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Oratio ad Graecos
27
Εἰ δὲ σὺ τῆς ἐκείνων ἀντέχῃ παιδείας, τί μοι δόξας αἱρουμένῳ δογμάτων ὧν θέλω διαμάχῃ; πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἄτοπον τὸν μὲν λῃστὴν διὰ τὸ ἐπικατηγορούμενον ὄνομα μὴ κολάζειν πρὶν ἢ τἀληθὲς ἐπ' ἀκριβείᾳ καταμανθάνειν, ἡμᾶς δὲ προλήμματι λοιδορίας ἀνεξετάστως μεμισηκέναι; Διαγόρας Ἀθηναῖος ἦν, ἀλλὰ τοῦτον ἐξορχησάμενον τὰ παρ' Ἀθηναίοις μυστήρια τετιμωρήκατε καὶ τοῖς Φρυγίοις αὐτοῦ λόγοις ἐντυγχάνοντες ἡμᾶς
μεμισήκατε. Λέοντος κεκτημένοι τὰ ὑπομνήματα πρὸς τοὺς ἀφ' ἡμῶν ἐλέγχους δυσχεραίνετε· καὶ τὰς περὶ τῶν κατ' Αἴγυπτον θεῶν δόξας Ἀπίωνος ἔχοντες παρ' ἑαυτοῖς ὡς ἀθεωτάτους ἡμᾶς ἐκκηρύσσετε. τάφος τοῦ Ὀλυμπίου Διὸς καθ' ὑμᾶς δείκνυται κἂν <ψεύδεσθαί> τις τοὺς Κρῆτας λέγῃ. τῶν πολλῶν θεῶν ἡ ὁμήγυρις οὐδέν ἐστιν· κἂν ὁ καταφρονῶν αὐτῶν Ἐπίκουρος δᾳδουχῇ, τοὺς ἄρχοντας οὐδὲν πλέον <σέβω> τοῦ θεοῦ· κατάληψιν ἣν ἔχω περὶ τῶν ὅλων, ταύτην οὐκ ἀποκρύπτομαι. τί μοι συμβουλεύεις ψεύσασθαι τὴν πολιτείαν; τί δὲ λέγων θανάτου καταφρονεῖν, διὰ τέχνης φεύγειν αὐτὸν καταγγέλλεις; ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ ἔχω καρδίαν ἐλάφου· τὰ δὲ τῶν ὑμετέρων λόγων ἐπιτηδεύματα κατὰ τὸν ἀμετροεπῆ Θερσίτην γίνεται. πῶς πεισθήσομαι τῷ λέγοντι μύδρον τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην γῆν; τὰ γὰρ τοιαῦτα λόγων ἐστὶν ἅμιλλα καὶ οὐκ ἀληθείας διακόσμησις. ἢ πῶς οὐκ ἠλίθιον πιθέσθαι τοῖς Ἡροδώρου βιβλίοις περὶ τοῦ καθ' Ἡρακλέα λόγου, γῆν ἄνω κηρύττουσιν κατεληλυθέναι τε ἀπ' αὐτῆς λέοντα τὸν ὑφ' Ἡρακλέους φονευθέντα; τί δ' ἂν ὠφελήσειε λέξις Ἀττικὴ καὶ φιλοσόφων σωρεία καὶ συλλογισμῶν πιθανότητες καὶ μέτρα γῆς καὶ ἄστρων θέσεις καὶ ἡλίου δρόμοι; τὸ γὰρ περὶ τοιαύτην ἀσχολεῖσθαι ζήτησιν νομοθετοῦντός ἐστιν ἔργον ἑαυτῷ τὰ δόγματα.
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Address of Tatian to the Greeks
Chapter XXVII.--The Christians are Hated Unjustly.
And if you adhere to their teaching, why do you fight against me for choosing such views of doctrine as I approve? Is it not unreasonable that, while the robber is not to be punished for the name he bears, 1 but only when the truth about him has been clearly ascertained, yet we are to be assailed with abuse on a judgment formed without examination? Diagoras was an Athenian, but you punished him for divulging the Athenian mysteries; yet you who read his Phrygian discourses hate us. You possess the commentaries of Leo, and are displeased with our refutations of them; and having in your hands the opinions of Apion concerning the Egyptian gods, you denounce us as most impious. The tomb of Olympian Zeus is shown among you, 2 though some one says that the Cretans are liars. 3 Your assembly of many gods is nothing. Though their despiser Epicurus acts as a torch-bearer, 4 I do not any the more conceal from the rulers that view of God which I hold in relation to His government of the universe. Why do you advise me to be false to my principles? Why do you who say that you despise death exhort us to use art in order to escape it? I have not the heart of a deer; but your zeal for dialectics resembles the loquacity of Thersites. How can I believe one who tells me that the sun is a red-hot mass and the moon an earth? Such assertions are mere logomachies, and not a sober exposition of truth. How can it be otherwise than foolish to credit the books of Herodotus relating to the history of Hercules, which tell of an upper earth from which the lion came down that was killed by Hercules? And what avails the Attic style, the sorites of philosophers, the plausibilities of syllogisms, the measurements of the earth, the positions of the stars, and the course of the sun? To be occupied in such inquiries is the work of one who imposes opinions on himself as if they were laws.