰς τοιάσδε ἐπωνυμίας πρῶτοι ἔθεντο, θειοτέρας, ὡς τὸ εἰκός, οὔσας ἢ ἐπʼ ἀνθρώπῳ κεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὸν Ἀπόλλω τὸν ἐν τῇ Πυθοῖ· ἀφίκετο μὲν γὰρ ἐς τὸ ἱερὸν αὐτοῦ Λυκοῦργος ὁ ἐκ τῆς Σπάρτης ἄρτι γεγραμμένων αὐτῷ τῶν νόμων, οἷς ἡ Λακεδαίμων τέτακται, προσειπὼν δʼ αὐτὸν ὁ Ἀπόλλων βασανίζει τὴν περὶ αὐτοῦ δόξαν, ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ χρησμοῦ φάσκων ἀπορεῖν, πότερα χρὴ θεὸν ἢ ἄνθρωπον καλεῖν, προϊὼν δὲ ἀποφαίνεται καὶ ψηφίζεται τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν ταύτην, ὡς ἀνδρὶ ἀγαθῷ. καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐπὶ τὸν Λυκοῦργον ἀγὼν ʽἧκενʼ ἢ κίνδυνος ἐκ τούτων παρὰ Λακεδαιμονίοις, ὡς ἀθανατίζοντα, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἐπέπληξε τῷ Πυθίῳ προσρηθεὶς τούτοις, ἀλλὰ ξυνετίθεντο τῷ μαντείῳ, πεπεισμένοι δήπου καὶ πρὸ τοῦ χρησμοῦ ταῦτα. τὰ δὲ Ἰνδῶν καὶ Αἰγυπτίων ταῦτα· Ἰνδοὺς Αἰγύπτιοι τὰ μὲν ἄλλα συκοφαντοῦσι καὶ διαβάλλουσιν αὐτῶν τὰς ἐπὶ τοῖς πράγμασι δόξας, τὸν δὲ λόγον, ὃς ἐς τὸν δημιουργὸν τῶν ὅλων εἴρηται, οὕτω τι ἐπαινοῦσιν, ὡς καὶ ἑτέρους διδάξασθαι Ἰνδῶν ὄντα. ὁ λόγος δὲ τῆς μὲν τῶν ὅλων γενέσεώς τε καὶ οὐσίας θεὸν δημιουργὸν οἶδε, τοῦ δὲ ἐνθυμηθῆναι ταῦτα αἴτιον τὸ ἀγαθὸν εἶναι αὐτόν· ἐπεὶ τοίνυν ξυγγενῆ ταῦτα, ἔχομαι τοῦ λόγου καὶ φημὶ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων θεοῦ τι ἔχειν. κόσμος δὲ ὁ μὲν ἐπὶ θεῷ δημιουργῷ κείμενος τὰ ἐν οὐρανῷ νομιζέσθω καὶ τὰ ἐν θαλάττῃ καὶ γῇ πάντα, ὧν μετουσία ἴση ἀνθρώποις, πλὴν τύχης. ἔστι δέ τις καὶ ἐπʼ ἀνδρὶ ἀγαθῷ κόσμος οὐχ ὑπερβάλλων τὰ σοφίας μέτρα, ὅν που καὶ αὐτός, ὦ βασιλεῦ, φήσεις ἀνδρὸς δεῖσθαι θεῷ εἰκασμένου· καὶ τί τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ κόσμου τοῦδε; αἱ ψυχαὶ ἀτακτοῦσαι μανικώτερον ἅπτονται παντὸς σχήματος, καὶ ἕωλοι μὲν αὐταῖς νόμοι, σωφροσύνη δʼ οὐδαμοῦ, θεῶν δὲ τιμαὶ ἄτιμοι, λαλιᾶς δʼ ἐρῶσι καὶ τρυφῆς, ἐξ ὧν ἀργία φύεται πονηρὰ ξύμβουλος ἔργου παντός. αἱ δὲ μεθύουσαι ψυχαὶ πηδῶσι μὲν ἐπὶ πολλά, τὸ δὲ σκίρτημα τοῦτο ἴσχει οὐδέν, οὐδʼ εἰ πάντα πίνοιεν, ὁπόσα, ὥσπερ ὁ μανδραγόρας, ὑπνηλὰ ἐνομίσθη. ἀλλὰ δεῖ ἀνδρός, ὃς ἐπιμελήσεται τοῦ περὶ αὐτὰς κόσμου, θεὸς ὑπὸ σοφίας ἥκων. οὑτοσὶ γὰρ ἀπόχρη αὐτὰς ἐρώτων τε ἀπάγειν, ἐφʼ οὓς ἀγριώτερον τῆς ξυνήθους ὁμιλίας ἐκφέρονται, καὶ φιλοχρηματίας, διʼ ἣν οὔπω πᾶν ἔχειν φασίν, ἐπεὶ μὴ καὶ τὸ στόμα ὑπέχουσιν ἐπιρρέοντι τῷ πλούτῳ. φόνων γὰρ ἀνασχεῖν μὲν αὐτὰς μὴ προσάπτεσθαι οὐκ ἀδύνατον ἴσως ἀνδρὶ τοιούτῳ, ἀπονῖψαι δὲ οὔτε ἐμοὶ δυνατὸν οὔτε τῷ πάντων δημιουργῷ θεῷ· ἔστω, βασιλεῦ, κατηγορία καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἐφέσου, ἐπειδὴ ἐσώθη, καὶ κρινέτω με ὁ Αἰγύπτιος, ὡς ἔστι πρόσφορον τῇ γραφῇ. ἔστι γὰρ δήπου ἡ κατηγορία τοιαύτη· περὶ Σκύθας ἢ Κελτούς, οἳ ποταμὸν Ἴστρον ἢ Ῥῆνον οἰκοῦσι, πόλις ᾤκισται μείων οὐδὲν Ἐφέσου τῆς ἐν Ἰωνίᾳ· ταύτην ὁρμητήριον βαρβάρων οὖσαν, οἳ μὴ ἀκροῶνταί σου, λοιμὸς μέν τις ἀπολεῖν ἔμελλεν, Ἀπολλώνιος δὲ ἰάσατο. ἔστι μὲν γάρ τις καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα ἀπολογία σοφῷ ἀνδρί, ἢν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸ ἀντίξοον ὅπλοις, ἀλλὰ μὴ νόσοις αἱρεῖν βούληται, μὴ γὰρ ἐξαλειφθείη πόλις μηδεμία, μήτε σοί, βασιλεῦ, μήτε ἐμοί, μήτε ἴδοιμι πρὸς ἱεροῖς νόσον, διʼ ἣν οἱ νοσοῦντες ἐν αὐτοῖς κείσονται. ἀλλὰ μὴ ἔστω ἐν σπουδῇ τὰ βαρβάρων, μηδὲ τάττωμεν αὐτοὺς ἐς τὸ ὑγιαῖνον πολεμιωτάτους ὄντας καὶ οὐκ ἐνσπόνδους τῷ περὶ ἡμᾶς γένει. τὴν δὲ Ἔφεσον τίς ἀφαιρήσεται τὸ σώζεσθαι βεβλημένην μὲν τὰς ἀρχὰς τοῦ γένους ἐκ τῆς καθαρωτάτης Ἀτθίδος, ἐπιδεδωκυῖαν δὲ παρὰ πάσας, ὁπόσαι Ἰωνικαί τε καὶ Λύδιοι, προβεβηκυῖαν δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν θάλατταν διὰ τὸ ὑπερήκειν τῆς γῆς, ἐφʼ ἧς ᾠκίσθη, μεστὴν δὲ φροντισμάτων οὖσαν φιλοσόφων τε καὶ ῥητορικῶν, ὑφʼ ὧν ἡ πόλις οὐχ ἵππῳ, μυριάσι δὲ ἀνθρώπων ἰσχύει, σοφίαν ἐπαινοῦσα; τίς δʼ ἂν σοφὸς ἐκλιπεῖν σοι δοκεῖ τὸν ὑπὲρ πόλεως τοιαύτης ἀγῶνα ἐνθυμηθεὶς μὲν Δημόκριτον ἐλευθερώσαντα λοιμοῦ ποτε Ἀβδηρίτας, ἐννοήσας δὲ Σοφοκλέα τὸν Ἀθηναῖον, ὃς λέγεται καὶ ἀνέμους θέλξαι τῆς ὥρας πέρα πνεύσαντας, ἀκηκοὼς δὲ τὰ Ἐμπεδοκλέους, ὃς νεφέλης ἀνέσχε φορὰν ἐπʼ Ἀκραγαντίνους ῥαγείσης; ἐπικόπτει με ὁ κατήγορος· ἀκούεις γάρ που καὶ σύ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, καί φησιν, οὐκ ἐπειδὴ σωτηρίας αἴτιος Ἐφεσίοις ἐγενόμην, γράφεσθαί με, ἀλλʼ ἐπειδὴ προεῖπον ἐμπεσεῖσθαί σφισι τὴν νόσον, τουτὶ γὰρ ὑπὲρ σοφίαν εἶναι καὶ τερατῶδες, τῆς δʼ ἐπὶ τοσόνδε ἀληθείας οὐκ ἂν ἐφικέσθαι με, εἰ μὴ γόης τε ἦν καὶ ἀπόρρητος. τί οὖν ἐνταῦθα ἐρεῖ Σωκράτης ὑπὲρ ὧν ἔφασκε τοῦ δαιμονίου μανθάνειν; τί δὲ Θαλῆς τε καὶ Ἀναξαγόρας, τὼ Ἴωνε, ὁ μὲν τὴν εὐφορίαν τὴν τῶν ἐλαιῶν, ὁ δὲ πολλὰ τῶν οὐρανίων παθῶν προειπόντε; ἦ γοητεύοντε προειπεῖν ταῦτα; καὶ μὴν καὶ ὑπήχθησαν οὗτοι δικαστηρίοις ἐφʼ ἑτέραις αἰτίαις, καὶ οὐδαμοῦ τῶν αἰτιῶν εἴρηται γόητας εἶναι σφᾶς, ἐπειδὴ προγιγνώσκουσι. καταγέλαστον γὰρ τοῦτο ἐδόκει καὶ οὐδʼ ἐν Θετταλίᾳ πιθανὸν κατʼ ἀνδρῶν λέγεσθαι σοφῶν, οὗ τὰ γύναια κακῶς ἤκουεν ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς σελήνης ἕλξει. πόθεν οὖν τοῦ περὶ τὴν Ἔφεσον πάθους ᾐσθόμην; ἤκουσας μὲν καὶ τοῦ κατηγόρου εἰπόντος, ὅτι μὴ κατὰ τοὺς ἄλλους διαιτῶμαι, κἀμοὶ δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ σιτίων, ὡς λεπτὰ καὶ ἡδίω τῆς ἑτέρων συβάριδος, ἐν ἀρχῇ εἴρηται· τοῦτό μοι, ὦ βασιλεῦ, τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἐν αἰθρίᾳ τινὶ ἀπορρήτῳ φυλάττει κοὐκ ἐᾷ θολερὸν περὶ αὐτὰς οὐδὲν εἶναι, διορᾶν τε, ὥσπερ ἐν κατόπτρου αὐγῇ, πάντα γιγνόμενά τε καὶ ἐσόμενα. οὐ γὰρ περιμενεῖ γε ὁ σοφὸς τὴν γῆν ἀναθυμιῶσαν ἢ τὸν ἀέρα διεφθορότα, ἢν τὸ δεινὸν ἄνωθεν ῥέῃ, ἀλλὰ ξυνήσει αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶ θύραις ὄντων ὕστερον μὲν ἢ οἱ θεοί, θᾶττον δὲ ἢ οἱ πολλοί, θεοὶ μὲν γὰρ μελλόντων, ἄνθρωποι δὲ γιγνομένων, σοφοὶ δὲ προσιόντων αἰσθάνονται. λοιμῶν δʼ αἰτίας ἰδίᾳ, βασιλεῦ, ἐρώτα, σοφώτεραι γὰρ ἢ ἐς τοὺς πολλοὺς λέγεσθαι· ἆρʼ οὖν τὸ οὕτως διαιτᾶσθαι λεπτότητα μόνον ἐργάζεται τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἢ ἰσχὺν ἐπὶ τὰ μέγιστά τε καὶ θαυμασιώτατα; θεωρεῖν δʼ ἔξεστιν, ὃ λέγω, καὶ ἀπʼ ἄλλων μέν, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ κἀκ τῶν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ περὶ τὴν νόσον ἐκείνην πραχθέντων· τὸ γὰρ τοῦ λοιμοῦ εἶδος, πτωχῷ δὲ γέροντι εἴκαστο, καὶ εἶδον καὶ ἰδὼν εἷλον, οὐ παύσας νόσον, ἀλλʼ ἐξελών, ὅτῳ δʼ εὐξάμενος, δηλοῖ τὸ ἱερόν, ὃ ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ὑπὲρ τούτου ἱδρυσάμην, Ἡρακλέους μὲν γὰρ Ἀποτροπαίου ἐστί, ξυνεργὸν δʼ αὐτὸν εἱλόμην, ἐπειδὴ σοφός τε καὶ ἀνδρεῖος ὢν ἐκάθηρέ ποτε λοιμοῦ τὴν Ἦλιν τὰς ἀναθυμιάσεις ἀποκλύσας, ἃς παρεῖχεν ἡ γῆ κατʼ Αὐγέαν τυραννεύοντα. τίς ἂν οὖν σοι, βασιλεῦ, δοκεῖ φιλοτιμούμενος γόης φαίνεσθαι θεῷ ἀναθεῖναι, ὃ αὐτὸς εἴργαστο; τίνας δʼ ἂν κτήσασθαι θαυμαστὰς τῆς τέχνης θεῷ παρεὶς τὸ θαυμάζεσθαι; τίς δʼ ἂν Ἡρακλεῖ εὔξασθαι γόης ὤν; τὰ γὰρ τοιαῦτα οἱ κακοδαίμονες βόθροις ἀνατιθέασι καὶ χθονίοις θεοῖς, ὧν τὸν Ἡρακλέα ἀποτακτέον, καθαρὸς γὰρ καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εὔνους. ηὐξάμην αὐτῷ καὶ ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ ποτέ, λαμίας γάρ τι φάσμα κἀκεῖ περὶ τὴν Κόρινθον ἤλυε σιτούμενον τῶν νέων τοὺς καλούς, καὶ ξυνήρατό μοι τοῦ ἀγῶνος οὐ θαυμασίων δεηθεὶς δώρων, ἀλλὰ μελιττούτης καὶ λιβανωτοῦ καὶ τοῦ ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας τι ἀνθρώπων ἐργάσασθαι, τουτὶ γὰρ καὶ κατὰ τὸν Εὐρυσθέα μισθὸν τῶν ἄθλων ἡγεῖτο. μὴ ἄχθου, βασιλεῦ, τὰ Ἡρακλέους ἀκούων· ἔμελε γὰρ αὐτοῦ τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ, ἐπειδὴ χρηστὸς καὶ σωτήριος τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ κελεύεις με ὑπὲρ τῆς θυσίας ἀπολογεῖσθαι, τουτὶ γὰρ καὶ τῇ χειρὶ ἐνδείκνυσαι, ἄκουε ἀπολογίας ἀληθοῦς· ἐγὼ γὰρ πάνθʼ ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας τῶν ἀνθρώπων πράττων οὔπω ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἔθυσα, οὐδʼ ἂν θύσαιμι οὐδέν, οὐδʼ ἂν θίγοιμι ἱερῶν, ἐν οἷς αἷμα, οὐδʼ ἂν εὐξαίμην ἐς μάχαιραν βλέπων ἢ θυσίαν, ἥν φησιν. οὐ Σκύθην με, ὦ βασιλεῦ, ᾕρηκας, οὐδʼ ἐκ τῆς ἀμίκτου ποθέν, οὐδʼ ἐπέμιξά πω Μασσαγέταις ἢ Ταύροις, ὡς κἀκείνους ἂν τοῦ τῆς θυσίας ἔθους μετέβαλον· ἀνοίας δʼ ἂν ποῖ ἤλαυνον, ἵνα πλεῖστα μὲν ὑπὲρ μαντικῆς διαλεγόμενος καὶ ὅπη ἔρρωται ἢ μή, ἄριστα δʼ ἀνθρώπων ᾐσθημένος, ὅτι τὰς αὑτῶν βουλὰς οἱ θεοὶ τοῖς ὁσίοις τε καὶ σοφοῖς ἀνδράσι καὶ μὴ μαντευομένοις φαίνουσι, μιαιφονίας ἅπτωμαι καὶ σπλάγχνων ἀθύτων ἐμοὶ καὶ ἀκαλλιερήτων; ἐφʼ οἷς ἀπέλιπεν ἄν με καὶ ἡ τοῦ δαιμονίου ὀμφὴ μὴ καθαρὸν ὄντα. καὶ μὴν εἴ τις ἀφελὼν τὸ τῆς θυσίας μύσος ἐξετάζοι τὸν κατήγορον πρὸς ἃ μικρῷ πρόσθεν εἴρηκεν, ἀπαλλάττει με τῆς αἰτίας αὐτός, ὃν γάρ φησι προειπεῖν Ἐφεσίοις τὴν νόσον θυσίας οὐδεμιᾶς δεηθέντα, τί σφαγίων ἐδεήθην ἂν ἐφʼ ἃ καὶ μὴ θυσαμένῳ παρῆν εἰδέναι; μαντικῆς δὲ τί ἐδεόμην ὑπὲρ ὧν αὐτός τε ἐπεπείσμην καὶ ἕτερος; εἰ γὰρ ὑπὲρ Νερούα καὶ τῶν ἀμφʼ αὐτὸν κρίνομαι, λέξω πάλιν, ἃ καὶ πρώην εἶπον, ἡνίκα ᾐτιῶ ταῦτα· Νερούαν γὰρ ἄξιον μὲν ἀρχῆς ἡγοῦμαι πάσης καὶ λόγου παντὸς ἐπʼ εὐφημίαν ἥκοντος, ἀγωνιστὴν δὲ φροντίδων οὐ χρηστόν, καταλέλυται γὰρ τὸ σῶμα ὑπὸ τῆς νόσου, διʼ ἣν καὶ ἡ γνώμη μεστὴ ἄσης καὶ οὐδὲ τὰ οἴκοι ἱκανή· σὲ γοῦν ἐπαινεῖ μὲν σώματος, ἐπαινεῖ δὲ γνώμης, εἰκὸς μὲν οἶμαί τι πράττων, προθυμοτέρα γὰρ ὄντως ἡ ἀνθρωπεία φύσις ἐπαινεῖν, ἃ μὴ αὐτὴ ἔρρωται. πέπονθε δέ τι καὶ πρὸς ἐμὲ χρηστὸν Νερούας, καὶ οὔτε γελάσαντά πω αὐτὸν ἐπʼ ἐμοῦ οἶδα οὔτε εὐηθισάμενόν τι τῶν εἰωθότων ἐν φίλοις, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ τὰ μειράκια πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας τε καὶ διδασκάλους τοὺς αὑτῶν, εὐλαβῶς μὲν φθέγγεται τὸ ἐπʼ ἐμοῦ πᾶν, ἐρυθριᾷ δὲ ἔτι, εἰδὼς δὲ τὸ ἐπιεικὲς ἐπαινοῦντά με οὕτω τι ἄγαν ἐπιτηδεύει αὐτό, ὡς κἀμοὶ ταπεινότερος τοῦ μετρίου φαίνεσθαι. πῶς οὖν πιθανὸν ἡγήσαιτο ἄν τις ἀρχῆς ἐπιθυμῆσαι Νερούαν ἀγαπῶντα, εἰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ οἰκίας ἄρξοι, ἢ ὑπὲρ μεγάλων διαλέγεσθαί μοι τὸν μηδʼ ὑπὲρ μικρῶν τεθαρρηκότα, ἢ ξυνάπτειν ἐμοὶ γνώμην ὑπὲρ ὧν μηδὲ πρὸς ἄλλον, εἰ τοὐμὸν ἐνεθυμήθη, ξυνῆψεν; ἢ πῶς ἔτʼ ἐγὼ σοφὸς γνώμην ἑρμηνεύειν ἀνδρὸς μαντικῇ μὲν πιστεύων, ἀπιστῶν δὲ σοφίᾳ; τὸν δὲ Ὄρφιτον καὶ τὸν Ῥοῦφον, τοὺς δικαίους μὲν καὶ σώφρονας, νωθροὺς δὲ ἄνδρας, ὡς εὖ οἶδα, εἰ μὲν ὡς τυραννησείοντας διαβεβλῆσθαί φασιν, οὐκ οἶδʼ εἴτε τούτων πλέον διαμαρτάνουσιν, εἴτε Νερούα, εἰ δʼ ὡς ξυμβούλω γεγονότε, πιθανώτερος ἀρχῇ ἐπιθέσθαι Νερούας, ἢ οἵδε ξυμβουλεῦσαι; ἀλλὰ μὴν τόν γε ὑπὲρ τούτων κρίνοντα κἀκεῖνα εἰκὸς ἦν ἐνθυμεῖσθαι, τί ἐβούλετό μοι τὸ ξυλλαμβάνειν τοῖς ἐπὶ νεώτερα ἥκουσι· χρήματα μὲν γὰρ οὔ φησι παρʼ αὐτῶν γεγενῆσθαί μοι, οὐδὲ δώροις ἐπαρθέντα με ταῦτα εἰργάσθαι· σκεψώμεθα δέ, μὴ μεγάλων δεόμενος ἀνεβαλόμην τὰς παρʼ αὐτῶν εὐεργεσίας ἐς ὃν ᾤοντο ἄρξειν χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ μεγάλα μὲν ἂν αἰτεῖν ὑπῆρξε, μειζόνων δʼ ἀξιοῦσθαι· πῶς οὖν ταῦτα ἔσται δῆλα; ἐνθυμήθητι, βασιλεῦ, σεαυτὸν καὶ τοὺς ἔτι πρὸ σοῦ ἄρχοντας, ἀδελφὸν δήπου τὸν σεαυτοῦ καὶ πατέρα Νέρωνά τε, ἐφʼ ὧν ἦρξαν, κατὰ τούτους γὰρ μάλιστα τοὺς βασιλέας βεβίωταί μοι ἐς τὸ φανερόν, τὸν ἄλλον χρόνον Ἰνδοῖς φοιτῶντι. τούτων δὴ τῶν ὀκτὼ καὶ τριάκοντα ἐτῶν, τοσοῦτον γὰρ τὸ ἐς σὲ μῆκος, οὔτε ἐπὶ θύρας βασιλείους ἐφοίτησα πλὴν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τοῦ σοῦ πατρός, ἐπεὶ μήτε βασιλεύς πω ἐτύγχανεν ὢν ὡμολόγει τε διʼ ἐμὲ ἥκειν, οὔτε ἀνελεύθερόν τι διελέχθην βασιλεῦσιν ἢ ὑπὲρ βασιλέων δήμοις οὔτʼ ἐπιστολαῖς ἐλαμπρυνάμην ἢ γραφόντων ἐμοὶ βασιλέων ἢ αὐτὸς ἐνδεικνύμενος γράφειν, οὔθʼ ὑπὲρ δωρεῶν κολακεύων βασιλέας ἐμαυτοῦ ἀπηνέχθην. εἰ γοῦν ἔροιό με πλουσίους ἐνθυμηθεὶς καὶ πένητας, ποτέρου τῶν ἐθνῶν τούτων ἐμαυτὸν γράφω, τῶν πλουσιωτάτων φήσω, τὸ γὰρ δεῖσθαι μηδενὸς ἐμοὶ Λυδία καὶ τὸ Πακτωλοῦ πᾶν. πῶς οὖν ἢ τὰς παρὰ τῶν οὔπω βασιλέων δωρεὰς ἀνεβαλλόμην ἐς ὃν ἄρξειν αὐτοὺς ᾤμην χρόνον ὁ μηδὲ τὰς παρʼ ὑμῶν ἑλόμενος, οἷς βέβαιον ἡγούμην τὸ ἄρχειν, ἢ βασιλειῶν μεταβολὰς ἐπενόουν μηδὲ ταῖς καθεστηκυίαις ἐς τὸ τιμᾶσθαι χρώμενος; καὶ μὴν ὁπόσα γίγνεται φιλοσόφῳ ἀνδρὶ κολακεύοντι τοὺς δυνατούς, δηλοῖ τὰ Εὐφράτου· τούτῳ γὰρ ἐντεῦθεν τί λέγω χρήματα; πηγαὶ μὲν οὖν εἰσι πλούτου, κἀπὶ τῶν τραπεζῶν ἤδη διαλέγεται κάπηλος ὑποκάπηλος τελώνης ὀβολοστάτης πάντα γιγνόμενος τὰ πωλούμενά τε καὶ πωλοῦντα, ἐντετύπωται δʼ ἀεὶ ταῖς τῶν δυνατῶν θύραις καὶ προσέστηκεν αὐταῖς πλείω καιρὸν ἢ οἱ θυρωροί, ἀπελήφθη δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ θυρωρῶν πολλάκις, ὥσπερ τῶν κυνῶν οἱ λίχνοι, δραχμὴν δὲ οὐδὲ φιλοσόφῳ ἀνδρὶ προέμενός ποτε ἐπιτειχίζει τὸν ἑαυτοῦ πλοῦτον ἑτέροις, τὸν Αἰγύπτιον τουτονὶ βόσκων χρήμασι καὶ ὀξύνων ἐπʼ ἐμὲ γλῶτταν ἀξίαν ἐκτετμῆσθαι. Εὐφράτην μὲν δὴ καταλείπω σοί, σὺ γάρ, ἢν μὴ κόλακας ἐπαινῇς, εὑρήσεις τὸν ἄνθρωπον κακίω ὧν ἑρμηνεύω, τῆς δὲ λοιπῆς ἀπολογίας ἀκροῶ· τίς οὖν αὕτη καὶ ὑπὲρ τίνων; ᾔδετό τις, ὦ βασιλεῦ, παιδὸς Ἀρκάδος ἐν τῇ κατηγορίᾳ θρῆνος, τετμῆσθαι μὲν αὐτὸν ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ νύκτωρ, εἰ δʼ ὄναρ φησίν, οὔπω οἶδα, εἶναι δὲ πατέρων τε ἀγαθῶν ὁ παῖς οὗτος καὶ τὸ εἶδος οἷοι Ἀρκάδων οἱ ἐν αὐχμῷ καλοί. τοῦτόν φασιν ἱκετεύοντά τε καὶ ὀλοφυρόμενον ἀπεσφάχθαι κἀμὲ τὰς χεῖρας ἐς τὸ τοῦ παιδὸς αἷμα βάψαντα θεοῖς ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας εὔχεσθαι. μέχρι τούτων ἐμὲ κρίνουσιν, ὁ δὲ ἐφεξῆς λόγος τῶν θεῶν ἅπτεται, φασὶ γὰρ τοὺς θεοὺς ἀκοῦσαι μὲν ὧδέ μου εὐξαμένου, δοῦναι δὲ ἱερὰ εὔσημα καὶ μὴ ἀποκτεῖναι ἀσεβοῦντα. τὴν μὲν οὖν ἀκρόασιν, ὡς οὐ καθαρά, τί ἄν, ὦ βασιλεῦ, λέγοιμι; ἀλλʼ ὑπὲρ ὧν γέ μοι ἀπολογητέα, τίς ὁ Ἀρκὰς οὗτος; εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἀνώνυμος τὰ πατέρων, μηδʼ ἀνδραποδώδης τὸ εἶδος, ὥρα σοι ἐρωτᾶν, τί μὲν ὄνομα τοῖς γειναμένοις αὐτόν, τίνος δὲ οἰκίας οὗτος, τίς δʼ ἐθρέψατο αὐτὸν ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ πόλις, τίνων δὲ βωμῶν ἀπαχθεὶς ἐνταῦθα ἐθύετο. οὐ λέγει ταῦτα καίτοι δεινὸς ὢν μὴ ἀληθεύειν. οὐκοῦν ὑπὲρ ἀνδραπόδου κρίνει με. ᾧ γὰρ μήτʼ αὐτῷ ὄνομα μήθʼ ὧν ἔφυ·, μὴ πόλις μὴ κλῆρός ἐστιν, οὐχί, ὦ θεοί, τοῦτον ἐν ἀνδραπόδοις χρὴ τάττειν; ἀνώνυμα γὰρ πάντα. τίς οὖν ὁ κάπηλος τοῦ ἀνδραπόδου; τίς ὁ πριάμενος αὐτὸ ἐξ Ἀρκάδων; εἰ γὰρ τὸ γένος τούτων ἐπιτήδειον τῇ σφαττούσῃ μαντικῇ, πολλῶν μὲν χρημάτων εἰκὸς ἐωνῆσθαι τὸν παῖδα, πεπλευκέναι δέ τινα ἐς Πελοπόννησον, ἵνʼ ἐνθένδε ἡμῖν ἀναχθείη ὁ Ἀρκάς, ἀνδράποδα μὲν γὰρ Ποντικὰ ἢ Λύδια ἢ ἐκ Φρυγῶν πρίαιτʼ ἂν κἀνταῦθά τις, ὧν γε καὶ ἀγέλαις ἐντυχεῖν ἐστιν ἅμα φοιτώσαις δεῦρο, ταυτὶ γὰρ τὰ ἔθνη καὶ ὁπόσα βαρβάρων, πάντα τὸν χρόνον ἑτέρων ἀκροώμενοι οὔπω τὸ δουλεύειν αἰσχρὸν ἡγοῦνται· Φρυξὶ γοῦν ἐπιχώριον καὶ ἀποδίδοσθαι τοὺς αὑτῶν καὶ ἀνδραποδισθέντων μὴ ἐπιστρέφεσθαι, Ἕλληνες δὲ ἐλευθερίας ἐρασταὶ ἔτι καὶ οὐδὲ δοῦλον ἀνὴρ Ἕλλην πέρα ὅρων ἀποδώσεται, ὅθεν οὐδὲ ἀνδραποδισταῖς οὔτε ἀνδραπόδων καπήλοις ἐς αὐτοὺς παριτητέα, ἐς δὲ Ἀρκαδίαν καὶ μᾶλλον, πρὸς γὰρ τῷ παρὰ πάντας ἐλευθεριάζειν Ἕλληνας δέονται καὶ ὄχλου δούλων. ἔστι δὲ πολυλήιος ʽκαὶ ποώδησʼ ἡ Ἀρκαδία καὶ ὑλώδης οὐ τὰ μετέωρα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἐν ποσὶ πάντα. δεῖ δὴ αὐτοῖς πολλῶν μὲν γεωργῶν, πολλῶν δὲ αἰπόλων συφορβῶν τε καὶ ποιμένων καὶ βουκόλων τῶν μὲν ἐπὶ βουσί, τῶν δʼ ἐφʼ ἵπποις, δρυτόμων τε δεῖται πολλῶν ἡ χώρα καὶ τοῦτο ἐκ παίδων γυμνάζονται. εἰ δὲ καὶ μὴ τοιάδε ἦν τὰ τῶν Ἀρκάδων, ἀλλʼ εἶχον, ὥσπερ ἕτεροι, προσαποδίδοσθαι τοὺς αὑτῶν δούλους, τί τῇ θρυλουμένῃ σοφίᾳ ξυνεβάλλετο τὸ ἐξ Ἀρκαδίας εἶναι τὸν σφαττόμενον; οὐδὲ γὰρ σοφώτατοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων Ἀρκάδες, ἵνʼ ἑτέρου τι ἀνθρώπου πλέον περὶ τὰ λογικὰ τῶν σπλάγχνων φαίνωσιν, ἀλλὰ ἀγροικότατοι ἀνθρώπων εἰσὶ καὶ συώδεις τά τε ἄλλα καὶ τὸ γαστρίζεθαι τῶν δρυῶν. ῥητορικώτερον ἴσως ἀπολελόγημαι τοὐμοῦ τρόπου, τὰ τῶν Ἀρκάδων ἀφερμηνεύων ἤθη καὶ παριὼν ἐς Πελοπόννησον τῷ λόγῳ. ἡ γὰρ ἐμοὶ προσήκουσα ἀπολογία τίς; οὐκ ἔθυσα οὐ θύω οὐ θιγγάνω αἵματος, οὐδʼ εἰ βώμιον αὐτὸ εἴη, Πυθαγόρας τε γὰρ ὧδε ἐγίγνωσκεν οἵ τε ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ παραπλησίως, καὶ κατʼ Αἴγυπτον δὲ οἱ Γυμνοὶ καὶ Ἰνδῶν οἱ σοφοί, παρʼ ὧν καὶ τοῖς ἀμφὶ Πυθαγόραν αἱ τῆς σοφίας ἀρχαὶ ἐφοίτησαν. κατὰ ταῦτα θύοντες οὐ δοκοῦσιν ἀδικεῖν τοῖς θεοῖς, ἀλλὰ γηράσκειν τε αὐτοῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν ἀρτίοις τὰ σώματα καὶ ἀνόσοις, καὶ σοφωτέροις ἀεὶ δοκεῖν μὴ τυραννεύεσθαι μηδενὸς δεῖσθαι. καὶ οὐκ ἀπεικός, οἶμαι, ἀγαθῶν δεῖσθαι σφᾶς ὑπὲρ καθαρῶν θυμάτων. δοκῶ γάρ μοι καὶ τοὺς θεοὺς τὸν αὐτὸν ἐμοὶ νοῦν ὑπὲρ θυσιῶν ἔχοντας τὰ λιβανοφόρα τῆς γῆς ἐν καθαρῷ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐκφυτεύειν, ἵνʼ ἀπʼ αὐτῶν θύοιμεν μὴ σιδηροφοροῦντες ἐν ἱεροῖς, μηδʼ αἷμα ἐς βωμοὺς ῥαίνοντες. ἐγὼ δʼ, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ τῶν θεῶν ἐκλαθόμενος ἔθυον τρόπον, ὃν μήτʼ αὐτὸς εἴωθα μήτε τις ἀνθρώπων θύοι. ἀπαλλαττέτω με τῆς αἰτίας καὶ ὁ καιρός, ὃν εἴρηκεν ὁ κατήγορος· τὴν γὰρ ἡμέραν ἐκείνην, ἐν ᾗ ταῦτα εἰργάσθαι μοί φησιν, εἰ μὲν ἐγενόμην ἐν ἀγρῷ, ἔθυσα, εἰ δὲ ἔθυσα, καὶ ἔφαγον. εἶτά με, ὦ βασιλεῦ, θαμινὰ ἐρωτᾷς, εἰ μὴ ἐπεχωρίαζον τῇ Ῥώμῃ τότε; καὶ σύ, βέλτιστε βασιλέων, ἐπεχωρίαζες, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἂν εἴποις θῦσαι τοιαῦτα, καὶ ὁ συκοφάντης, ἀλλʼ οὐχ ὁμολογήσει τὰ τῶν ἀνδροφόνων πράττειν, εἰ κατὰ τὴν Ῥώμην διῃτᾶτο, καὶ μυριάδες ἀνθρώπων, ἃς βέλτιον ξενηλατεῖν ἢ ὑπάγειν γραφαῖς, ἐν αἷς τεκμήριον ἀδικημάτων ἔσται τὸ ἐνταῦθα εἶναι. καίτοι τὸ ἐς τὴν Ῥώμην ἥκειν καὶ παραιτεῖται τάχα τῆς τοῦ νεώτερα πράττειν δοκεῖν αἰτίας, τὸ γὰρ ἐν πόλει ζῆν, ἐν ᾗ πάντες μὲν ὀφθαλμοί, πᾶσα δὲ ἀκρόασις ὄντων τε καὶ οὐκ ὄντων, οὐ ξυγχωρεῖ νεωτέρων ἅπτεσθαι τοῖς γε μὴ λίαν θανατῶσι, τοὺς δʼ εὐλαβεστέρους τε καὶ σώφρονας βραδέως ἄγει καὶ ἐφʼ ἃ ἔξεστι. τί οὖν, ὦ συκοφάντα, κατὰ τὴν νύκτα ἐκείνην ἔπραττον; εἰ μὲν ὡς σεαυτὸν ἐρωτᾷς, ἐπειδὴ καὶ σὺ ἐρωτᾶν ἥκεις, ἀγῶνας ἡτοίμαζον καὶ κατηγορίας ἐπʼ ἄνδρας χρηστοὺς καὶ ἀπολέσαι τοὺς οὐκ ἀδικοῦντας καὶ πεῖσαι τὸν βασιλέα μὴ ἀληθῆ λέγων, ἵνʼ ἐγὼ μὲν εὐδοκιμοίην, μιαίνοιτο δὲ οὗτος, εἰ δʼ ὡς φιλοσόφου πυνθάνῃ, τὸν Δημοκρίτου ἐπῄνουν γέλωτα, ὃν ἐς πάντα τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γελᾷ, εἰ δʼ ὡς ἐμοῦ, Φιλίσκος ὁ Μηλιεὺς ἐτῶν ξυμφιλοσοφήσας ἐμοὶ τεττάρων ἐνόσει τότε, καὶ παρʼ αὐτῷ ἀπεκάθευδον οὕτω διακειμένῳ χαλεπῶς, ὡς καὶ ἀποθανεῖν ὑπὸ τῆς νόσου. καίτοι πολλὰς ἂν ηὐξάμην ἴυγγας ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐκείνου ψυχῆς γενέσθαι μοι, καί, νὴ Δίʼ, εἴ τινες Ὀρφέως εἰσὶν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀποθανόντων μελῳδίαι, μηδʼ ἐκείνας ἀγνοῆσαι, καὶ γὰρ ἄν μοι δοκῶ καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν γῆν πορευθῆναι δι’ αὐτόν, εἰ ἐφικτὰ ἦν ταῦτα· οὕτω με ἀνήρτητο πᾶσιν οἷς φιλοσόφως τε καὶ κατὰ τὸν ἐμὸν νοῦν ἔπραττε. ταῦτʼ ἔστι μέν σοι, βασιλεῦ, καὶ Τελεσίνου ἀκοῦσαι τοῦ ὑπάτου, παρῆν γὰρ κἀκεῖνος τῷ Μηλιεῖ, θεραπεύων αὐτὸν νύκτωρ, ὁπόσα ἐγώ. εἰ δὲ Τελεσίνῳ ἀπιστεῖς, ἐπειδὴ τῶν φιλοσοφούντων ἐστί, καλῶ τοὺς ἰατροὺς μάρτυρας, εἰσὶ δʼ οὗτοι Σέλευκός τε ὁ ἐκ Κυζίκου καὶ Στρατοκλῆς ὁ Σιδώνιος· τούτους ἐρώτα, εἰ ἀληθῆ λέγω· καὶ μαθηταὶ δʼ αὐτοῖς ὑπὲρ τοὺς τριάκοντα εἵποντο, τῶν αὐτῶν δήπου μάρτυρες, τὸ γὰρ προκαλεῖσθαι δεῦρο τοὺς τῷ Φιλίσκῳ προσήκοντας ἀναβολὰς ἴσως ἡγήσῃ τῆς δίκης, ἐπειδὴ αὐτίκα τῆς Ῥώμης ἀπῆραν ἐς τὰ Μηλιέων ἤθη κατὰ ὁσίαν τοῦ νεκροῦ. ἴτε, ὦ μάρτυρες, καὶ γὰρ δὴ καὶ παρήγγελται ὑμῖν ὑπὲρ τούτου· ΜΑΡΤΥΡΕΣ. παρʼ ὅσον μὲν τοίνυν τῆς ἀληθείας ἡ γραφὴ ξυνετέθη, δηλοῖ σαφῶς ἡ μαρτυρία τῶν ἀνδρῶν, οὐ γὰρ ἐν προαστείοις, ἀλλʼ ἐν ἄστει, οὐκ ἔξω τείχους, ἀλλʼ ἐπʼ οἰκίας, οὐδὲ παρὰ Νερούᾳ, παρὰ Φιλίσκῳ δέ, οὐδὲ ἀποσφάττων, ἀλλʼ ὑπὲρ ψυχῆς εὐχόμενος, οὐδʼ ὑπὲρ βασιλείας, ἀλλʼ ὑπὲρ φιλοσοφίας, οὐδʼ ἀντὶ σοῦ χειροτονῶν νεώτερον, ἀλλʼ ἄνδρα σώζων ἐμαυτῷ ὅμοιον. τί οὖν ὁ Ἀρκὰς ἐνταῦθα; τί δʼ οἱ τῶν σφαγίων μῦθοι; τί δὲ τὸ τὰ τοιαῦτα πείθειν; ἔσται γάρ ποτε καὶ ὃ μὴ γέγονεν, ἂν ὡς γεγονὸς κριθῇ· τὸ δʼ ἀπίθανον τῆς θυσίας, ὦ βασιλεῦ, ποῖ τάξεις; ἐγένοντο μὲν γὰρ καὶ πρότερον σφαγίων μάντεις ἀγαθοὶ τὴν τέχνην καὶ οἷοι ὀνομάσαι, Μεγιστίας ἐξ Ἀκαρνανίας, Ἀρίστανδρος ἐκ Λυκίας, Ἀμπρακία δὲ Σιλανὸν ἤνεγκε, καὶ ἐθύοντο ὁ μὲν Ἀκαρνὰν Λεωνίδᾳ βασιλεῖ Σπάρτης, ὁ δὲ Λύκιος Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τῷ Μακεδόνι, Σιλανὸς δὲ Κύρῳ βασιλείας ἐρῶντι, καὶ εἴ τι ἐν ἀνθρώπου σπλάγχνοις ἢ σαφέστερον ἢ σοφώτερον ἢ ἐτυμώτερον ἀπέκειτο, οὐκ ἄπορος ἦν ἡ θυσία, βασιλέων γε προϊσταμένων αὐτῆς, οἷς πολλοὶ μὲν ἦσαν οἰνοχόοι, πολλὰ δʼ αἰχμάλωτα, παρανομίαι δʼ ἀκίνδυνοι καὶ φόβος οὐδεὶς κατηγορίας, εἴ τι ἔσφαττον· ἀλλʼ, οἶμαι, παρίστατο τοῖς ἀνδράσιν, ὃ κἀμοὶ νῦν κινδυνεύοντι ὑπὲρ τοιούτων, ὅτι τὰ μὲν ἄλογα τῶν ζῴων εἰκός, ἐπειδὴ ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ τοῦ θανάτου σφάττεται, μὴ θολοῦσθαί τι τῶν σπλάγχνων ὑπὸ ἀξυνεσίας ὧν πείσονται· ἄνθρωπον δὲ ἀεί τι ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ ἔχοντα θανάτου καὶ μήπω ἐφεστηκότος δεῖμα πῶς εἰκὸς παρόντος ἤδη καὶ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ὄντος δεῖξαί τι ἐπὶ τῶν σπλάγχνων μαντικὸν ἢ ὅλως εὔθυτον; ὅτι δὲ ὀρθῶς τε καὶ κατὰ φύσιν στοχάζομαι τούτων, σκόπει, βασιλεῦ, ὧδε· τὸ ἧπαρ, ἐν ᾧ φασι τὸν τῆς αὐτῶν μαντικῆς εἶναι τρίποδα οἱ δεινοὶ ταῦτα, ξύγκειται μὲν οὐ καθαροῦ αἵματος, πᾶν γάρ, ὅ τι ἀκραιφνές, καρδία ἴσχει διʼ αἱματηρῶν φλεβῶν ἀποχετεύουσα ἐς πᾶν τὸ σῶμα, χολὴν δʼ ἐπὶ ἥπατι κειμένην ὀργὴ μὲν ἀνίστησι, φόβοι δὲ ὑπάγουσιν ἐς τὰ κοῖλα τοῦ ἥπατος. ὑπὸ μὲν δὴ τῶν παροξυνόντων ζέουσα καὶ μηδὲ τῷ ἑαυτῆς ἀγγείῳ φορητὸς οὖσα ὑπτίῳ ἐπιχεῖται τῷ ἥπατι, καθʼ ὃ ἐπέχει χολὴ πᾶσα τὰ λεῖά τε καὶ μαντικὰ τοῦ σπλάγχνου, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν δειματούντων ξυνιζάνουσα ξυνεπισπᾶται καὶ τὸ ἐν τοῖς λείοις φῶς, ὑπονοστεῖ γὰρ τότε καὶ τὸ καθαρὸν τοῦ αἵματος, ὑφʼ οὗ σπληνοῦται τὸ ἧπαρ, ὑποτρέχοντος φύσει τὸν περὶ αὐτὸ ὑμένα καὶ τῷ πηλώδει ἐπιπολάζοντος. τί οὖν, ὦ βασιλεῦ, τῆς μιαιφονίας ἔργον, εἰ ἄσημα τὰ ἱερὰ ἔσται; ἄσημα δʼ αὐτὰ ἡ ἀνθρωπεία φύσις ἐργάζεται ξυνιεῖσα τοῦ θανάτου καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ ἀποθνήσκοντες, οἱ μὲν γὰρ εὔψυχοι ξὺν ὀργῇ τελευτῶσιν, οἱ δʼ ἀθυμότεροι ξὺν δέει. ἔνθεν ἡ τέχνη παρὰ τοῖς οὐκ ἀνεπιστήμοσι βαρβάροις χιμαίρας μὲν καὶ ἄρνας ἐπαινεῖ σφάττειν, ἐπειδὴ εὐήθη τὰ ζῷα καὶ οὐ πόρρω ἀναισθήτων, ἀλεκτρυόνας δὲ καὶ σῦς καὶ ταύρους, ἐπειδὴ θυμοειδῆ ταῦτα, οὐκ ἀξιοῖ τῶν ἑαυτῆς ἀπορρήτων. ξυνίημι, ὦ βασιλεῦ, παροξύνων τὸν κατήγορον, ἐπειδὴ σοφώτερόν σε ἀκροατὴν εἴργασμαι, καί μοι δοκεῖς καὶ προσέχειν τῷ λόγῳ· εἰ δὲ μὴ σαφῶς τι αὐτοῦ φράζοιμι, ξυγχωρῶ σοι ἐρωτᾶν με. εἴρηταί μοι τὰ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου γραφήν· ἐπεὶ δʼ , οἶμαι, χρὴ μηδὲ τὰς Εὐφράτου διαβολὰς ὑπερορᾶσθαι, σύ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, δικάζοις, ὁπότερος ἡμῶν φιλοσοφεῖ μᾶλλον· οὐκοῦν ὁ μὲν ἀγωνίζεται μὴ τἀληθῆ περὶ ἐμοῦ λέγειν, ἐγὼ δʼ οὐκ ἀξιῶ, καὶ ὁ μέν σε ἡγεῖται δεσπότην, ἐγὼ δʼ ἄρχοντα, καὶ ὁ μὲν ξίφος ἐπʼ ἐμέ σοι δίδωσιν, ἐγὼ δὲ λόγον. ἀλλʼ ὑπὲρ ὧν γε διαβέβληκεν, οἱ λόγοι εἰσίν, οὓς ἐν Ἰωνίᾳ εἶπον, φησὶ δʼ αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἐς τὸ σοὶ ξυμφέρον ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ εἰρῆσθαι. καίτοι τὰ μὲν λεχθέντα ἦν ὑπὲρ Μοιρῶν καὶ ἀνάγκης, παράδειγμα δʼ ἐγίγνετό μοι τοῦ λόγου τὰ τῶν βασιλέων πράγματα, ἐπειδὴ μέγιστα τῶν ἀνθρωπείων δοκεῖ τὰ ὑμέτερα, Μοιρῶν τε ἰσχὺν ἐφιλοσόφουν καὶ τὸ οὕτως ἄτρεπτα εἶναι, ἃ κλώθουσιν, ὡς, εἰ καὶ βασιλείαν τῳ ψηφίσαιντο ἑτέρῳ δὴ ὑπάρχουσαν, ὁ δʼ ἀποκτείνειε τοῦτον, ὡς μὴ ἀφαιρεθείη ποτὲ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ τὸ ἄρχειν, κἂν ἀναβιοίη ὁ ἀποθανὼν ὑπὲρ τῶν δοξάντων ταῖς Μοίραις. τὰς γὰρ ὑπερβολὰς τῶν λόγων ἐσαγόμεθα διὰ τοὺς τοῖς πιθανοῖς ἀπειθοῦντας, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ καὶ τοιόνδε ἔλεγον· ὅτῳ πέπρωται γενέσθαι τεκτονικῷ, οὗτος, κἂν ἀποκοκῇ τὼ χεῖρε, τεκτονικὸς ἔσται, καὶ ὅτῳ νίκην ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ δρόμου ἄρασθαι, οὗτος, οὐδʼ εἰ πηρωθείη τὸ σκέλος, ἁμαρτήσεται τῆς νίκης, καὶ ὅτῳ ἔνευσαν Μοῖραι τὸ ἐν τοξείᾳ κράτος, οὗτος, οὐδʼ εἰ ἀποβάλοι τὰς ὄψεις, ἐκπεσεῖται τοῦ σκοποῦ τὰ δὲ τῶν βασιλέων ἔλεγον ἐς τοὺς Ἀκρισίους δήπου ὁρῶν καὶ τοὺς Λαίους Ἀστυάγη τε τὸν Μῆδον καὶ πολλοὺς ἑτέρους εὖ τίθεσθαι τὰ αὑτῶν ἐν ἀρχῇ δόξαντας, ὧν οἱ μὲν παῖδας, οἱ δὲ ἐκγόνους ἀποκτείνειν οἰηθέντες ἀφῃρέθησαν ὑπʼ αὐτῶν τὸ βασιλεύειν ἀναφύντων ἐξ ἀφανοῦς ξὺν τῷ πεπρωμένῳ. καὶ εἰ μὲν ἠγάπων κολακευτικήν, εἶπον ἂν καὶ τὰ σὰ ἐντεθυμῆσθαι, ὅτε ἀπείληψο μὲν ὑπὸ Βιτελίου ἐνταῦθα, κατεπίμπρατο δὲ ὁ νεὼς τοῦ Διὸς περὶ τὰς ὀφρῦς τοῦ ἄστεος, ὁ δʼ εὖ κείσεσθαι τὸ ἑαυτοῦ ἔφασκεν, εἰ μὴ διαφύγοις αὐτόν — καίτοι μειράκιον ἱκανῶς ἦσθα καὶ οὔπω οὗτος — ἀλλʼ ὅμως, ἐπειδὴ Μοίραις ἐδόκει ἕτερα, ὁ μὲν ἀπώλετο αὐταῖς βουλαῖς, σὺ δὲ τἀκείνου νῦν ἔχεις. ἐπεὶ δʼ ἁρμονίᾳ κολακευτικῇ ἄχθομαι, δοκεῖ γάρ μοι τῶν ἐκρύθμων τε καὶ οὐκ εὐφθόγγων εἶναι, τεμνέσθω μοι ἥδε ἡ νευρὰ καὶ μηδὲν ἡγοῦ τῶν σῶν ἐντεθυμῆσθαί με, ἀλλὰ διειλέχθαι μόνα τὰ ὑπὲρ Μοιρῶν καὶ ἀνάγκης, ταυτὶ γάρ φησιν εἰρῆσθαί μοι ἐπὶ σέ. καίτοι τὸν λόγον τοῦτον ἀνέχονται μὲν καὶ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν θεῶν, οὐκ ἄχθεται δὲ οὐδὲ ὁ Ζεὺς ἀκούων καὶ ταῦτα τῶν ποιητῶν ἐν τοῖς Λυκίοις λόγοις ᾤμοι ἐγών, ὅτε μοι Σαρπηδόνα καὶ τοιαῦτʼ ἐς αὐτὸν ᾀδόντων, ἐν οἷς τοῦ υἱέος ἐξίστασθαί φησι ταῖς Μοίραις, λεγόντων τε αὖ ἐν ψυχοστασίᾳ, ὅτι Μίνω τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ Σαρπηδόνος ἀποθανόντα χρυσῷ μὲν σκήπτρῳ ἐτίμησε καὶ δικάζειν ἔταξεν ἐν τῇ τοῦ Αἰδωνέως ἀγορᾷ, Μοιρῶν δʼ οὐ παρῃτήσατο. σὺ δʼ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, τοῦ χάριν ἄχθῃ τῷ λόγῳ, θεῶν καρτερούντων αὐτόν, οἷς πέπηγεν ἀεὶ τὰ πράγματα, καὶ μὴ ἀποκτεινόντων τοὺς ποιητὰς ἐπʼ αὐτῷ; προσήκει γὰρ ταῖς Μοίραις ἕπεσθαι καὶ πρὸς τὰς μεταβολὰς τῶν πραγμάτων μὴ χαλεποὺς εἶναι, Σοφοκλεῖ τε μὴ ἀπιστεῖν μόνοις οὐ γίγνεται θεοῖσι γῆρας, οὐδὲ μὴν θανεῖν ποτε, τὰ δʼ ἄλλα συγχεῖ πάνθʼ ὁ παγκρατὴς χρόνος, ἄριστα δὴ ἀνθρώπων λέγοντι. ἐγκύκλιοι γὰρ αἱ κατʼ ἀνθρώπους εὐπραγίαι καὶ ἐφήμερον, ὦ βασιλεῦ, τὸ τοῦ ὄλβου μῆκος· τἀμὰ οὗτος καὶ τὰ τούτου ἕτερος καὶ ὁ δεῖνα τὰ τοῦ δεῖνος ἔχων οὐκ ἔχει. ταῦτʼ ἐννοῶν, ὦ βασιλεῦ, παῦε μὲν φυγάς, παῦε δʼ αἷμα, καὶ φιλοσοφίᾳ μὲν ὅ τι βούλει χρῶ, ἀπαθὴς γὰρ ἥ γε ἀληθής, δάκρυα δὲ ἀνθρώπων ἀφαίρει, ὡς νῦν γε ἠχὼ μυρία μὲν ἐκ θαλάττης, πολλῷ δὲ πλείων ἐξ ἠπείρων φοιτᾷ θρηνούντων, ὅ τι ἑκάστῳ θρήνου ἄξιον. τὰ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν φυόμενα πλείω ὄντα ἢ ἀριθμεῖσθαι ταῖς τῶν συκοφαντῶν γλώτταις ἀνῆπται διαβαλλόντων σοί τε πάντας καὶ σέ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, πᾶσιν.

The contest, O king, is over great matters, both for you and for me. For you are in danger over things no emperor ever was: of seeming to have been set against philosophy without any just cause; and I over things that not even Socrates once was at Athens, whom those who brought the indictment held to be an innovator in matters divine, but neither called nor thought a divinity. Since so grave a danger has come upon each of us, I will not hesitate to advise you, too, of what I have persuaded myself. For when the accuser brought us into this trial, an untrue opinion about me and about you entered the minds of the many: they thought that you would take anger as your counsellor in the hearing, and through it would even put me to death — whatever putting to death may be — and that I would remove myself from the court by one of the ways there are of running away; and there were, O king, ten thousand of them. Hearing this, I did not proceed to condemn you in advance, nor did I vote against your hearing as though it would not be straight; instead, having bound myself to the laws, I stand here to answer the charge. And this is the advice I give to you as well. For it is just not to condemn in advance, nor to sit already persuaded that I have done you some harm; nor, when you hear about the Armenian and the Babylonian and all who rule in those parts — who have cavalry beyond counting, and every kind of archery, and a land of gold, and a host of men, as I know — that you will suffer something at their hands which will rob you even of this empire, to hear it with a laugh, and yet to believe of a wise and naked man that he has a weapon against the emperor of the Romans, and to accept this when an Egyptian informer says it — things you never heard even from Athena, who you say watches over you. Unless, by Zeus, flattery and informing have now advanced so far among these accursed wretches that they claim the gods are fit counsellors for you in small matters — such things as inflamed eyes, or not catching a fever, or not having one of your organs swell up — touching you like doctors and treating whichever of these you are suffering from; but that when you are in danger in your empire and in your person, they do not come to advise you whom you must guard against, nor to teach you what weapon you will have against them; and that the informers are your aegis of Athena and your hand of Zeus, claiming to know on your behalf what not even the gods know, staying awake ahead of you and going to sleep ahead of you — if indeed these men ever sleep — pouring, as they say, evils upon evils, and forever composing these Iliads of theirs. As for their keeping horses and being rolled into the forum behind teams of white horses, and their gourmandising off silver and gold, and their marriages costing twenty thousand, and their favourite boys bought for thirty thousand, and their committing adultery for as long as they escape notice and then marrying the women they seduced once they are caught with them, and those who applaud them for their glorious victories whenever some philosopher or consul who has done no wrong is caught by them and put to death by you — let all this be conceded to the luxury of these accursed men, and to their no longer having any fear either of laws or of eyes; but to think so far above humankind as to wish to know things before the gods do — this I do not commend, and I am afraid even to hear of it; and if you were to accept it, they will perhaps indict you too, for discrediting belief in the divine; for one must expect that such indictments will be drawn up against you as well, once there is nobody left for the informers. I am aware that I am rebuking rather than defending myself; but let these things be said by me on behalf of the laws, for unless you consider them your rulers, you will not rule. Who, then, will be my advocate as I make my defence? For if I were to call on Zeus, under whom I know I have lived my life, they will say that I am practising sorcery and bringing heaven down to earth. Let us then discuss this matter with a man whom most people say is dead, though I say he is not. This is your father, to whom I am worth as much as he is to you; for he made you, but he was made by me. He, O king, will be my helper in this defence, knowing my affairs far better than you do. For he came to Egypt when he was not yet emperor, to sacrifice to the gods of Egypt and to consult me about the empire. And when he met me, with my long hair and dressed as I am now, he did not ask a single thing about my appearance, since he considered everything about me to be in good order; and admitting that he had come on my account, he went away praising me, having said to me what he said to no one else, and heard from me what he heard from no one else. And the resolve with which he set about ruling was strengthened in him chiefly by me, when it had already been shaken by others — men not ill-meaning, though not so in your view; for those who were persuading him not to rule were surely also robbing you of holding this power after him. But when I advised him not to think himself unworthy of an empire that was coming to his doors, and to make you [and your brother] its heirs, he said my advice was good, and he was himself raised to greatness and raised you with him. Had he thought me a sorcerer, he would not have made me a partner in his concerns. For he did not come and say things like this: "Compel the Fates, or Zeus, to declare me sole ruler," or "Work portents for me with signs from Zeus, showing the sun rising in the west and setting where it begins." For he would not have seemed to me fit to rule, either if he thought me capable of these things, or if he were hunting by tricks for an empire which ought to be won by virtues. Moreover, I conversed with him in public, in a temple; but the gatherings of sorcerers shun the temples of the gods, for these are hateful to those who practise that craft, and screening themselves with night and with everything lightless, they do not allow their foolish dupes to have either eyes or ears. He did talk with me in private too, but Euphrates and Dio were present all the same, the one most hostile to me, the other most friendly — for may I never cease to count Dio among my friends. Who, then, in the presence of wise men, or of men at least laying claim to wisdom, would engage in the talk of sorcerers? And who would not guard alike, among friends and among enemies, against appearing wicked? And the conversation itself was opposed to sorcerers. You, perhaps, think that your father, being in love with kingship, trusted sorcerers rather than himself, and got from me a means of compelling the gods so as to obtain it; but he believed he had that even before he came to Egypt, and afterwards he talked with me about greater things — about laws, and about just wealth — and he was eager to learn how the gods should be served, and what blessings come from them to those who rule according to the laws. Sorcerers are something opposed to all these things; for if these were to prevail, their craft will be nothing. It is fitting, O king, to have considered this as well. All the arts that exist among men accomplish different things, but all of them work for money — some for small sums, others for large, others for enough to live on — and not only the manual crafts, but of the other arts too, the wise and the half-wise alike, all except true philosophy. By wise arts I mean poetry, music, astronomy, the sophists, and those orators who are not of the marketplace; by half-wise, painting, modelling, sculptors, ship-pilots, and farmers, if they follow the seasons; for these arts too fall not far short of wisdom. There is [also] something, O king — false-sages and begging impostors — which you must not take to be divination; for divination is worth much, if it tells the truth, though whether it is an art I do not yet know; but it is sorcerers I call false-sages. For that what is not should be thought to be, and that what is should be disbelieved — all this I put down to the opinion of those who are deceived; for the cleverness of the craft rests on the folly of those who are deceived and who offer sacrifice. And the craft — they are all lovers of money; for the tricks they pride themselves on were devised by them for pay, and they hunt for excessive sums, luring those who desire anything whatever with the claim that they can do everything. What wealth, then, O king, have you seen about me, that you think I practise false wisdom — and that when your father considered me above money? And that I am telling the truth — where is that letter of mine from the noble and godlike man, in which he sings my praises for other things and for my poverty? "The emperor Vespasian to Apollonius the philosopher, greetings. If all men, Apollonius, were willing to practise philosophy in the same way as you, philosophy and poverty would both fare very happily: philosophy because it is incorruptible, and poverty because it is voluntary. Farewell." Let your father make this defence on my behalf, defining for me the incorruptibility of my philosophy and the voluntariness of my poverty; for he remembered, I suppose, what happened in Egypt, when Euphrates and many of those who pretend to philosophy came up to him and asked for money, not even covertly, while I not only did not approach him for money, but even pushed those men away as unsound. I had been set against money while I was still a youth: at any rate my father's property — and it was a splendid estate — I looked upon for one single day, and then gave it up to my brothers and my friends and to the poor among my relatives, practising, starting as it were from the hearth, to need nothing. Let me pass over Babylon, and the lands of the Indians beyond the Caucasus and the river Hyphasis, through which I travelled still true to myself; but of my conduct here, and of my not looking to silver, I call this Egyptian as witness. For though he says that I have done and plotted terrible things, he has not said for how much money I worked this mischief, nor what gain I had in view; but he thinks me such a fool as to practise sorcery, and to do without even being paid the wrongs that others do for large sums of money — proclaiming, I suppose, a market like this: "Come, you fools, for I practise sorcery, and not for money but for nothing; and you will profit by each going away with what he desires, and I by dangers and indictments." But so that we do not stray into foolish talk, let us ask the accuser which charge I should speak to first. And yet why need I ask? For he went through my dress at the beginning of his speech, and, by Zeus, through what I eat and do not eat. Defend yourself, then, on these points, divine Pythagoras; for we are on trial for practices which you discovered and I commend. The earth, O king, produces everything for men, and those who wish to keep a truce with the animals need nothing more; for some things they pluck from her, and others they reap by ploughing her as she nurses her young, as suits the seasons; but others, as if they had not heard the earth, have whetted the knife against the animals for the sake of clothing and food. Now the Indian Brahmans did not themselves approve of this, and they taught the Naked Ones of Egypt not to approve of it; and Pythagoras took it from there — he was the first of the Greeks to associate with the Egyptians — and he left living creatures to the earth, and ate what the earth itself produces, saying that it was undefiled, being fit to nourish both body and mind; and saying that the clothing which most men wear, made from dead animals, was not clean, he dressed himself in linen, and on the same principle wove his shoes of papyrus; and he reaped many benefits from his purity, but first of all that of perceiving his own soul. For he had been born in the times when Troy fought for Helen, and being the most beautiful of the sons of Panthous and the most beautifully dressed, he died so young as to give Homer occasion for a lament; and passing into several bodies according to the ordinance of Adrasteia, by which the soul changes [from body to body], he came back again into human form and was born to Mnesarchides of Samos, a sage instead of a barbarian, an Ionian instead of a Trojan, and so far undying that he had not even forgotten that he had been Euphorbus. I have told you, then, the ancestor of my wisdom, and that I did not discover these things myself, but hold them as heir of another. And I do not put on trial those who indulge themselves in the scarlet bird, or in the bird from the Phasis or from Paeonia, which those who gratify their bellies in everything fatten for their feasts; nor have I ever yet indicted anyone over the fish which the grandees buy for more than men once paid for koppa-branded horses; nor have I begrudged anyone a purple robe, or some Pamphylian or soft garment; yet I — O gods! — am defending myself against an indictment over asphodel and dried fruits and clean fare; and not even my clothing is safe from seizure, but the accuser strips me of that too, as something of great value to sorcerers. And yet, if you set aside the argument about living and lifeless things, by which a man is thought pure or not, in what way is linen better than wool? Wool was shorn from the gentlest of animals, one cherished by the gods, who do not disdain the shepherd's work, and who, by Zeus, once even deemed it worthy of a golden form — whether the gods did so or the stories. Flax is sown just anyhow, and there is no story of gold attached to it; but nevertheless, because it was not plucked from a living creature, it is thought pure by the Indians and pure by the Egyptians, and for this reason it has become the dress of Pythagoras and of me when we converse, pray, and sacrifice. It is pure, too, to spend the night under it; for to those who live as I do, dreams bring truer messages. Let us make a defence also for the hair I once had, since an indictment has been found even for squalor. Let the judge of it be not the Egyptian but the blond and well-combed youths, who have their lovers and the courtesans at whose doors they go revelling hanging upon them; and let them consider themselves fortunate and enviable for their hair and the perfume that drips from it, and me as utterly without charm, a lover of not loving. For this shall be said to them: "Wretches, do not slander the invention of the Dorians; for wearing long hair comes from the Lacedaemonians, who practised it in [the] times when they were at their most warlike; and Leonidas, king of Sparta, wore his hair long for the sake of courage, and to appear majestic to his friends and fearsome to his enemies; and that is why Sparta wears its hair long in pride of him, no less than of Lycurgus and Iphitus." Let iron spare a wise man's hair; for it is not right to bring it against the place where all the springs of the senses are, and all voices, whence prayers come forth, and speech, the interpreter of wisdom. Empedocles, indeed, even fitted a band of the deepest purple about his hair and strutted through the streets of the Greeks composing hymns to say that he would become a god instead of a man; while I, who wore my hair untended and never needed hymns of that kind about it, am dragged into indictments and law courts. And what am I to say of Empedocles? Was he singing of himself, or of the happiness of the men of his day, among whom such things were not made matter for informers? Let us say no more about my hair; for it has been cut off, and envy has forestalled the accusation — envy, on whose account I must defend myself on the other charge, which is a grave one, and of a kind, O king, to cause fear not only to you but to Zeus as well. For he says that men consider me a god and proclaim this publicly, being thunderstruck by me. And yet, before bringing the charge, he ought to have shown this: by what discourse, by what so wonderful a thing said or done, I induced men to pray to me. For I never discoursed among the Greeks on what my soul has changed from or into, or will change into — though I know it — nor did I send out such notions about myself, nor did I break forth into oracles and chanted prophecies, after the frenzied manner of those who call upon the gods; nor do I know of any city in which it was resolved to assemble and sacrifice to Apollonius. And yet I was of great value to each people in whatever they needed from me; and what they needed was such things as these: for the sick, not to be sick; to conduct initiations more piously, to sacrifice more piously, to have insolence cut out, to have the laws strengthened. My pay for these things was that they should show themselves better than they had been; and I was doing them as a favour to you. For just as those in charge of cattle oblige the owners of the cattle by keeping them from straying, and those who tend flocks fatten them for the profit of their owners, and bee-keepers rid the bees of their diseases so that the swarm may not be lost to its master, so too, I suppose, by putting a stop to the failings of civic life I was setting the cities right for you; so that even if they did think me a god, the deception brought profit to you; for they listened to me eagerly, afraid to do what a god does not approve. But that was not what they thought; they thought that there is a kinship between man and god, through which alone of living creatures he knows the gods, and reflects both on his own nature and on how he shares in the divine. So man declares that even his very form resembles a god, as sculpture and painting express it, and he is persuaded that the virtues come to him from god, and that those who share in them are near to the gods and godlike. As teachers of this way of thinking let us not call on the Athenians, even though they were the first to bestow titles like "the Just" and "the Olympian" and the like — titles too divine, probably, to be fitly given to a man — but on Apollo at Pytho. For Lycurgus of Sparta came to his temple when he had just drawn up the laws by which Lacedaemon is ordered, and Apollo, addressing him, weighs the opinion to be held of him: at the beginning of the oracle he says he is at a loss whether he should call him god or man, and as it proceeds he declares him worthy of this title and votes it to him, as a good man. And no trial or danger [came] upon Lycurgus from this among the Lacedaemonians, on the ground that he was making himself immortal because he did not rebuke the Pythian god when addressed in these terms; rather, they agreed with the oracle, having been persuaded of this, no doubt, even before it was given. As for the Indians and the Egyptians, the case is this. The Egyptians carp at the Indians in other respects and disparage their opinions on practical matters; but the doctrine that has been set out about the creator of the universe they praise so highly that they have even taught it to others, though it is the Indians'. The doctrine recognises god as the creator of the coming-to-be and of the being of the universe, and the reason he conceived these things as his being good. Since, then, these things are akin, I hold to this doctrine and say that good men have something of god in them. Let the kosmos [ordered world] that depends on god the creator be understood as all that is in heaven and in the sea and on earth, in which men have an equal share, save for fortune. But there is also a kind of order that depends on a good man, not exceeding the measures of wisdom, which you yourself, O king, will surely say requires a man made in the likeness of a god. And what is the shape of this order? Souls in disorder clutch at every fashion like madmen; laws are stale to them, self-control is nowhere, the honours of the gods are held in no honour, and they love chatter and luxury, from which springs idleness, a bad counsellor for every deed. Drunken souls leap at many things, and nothing curbs this skittishness, not even if they were to drink every potion that, like mandrake, is held to bring sleep. But there is need of a man who will take care of the order of these souls, a god come by way of wisdom. For such a man is able to lead them away from the passions to which they are carried off more savagely than in ordinary intercourse, and from the love of money, on account of which they say they do not yet have everything, so long as they are not also holding their mouths open beneath the wealth pouring in upon them. For to restrain them from laying hands on murder is perhaps not impossible for such a man; but to wash murder away is possible neither for me nor for god, the creator of all things. Let there be an accusation, O king, over Ephesus too, since it was saved; and let the Egyptian prosecute me in the way that suits his indictment. For the accusation, I suppose, runs like this: "Among the Scythians or the Celts who live along the river Ister or the Rhine, a city has been founded no smaller than Ephesus in Ionia; this city, which is a base for barbarians who do not obey you, a plague was about to destroy, but Apollonius cured it." Even to this a wise man has a defence, if the king wishes to overcome what opposes him by arms and not by diseases; for may no city be wiped out, either for your sake, O king, or for mine, and may I never see disease at the temples, so that the sick shall lie in them. But let the affairs of barbarians not be our concern, nor let us enrol them among the healthy, since they are most hostile to us and not at truce with our race. But who will deny Ephesus its salvation — Ephesus, which took the first beginnings of its race from the purest Attica, which has grown greater than all the cities of Ionia and Lydia, which has advanced out to the sea because it outgrew the land on which it was founded, and which is full of the studies of philosophers and orators, through which the city is strong not in horses but in its tens of thousands of people, because it honours wisdom? And what wise man do you think would shrink from the struggle for such a city, when he called to mind Democritus, who once freed the people of Abdera from a plague, and thought of Sophocles the Athenian, who is said to have charmed the winds when they were blowing out of season, and had heard what Empedocles did, who held back the onrush of a cloud that had burst over the people of Acragas? The accuser interrupts me — you hear him too, O king, I suppose — and says that I am indicted not because I was the cause of the Ephesians' safety, but because I foretold that the disease would fall upon them; for this, he says, is beyond wisdom and something monstrous, and I could not have reached so great a degree of truth unless I were a sorcerer and a man of forbidden arts. What, then, will Socrates say here about the things he claimed to learn from his divine sign? And what will Thales and Anaxagoras say, the two Ionians, the one of whom foretold the plentiful crop of olives, and the other many events in the heavens? Did they foretell these things by sorcery? And yet these men were brought before courts on other charges, and nowhere among the charges is it said that they were sorcerers because they knew things beforehand. For this seemed ridiculous, and not plausible to say against wise men even in Thessaly, where the women had a bad name for drawing down the moon. How, then, did I perceive the calamity at Ephesus? You heard the accuser himself say that I do not live as others do, and I said at the outset about my own food that it is light and sweeter than other men's Sybaritic fare. This, O king, keeps my senses in a kind of ineffable clear air, and does not allow anything murky to hang about them, and lets them see through, as in the gleam of a mirror, everything that is happening and that is to be. For the wise man will not wait for the earth to send up its vapours, or for the air to be corrupted, if the harm flows from above; he will perceive these things even when they are at the door, later than the gods but sooner than the many; for gods perceive what is to come, men what is happening, and wise men what is approaching. Ask me about the causes of plagues in private, O king; for they are too wise to be spoken of before the many. Does living in this way, then, produce only fineness of the senses, or also strength for the greatest and most wonderful deeds? What I mean may be seen from other cases too, but not least from what was done at Ephesus concerning that disease. For the form of the plague — it had taken the likeness of an old beggar — I both saw, and having seen it, I seized it, not stopping a disease but rooting it out; and to whom I prayed is shown by the shrine which I founded at Ephesus for this: it is a shrine of Heracles the Averter, and I chose him as my helper because, being wise and brave, he once cleansed Elis of plague by washing away the vapours which the land gave off when Augeas was its tyrant. Who, then, O king, do you think, if he were eager to appear a sorcerer, would dedicate to a god what he himself had accomplished? What admirers of his craft would he win, if he had handed over the admiration to a god? And who that was a sorcerer would pray to Heracles? For the wretches ascribe such things to pits and to the gods beneath the earth, from among whom Heracles must be set apart, for he is pure and kindly toward men. I prayed to him once in the Peloponnese too; for there also, around Corinth, a phantom of a lamia [a man-devouring spirit] was roaming about, feeding on the handsome young men; and he helped me in the contest, asking for no marvellous gifts, but a honey cake and frankincense and the chance to do something for the salvation of men; for in the days of Eurystheus too he considered this the reward of his labours. Do not be vexed, O king, at hearing about Heracles; for Athena cared for him, because he was good and a saviour to men. But since you bid me defend myself regarding the sacrifice — for you are pointing to it with your hand as well — hear a true defence. I, who do everything for the salvation of men, have never yet sacrificed on their behalf, nor would I sacrifice anything, nor touch offerings in which there is blood, nor pray with my eyes on a knife, or on a sacrifice such as he speaks of. It is no Scythian you have caught, O king, nor anyone from some land cut off from other men; nor have I ever mingled with the Massagetae or the Taurians — though if I had, I would have turned even them from their custom of sacrifice. To what a pitch of folly would I have driven, that I, who have discoursed so much about divination and about where it has force and where it does not, and who understand better than any man that the gods reveal their purposes to holy and wise men even when they do not practise divination, should lay hands on bloodshed, and on entrails which for me are unholy to offer and of ill omen? For such things even the voice of the divine would have abandoned me as impure. And indeed, if one were to set aside the abomination of the sacrifice and test the accuser against what he said a little earlier, he himself acquits me of the charge. For I, whom he says foretold the disease to the Ephesians without needing any sacrifice — why would I have needed victims for things I could know even without sacrificing? And why would I have needed divination about matters of which I myself was already convinced, and another man too? For if I am on trial over Nerva and those about him, I will say again what I said the other day when you brought this charge. I consider Nerva worthy of any office and of every word that tends to his praise, but no capable contender in weighty enterprises; for his body is broken down by illness, because of which his mind too is full of distress and not equal even to his household affairs. You, at any rate, he praises for your body and praises for your mind — doing, I think, what is natural; for human nature is in truth more eager to praise what it does not itself have strength in. Nerva also has a certain good feeling towards me; and I have never known him to laugh in my presence, or to indulge in any of the foolery that is usual among friends; but like youths before their own fathers and teachers, he speaks cautiously in all that he says in my presence, and still blushes; and knowing that I praise modesty, he cultivates it so excessively that he seems even to me humbler than is right. How, then, could anyone think it plausible that Nerva desired empire, when he is content if he can govern his own household? Or that he talked with me about great matters, when he has not had the courage to do so even about small ones? Or that he joined counsel with me on matters on which he would not have joined counsel even with anyone else, if he had my views in mind? Or how am I still wise at interpreting a man's mind, if I put my trust in divination but distrust wisdom? As for Orfitus and Rufus, just and temperate men, but sluggish, as I well know — if they say that these were accused as aspiring to tyranny, I do not know whether they are more wide of the mark about them or about Nerva; and if as having been his advisers, is Nerva more likely to have attempted to seize the empire, or these men to have advised it? Yet the man who judges these matters ought also to have considered this: what was I aiming at in helping men bent on revolution? For he does not say that I got money from them, or that I was induced by gifts to do this. But let us consider whether, wanting great things, I put off receiving favours from them until the time when they expected to rule, when I could have asked for great things and been granted greater ones. How, then, will this be made clear? Consider, O king, yourself and those who ruled still earlier than you — your brother, of course, and your father, and Nero — and [the times] in which they ruled; for it was chiefly under these emperors that I have lived in the public eye, spending the rest of my time visiting the Indians. In these thirty-eight years — for that is the length of time down to you — I have never gone to the doors of emperors, except to your father's in Egypt, since he was not yet emperor and acknowledged that he had come on my account; nor have I said anything servile to emperors, or to peoples about emperors; nor have I made a show of letters, whether from emperors writing to me or by displaying that I wrote to them myself; nor have I ever flattered emperors for gifts and so been carried away from myself. If, at any rate, you were to ask me, thinking of rich and poor, in which of these two classes I enrol myself, I will say among the very richest; for to need nothing is to me Lydia and the whole of the Pactolus. How, then, could I have put off the gifts of men not yet emperors until the time when I thought they would rule, I who did not even accept those offered by you [and your house], whose rule I considered secure? Or how could I have contemplated changes of reign, when I made no use even of the established reigns to win honour? And indeed, what a philosopher gets by flattering the powerful is shown by the case of Euphrates. For what has he got from that source — why do I say money? No, there are springs of wealth for him; and he now holds forth at the bankers' tables, a huckster, a sub-huckster, a tax-farmer, a moneylender, becoming everything that is sold and everything that sells; he is forever stamped upon the doors of the powerful, and stands at them longer than the doorkeepers, and has often been caught by the doorkeepers too, like the greedy among dogs; and though he has never parted with a drachma even to a philosopher, he fortifies his wealth as a base against others, feeding this Egyptian with money and sharpening against me a tongue that deserves to be cut out. Euphrates, then, I leave to you; for if you do not favour flatterers, you will find the fellow worse than I describe him; but hear the rest of my defence. What, then, is it, and about what? In the accusation, O king, a dirge was sung over an Arcadian boy: that he was cut open by me at night — whether he says in a dream, I do not yet know — and that this boy came of good parents and was in appearance like those Arcadians who are handsome in their squalor. They say that he was slaughtered as he begged and wept, and that I dipped my hands in the boy's blood and prayed to the gods to reveal the truth. Up to this point it is I they are trying; but the next part of the story touches the gods; for they say that the gods heard me when I prayed in this way, and gave favourable signs in the victim, and did not kill me for my impiety. As for how impure it is even to listen to such things, why should I speak of it, O king? But as for what I must defend: who is this Arcadian? For if he was not nameless as to his parentage, nor slavish in appearance, it is time for you to ask what was the name of those who begot him, of what house he was, what city in Arcadia reared him, and from what altars he was carried off to be sacrificed here. He does not say these things, though he is clever at not telling the truth. So it is over a slave that he puts me on trial. For one who has no name of his own, nor of those he was born from, who has no city, no inherited land — must he not, O gods, be ranked among slaves? For everything about him is nameless. Who, then, was the dealer in this slave? Who bought him from the Arcadians? For if the race of these people is suited to divination by slaughter, the boy was probably bought for a great deal of money, and someone must have sailed to the Peloponnese so that the Arcadian might be brought here to us from there; for slaves from Pontus or Lydia or Phrygia one could buy here too, since one may even meet whole droves of them coming here together; for these nations, and all those of the barbarians, having obeyed others all the time, do not yet think slavery shameful. Among the Phrygians, at any rate, it is a native custom even to sell their own people, and to give no further thought to them once enslaved. But the Greeks are still lovers of freedom, and a Greek will not sell even a slave beyond the borders; for this reason neither kidnappers nor slave-dealers can get access to them, and to Arcadia even less; for besides being more devoted to freedom than all the other Greeks, they also need a great crowd of slaves. For Arcadia is a land of many cornfields [and grassy], and wooded not only on the heights but in all the lower ground as well. So they need many farmers, and many goatherds and swineherds and shepherds, and herdsmen, some for cattle and some for horses; and the country needs many woodcutters, and they are trained for this from boyhood. But even if the situation of the Arcadians were not like this, and they could, like others, sell off their own slaves, what would the victim's coming from Arcadia contribute to this much-talked-of wisdom? For the Arcadians are not the wisest of the Greeks, that they should show anything more than any other man in the rational parts of their entrails; on the contrary, they are the most boorish of men, and swinish, in other respects and in gorging themselves on acorns. I have perhaps made my defence more rhetorically than is my manner, explaining the customs of the Arcadians and wandering off to the Peloponnese in my speech. For what is the defence proper to me? I did not sacrifice, I do not sacrifice, I do not touch blood, not even if it be blood on an altar; for so Pythagoras thought, and his followers likewise, and in Egypt the Naked Ones, and the wise men of the Indians, from whom the beginnings of wisdom came to Pythagoras and his school. Sacrificing in this way, they are not thought by the gods to do wrong; rather, the gods allow them to grow old with bodies sound and free of disease, and, ever wiser, to be thought subject to no tyrant and in need of nothing. And it is not unreasonable, I think, that they should ask for blessings in return for pure offerings. For I believe that the gods too, being of the same mind as I am about sacrifices, plant the frankincense-bearing regions of the earth in a pure part of the inhabited world, so that we may sacrifice from these without carrying iron in temples or sprinkling blood on altars. But I, it seems, forgetting myself and the gods, sacrificed in a manner that I am not accustomed to, and in which no human being would sacrifice. Let the occasion, too, which the accuser has named, acquit me of the charge; for on that day on which he says I did these things, if I was in the country, then I sacrificed; and if I sacrificed, then I also ate. Then you keep asking me, O king, whether I was not staying in Rome at that time? You too were living there, best of kings, but you would not say that you sacrificed such victims; and so was the informer, but he will not admit to doing what murderers do because he was living in Rome; and so were tens of thousands of people, whom it would be better to expel as aliens than to bring under indictments in which being here will be evidence of crimes. And yet coming to Rome perhaps even clears one of the charge of seeming to plot revolution; for living in a city in which everyone is eyes, and everyone is ears for what is and what is not, does not allow men to lay hands on revolution — those at least who are not too eager to die — and it makes the more cautious and prudent slow even to do what is permitted. What, then, informer, was I doing on that night? If you ask as you would ask yourself — since you too have come here to ask questions — I was preparing lawsuits and accusations against good men, and how to destroy the innocent, and how to persuade the emperor by telling him untruths, so that I might win credit and he be defiled. If you are inquiring as of a philosopher, I was praising the laughter of Democritus, which he laughs at all human affairs. But if you ask as of me, Philiscus the Malian, who had studied philosophy with me for four years, was ill at that time, and I was sleeping at his side, since he was in so bad a state that he actually died of the disease. And yet I would have prayed to have many iynges [magic charm-wheels] for his soul's sake, and, by Zeus, if there are any songs of Orpheus for the dead, not to be ignorant of those either; for I think I would even have gone beneath the earth for him, if such things were attainable; so closely had he bound me to himself by all that he did as a philosopher and in accordance with my own mind. You may hear this, O king, from Telesinus the consul too; for he also was at the Malian's side, tending him by night as much as I did. If you distrust Telesinus because he is one of those who practise philosophy, I call the doctors as witnesses; they are Seleucus of Cyzicus and Stratocles of Sidon. Ask them whether I speak the truth. And more than thirty pupils attended them, who are witnesses, of course, to the same things; for to summon here the relatives of Philiscus you would perhaps consider a postponement of the trial, since they set out from Rome at once for the homeland of the Malians, to perform the due rites for the dead man. Come forward, witnesses, for you have indeed been summoned for this purpose. WITNESSES. How far from the truth the indictment was composed, then, the testimony of these men shows clearly: [I was] not in the suburbs but in the city, not outside the walls but in a house, not at Nerva's but at Philiscus's, not slaughtering but praying for a life, not for empire but for philosophy, not electing a new man in your place but trying to save a man like myself. What, then, has the Arcadian to do with this? What of the tales of victims? What is the point of persuading [you] of such things? For even what has not happened will one day have happened, if it is judged as having happened. But the implausibility of the sacrifice, O king — where will you place that? There were indeed, in earlier times too, diviners by victims who were good at their art and worth naming — Megistias from Acarnania, Aristander from Lycia, and Ambracia produced Silanus — and they sacrificed, the Acarnanian for Leonidas, king of Sparta, the Lycian for Alexander the Macedonian, and Silanus for Cyrus when he coveted the kingship; and if anything clearer or wiser or truer had been stored away in a human being's entrails, the sacrifice would not have been hard to come by, with kings presiding over it, who had many cupbearers and many captives, whose lawless acts went without risk, and who had no fear of accusation if they slaughtered anyone. But, I think, it occurred to these men, as it occurs to me now that I am in danger over such things, that it is likely that irrational animals, since they are slaughtered in ignorance of death, have none of their entrails clouded, because they do not understand what they are about to suffer; but how is it likely that a man, who always has in his soul some dread of death even when it is not yet upon him, should, when it is already present and before his eyes, show anything prophetic in his entrails, or anything at all favourable to the sacrifice? That my conjecture about these things is right and in accordance with nature, consider, O king, as follows. The liver, in which those skilled in these matters say lies the tripod of their divination, is not composed of pure blood; for all the blood that is unmixed the heart keeps, channelling it through the blood-bearing veins into the whole body; while the bile, which lies upon the liver, is stirred up by anger, and drawn down by fears into the hollows of the liver. Seething under the things that provoke it, and no longer containable even in its own vessel, it pours out over the liver lying beneath, whereupon the bile entirely covers the smooth and prophetic parts of the organ; but under the things that frighten, it sinks down and draws with it the light in the smooth parts as well; for then the pure part of the blood also retreats, by which the liver becomes like a spleen, since by nature it runs beneath the membrane around the liver and floats upon the muddy part. What use, then, O king, is the bloodshed, if the victims are to give no signs? And human nature makes them signless, being aware of death, and so do the dying themselves; for the brave die in anger and the faint-hearted in fear. That is why the art, among those barbarians who are not without knowledge of it, recommends slaughtering she-goats and lambs, since these creatures are simple and not far from insensible, but cocks and pigs and bulls, since they are high-spirited, it does not admit to its secrets. I see, O king, that I am provoking the accuser, since I have made you a wiser listener, and you seem to me to be attending to my argument; and if I express any part of it unclearly, I give you leave to question me. I have said what I have to say in answer to the Egyptian's indictment; but since, I think, the slanders of Euphrates should not be overlooked either, may you, O king, judge which of us two is more truly a philosopher. Well, then: he strives to say what is untrue about me, but I do not think fit [to do so about him]; he considers you a master, I a ruler; he hands you a sword against me, I a reasoned word. But what he has slandered me over is the discourses which I delivered in Ionia, and he says that they were spoken by me against your interest. And yet what I said was about the Fates and necessity, and the affairs of kings served me as an example for my argument, since your affairs are thought the greatest of human things; and I discoursed on the power of the Fates, and on how what they spin is so unalterable that, if they were to vote the kingship to someone when it belonged to another, and that other were to kill him so that his rule might never be taken from him by this man, the dead man would come to life again to fulfil what the Fates had decided. For we bring exaggerations into our arguments because of those who are not persuaded by plausible ones, just as if I were to say something like this: "He who is destined to become a carpenter will be a carpenter, even if he has both hands cut off; and he who is destined to win the footrace at Olympia will not miss the victory, not even if he is lamed in the leg; and he to whom the Fates have granted mastery in archery will not miss the mark, not even if he loses his sight." And what I said about kings I said with an eye, of course, to men like Acrisius and Laius, and Astyages the Mede, and many others who seemed at the outset to be arranging their affairs well, of whom some thought they were killing their children, others their grandsons, and were robbed of their kingdoms by them, when these sprang up out of obscurity together with what was fated. And if I were fond of flattery, I would say that I had your case in mind too, when you were trapped here by Vitellius, and the temple of Zeus was burning on the brow of the city, and he declared that his own position would be secure if you did not escape him — and yet you were then quite a youth, and not yet what you are now; but nevertheless, since the Fates had decided otherwise, he perished, plans and all, and you now hold what was his. But since I dislike the mode of flattery — for it seems to me one of those that are out of rhythm and harsh to the ear — let this string be cut, and do not suppose that I had any of your affairs in mind, but that I discoursed only on the Fates and necessity; for this is what he says I said against you. And yet most of the gods put up with this doctrine, and not even Zeus is vexed when he hears the poets, in the Lycian episode, singing "Alas for me, that Sarpedon…" and such things about him, in which he says that he gives up his son to the Fates; and again saying, in the Weighing of Souls, that he honoured Minos, the brother of Sarpedon, when he had died, with a golden sceptre and appointed him to judge in the court of Aidoneus, but did not beg him off from the Fates. Why, then, O king, are you vexed at this doctrine, when the gods endure it — the gods, whose state is fixed for ever — and do not kill the poets for it? For it is fitting to follow the Fates and not to be harsh about changes of fortune, and not to disbelieve Sophocles — "To the gods alone comes no old age, nor ever death; all else all-mastering time confounds" — who spoke best of all men. For human good fortune goes round in a circle, and the span of happiness, O king, lasts but a day: this man has what was mine, and another what was his, and so-and-so, holding what was so-and-so's, does not hold it. Bearing this in mind, O king, put an end to exiles, put an end to bloodshed, and deal with philosophy as you please, for true philosophy at least cannot be harmed; but take away the tears of men; for as things are, a boundless echo comes from the sea, and a far greater one from the mainlands, of people lamenting whatever each has to lament. And the evils that spring from this, too many to be counted, are to be laid to the tongues of the informers, who slander everyone to you, and you, O king, to everyone.