§88εἰς παιδείας λόγον.
In regard to the matter of education.
ὦ σχῆμα κάλλιστον.
O most beautiful form!
ὦ τῶν Ἑλλήνων πρεσβύτατε.
O eldest of the Greeks!
ὦ διὰ βίου θαυμασθείς.
O admired throughout life!
ὦ ποθεινὸς μὲν τοῖς ἐντυχοῦσι, ποθεινὸς δὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐντυχεῖν, μακαριστὸς δὲ καὶ τῆς τελευτῆς ἧς πυνθανόμεθα, ὃς οὐκ ἐν νόσοις ἀναλωθεὶς οὐδὲ ὀδύναις πληγεὶς, ἀλλὰ διημερεύσας ἐν τοῖς εἰωθόσιν, ὥσπερ κληθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ δαίμονος μεθῆκας ἐπὶ τῷ βιβλίῳ τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ κατʼ ἐπωνυμίαν ἐτελεύτησας τὸν βίον, ὥσπερ οἵ τι ἄλλο ἐξειργασμένοι διʼ ἀκριβείας εἰς τέλος, ἅπασαν δὴ τὴν πορείαν τοῦ βίου διεξελθὼν καὶ τὰ σαυτοῦ πράξας εἰς τὸ ἔσχατον τῆς δυνάμεως.
O longed for by those who met you, and longed for by others to meet, and blessed also in the end of which we hear; who, not consumed by diseases nor struck by pains, but spending the day in your accustomed ways, as if called by the deity, yielded up your soul over the book, and ended your life in accordance with your name, just like those who have worked out something else with precision to the end, having gone through the entire journey of life and having done your own part to the utmost of your power.
εἰ δὲ ἀληθεῖς οἱ Πινδάρου λόγοι καὶ Πλάτωνος καὶ παντὸς τοῦ περὶ Ἀλέξανδρον ἐργαστηρίου καὶ διατριβαί τινές εἰσι τῶν ἐν Ἅιδου, ἦ που νῦν ποιητῶν τε χοροὺς εἰκὸς ἵστασθαι περὶ ἐκεῖνον ἀρχομένων ἀπὸ Ὁμήρου τὴν δεξιὰν προτεινόντων καὶ λογοποιῶν καὶ συγγραφέων καὶ ἁπάντων ὡς αὑτὸν ἑκάστου καλοῦντος καὶ μεθʼ αὑτοῦ σκηνοῦσθαι κελεύοντος, ταινιούντων, ἀναδούντων, καὶ οὐ δή τοι μετὰ κρίσεώς τε καὶ ἀμφισβητήσεως πρὸς ἕτερον, ἀλλʼ ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης βοῆς· οἶμαι δὲ οὐδὲ καταβήσεσθαι πολλῶν ἐτῶν κεφαλὴν ἀξιόχρεω πρὸς τοῦτον ἀγωνίσασθαι, ἀλλʼ εἶναι διηνεκῆ τὸν θρόνον αὐτοῦ ὡς ἀρίστου κήρυκος τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ προηγητοῦ.
And if the words of Pindar and Plato are true, and those of the whole school around Alexander, and if there are indeed certain pastimes for those in Hades, surely it is likely that choirs of poets now stand around him, beginning with Homer, stretching out their right hands, and prose writers and historians and all, each calling him to himself and bidding him dwell with him, crowning him, binding his brow, and indeed not with judgment and dispute against another, but from the very first shout; and I think that not even in many years will any head of worthy weight descend to contend against him, but his throne will be perpetual as the best herald and leader of the Greeks.
μηδεὶς δʼ ὑμῶν νεμεσήσῃ, εἰ μεταξὺ γράφων πρὸς ὑμᾶς ταῦτα ἀπεφθεγξάμην, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς ἐπιστολῆς αἴτιον τὸ βούλεσθαι περὶ ἐκείνου καὶ ἀκούειν καὶ λέγειν.
And let none of you be resentful if, in the midst of writing this to you, I have uttered these words, since the very cause of the letter itself is the desire both to hear and to speak about him.
οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ δάκνεσθαί γε ἐπὶ τῷ ἀνδρὶ ἔγκλημα, οὐδʼ εἰ τηλικοῦτος ὢν οἴχεται· μάλιστα μὲν γὰρ οὐ τὰ νεώτατα εἰκὸς ἀσπάζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὰ σπουδαιότατα.
Nor indeed is it a charge to be bitten with grief over the man, not even if he is gone being of such an age; for in the first place, it is likely to welcome not the newest things, but the most serious.
ἔπειτα καὶ ἡ ζημία τοσούτῳ μείζων ὅσῳ μεῖζον καὶ σπανιώτερον τὸ ἕρμαιον ἄνδρα ἐν τούτῳ γήρως ἰδεῖν οὕτω τοῖς πᾶσι πράττοντα, καὶ διὰ πάντων σώζοντα τὴν ἕξιν ὑγιείας, μνήμης, συνέσεως, φαιδρότητος, §89τῶν ἄλλων.
Secondly, the loss is so much greater by how much greater and rarer a windfall it was to see a man in this old age faring so in all things, and preserving through all the condition of health, memory, intelligence, cheerfulness, above others.
πολὺ γὰρ μᾶλλον ἔτι ζῶντος εἰκὸς ἀγωνιᾶσαι μή ποτε ἀπαλλαγείη καὶ προσορᾶν, ἕως ἐνῆν, ὥσπερ ἄλλο τι ἀγαπητὸν ἢ τελευτήσαντος τὴν ἡλικίαν ὑπολογίζεσθαι.
For it is much more natural, while he was still alive, to be anxious lest he should ever depart and to look upon him, as long as it was possible, like some other beloved thing, than to calculate his age after his death.
ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν οὐ δέος μή τις ὑμῶν ἐπιτιμήσῃ, οὓς ἅπαν ἀκούω καὶ ποιεῖν καὶ λέγειν.
But of these things there is no fear lest any of you should find fault, whom I hear both doing and saying all.
ἐπιστρέψω δὲ πρὸς ὑμᾶς αὖθις τῷ λόγῳ, βραχέα δʼ ἔσται τὰ λοιπά.
And I will turn my discourse to you again, and the remaining things will be brief.
φημὶ γὰρ ὑμᾶς τοῖς τε ἄλλοις ἅπασι δικαίως ἐκεῖνον τιμᾶν καὶ τῶν οἰκείων αὐτοῦ μεμνημένους ὀρθότατα ποιεῖν καὶ προσήκοντα τῇ πάσῃ γνώμῃ, γυναῖκα μὲν τὴν ἐκείνου καθάπερ τινὰ ἱερὰν νομίζοντας καὶ ἀγαθοῦ τινος δαίμονος λῆξιν, εἰ θέμις εἰπεῖν, συγγενεῖς δὲ τοὺς ἐκείνου κάλλιστα ὑπομνήματα ἐκείνου νομίζοντας, παῖδας δὲ τοὺς μὲν πρεσβυτέρους διʼ αἰδοῦς ἁπάσης ἄγοντας, τὸν δὲ νεώτατον ἐκτρέφοντας τέως προθυμότατα καὶ ἐπιτροπεύοντας δημοσίᾳ.
For I say that you both justly honor him in all other things and act most rightly and in a manner fitting to your whole mind in remembering his household, regarding his wife as something sacred and, if it is permitted to say, the portion of some good deity, and regarding his kinsmen as the most beautiful memorials of him, and treating the elder of his children with all respect, while nurturing the youngest for the time being most zealously and warding him as guardians in public.
συμβέβηκε δὲ αὐτῷ πάθος οὐ φαυλότατον· πλείστους γὰρ Ἑλλήνων παιδεύσας ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ καὶ παῖδάς τε ὧν ἐπαίδευσε παιδεῦσαι ἐφικόμενος τὸν υἱὸν οὐκ ἐξίκετο τὸν αὑτοῦ, ἀλλʼ ἑτέρου δεῖται διδασκάλου ὁ τοῦ κοινοῦ τῶν Ἑλλήνων.
And a not insignificant misfortune has happened to him; for his father, having educated the greatest number of the Greeks, and having been able to educate the children of those whom he had educated, did not reach his own son, but the son of the common teacher of the Greeks stands in need of another teacher.
ὑμεῖς δὲ καὶ ταύτην τὴν συμφορὰν καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν περὶ τὸ συμβεβηκὸς δυσχέρειαν ἀνασώσασθε, ὡς ἐν πατέρων μοίρᾳ προεστῶτες, συνελόντι δʼ εἰπεῖν τὴν ἑστίαν τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου δημοσίαν ὑμῶν νομίζοντες· παρακελεύσασθαι δέ μοι ταῦτα ἀναγκαῖον, ὅπερ γε καὶ ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς εἶπον, ἢ ὅ τι βούλεσθε καλεῖν τὸ βιβλίον, πολλαχῆ μοι τἀκείνου προσῆκεν· ἐπεὶ καὶ τῆς φιλίας ἣν ἐφίλουν ἐκεῖνον πρέποντας τοὺς καρποὺς ἐκομιζόμην· οὗτοι δʼ ἦσαν οὐχ ἧττον φιλοῦντα ἐφίλουν, ἔδειξε δὲ χωρὶς τῶν ἄλλων καὶ οἷς ὅτε ἐνόσουν ἐν Ῥώμῃ ἔπραξεν, οὐδὲν ὅ τι οὐ γιγνόμενος τῶν εἰς σωτηρίαν ἔμοιγε, καὶ τοῦ γε εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν σωθῆναι μετὰ §90τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτὸς αἰτιώτατος κατέστη.
But do you retrieve both this misfortune and all the difficulty around what has happened, presiding over them in the place of fathers, and to speak briefly, regarding the hearth of Alexander as your public concern; and it is necessary for me to urge these things, which indeed I also said in the beginning of the letter—or whatever you wish to call the book—for his affairs concern me in many ways; since I also received the fitting fruits of the friendship with which I loved him; and these were that he loved me no less in return, and he showed this, apart from other things, also by what he did when I was sick in Rome, becoming for me everything that was for salvation, and next to the gods he himself became the chief cause of my being saved to my home.
καὶ μὴν τά γε ὕστερον τί τις ἂν λέγοι;
Indeed, what need is there for anyone to speak of the later things?
ἠνίασε δέ με καὶ ἡ παράκλησις αὐτοῦ, μυρία γὰρ δὴ ἐπὶ μυρίοις καὶ αὐτὸς παρὼν καὶ διὰ γραμμάτων ὕστερον ᾔτει με τῶν συγγραμμάτων τῶν ἐμῶν ἀναθεῖναι μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων βιβλίων ὑμῖν, ἐπαγγελλόμενος τάξιν αὐτοῖς τὴν πρώτην.
But his invitation also grieved me, for he himself when present, and later through letters, asked me ten thousand times upon ten thousand to dedicate my writings along with the other books to you, promising them the first rank.
ἐγὼ δʼ ἔτι ἐπισκέψασθαι αὐτὰ χρῄζων οὐκ εἶχον ὑπακοῦσαι.
But I, still needing to examine them, was not able to comply.
οὕτως οὔτε ἀνέγραψεν Ἀλέξανδρος βιβλία ἡμέτερα οὔτε ἔγνω τὰ πλείω.
Thus Alexander neither transcribed our books nor knew the greater part of them.
ἀλλὰ μὴν τήν γε ψῆφον ἣν ἤνεγκεν ἀεὶ περὶ τῶν λόγων τῶν ἡμετέρων, φθόνου μὲν οὐκ οἶδα εἰ κρείττω, μείζω δὲ ὑπερβολῆς ἤνεγκεν· ἃ πάντα καὶ μεμνῆσθαί με ἐκείνου καὶ συμφορὰν οὐ φαύλην ἄγειν τὸ συμβεβηκὸς ποιεῖ, καὶ προσέτι μὴ δοκεῖν πολυπραγμονεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς νυνὶ διαλεγόμενον.
Nevertheless, the vote which he always cast concerning our discourses, though I know not whether it was superior to envy, he cast as greater than hyperbole; all of which makes me both remember him and regard what has happened as no small misfortune, and moreover not seem to be meddling in now addressing you.
ἐβουλόμην δʼ ἂν καὶ τὸ σῶμα βέλτιον ἔχειν μοι τῶν τε ἄλλων ἕνεκα καὶ ὅπως κἀμοί τι ἔχοιτε χρῆσθαι· ὡς ἐγὼ τοὺς ἐκείνῳ προσήκοντας ἴσον ἐμαυτῷ προσήκειν ὑπολαμβάνω.
And I could wish my body were in better condition both for other reasons and so that you might have some use of me; for I consider those belonging to him to belong to myself in equal measure.