§269ἐβουλόμην ἂν, ὦ θαυμάσιε, μάλιστα μὲν τὴν πόλιν οἵαν κατέλιπες τοιαύτην φανῆναι· εἰ δὲ μὴ, παρὼν αὐτὸς ποιεῖσθαι τοὺς λόγους, ἵνʼ ἀμφοτέρως ἐκέρδαινον, σοί τε §270συνὼν καὶ τῆς νῦν ἀνιούσης ἡμῖν πόλεως ἀπολαύων τὰ γιγνόμενα.
I would have wished, my admirable friend, most of all that the city should have appeared in the very state you left it; but failing that, that I myself were present to deliver these words, so that in both ways I might have gained, by being with you and by enjoying the events, whilst partaking of our city now rising again.
ἐπεὶ δʼ οὕτω συμβέβηκεν, οὐ τοῦ γε παντὸς εἴργεσθαι καλῶς ἔχειν ὑπέλαβον, ἀλλʼ ἴχνος γέ τι φωνῆς ἡμετέρας σοί τε γενέσθαι γνωρίσαι καὶ τοῖς παροῦσι τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὅσοι τε πολῖται καὶ ὅσοι ξένοι.
But since it has turned out otherwise, I did not think it well to be entirely excluded, but rather that some trace of our voice should come to be known both to you and to those Greeks present, both citizens and strangers.
ὅλως μὲν γὰρ ἔμοιγε σχεδὸν εἰς ἔθος καθέστηκεν ἀπόντι πανηγυρίζειν, ἐπειδή γε ὁ θεὸς ταύτην ἄγει.
For on the whole, it has become almost a habit for me to celebrate in my absence, especially since the god leads this festival.
ὁ δὲ νυνὶ λόγος καὶ πάνυ μοι κατὰ καιρόν ἐστιν.
And the present speech is indeed very timely for me.
ἐπεὶ γὰρ καὶ τῆς ἀνελπίστου φήμης ἀφικομένης πρῶτος ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως ἐμνήσθην πρὸς τοὺς πάντα ἀρίστους βασιλέας διατρίψας οὐ πλέον μιᾶς νυκτὸς, εἰκός τοι καὶ περὶ τῶν εἰς εὐφημίαν ἡκόντων οὕτως ἔχειν ὡς ἐμαυτῷ προσηκόντων.
For since, even when the unexpected news arrived, I was the first to speak on behalf of the city to the altogether most excellent Emperors, having spent no more than a single night, it is only natural that concerning what pertains to good fortune, I should likewise feel as though they closely concern me.
τὰ μὲν οὖν παλαιὰ μέμνησαι κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἀκούσας ἀρχὴν, ἣν τῷ πατρὶ συνῆρχες, Διός τινα γένεσιν καὶ χορείας Κουρήτων καὶ Ταντάλου καὶ Πέλοπος οἰκισμὸν τῆς πρώτης πόλεως ἐν τῷ Σιπύλῳ γενομένης καὶ διαβάσεις Πέλοπος ἐνθένδε εἰς τὴν πρότερον μὲν Ἀπίαν, Πελοπόννησον δὲ ἀπʼ ἐκείνου κληθεῖσαν· ἀφʼ οὗ τρίτος ἔγγονος βασιλεὺς κοινὸς τῆς Ἑλλάδος γενόμενος κατέλυσε τὴν τῶν βαρβάρων ἀρχήν.
Now, the ancient things you remember from having heard them during your first rule, which you shared with your father: a certain birth of Zeus, the dances of the Kouretes, the settlement of Tantalus and Pelops in the first city built on Sipylus, and the crossings of Pelops from here to what was previously called Apia, but was named Peloponnese after him; from whom a third descendant became the common king of Greece and over threw the rule of the barbarians.
δευτέρων δὲ εὐφημιῶν Θησεύς τε ἀρχηγέτης καὶ Σμύρνα ὄνομα τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, καὶ γένος Ἀττικὸν, καὶ Ἰώνων ὕστερον ὡς εἰς οἰκείαν εἴσοδος, καὶ τρίτη δὴ θέσις καὶ κατοίκισις ** τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον, οὗ δύο ταῦτα κάλλιστα καὶ μέγιστα μνημεῖα, ἥδε τε ἡ πόλις καὶ ἡ τοῦ Νείλου πρόσοικος.
As for the second honors, there are Theseus the founder, and Smyrna as the name of this city, and the Attic race, and the subsequent entry of the Ionians as if into their own home, and the third founding and settlement ** under Alexander, of whom these two are the most beautiful and greatest monuments, this city and the neighbor of the Nile.
τοιαῦτα ἤκουσας καὶ τριήρης τις ἦν δεικνυμένη μὲν Διονυσίοις, ὑμνουμένη δʼ ἐν τοῖς Κατάπλοις, σύμβολον νίκης παλαιᾶς, ἣν ἐνίκων Σμυρναῖοι βακχεύοντες Χίους ὅπλοις καὶ ναυσὶ πεφραγμένους.
Such things you heard, and there was also a certain trireme shown at the Dionysia and celebrated in the 'Kataploi', a symbol of an ancient victory which the Smyrnaeans, in Bacchic frenzy, won over the Chians who were fenced with arms and ships.
ἅ γε μὴν ὀφθαλμὸς ἐξηγεῖτο καὶ οὐ μῦθος ἔτι οὐδὲ λόγοι λογοποιῶν τε καὶ ποιητῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς Ὅμηρος παρὼν ἀσφαλέστερον ἂν ἡγήσαιτο σιωπᾶν ἢ λέγειν περὶ αὐτῶν.
But as for the things which the eye itself explained, and which are no longer a myth nor the words of chroniclers and poets, even Homer himself, if present, would have deemed it safer to keep silent than to speak of them.
ἑώρας ἀγοράν τε θεῶν ἑστίαν καὶ λιμένας, τῇ μὲν κυκλουμένους τὴν πόλιν, §271τῇ δὲ ὑπὸ τῆς πόλεως μέσους ἐχομένους· καὶ ναῶν κάλλη καὶ περιβόλους, ἐξ ἴσου τῇ τε φύσει καὶ τέχνῃ κεκοσμημένα, καὶ πάντα δὴ τὸν κόσμον τῶν ὅρμων ὡς ἐξήρτηντο ἀλλήλων· καὶ τὸ δὴ μέγιστον σύμβολον τῆς πόλεως, τὴν διὰ πάντων ὁμολογίαν καὶ μουσικὴν ἕν τι τὸ πᾶν σῶμα ἀποφαίνουσαν, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ κατὰ τὸν μῦθον τὸν περὶ τοῦ Θηβαίων τείχους λεγόμενον πρὸς λύραν καὶ κιθάραν ἥρμοστο ἐξ ἀρχῆς.
You saw the agora, the hearth of the gods, and the harbors, on one side surrounding the city, and on the other side held in the middle by the city; and the beauty of the temples and their enclosures, adorned equally by nature and by art, and indeed all the splendor of the anchorages, how they were linked to one another; and indeed the greatest symbol of the city, the harmony and music through all things, showing the whole as a single body, just as if, according to the myth told about the Theban wall, it had been fitted from the beginning to the lyre and the cithara.
εἶεν.
Well then.
τὰ μὲν δὴ παλαιά τε καὶ οὐ παλαιὰ, ἀλλὰ χθές τε καὶ πρώην ὡς εἰπεῖν ἔτι φαινόμενα τοιαῦτα μὲν ἤκουσας, τοιαῦτα δὲ ἐθεάσω.
Such ancient things, and things not ancient but, so to speak, still appearing as of yesterday and the day before, you heard, and such things you beheld.
ἀκίνητον δὲ οὐδὲν, φασὶ, τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις· ἀλλὰ καὶ γῆ θάλατταν δέχεται καὶ θάλαττα ἠπειροῦται· καὶ πόλεις αἱ μὲν κατὰ γῆς ἔδυσαν, αἱ δʼ ὑπὸ ῥευμάτων οὐρανίων τε καὶ παντοίων ἠφανίσθησαν.
But nothing among human affairs, they say, is immovable; rather, even the land receives the sea, and the sea becomes mainland; and some cities have sunk beneath the earth, while others have been swept away by celestial torrents and flows of every kind.
ἴδιον γὰρ τοῦ θνητοῦ γένους αἱ μεταβολαὶ, καὶ πολλὰ τὰ θαύματα τοῦ χρόνου.
For change is peculiar to the mortal race, and many are the wonders of time.
καὶ δὴ καὶ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ πόλει τοσοῦτον νικώσῃ συνέβη τρόπον τινὰ ὀλισθεῖν· οὗ δὴ καθαρῶς ἐξεφάνη ὅσος τις ὁ παρʼ αὐτῆς τῆς Ἀσίας κόσμος ἦν, λέγω δὲ οὐχὶ τὴν μέχρι Μαιάνδρου πηγῶν, οὐδʼ ὅσην ὁ τῶν ἡγεμόνων ὑμῶν κλῆρος ὁρίζεται, ἀλλʼ ἣν ἐξ ἀρχῆς Ἕλληνες προσεῖπον Ἀσίαν, προσηγόρευον δὲ καὶ ἤπειρον διαφερόντως αὐτὴν τῶν τριῶν.
And indeed, it befell our city, victorious though she was to such a degree, to slip, in a manner of speaking; wherein it was clearly shown how great was the splendor belonging to Asia itself—I mean not that Asia which extends to the sources of the Maeander, nor that which is bounded by the lot of your governors, but that which from the beginning the Greeks called Asia, and which they also called 'the continent' by way of distinction among the three.
ἀλλʼ ὅ γʼ ἐβουλόμην εἰπεῖν, ἅμα γὰρ τῷ πτώματι συμβάντι πάντα ἐδόκει γεγυμνῶσθαι, καὶ πᾶς τις ὥσπερ ὀφθαλμὸν ἐζήτει σώματος.
But to return to what I wished to say: for as soon as the fall occurred, everything seemed to have been stripped bare, and everyone sought her as if the eye of a body.
λέγω δὴ τὸ μὲν προσκροῦσαι κατὰ τὴν κοινὴν ἁπάντων ἀνθρώπων τύχην καὶ φύσιν τῇ πόλει συμβῆναι, τὰ δʼ ἐφεξῆς τῆς ἀγαθῆς ἤδη καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἐξ ἀρχῆς λαχούσης εἶναι.
I say indeed that to meet with disaster befell the city according to the common fortune and nature of all mankind, but what followed belongs already to the good fortune which fell to the city from the beginning.
ὅτε γὰρ ἦν καιρὸς, πρὸς ** χεῖρα ὤρεξε, τοιούτους ἔχων τοὺς τῶν ὅλων προστάτας, οἳ πάντων μὲν ἥκιστα ἔμελλον περιόψεσθαι κειμένην, πάντων δὲ μάλιστα προθυμήσεσθαι οὐκ ἀναστῆσαι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς ὑπερβολὴν ἆραι, τὰ δὴ νῦν πάντα τελεῖται, φησὶν ὁ παῖς τοῦ Μέλητος.
For when the time came, she stretched out her hand **, having such protectors of the universe who were least of all likely to overlook her as she lay prostrate, and most of all likely to show zeal not only to raise her up, but also to lift her to excess—all of which is now being accomplished, as the son of Meles says.
καὶ μὴν τήν γε εὐγένειαν τοῦ δήμου, μὴ γὰρ πάνθʼ ἡμῖν ἔστω περὶ τῶν οἰκοδομημάτων, τίς οὐκ ἂν ἠγάσθη καὶ
And indeed, as for the nobility of the people—let not our speech be entirely about buildings—who would not have admired, and...