Delphi Complete Works of Dio Chrysostom

by Dio Chrysostom

  [36] ἢ ὑμᾶς ἐκείνοις. ὑμεῖς γάρ ἐστε νῦν τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον πρῷρα καὶ [p. 26] πρύμνα τῆς Ἑλλάδος, ὄλβιοι μὲν καὶ ἀφνειοὶ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐκ παλαιῶν χρόνων ὑπὸ τῶν ποιητῶν καὶ τῶν θεῶν ὀνομαζόμενοι, ὅτε καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τισὶν ὑπῆρχε καὶ πλουτεῖν καὶ δύνασθαι: νῦν δ̓ ἀφ̓ οὗ προλέλοιπεν ὁ πλοῦτος Ὀρχομενόν τε καὶ Δελφοὺς ἐλέῳ μὲν ὑμῶν δύνανται διαφέρειν, ζήλῳ δὲ οὐδὲ εἷς.

  [36] For you are now, as the saying goes, both prow and stern of Hellas, having been called prosperous and wealthy and the like by poets and gods from olden days, days when some of the others too had wealth and might; but now, since wealth has deserted both Orchomenos and Delphi, though they may surpass you in exciting pity, none can do so in exciting envy.

  [37] καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως, ἣν οὐ δεῖ παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν αἰσχύνην ὀφλεῖν, ὅταν τὸν ὑφ̓ ὑμῶν ἐκπεπτωκότα πάντες ἄσμενοι καταδέχωνται οὐ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ καλῶσι καὶ διαπρεσβεύωνται καὶ τιμαῖς ταῖς τε ἄλλαις γεραίρωσι καὶ δὴ καὶ τῇ τῶν εἰκόνων ἀναθέσει. ὑπὲρ δὲ ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ τῆς εἰκόνος νῦν ἐρῶ λόγον, ὃν εἶπεν Ἀναξαγόρας υἱὸν ἀποβεβληκώς, Ἤιδειν θνητὸν γεγεννηκώς.῾ ἀλλ̓ οὖν ᾔδειν ὅτι τούτων τῶν ἀνδριάντων ἕκαστος ἀνατίθεται μὲν ὡς αἰώνιος ἐσόμενος, φθείρεται δὲ ἄλλος κατ̓ ἄλλην εἱμαρμένην, κοινοτάτην μὲν καὶ δικαιοτάτην καὶ πᾶσι πράγμασι προκειμένην τὴν

  [37] Now these remarks have been offered in the interest of the city, which must not suffer disgrace in the eyes of the Greeks, seeing that all men not merely welcome with delight him whom you have banished, but even send for him and dispatch him on missions here and there and, among other things, show him honour by actually erecting statues of him. On the other hand, I shall now in my own behalf and in behalf of my statue use a phrase which Anaxagoras used when he had lost a son: “I knew I had begotten a mortal.” However, I did not know that my progeny was as mortal as that; for though each statue is erected as if were to last for ever, still they perish by this fate or by that, the most common and most fitting fate and the one ordained for all things being the fate of time;

  [38] τοῦ χρόνου: ὁ δὲ ποιητὴς ἄλλως ἐκόμπαζεν ὁ τοῦτο τὸ ἐπίγραμμα ποιήσας, ὅ φασιν ἐπὶ τῷ Μίδα σήματι γεγράφθαι: χαλκῆ παρθένος εἰμί. Μίδα δ̓ ἐπὶ σήματι κεῖμαι, ἔστ̓ ἂν ὕδωρ τε νάῃ καὶ δένδρεα μακρὰ τεθήλῃ, αὐτοῦ τῇδε μένουσα πολυκλαύτῳ ἐπὶ τύμβῳ ἀγγελέω παριοῦσι Μίδας ὅτι τῇδε τέθαπται.

  [38] and the poet was idly boasting who composed this epitaph, which they say has been inscribed on the funeral mound of Midas:

  A maid of bronze am I. I mark the grave

  Of Midas. While water flows and trees grow tall,

  Here will I bide by the tear-drenched tomb and tell

  The passers-by that Midas lies here.

  [39] ἀλλ̓ ὦ παρθένε αὐτάγγελε, τοῦ μὲν ποιητοῦ ἀκούομεν, σὲ δὲ ζητοῦντες οὐχ εὕρομεν οὐδὲ τὸ σῆμα τὸ Μίδου. ὕδατα δὲ ἐκεῖνα καὶ δένδρα ἔτι μὲν νάει τε καὶ θάλλει, χρόνῳ δὲ καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἔοικεν ἐπιλείψειν, ὡς Μίδας, ὡς παρθένος. ἀνδρὶ μὲν Ἱππαίμων ὄνομ̓ ἦν, ἵππῳ δὲ Πόδαργος, καὶ κυνὶ Λήθαργος καὶ θεράποντι Βάβης. τίς οὖν οὐκ οἶδεν Ἑλλήνων οὐχ ὅτι τὸν ἵππον, ἀλλ̓ αὐτὸν τὸν Ἱππαίμονα; δοκῶ μὲν οὐδὲ Μαγνήτων, ὅθεν ἦν Ἰππαίμων. οὗτος

  [39] Well, my self-announcing maiden, we hear indeed the poet’s words, but, though we sought, we found not thee nor yet the tomb of Midas. And though those waters still flow and those trees still thrive, in time even they are likely to vanish with the rest, like Midas, like maiden.

  Hippaemon the man was called, Podargus his horse,

  Lethargus his hound, and Babês his serving-man

  Well now, who of the Greek race knows, I won’t say the horse, but Hippaemon himself? None, I fancy, even at Magnesia, whence Hippaemon came. He, then, has vanished from the sight of men, Babês, Podargus and all.

  [40] μὲν οὖν φροῦδος ἐξ ἀνθρώπων αὐτῷ Βάβητι καὶ Ποδάργῳ. ἕτεροι δὲ ἑστᾶσι καὶ γιγνώσκονται, τὴν δὲ ἐπιγραφὴν ἔχουσιν ἑτέρων, καὶ τὸ γιγνόμενόν ἐστιν οἷον ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἀντίσπαστον τὸ μὲν ἐπίγραμμα ῥωμαΐζει, καὶ τρόπον τινὰ ἀντιδιδάσκουσιν οἱ ποιηταί: [p. 27] τρόπον μὲν Ἑλλήνων ἔχουσι, τύχας δὲ Ῥωμαίων. ἐθεασάμην καὶ τὸν Ἀλκιβιάδην τὸν καλὸν τὸν Κλεινίου, οὐκ οἶδ̓ ὅπου, πλὴν ἐθεασάμην ἐν καλῷ τῆς Ἑλλάδος ἐπιγραφὴν ἔχοντα Χαλκοπώγωνος, ἕτερον δὲ περικεκομμένον τὼ χεῖρε, ὃς ἐλέγετο τῆς Πολυκλέους τέχνης εἶναι: ὅραμα δεινόν, ὦ Γῆ καὶ Ἥλιε, Ἀλκιβιάδης πεπηρωμένος.

  [40] However, the statues of other men still stand and are known, though they wear the label of others, and what is going on is like an antispast in poetry, and, as one might say, the authors give counter information — Greek character, but Roman fortune. I have seen even Alcibiades, the handsome son of Cleinias — I know not where, but I saw him in a commanding site in Greece — wearing the label Chalcopogon, and also another likeness of him with both arms lopped off, a likeness said to have been the work of Polycles — ye gods, a fearsome spectacle, Alcibiades a cripple!

  [41] οἶδα δ̓ ἐγὼ καὶ Ἁρμόδιον καὶ Ἀριστογείτονα δουλεύσαντας ἐν Πέρσαις, καὶ Δημητρίου τοῦ Φαληρέως πεντακοσίους ἀνδριάντας καὶ χιλίους ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων μιᾷ καὶ τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ πάντας καθῃρημένους. ἐτόλμησαν δὲ καὶ Φιλίππου τοῦ βασιλέως ἀμίδας κατασκεδάσαι. Ἀθηναῖοι μὲν οὖν τῆς εἰκόνος οὖρον κατέχεον, ἐκεῖνος δὲ τῆς πόλεως αἷμα καὶ τέφραν καὶ κονίαν. καὶ γὰρ ἦν νεμεσητὸν τὸν αὐτὸν ἄνδρα νῦν μὲν ἐν θεοῖς λέγειν, νῦν δ̓ οὐδ̓ ἐν ἀνθρώποις.

  [41] And I know that Harmodius and Aristogeiton have served as slaves in Persia, and that fifteen hundred statues of Demetrius of Phalerum have all been pulled down by the Athenians on one and the same day. Aye, they have even dared to empty chamber-pots on King Philip. Yes, the Athenians poured urine on his statue — but he poured on their city blood and ashes and dust. In fact it was enough to arouse righteous indignation that they should class the same man now among the gods and now not even among human beings.

  [42] εἶτα ἐγὼ ταῦτα ἐπιστάμενος ὅτι οἱ ἄνθρωποι οὐδὲ τῶν θεῶν φείδονται, ἀνδριάντος ὑμῖν φροντίσαι δοκῶ; καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους σιγήσει
ν μοι δοκῶ, ἀλλὰ τὸν Ἴσθμιον, τὸν ἀγωνοθέτην τὸν ὑμέτερον, Μόμμιος ἐκ βάθρων ἀνασπάσας ἀνέθηκε τῷ Διί, φεῦ τῆς ἀμαθίας, τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὡς ἀνάθημα, ἄνθρωπος ἀπαίδευτος καὶ μηδενὸς τῶν καλῶν πεπειραμένος. ὃς Φίλιππον μὲν τὸν Ἀμύντου, ὃν ἐκ Θεσπιῶν ἔλαβεν, ἐπέγραψε Δία καὶ τοὺς ἐκ Φενεοῦ νεανίσκους τὸν μὲν Νέστορα, τὸν δὲ Πρίαμον. ὁ δὲ δῆμος ὁ τῶν Ῥωμαίων τοῦτ̓ ἐκεῖνο τοὺς ἐξ ἐκείνου ὁρᾶν ᾤοντο, ὁρῶν Ἀρκάδας ἐκ Φενεοῦ.

  [42] Then, knowing as I do that men spare not even the gods, should I imagine you to have been concerned for the statue of a mere mortal? Furthermore, while I think I shall say nothing of the others, at any rate the Isthmian, your own Master of the Games, Mummius tore from his base and dedicated to Zeus — disgusting ignorance! — illiterate creature that he was, totally unfamiliar with the proprieties, treating the brother as a votive offering! It was he who took the Philip son of Amyntas, which he got from Thespiae, and labelled it Zeus, and also the lads from Pheneüs he labelled Nestor and Priam respectively! But the Roman mob, as might have been expected, imagined they were beholding those very heroes, and not mere Arcadians from Pheneüs.

  [43] ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἔξεστι καὶ γελᾶν. σπουδῇ δέ μοι ἐπελήλυθεν Ἀγησίλαον τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων τῆς γνώμης μακαρίσαι, ὅστις οὔποτε ἠξίωσεν οὔτε πλαστὰν οὔτε μιμηλὰν τοῦ σώματος ποιήσασθαι, οὐχ ὅτι χωλὸς ἦν, ὥς φασι, καὶ μικρός, ῾τί γὰρ ἐκώλυε μέγαν εἶναι τὸν ἀνδριάντα; τί γὰρ ἀρτίπουν, ὥσπερ τὸν Εὐφράνορος Ἥφαιστον;᾿ ἀλλὰ τοῦτ̓ ἐκεῖνος εἶδεν ἀκριβῶς ὅτι μὴ δεῖ τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας τύχας ἐκτείνειν μηδὲ κινδυνεύειν περὶ τῷ σώματι κατὰ λίθον καὶ χαλκόν. εἴθε γὰρ εἴη καὶ τοῦ σώματος ἀπηλλάχθαι.

  [43] Indeed you may well laugh at these doings; but in all seriousness, it has occurred to me to congratulate Agesilaüs, king of Sparta, on the stand he took, for he never thought it fitting to have either a statue or a portrait made of himself, not because he was deformed, as people say, and short — for what was to hinder the statue’s being tall, or having shapely legs, like Euphranor’s Hephaestus? — but rather because he saw clearly that one should not try to prolong the allotted span of human life or expose the body to the vicissitudes of stone or bronze. Would that it might be possible to take leave even of the body which we have!

  [44] χαιρέτω δ̓ ὁ Δαίδαλος καὶ τὰ Δαιδάλου μιμηλὰ τεχνήματα: ἄδην [p. 28] Προμηθέως, ἄδην πηλοῦ. καίτοι καὶ τὸ σῶμα τῶν γενναίων φασὶν ἀλλότριον εἶναι ,ἐπειὴ μάλα πολλὰ μεταξὺ ῾σώματός τε καὶ ψυχῆς. ὁ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲ φροντίζει τοῦ σώματος κάμνοντος. ἐμαίνετο Καμβύσης ὡς Ἄμασιν τὸν Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέα τὸν νεκρὸν αὐτοῦ κεντῶν τε καὶ μαστιγῶν. Αἰγύπτιοι μὲν γὰρ λέγουσιν Ἄμασιν ἐκ πλείονος ὑφορώμενον τὴν Καμβύσου χαλεπότητα τὸν μὲν αὑτοῦ νεκρὸν ἀποκρύψαι, ἄλλον δ̓ ἀντ̓ αὐτοῦ ὑποβαλεῖν, καὶ

  [44] But farewell to Daedalus and to the imitative devices of that artist; enough of Prometheus, enough of clay. In fact it is said that even the body of noble souls is foreign substance,

  For very many things do lie between

  body and soul. For the soul is not present when the body is outworn nor is it concerned for it. Cambyses was mad when, as if it were Amasis, the king of the Egyptians, he stabbed and flogged his dead body. To be sure, the Egyptians say that Amasis, having long viewed with distrust the cruelty of Cambyses, caused his own body to be hid away and another to be substituted for it, and that this was the corpse which fell in the way of Cambyses.

  [45] τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν Καμβύσῃ περιπεσόντα. ἀλλ̓, ὦ Αἰγύπτιοί τε καὶ Καμβύση, εἴτε ἄλλος τις ἦν ὁ ταῦτα παθὼν εἴτε αὐτὸς Ἄμασις ἦν, τύπος ἦν ἄναιμος, ἄσαρκος, ἄψυχος. τοῦτον, εἴ σοι φίλον, ἕλκε καὶ σπάραττε καὶ κέντρου, Ἄμασιν δὲ οἰ κατείληφας. ἕτερος δέ τις ζῶν, ἐμπνέων, αἰσθανόμενος, Πτίσσε πτίσς᾿, ἔφη, τὸν Ἀναξάρχου θύλακον: Ἀνάξαρχον γὰρ οὐ πτίσσεις. οὗτος γὰρ ἁνὴρ ἐμπεσὼν μὲν εἰς ὅλμον, τυπτόμενος δὲ τοῖς ὑπέροις, αὐτὸς οὐκ ἔφη πτίσσεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τῶν αὑτοῦ ὅπερ ἔτυχε περικείμενος: ὥσπερ φασὶ Περσῶν τοὺς ὁμοτίμους λαμβάνειν πληγάς, ἀντὶ τοῦ σώματος τὸν

  [45] However, O ye Egyptians and Cambyses too, no matter whether it was some one else who suffered this treatment or Amasis himself, at all events it was a form sans blood, sans flesh, sans soul. This, so please you, you may drag, you may rend, you may stab, yet real Amasis you have failed to catch. Again, another man who was endowed with life and breath and feeling exclaimed, “Grind, grind the sack of Anaxarchus; for the real Anaxarchus you do not grind!” You see, this man, having been thrown into a mortar and being pounded by the pestles, declared that he himself was not being ground, but only that thing of his in which, as it chanced, he had been enclosed — just as we are told that the peers of the realm in Persia are beaten — their cloak instead of their body.

  [46] κάνδυν. Πέρσαι μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τούτῳ δυσφοροῦσιν: Ἕλλην δ̓ ἀνὴρ παρεῖχε τύπτειν τὸ σῶμα ὡς κάνδυν ὡς ἱμάτιον: ἡμεῖς δ̓ οὐ παρέχωμεν τὸν ἀνδριάντα χωνεύειν, κἂν αἰσθάνηται; νῦν δ̓ ὁ μὲν κρείσσων αἰσθήσεως, ἐγὼ δὲ κατὰ τὴν Εὐριπίδου Λαοδάμειαν οὐκ ἂν προδοίην καίπερ ἄψυχον φίλον. βούλομαι οὖν αὐτὸν ὡς αἰσθανόμενον παραμυθήσασθαι. ὦ λόγων ἐμῶν σιγηλὸν εἴδωλον, οὐ φαίνῃ; οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁ πρὸ σοῦ Ἀριστέης: ὧδε γὰρ ἔσχε κἀκείνῳ, ὡς ἐμοὶ εἰκάσθη, ἀναστῆναι μὲν αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τῶν Προκοννησίων, ἀφανισθῆναι δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν: λόγον δ̓ ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν τούτων διαδοθῆναι, ὡς οὔτε ζῶν οὔτε τεθνεὼς φαίνοιτο [p. 29] Ἀριστέης. ἀλλὰ καὶ τότε καὶ νῦν καὶ πρὸς ἅπαντα τὸν χρόνον ἔζη Ἀριστέης.

  [46] Well then, though Persians may resent so slight a chastisement, a Greek allowed his body to be pounded as if it were a cloak; and shall not I allow my statue to go to the melting-pot, even supposing it to have sensation? But as matters stand, while Anaxarchus was superior to sensation, I, in the language of Euripides’ Laodameia,

  Would not desert a friend, though void of life.

  Accordingly I wish to speak words of comfort to my friend, my statue, as to one possessing sensation: O thou mute semblance of my eloquence, art thou not visible? No more was Aristeas visible, who lived before thee. For he too had this experience, as I conjecture, the experience of being raised up by the men of Proconnesus and then being spirited away by his foes, and of having a tale dissemin
ated by these same men to the effect that Aristeas was not to be seen, either living or dead. However, Aristeas was alive then, lives now, and will live always.

  [47] μνάσεσθαί τινά φαμι καὶ ἕτερον ἀμμέων. πάνυ γὰρ καλῶς εἶπεν ἡ Σαπφώ: καὶ πολὺ κάλλιον Ἡσίοδος, φήμη δ̓ οὔτις πάμπαν ἀπόλλυται, ἥντινα λαοὶ πολλοὶ φημίξωσι: θεός νύ τίς ἐστι καὶ αὐτή. ἐγώ σε ἀναστήσω παρὰ τῇ θεῷ, ὅθεν οὐδείς σε μὴ καθέλῃ, οὐ σεισμός, οὐκ ἄνεμος, οὐ νιφετός, οὐκ ὄμβρος, οὐ φθόνος, οὐκ ἐχθρός, ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν σε καταλαμβάνω ἑστηκότα. λάθα μὲν γὰρ ἤδη τινὰς καὶ ἑτέρους ἔσφηλε καὶ ἐψεύσατο, γνώμη δ̓ ἀνδρῶν ἀγαθῶν οὐδένα, ᾗ κατ̓ ἄνδρα μοι ὀρθὸς ἕστηκας.

  [47] Some one, I ween, will yet remember me,

  as Sappho very beautifully says; and far more beautifully Hesiod:

  But fame is never utterly destroyed

  Which many people voice; a goddess she.

  I myself will raise thee up and place thee in the precinct of the goddess, whence naught shall tear thee down — not earthquake or wind or snow or rain or jealousy or foe; but lo! e’en now I find thee in thy station! Aye, ere now forgetfulness hath tripped and cheated sundry others too, but judgement plays no tricks on any man of worth, and ’tis because of this that thou standest upright for me like a man.

  THE THIRTY-EIGHTH DISCOURSE: TO THE NICOMEDIANS ON CONCORD WITH THE NICAEANS

  ΠΡΟΣ ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΙΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑΣ ΤΗΣ

  THE THIRTY-EIGHTH DISCOURSE: TO THE NICOMEDIANS ON CONCORD WITH THE NICAEANS

  This is the first in a series of speeches by Dio dealing affairs in his native Bithynia, speeches which shed much light upon the troubles and problems referred to by Pliny the Younger in his correspondence while governor of that province. The administration of Bithynia was clearly no easy task. Besides the natural resentment of the provincial toward his Roman overlord, who in some instances seems to have been unworthy of the office, we learn of much social and economic distress and unrest, financial mismanagement, and civic bickerings. Still another source of trouble was the bitter rivalry between cities of the district such as forms the subject of the present Discourse.