eul_wid: siy-aq
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20335421 PDFMarkdown

Declamations and Orations: Oration 14 (To the Egyptian Newcomer) by Himerius the Sophist

The Nile, whose rise the Egyptians measure and celebrate cubit by cubit, opens this brief welcome to a student from Egypt. Great things come by small additions: Themistocles was small at Artemisium, greater at Psyttaleia and great at Salamis, and Homer made the war last ten years to show that Fortune grants good things slowly and late.

Part of Declamations and Orations

Εἰς τὸν νέηλυν τὸν Αἰγύπτιον.

Πήχεις οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ Νείλου προσαγορεύουσι καὶ μετροῦσι τὰ νάματα, καὶ πανήγυρις αὐτοῖς ὁ πῆχυς γίνεται ...

Δεινὸς χρηματιστὴς ἐκ τῆς κατὰ μικρὸν προσθήκης τὸν πολὺν πλοῦτον ἀθροίζει ...

... καὶ τοὺς γενναίους ὄψει τῶν στρατηγῶν ἀπʼ ἐλαττόνων τροπαίων τὰς μυρίας νίκας κηρύττοντας. μικρὸς ἦν ἐν Ἀρτεμισίῳ Θεμιστοκλῆς—κατὰ γὰρ τῶν προπόλων ἔτι τῶν βασιλέως ἠρίστευε—, μείζων ἐν ψυτταλίᾳ, μέγας ἐν τῇ Σαλαμῖνι· ἐβάπτισε γὰρ ὅλην ἐκεῖ τὴν Ἀσίαν μαχόμενος ...

Δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ αὐτὸς Ὅμηρος διὰ τοῦτο δεκέτην γράψαι τὸν πόλεμον, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο πυρὶ δαπανῆσαι τὸ Ἴλιον, ἵνα δείξῃ διὰ τῆς ποιήσεως ἀνθρώποις ἅπασι ὅτι μόλις καὶ χρόνῳ τὰ ἀγαθὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ Τύχη δίδωσι ...