Orationes 26

321. In the tenth year of my illness, as it came round, an apparition appeared and spoke as follows: "I, having suffered from the same disease, in the tenth year as it came round, by the will of Asclepius journeyed to the places where the disease began to gather, and was released." Such were the words spoken, and they seemed to have been set down in writing. At that time too we were passing our days about the temple of Olympian Zeus. It was winter, a little after the solstice, but the air was mild. When these things had been revealed, there was, as was natural, joy and a wonderful eagerness for the journey. The Aesepus and the warm springs upon it are two days' journey from this place about the temple. And there my body first gave way, chilled in the season of winter, having been drenched splendidly with many baths, as toward evening I was already driving home to my own farmstead and dwelling, which is near — so to speak. But for the present occasion, and from the things I have come back to, this is more than enough; and after these came the difficult journey to Italy a few days later. These things, then, had happened before, in the tenth year; but now we set out as for a sacred spectacle, in good cheer, the air being wonderfully clear and the road favourable. There is a place in Mysia called Poemanenum, and in it a temple of Asclepius, holy and famous. There we covered about one hundred and sixty stades, and of these nearly sixty by night, since we had set out late in the day; and somewhere about this place we met with a mud, hard to pass through because of earlier rains, and the journey was made by torchlight. There, then, I was as it were wholly consecrated and possessed, and many songs were made by me to
322. the Saviour himself, as I chanced to be seated upon the carriage; and many also to the Aesepus and the Nymphs and Thermaean Artemis, who holds the warm springs, that they grant release from all my present troubles and restore me again to my original state.

When I came to Poemanenum, the god gave responses and detained me some days, and purged my upper parts, and that not at one stroke. And a dream came to a farmer, who did not yet know me, save by report: it seemed to him that someone said that Aristides had vomited up the head of a viper. Seeing this vision, he told it to one of my people, and he to me. So much for that. And when the god sent me on to the Aesepus, he bade me from there abstain from those baths, and prescribed the rest of my regimen day by day. And there purifications took place at the river by libations, and cleansings at home by emetic. And after three or four days had passed, a voice came through a dream, that it had reached its end and that I must return. There was, then, something not only like an initiation, so divine and paradoxical were the things being done, but also there fell upon me a marvellous strangeness; for at once it was possible to be of good cheer, to rejoice, to be at ease in both soul and body, and at once to disbelieve, as it were, whether it would ever be possible to see that day on which one should see oneself free of so many troubles, and besides to fear lest something of the usual sort, befalling again, should ruin my hopes for the whole. Thus were my thoughts disposed, and with such pleasure together with anxiety the withdrawal took place. But the gods so granting, there came about from these times a clear change throughout the whole body and the regimen; and it became possible to bear the air better, and to travel tolerably no less than men of surpassing strength. The superfluous coverings were taken away, and the unnameable catarrhs and convulsions about the veins and sinews ceased. Food was now somehow managed, and we contended in full contests both at home and in public. And indeed we entered cities, the god leading, with good 323. report and fortune. And in later times that pestilential disease befell, from which the Saviour and the Lady Athena conspicuously delivered me. And some six months thereafter I passed wonderfully; then a great dryness came on, and other things troubled me — all of which the god set right and, be it said with him, sets right by daily regimens and predictions. At that time, then, when I returned from the Aesepus, at once, as it approached, good omens came from children and others, and one, playing among them, cried, "Well done, master!" And the nurse straightway rose and met me and was strong and was as is natural in such circumstances. Then the god bade that, instead of being buried, I should heap white earth upon myself, in the manner of the wrestling-school, for the sake of confirmation and that this too might in a way be fulfilled; and besides, to bathe in cold — and this meant to bathe in snow; so wholly did the snow cover everything, ground and trees and springs. And it is clear that we obeyed these things too gladly.

Such was the journey to the Aesepus and the return thence. The governor of Asia at that time was a man indeed among the notable, Severus, from upper Phrygia, concerning whom wonderful things were done by the god, things of great moment to me; about which it may perhaps be fitting to speak in order. At first, then, as I said, it occurred to me to go through straightway the benefits in this matter. Then it seemed good to go up to the earlier times and to narrate beforehand the other honours from the god, so far as possible: first those that came in respect of my speeches, and all such; then those in the affairs concerning the governorships. Then, when it comes to the matter of dates too, a certain boundary will be set to the earlier account, to which it will be necessary to join the rest. For about the first year of my illness I gave up the practice of speeches, as was natural amid such great and such grievous afflictions of the body, and at the same time I had grown despondent. But while I was sitting in Pergamum, in accordance with the summons and supplication, there came from the god a command 324. and exhortation not to abandon speeches. Which of the dreams came first, or how each stood for all, it is impossible to say, by reason of the multitude of years. But among the encouraging ones were these, which came at the very first: "Speeches befit you, together with Socrates and Demosthenes and Thucydides." And indeed one of those above us in time, famous for speeches, was shown to me, so that I was most stirred to speak. And the very first thing he bade me was, coming to him, to make an offering of these extempore and competitive speeches in the portico of the temple by the theatre; and it happened thus. There was a certain very splendid spectacle in the city — a bull-hunt, I think, or some such thing. All, then, had run down from the temple, and the city was occupied with these things. We were left in the temple, two of the more notable patients, I and a man from Nicaea, one of those who had been praetors among the Romans, Sedatus by name, but formerly Theophilus. We were sitting, then, in the temple of Hygieia, where the Telesphorus is, and we inquired of one another, as we were wont, whether the god had commanded anything newer; for somehow we suffered from somewhat similar ills. I said, then, that I did not know what to do, for I had been commanded to do what was like flying — to breathe out a practice-speech when I could not breathe — and that here. Saying this to him, I narrate the portico and the dream. And he, having heard, said, "What, then, will you do, and how are you?" "What else," I said, "than this — I will do what is possible, putting my cloak about me, standing thus, announcing the theme myself to myself, beginning some little things, and then I will get away, and so the duty will be discharged for me?" "By no means," he said, "not thus. But you have me here as a hearer, and contend with all eagerness; the god will see to the power. What do you know but the dream brings more besides?" And at the same time he narrated to me a wonderful work of the god: how, having bidden someone who was sick to contend thus, and a sweat coming on through the anxiety, he released the whole 325. disease. It seemed good to do thus. And as we were talking and deliberating, in comes Biblus as a third, an old patient and in some way eager about speeches. He it was, too, who proposed the theme; and the theme was of this kind — for I remember it, since I received it first: "Alexander," he said, "being among the Indians, Demosthenes advises an attack upon affairs." At once, then, I received the omen, that I was again speaking the part of Demosthenes, and that the speeches were about the hegemony. And after a brief pause I contended; and the rest of my power was as of a god providing it, and the year's time seemed to be one not of silence but of training.

This, then, was the beginning of my practice of speeches, and so we returned. And many other things came to bear on the same point, and that which most strengthened me was of this kind. Rhosander was one of those who pursued philosophy, and otherwise careful about the service of the god. He seemed to me to be present, standing before my couch, having been but lately announced by a distinguished philosopher, like one inspired and very earnest; then to speak about my speeches, how far they had advanced; to make mention of Plato and Demosthenes, on the very points on which he made mention of each; and to add as a closing flourish: "You have surpassed Demosthenes for us in dignity, so that not even the philosophers themselves may look down on you." This phrase kindled in me all my later ambition; this made me think that whatever I did in speeches was less than it ought to be. And indeed the god himself confirmed it even in waking. For after that night, which led to the dawn, I straightway made a practice-speech, still at the beginning of the time, as I say; and those present, having learned nothing yet beforehand of the dream, and hearing the speeches then for the first time, especially marked this very dignity. And this was the chief part of their applause. And in time afterward there came to me, bearing on Rhosander, the following. I seemed to be in the precinct of Olympian Zeus, in some discourse either reasoning to myself 326. or someone showing me and declaring that Rhosander could signify the god, and making his demonstration of it by means of a line, like the geometers, writing two names in succession on the ground equally: the one Rhosander, the other Theodotus — and somehow this was "Theodotes" in the writing. And it was clear that, just as Theodotus the physician signifies the god, so Rhosander could mean the same, since Rhosander is equal to Theodotus. So much, then, it revealed about the name of Rhosander. And it befell me, in receiving the themes and setting myself to the contest, to be at a loss and barely to recover, my breath failing; but as I advanced in the proems, to be already more at ease and able to breathe; and, as the speech ever advanced, to be filled with power together with lightness, and to string the words so that the hearers could barely follow. And the sight was, in my opinion, better than the hearing. And dreams came to others too, bearing on the same point concerning me. Thus Euarestus the Cretan, one of those who pursue philosophy, who had come from Egypt to inquire into matters concerning the god, having become an acquaintance and intimate of mine during my stay in Egypt, said that the god had commanded him to urge me toward speeches, as being above all things suited to me. And to Hermocrates the Rhodian, a poet of songs, a dream came, as Hermocrates himself told me: I had failed, I think, for one or two days, and then "Aristides will be vexed and will say that his stomach hurts, not wishing to speak." Thus from every quarter the matter came together into continuity. And he strengthened and advanced my power in many ways. For he told me among which of the ancient men I ought to spend my time — poets, I mean, and the rest — and even appointed a time for the use of some of them; and all these, after that day, appeared to me almost as comrades, the god having introduced them. 327. And indeed the greatest and most valuable part of the training was the approach and converse of the dreams. For I heard many things winning by purity and splendour, beyond the models; and many things I myself seemed to say better than was my custom, things I had never even conceived; of which, so far as I remembered, I set down in the records of the dreams — among which is the speech delivered about running, when he bade me make use of running, and many others. And in our books are scattered an encomium of Athena, and of Dionysus, and others, as each somewhere befell. And many themes came, and it was shown how the whole should be handled, apart from the very phrases that came to memory in exactness. And there was this manner too, conducing to improvement: that of unforeseen preparation. For I had to rise goaded toward speeches and prepared from the night, just as when an athlete trains beforehand in the early morning. And once there came such a command too: to weave a speech through bare thought, as through words; and it was clear to me that the god was introducing fullness of thought. That, then, our facility in speeches — be it said with him — even if before it was by no means contemptible, became one after another from another, both we ourselves are aware and it is recognized by those who know. And indeed that famous Pardalas, whom I would call the foremost of the Greeks of our day in the knowledge of speeches, dared to say to me and to insist that he truly believed my illness had befallen me by some habit of fortune, in order that, conversing with the god, I might make this improvement. But all the other things that either he was wont to utter in adorning my speeches, or the best and most notable of the other elders in those times, it is beside the matter and at the same time beside my purpose to relate. But I wish to tell a dream. I seemed to be in the place where I was reared, and that Rufinus was present, whose are the great dedications and the temple of varied form; and indeed that he rejoiced over me exceedingly, and said openly: "Where would so-and-so the declaimer now be, if he were alive?" — saying it in this 328. very phrase, naming the foremost of our day. And I myself, understanding, said to Bassus here, "Do you see what the god says about me, this Rufinus?" He bade me also compose speeches, not only contend extempore, and besides to learn them by heart word for word sometimes. And the matter caused me much perplexity, since I was unable either to conceive any of the later things or to believe what he meant by these. Indeed, in these matters, for me ** but where is it possible to find leisure — to be saved first was so much; but for him, it seems, these were at once devices for the present, and at once he seemed to intend something better for me than merely to save. He saved, then, deeming me worthy of more than the mere being saved was worth. And once I happened to be suffering from my teeth and was unable to open my mouth, and was held by a dread perplexity; and he bade me read one of the speeches I had composed, after announcing a gathering to my friends. I had then in hand the third of the speeches to him; this I read through to the end, and before going through it all, I was released from the pain. He urged me also toward the composition of songs. The beginning, then, came in Rome, from Apollo. For a dream came to me declaring that I must compose a paean to the god, and at the same time its beginning, which ran somewhat thus: "Apollo, lord of the lyre, will I celebrate." I was at a loss, then, what to do, since I had not before made trial of myself in these things; rather I seemed wholly unable; nevertheless I undertook it, and, holding to the beginning as to a base, I completed the song in two strophes, and added, I think, a third, which the grammarians, I believe, call an epode. And the song had just been finished when someone announces to me that it is a festival of Apollo, the Apollonia, in which the Romans hold the horse-race for the god.

This, then, came about thus. And by some divine fortune, as we were returning from Greece, a storm coming on, we were brought safely first to Delos, then to Miletus, both sacred to Apollo. And it is worth 329. rendering this too to Apollo, the Delian and Saviour, since we have come to this point in the account. For when I had disembarked at Delos, being vexed with the helmsman, who was turbulent and sailing against the winds and, as it were, ploughing the sea, I straightway bind him by oath that he should not sail out for two days; "but if it please him," I said, "let him sail by himself." And I, having sacrificed to the god and spent as much time as I could about the temple, entering my little room and telling my servants that, if anyone should come from the ship, to bid him farewell, was resting in the harbour of the Delians. The sailors came, heavy with wine, about the first sleep nearly, and standing they knocked at the door, and bade me come out and make use of the voyage; for it was wonderful indeed. And when the boys answered that they were talking nonsense and that I would not stir even if anything should happen, they went off in anger, as though deprived of great things. The crowing of cocks was near, and a tremendous thunderbolt crashes down, and the sea was driven by a savage tempest and all things were flooded over, and of the boats in the harbour some were cast out onto the land, others fell upon one another and were shattered; and the merchant-ship carrying us, the cables having been torn away, rolled up and down, and was barely saved with much shouting and confusion of the sailors. And there came on much violent water from heaven, and in the island there was an uproar as in a ship. And at dawn my friends were present in haste, whom I happened to have taken on, sailing at my own expense, calling me benefactor and saviour, rejoicing together at the providence of the gods; and the sailors too were present, now grateful and marvelling from what evils, lying close upon them, they had been saved. So great was the gain and the reward of the song, just as they say came to Simonides from the Dioscuri — the mere being saved in return for what he composed about them — except that we at least were not saved alone then, but our friends with us. And let one have it whichever way one wishes: either that this was the fruit and grace of the paean, and that for this reason it came about that we were saved, 330. or that this would altogether have come about thus, but the god, foreseeing all that was to be, signified it — partly that dangers would befall at sea and salvations from them, partly that he himself would be a healer of the body's distresses, both he and the first of his children, who knows how to stop all the things by which men are sick.

But account succeeds account in continuity; and let us say again that, among the rest, the Saviour Asclepius commanded us this too: to spend time in songs and melodies, and indeed to play and to rear choruses of boys. How much else we enjoyed from this counsel toward good cheer and self-sufficiency it would be endless to tell; but the boys sang the songs, and whenever it befell either to be choked, the throat being suddenly strained, or the stomach falling into distress, or some other helpless attack arising, Theodotus the physician, being present and remembering the dreams, would bid the boys sing of the songs; and in the midst of their singing some relief came secretly, and sometimes the whole trouble departed entirely. And this was so great a gain, and the honour of it still greater; for the songs too were well thought of by the god. And he bade me compose not only to himself, but signified others also — such as Pan and Hecate and Achelous, and any other. And there came also from Athena a dream containing a hymn of the goddess and a beginning of this kind: "Come to Pergamum, you young men"; and another from Dionysus, of which the refrain was "Hail, lord Dionysus of the ivy." And as it was sung in sleep, the ears ran round and a wonderful echo. And one had to bend the right knee and supplicate and call the god Lysius; and these things are in the songs. And another came from Zeus himself, but which of these was first or last they do not remember; and another from Dionysus again, declaring that the god should be addressed as "of the thick locks." And Hermes too was seen, holding the cap, wonderful in beauty and extraordinary in motion. And singing of him and rejoicing, I awoke as one who had easily and fittingly spoken. And I seemed also to hear from my foster-father, I think, concerning the goddesses in Smyrna, that I was not rightly forgetting them; for it was fitting to take thought for these too in sleep. And very many things were composed to 331. Apollo and Asclepius, according to the inspirations of the dreams, and most of these almost from memory thus, whenever I was carried on the carriage or even walking. And indeed a dream came to one Macedonian man, one of my fellow-students, as Theodotus reported it to me — for he himself was not on familiar terms with me — bearing straight upon me. For he seemed to be singing a paean of mine, in which this address occurred: "Hail, Paean, Heracles Asclepius." And so I rendered the paean common to both gods.

And accordingly I set up choruses publicly, ten in all, some of boys, some of men. And something of this kind befell. When I was about to bring on the first chorus, Rufinus, whom I mentioned a little before, was in the temple. Seeing him, then, "You have come at a fine time," I said, "if indeed you have leisure; for I am about to set up a chorus to the god, and clearly you will be our hearer." "But there is no need," he said, "for me to be called by you, for I have been called beforehand by the god. Judge," he said, "from the hour too; for I never before came at this time, but I was wont to come much later. But I have been called," he said, "for these reasons and for good fortune, and we shall stand by you" — meaning himself and Sedatus, who was our fellow-student at that time. And this befell concerning the first bringing-on of the chorus. And again, when the tenth had been performed, I happened to have passed over one of the songs, because it had been composed altogether extempore and most easily and, as they say, just so; then a dream came demanding this too, and we rendered it. And when these things were finished, it seemed good to dedicate a silver tripod, at once a thank-offering to the god and a memorial of the choruses we had set up. And I had prepared an elegiac couplet of this kind: "The poet, and the judge of the contests, and himself the choragus, set up this memorial of choral-leading to you, O lord." Then there were two other verses upon these, of which the one had my name, the other that these things came about by the protection of the god. But the god prevailed. For on the day on which the dedication was to take place, on this, it seems to me, either a little before it 332. about dawn, or even earlier, there comes a divine inscription running thus: "Not obscure among the Greeks, Aristides set this up, the glorious charioteer of ever-flowing tales." This I seemed to inscribe, and to dedicate the offering as to Zeus. At once, then, I held fast to the inscription, rejoicing in sleep and still as I awoke, conning it and turning it over lest it escape me unnoticed; and so I committed it to memory. After this, as we deliberated in common about the offering, it seemed good both to the priest and to the temple-wardens to dedicate it in the temple of Zeus Asclepius, for there was no fairer place; and so the report of the dream was fulfilled. And the tripod is beneath the right hand of the god, having three golden figures, one for each foot — of Asclepius, of Hygieia, and of Telesphorus. And the inscription is engraved, and it is added that it is from a dream. And I dedicated to Olympian Zeus too the inscription and another offering, so that the responses might be everywhere completely fulfilled. And when the inscription had come about, a far greater eagerness arose in me, and it seemed good to cling in every way to speeches, since our name would be even among men of later times, seeing that the god had called the speeches ever-flowing.

And so it was with the choruses. But some time afterward — I do not know how long — I see this vision. I seemed to be at the hearth of Zeus, the Olympian and ancestral; and, a public assembly taking place about the crowded market-place, the sacred herald, standing by the very base of the god, proclaimed my name together with all that belongs to it, as though I were being publicly crowned, just as when in the assemblies we are crowned with a golden crown; and he added that it was for the sake of speeches; and he confirmed it by another addition, saying besides, "for he is indeed unconquered in speeches." And when this had been proclaimed, I crossed over into the garden of Asclepius, which is before my ancestral house. And there 333. I found, on the right of the temple, a common tomb of myself and of Alexander, son of Philip, divided by a partition in the middle; and that he lay in the one part, and I should lie in the other. And standing and bending over, I enjoyed a wonderful fragrance of incense, and that some of it was of his coffin, and some laid up in addition for me. So I rejoiced and reckoned that both of us had obtained the summit — he of power in arms, and I of power in speeches. And besides, this occurred to me: that he was born in Pella — so great a thing — and that the people here would take pride in me. Such things I seemed both to hear and to see, and to say and reckon to myself — some as at the temple of Zeus, some as in the precinct of Asclepius before the house. And what follows let it be said and written, if it is lawful; but if not, let this much be your care, lord Asclepius, to bring it to my mind to delineate it, apart from all that is difficult. First the seat was seen having three heads and gleaming with fire round about, except for the heads; then we patients stood by, as when the paean is sung; and I, indeed, nearly among the first. And in this the god nods toward the exit, having now his own form in which he stands. So all the others were going out, and I turned as if going out, and the god, with his hand, signs to me to remain. And I, overjoyed at the honour and at how far I was preferred to the rest, cried out, "The One!" — meaning the god. And he said, "It is you." This phrase, lord Asclepius, is greater than all human life; than this every disease is less, than this every favour is less; this made me both able and willing to live. And in saying these things, may we have no less of the former honour from the god.

I once heard an account of this kind, bearing on speeches and divine converse. He said the mind must be moved from its established state; being moved, it must commune with the god; communing, it now surpasses the human condition; and neither is wonderful — neither to surpass when one communes with the god, nor, having surpassed, to commune with the god. And indeed the name 334. "Theodorus" was thus given me. I seemed to be addressed, as in Smyrna, by someone rejoicing greatly with me: "Theodorus, hail!" — and an Asiarch, I think, was present; and I received the address thus, that all that was mine was a gift of the god. After this another thing of the following kind came about. There was Epagathus, one of my foster-fathers, who first reared me, a very good man and most clearly conversant with the gods, and remembering whole oracles from dreams; and these came to pass almost, so to speak, on the same day. Such was this Epagathus, and the dream was thus. He seemed to me, either at my inquiry or himself moved of his own accord, to say to me that a dream of this kind had come to him: "Concerning Theodorus, the Mother of the gods will take thought." And I, understanding, seemed to say: "It is likely that the Mother of the gods is of the same mind about me as Asclepius; for Theodorus came to me from that source as a beginning." And he showed me concerning his own nature, partly by sight, partly by word. It was thus. The Morning Star was rising when the dream came. I seemed to be walking along a road through my own land, looking toward the star that had just risen; for the journey was toward the east. And Pyrallianus from the temple was present, a man both a comrade of ours and well exercised in the discourses of Plato. And, as on a road and in quiet, jesting with him and at the same time teasing, I said: "Can you, by the gods, tell me — for we are quite alone — why you Platonists are charlatans in these matters and astonish men?" And this bore upon his discourses about nature and existing things. And he bade me follow, attending with my mind. From this he led, and I followed. And, coming forward, lifting his hand a little, he shows me a certain place in the heaven; and at the same time, showing it, he said, "This is for you what Plato calls the soul of the universe." And I look up and see Asclepius, the one established in Pergamum, set in the heaven; and at the same time I awoke upon this, and I perceive the hour to be that very one in which I seemed to see these things. Furthermore, I remember others of this kind. Thus I seemed to see Plato 335. himself standing in my chamber, opposite the couch and me; and he happened to be handling the letter to Dionysius, and being very full of anger. And looking at me, he said, "What sort of man do I seem to you for letters? Not meaner than Celer?" — meaning the imperial secretary. And I said, "Hush! that you, being who you are, should even mention such a thing." And not much later he had vanished, and I was held by reflection. And someone present said, "This man who conversed with you just now as Plato is your Hermes" — meaning the one allotted to my birth. "But he was likened to Plato," he said.

This dream, then, came to me in Smyrna; and another in Pergamum, somewhat before this. He blamed for these dreams and for the manifest care of the gods the star of Zeus — whoever it was that did the blaming; for it cleaves the middle portion of the heaven exactly when I was born; and indeed the astronomers say that Leo was then in mid-heaven, and the star of Zeus beneath Leo, on its right from the quadrant of Hermes, both being of the morning. And it befell me to behold also nearly the most renowned of the other ancients in speeches, both prose-writers alike and poets; but the matter of Lysias is worth narrating too. For I was sick with a most grievous tertian fever, and I see Lysias the orator, a not ungraceful youth. The day of the relapse was coming on, and the fever did not come on, but the disease was dissolved at this point. And indeed I once seemed that Sophocles the poet came into my house, and coming in stood before the chamber where I happened to be staying; and as he stood and was silent, his very lips, of themselves, hummed something most sweet; and his whole appearance was venerable and seemly. Seeing him, then, I rejoiced and, rising, greeted him and asked, "But where," I said, "is your brother?" And he, "Is there, then, some brother of mine?" "Aeschylus, surely," I said. And at the same time I was going out with him; and as we appeared in the porch, a sophist of our day, and a very notable one, lay overturned a little way from the doors on the left. 336. And others, in another posture and form, very gravely and fittingly to the times in which each lived, we saw. And this too conduced to good cheer. For as I was declaiming certain speeches according to the dream and being greatly approved, when one of the hearers said, by way of compliment, that I was "like so-and-so" — whom indeed he most admired of the ancients — my teacher seemed to be present and to say, somewhat displeased, "Will you not add this man and that?" And he was going to name others in order, since no single one ought to be set in comparison. And having said this, I resolved to break off the discourse about these matters; and another wonderful instance of grace, if any, worth no small account, came upon me from the god. For when Quadratus the orator came to the governorship of Asia, I thought I had occasion to address him, especially as I had certain affairs from earlier times, concerning which I shall presently speak. And I write to him, declaring who I was and all my way of life. And on the day on which he was to receive the letter — this we learned afterward from what was reported, but it was also to be conjectured at once from the reckoning of days — on this it seemed to me that the priest of Asclepius, this one who is still living, and his grandfather, under whom the god performed, as we learned, the many great cures and who is the most renowned of those up to this time — these seemed to me to come into Quadratus' lodging and to be very close at hand, the one sitting beside him thus, the other, the elder, seated upon the couch above. They commended me, then, to Quadratus very earnestly, saying both other kindly things and that the elder had a special interest in my speeches, which ought themselves to be praised before Quadratus. And about speeches he spoke, having somehow marked it with his voice and paused on purpose so as best to lead him on to what was about to be said; but while he was still about to utter the superlative, Quadratus, taking him up, said, "But will you say the proverb, 337. 'one must marry such a wife or not marry at all'?" Such things were said on both sides. After this I seemed that they went on their way, and I went out with them; and when we came to the little gate, where the turning toward the temple is, they walked straight toward the temple, while I, departing, greeted them and gave thanks, that they everywhere honoured me and were wholly concerned for my affairs. Now in what manner the letter was at once well thought of, being read out to all by the governor himself and being eagerly sought by all to obtain, and what he wrote back to it, and what at last, when he was leaving the governorship — to narrate it might in one way seem boastful because of the superlatives contained in them, and in another way it would be a kind of pettiness to dwell on these, after the honours from the gods. But the things that bore on the present account were chiefly of this kind. And these belong to the earlier times. But when I had come to this point in the account and was about to turn to the other benefits of the god and to write in order those that came about under the other governors and affairs, a dream comes to me in the midst of the writing, bearing somehow on these things again. It was thus. I seemed to be speaking among certain persons, displaying to them in the midst of the speeches I was contending in how to call upon the god, saying thus: "Lord Asclepius, if I surpass in speeches, and surpass greatly, let there be health for me, and for the envious let them burst." And these things I had seen as a dream, and when day came I took a book and read; and I found written the very things I had uttered. And marvelling, I said to Zosimus, "Behold, the things I seemed to say in a dream I find written in the book." Thus these new things too were added to the old. But whether we have attained the mind of the god, he himself would know well. The matters concerning speeches, and how he established us in them from the beginning, and what sort of vote he cast about them, and all the responses he gave bearing on this, and how he added the name Theodorus to my old name, and what sort of things he showed about his own nature, and all 338. of this type — all has not been told, nor near it, but only so much as was still ringing in my ears and from which one may conjecture about the rest.

I return to where, a little before, I said I would set down and leave the account: that, both in signifying and acting and standing by in everything, he was manifest. Severus the governor of Asia held office, I think, a year before our comrade. He was a man lofty in his ways, and whatever he resolved and chose he would yield to no one. While I was then spending my time about the Aesepus and again about the temple of Zeus, he did the following. There were sent to the governors in those times, from each city each year, the names of ten of the foremost men. These the governor had to examine, and to appoint one whom he preferred out of all as guardian of the peace. From a town of Mysia, then, whose name I need not mention, the names put forward come to him. And he, knowing nothing yet clearly of my affairs but only having heard so much — that I had property about this place, and that my rank otherwise, it seems, was not among the obscure — passing over and slighting all the names sent, preferred me to govern, not considering either that I belong to Smyrna by many earlier years, before they had hopes of becoming a city, nor that my whole condition was of another sort. And he sends a letter to the magistrates — not writing to them, but to me. And they, coming, delivered it. The letter bade me preside over the peace. There was, then, much perplexity. For it was not possible to make the case subject to appeal, there being no opposing party in the midst, but he himself was both the one who gave the name and the one who ratified it; nor to find against whom one should contend, or before whom, and how one should set the matter right; but only this much was resolved in common, by us and the magistrates deliberating: to make the appeal as it were against the very magistrates who delivered the letter. And evening came on, and I asked the god what these things were and what I must do. And there comes to me the verse from Delphi: 339. "These things shall be my care, and the white maidens'." To what, then, did this come? Not many days later there come to me from Italy letters from the emperors, both from the emperor himself and from his son, containing other gracious words and confirming the immunity from public service in respect of speeches, if I should chance to be using them. And there came to me also from Heliodorus, who had been prefect of Egypt, a letter together with the imperial ones — both to me myself and another, on my behalf, to the governor, very honourable and brilliant, written long before this need, but arriving at the right moment then. The white maidens, then, I at once took to be the letters. And, taking courage from the oracle and from what fortune had brought about, I was unable to move, the god restraining me; but I send a letter to the governor, declaring the whole of how my case stood, and that those who spoke my name to him seem to have said nothing more than the name; and I showed who those were who released me, and the letters lately come; and at the same time I sent these too along with my own, both those of recommendation and those of release.

While the matter was still in suspense, all manner of instructions came from the men of affairs, all who seemed friendly toward me and at the same time saw the necessities rightly. For they declared how great the man's power was, and that he was one of the imperial judges, and above all the firmness of his resolve and his strength, and that he would not, whatever happened, change anything of what he had determined; and they begged me not to give offence to no purpose. So I write to these too at greater length and more boldly on purpose, knowing well that the letters would come into Severus' hands; for I heard that they were tolerably intimate with him. And the chief point was that which I had also written to himself: that they were demanding impossibilities. After this Severus came down from the upper regions to Ephesus to hold a court of justice, and having read the letter 340. bade me meet him there. And I sent. And when the appointed day came and the name was called, my advocates came forward. And before they had so much as uttered a word, Severus, from above, said: "I know Aristides, and admire his reputation, and agree that he is first in speeches, and this has been written to me also by my friends in Rome. I ask him," he said, "to be my colleague in office. But as for the just claims of his immunity, I both confirm them and they stand." This he said publicly, this he entered in the records. The decision being such, those sent by me for the sake of the suit — the advocates rejoicing with me at the honour, and the others making much of it that Severus said he did these things by way of invitation, and that he ratified the immunity for all future time, and that to a man absent, and reckoning that something too had been accomplished for them toward the future, and that they did not seem to return altogether empty-handed — but at the same time not knowing how to make the appeal, since the man did not assign the office by the law of judgement but as if asking a favour and establishing this as a kind of beginning of friendship, being content with the present, returning to me, narrate the whole. And in this time the appointed time for the appeal had passed. We were, then, in still greater perplexity than before; for it did not satisfy me to have been honoured to no purpose. Again, then, I clung to the god, beseeching and inquiring what one should do with this matter. And he gives me a most wonderful dream, of which I could not tell the particulars, but the chief point, as it were, was thus. I seemed to be conversing with the governor's secretary about these things, and that he had come to me. And when he had heard everything, he promised to undo and change what had been written, but bade me put forward something like five hundred drachmas. The dream coming about, in one way I became more pleased, that there seemed to be some promise in it and that it was not an outright refusal; but in another it seemed to me to bear on the same point. For where could one buy so great a matter for five hundred drachmas, and that from a man so 341. incorruptible that one might sooner stay the streams of rivers than buy him, and again so formidable in affairs and least of all men to be deceived? The promise seems to be a refusal, for it contains the impossible. About these things I was perplexed; and in this the god called me again to Pergamum, and Rufinus happened to be staying there, and it was his concern to honour me as far as he could. Meeting him, I narrate what had been done and asked him to help. For Severus himself, I said, had agreed that the immunity was valid for me; but it did not suffice that this had been written, for it would be open to any other of the governors to enjoin something else upon me with this same proviso, and so the immunity would be undone by the addition of "it stands." And I needed not the propriety of the phrase but the substance, for my body was in such a state. I seemed to speak justly to Rufinus, and he gives me a letter to Severus, written in his own hand as eagerly as possible, in which he went through other matters, partly by way of recommendation, partly of advice; and concerning the future he hinted what sort of thing it would be, if Severus did not willingly release me.

But, to bring it to an end, we were in Smyrna at the Dionysia, and Severus was present for the festival. There was a certain one of the so-called legates, otherwise wonderful in how suitably he stood with him, and almost, as it were, his secretary; for of all that was in writing he himself had charge. And indeed then too we show the letter to this man, meeting him first; for he was over the administration about Smyrna. And all that had to be said by mouth I went through with him, that, knowing it exactly, he might tell the governor. And when I saw him receiving my words and being bent toward what was just, I bethought me of the voice of the dream, that the secretary promised to assist me. And I narrate the dream itself to him and asked him to obey the god, asserting that he was that man who promised — meaning himself. He was pleased at the words, brought us to the governor, delivered the letter 342. in common with us. And Severus, while still reading, was plainly being moved in every way, stopping at many points of the letter and turning about; and since Pardalas, our comrade but his own intimate and familiar from childhood, had written to him very many and great things about my speeches, when he received this letter too and read both through, "No one," he said, "raises a question about the speeches; but it is one thing to be first of the Greeks and supreme in speeches" — for so he named it — "and another to spend one's time on this and have pupils." And after a brief pause, "Go," he said, "to the council, persuade the citizens"; and at the same time he urged and exhorted me to admit the young men. Whereupon I too answered only this much: that I needed no exhortation, but that the god had sent me for these very things, so that I must obey.

This, then, was the beginning and establishment of the matter, and the first step after the decision made at Ephesus. While it was still in suspense, a second thing of this kind befalls. Before I had entered the council and any word whatever had passed about these things — and there were elections at that time, of presidencies — the council put me forward, two or three speaking in opposition. And the matter came round to absurdity. For instead of persuading them about the things for which the governor had sent me, I was compelled again to appeal from them to the governor's court, and two suits arise instead of one, and the judge again the same as from the beginning. And we met at Pergamum. As the suit was about to be called — to be brief — none of us knew; for no day had been announced; but a dream standing by about dawn declared only this much: "Citizens of Cadmus, you must say what is opportune." At once, then, it was clear that I should have to contend, and so I prepared. And not much later someone came announcing that my name was already being called. And while I was coming down from the temple to the city, a delay arising and my name being called again, they said that Severus very deftly remarked that I would come and that there was no need to press. And after this, when he saw me approaching, lictors 343. he straightway sends out to me for the ease of my approach — for this I happened to have asked of him before; and when I came forward, there was all respect both from him and from the assessors, and likewise from the orators standing by and the others present, and it was rather the manner of a display than of a suit; for the goodwill was wonderful, and they signified then, with hand and voice, their eagerness for the speeches, and all was as of men listening at leisure. And five measures being completed and I using greater freedom of speech and indicating what sort of man I might be in the eyes of the emperor, making these speeches, at last Severus, when one of the city's advocates had met us briefly and with compliment, at once honouring the council and reckoning that the same would be for me, and that this was the best decision, sends me again to the council with honourable letters. And it befell me not only to confirm the immunity, but with so great honour and form that no one of the others seemed to share in these things. But of the other office, to which he himself led me, he did not so much as mention it to me, nor we to him; but he wrote of his own accord to the magistrates, bidding them appoint another instead of me.

To this the prediction of the god came. And as I reckoned the things spent — wages to the men of affairs and travelling-money to servants, if I had sent any anywhere for these things — the five hundred drachmas somehow worked out about right. And of what sort, again, was that which had come about nearly a year before these, under Pollio, governor of Asia. I had just come forth into the council-chamber from my long quiet, as I said, the god leading me forward in respect of speeches; and all were in hopes that I would now consort with the young men; and the wretched sophists were perishing with fear — not all, but those to whom it was a care to be vexed. I was chosen tax-collector. The matter came to the legate; he ratifies the election in the courts at Philadelphia in my absence. After this the legate's decision was read in the council. And from us an appeal was granted to Rome, 344. and letters were sent both to Pollio himself and to the legate, saying what was fitting. But the god signified the following. I seemed that Alcimus the administrator, whom I had sent for these things, returned, bringing me Demosthenes' speech On the Crown, having it not as now, but otherwise and in another arrangement. And again there were promises, as of Glabrio, who had altogether helped to settle the whole. And he happened, I think, to be then in residence. And there came to me from Sarapis and Isis oracles, that the matter would be accomplished and that "you will come into friendship with enemies," they said. And the responses and visions were, in sum, such. And those sent came to Philadelphia, and it was a release-day, as they said, on which they delivered the letters. And Pollio, having read them, and some opportunity concerning us arising from those present at the address, recognizing the simplicity of the legate, bids him go at once and sit and correct the decision. The legate does this and sits for this one purpose, and gives other letters to the council. And when these were brought, the magistrate, who had most eagerly opposed me and had before read the contrary of these, being now thrown into confusion and at his wit's end, sent to the governors inquiring about them. And they answered nothing. And he, coming to me, begged me to have pardon, and I came forward into the council, and I was released from the service and obtained the immunity; then first, and after this, the magistrate was most dear, and most dear the legate himself.

Come, then, just as if going ever upward by a ladder, let us make mention of another of the things above these. The sophist, whom I mentioned a little before, held office. As the year began and the first assembly took place, men came from the people calling me, since I had come after a long time, and at the same time announcing that they were about to sacrifice on my behalf publicly, which indeed they had often done before. And when I came into the assembly and the people made their 345. customary acclamation, those prepared set to work, applauding and conferring on me the common priesthood of Asia, and drew the people along not with difficulty. And at the same time the magistrates stood round me, each praising from a different side and shouting and vying with one another in exhortation toward the people. And bright and conspicuous signs had come to me from dreams, in which I took courage greatly. And asking for leave to speak, I so persuaded them that the people withdrew from this demand and voted me, with great cheerfulness all of them, the priesthood of Asclepius; and the temple by the outer harbour was still then in building. And I know I was well thought of by what I answered; for I said that I could do nothing, neither greater nor less, without the god, and so could not consider even the very being a priest permitted before I had inquired of the god himself. And they marvelled and consented. When these things had come about, there was good repute and emulation over my public speeches, and I thought there was no further need of affairs. But the god by no means allowed this to have an end, but has a dagger under his arm. And it befalls after this that delegates of the Smyrnaeans went out to upper Phrygia and were about to bring my name in the common council; but I perceived it beforehand and sent my foster-father Zosimus; and I become third or fourth in the vote. After this, an appeal, a summons of the governor, a summons of the Saviour to Pergamum; and I had been spending my time in the accustomed place during this time, the god himself having sent me. And on the second day after I had set out, the bearer of the governor's letter meets me. And when I read the letters, "But I have been called beforehand," I said, "by the god, and you rouse one already running. Why must I delay? For I have been released from all affairs in a circuit of the temples in Asclepius' precinct." Thus the governor was disposed toward us; but I think not he so much as he who is truly and once for all the governor. And like this was the very first of all these things. There is a place, Laneion, not far from the temple of Zeus, whose temple I mentioned in the earlier accounts also. This place, 346. which my people had bought for me during my stay in Egypt, certain Mysians were appropriating, saying at first many and various things, then already doing them too. For when they had given themselves up — that I may not say the ill-omened word against myself — gathering as many servants and hired men as they could, they came on with all manner of arms; then some of them threw javelins from afar and slung stones and clods, others came to close quarters, others trespassed into the house and treated those within as their own; and all was full of confusion and wounds. When these things were announced at Pergamum, my body was in such a state that I could barely breathe; and there was a court of justice; and I was at a loss what to do. But the god both found out the approach to the governor and prepared the occasion. And the closing part of the dreams was that Hadrian the emperor was in the courtyard of the temple, treating me kindly as one lately become known to him and holding out great hopes. And what at once befell upon this vision was the following. I came to the temple as best I could; and as I was still spending time there, the governor Julianus comes on, and with him Rufinus. And I, recognizing the occasion, both tell the matter to Rufinus and approach Julianus as he was turning back, at nearly the very place I had seen in the dream; and I said to him all that there was occasion for, and Rufinus left nothing wanting in eagerness. And he becomes so inspired that he straightway embraced me, as one most dear from of old; and, taking my hand, bade me take courage and hold to the god, and that these things would be his care; and at last he said, "They shall not despise us." And it comes to the court, and having called the suit and not many words being spoken, he was indignant at what had been done, and threw one of those who shared in the assault into prison, and votes the place to us, and we entered upon it by letters; and the hoplites and slingers and all those things gave way to the god.