Laudator Temporis Acti

Libanius, Declamations 12.6-8 (Timon speaking; tr. D.A. Russell):

[6] What is viler than man? Is he not nominally civilized, but in his actions savage and brutal? What campaigns do lions wage against one another? What wars are there between beasts of the same species? What perjuries do they commit? Pray tell me! What treaties do they transgress, what faithlessness and greed do they display? What desire do they have for gold or riches or money? What drunken revels do they know? What adulteries?

[7] The animal world is free of all such evils. Your world, one might say, is a perfect storehouse of all the worst of them. You pretend to acknowledge and worship the gods, but you perjure yourselves more readily than you speak. You bring sacrifices to altars which you throw down soon after. You have made your whole life a scene of war and trouble. Your lives have a shocking beginning,6 you end them in the most dreadful practices.

[8] Your first youth is a time of fornication, adultery, and all kinds of shame. Maturity brings murder, robbery, sacrilege, and every conceivable crime. Old age is peaceable enough, but it brings with it every possible culmination of misfortunes: the law-courts take you over, and you burst yourselves by making false accusations, selling gods, laws, piety, and everything else for a handful of drachmae.

[6] τί γὰρ ἀνθρώπου μιαρώτερον; τί δέ; οὐχ ἥμερον μὲν τὸ ζῶον ἄχρι ῥήματος, ἄγριον δὲ καὶ ἀπηνὲς τοῖς ἔργοις; ποία γὰρ λεόντων ἐπ' ἀλλήλους στρατεία; τίς πόλεμος τοῖς ὁμογενέσι τῶν θηρίων πρὸς ἄλληλα; τίς ἐπιορκία παρ' ἐκείνοις; εἰπέ μοι. τίς συνθηκῶν παράβασις; τίς ἀπιστία τοσαύτη καὶ πλεονεξία; τίς χρυσοῦ παρ' ἐκείνοις καὶ πλούτου καὶ χρημάτων ἐπιθυμία; τίνας κώμους ἢ μέθας, τίνας ἴσασι καὶ μοιχείας;

[7] πάντων ἐλεύθερον τῶν τοιούτων κακῶν τὸ τῶν θηρίων γένος. τὸ δ' ὑμέτερον θησαυρός, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, τῶν χειρίστων ἐστί. θεοὺς μὲν γινώσκειν καὶ προσκυνεῖν ὑποκρίνεσθε, ἐπιορκεῖτε δὲ ῥᾷον ἢ φθέγγεσθε. καὶ θυσίας μὲν προσάγετε τοῖς βωμοῖς, ἀνατρέπετε δὲ αὐτοὺς ὀλίγον ὕστερον. τὸν δὲ βίον ἅπαντα τὸν ὑμέτερον πολέμων μεστὸν καὶ κακῶν ἐποιήσασθε. ἀρξάμενοι δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν αἰσχίστων καταλύετε τὸν βίον ἐν τοῖς δεινοτάτοις ἐπιτηδεύμασι.

[8] τὰ πρῶτα τῆς ἡλικίας ὑμῖν πορνεῖαι καὶ μοιχεῖαι καὶ τὰ αἴσχιστα πληροῦσι, τὰ δ' ἐν ἀκμῇ φόνοι, λῃστεῖαι, ἱεροσυλίαι, πᾶν ὅ τι τις ἂν εἴποι κακόν, τὰ δὲ τοῦ γήρως εἰρηνικὰ μέν, ὑπερβολὴν δ' οὖν ἔχοντα συμφορῶν. διαδέχεται γὰρ ὑμᾶς τὰ δικαστήρια κἀνταῦθα [ἔχοντες] συκοφαντοῦντες διαρρήγνυσθε δραχμῶν ἐλαχίστων τοὺς θεούς, τοὺς νόμους, τὴν ὁσίαν, πάντα ἀποδιδόμενοι.

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