BYEUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS.————————————
Book I.
Chapter I.—
Preface.—Of the Death of Constantine.
Already
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have all mankind united in celebrating with joyous festivities the completion of thesecond and third decennial period of this great emperor’s reign; already have we ourselves receivedhim as a triumphant conqueror in the assembly of God’s ministers, and greeted him with the duemeed of praise on the twentieth anniversary of his reign:
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and still more recently we have woven,as it were, garlands of words, wherewith we encircled his sacred head in his own palace on histhirtieth anniversary.
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But now, while I desire
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to give utterance to some of the customary sentiments, I standperplexed and doubtful which way to turn, being wholly lost in wonder at the extraordinary spectaclebefore me. For to whatever quarter I direct my view, whether to the east, or to the west, or over the
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Literally “recently” or “not long since,” and so it is rendered by Tr. 1709, Stroth, Molzberger, Valesius (“nuper”), andPortesius. Christophorson and Cousin avoid the awkwardness by circumlocution or simple omission, while our translator showshis one characteristic excellence of hitting nearly the unliteral meaning in a way which is hard to improve.
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The assembly referred to was the Council of Nicæa. Constantine’s vicennial celebration was held at Nicomedia duringthe session of the Council at Nicæa (July 25), according to Hieronymus and others, but celebrated again at Rome the followingyear. The speech of Eusebius on this occasion is not preserved. Valesius thinks the one spoken of in the
V. C.
3. 11, as deliveredin the presence of the council, is the one referred to.
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This oration is the one appended by Eusebius to this
Life of Constantine,
and given in this translation (cf.
V. C.
4. 46).
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[In the text it is
ὁ
λόγος
, “my power of speech, or of description, much desires,” and so throughout this preface: but thiskind of personification seems scarcely suited to the English idiom.—
Bag.
] This usage of Logos is most interesting. Both he andhis friend, the emperor, are fond of dwelling on the circles of philosophical thought which center about the word Logos (cf. theOration of Constantine, and especially the Vicennial Oration of Eusebius). “My Logos desires” seems to take the place in ancientphilosophical slang which “personality” or “self” does in modern. In ancient usage the word includes “both the ratio and theoratio” (Liddell and Scott), both the thought and its expression, both reasoning and saying,—the “internal” and “expressed” of the Stoics, followed by Philo and early Christian theology. He seems to use it in the combined sense, and it makes a pretty goodequivalent for “personality,” “my personality desires,” &c. The idiom is kept up through the chapter.
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Eusebius PamphiliusNPNF (V2-01)
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