[227] τοῦ δὲ καλῶς ἄγεσθαι πολλὰς (227) τὰς ἀφορμὰς εἰληφέναι μοι δοκοῦσι, καὶ οἱ θεοὶ καθορῶντες συγκατορθοῦν ὑμῖν εὐμενῶς τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ διδόναι βέβαιον τὴν κτῆσιν αὐτῆς, Ζεὺς μὲν, ὅτι αὐτῷ τῆς οἰκουμένης καλοῦ, φασὶν, ἔργου καλῶς ἐπιμέλεσθε, Ἥρα δὲ γάμων νόμῳ γιγνομένων τιμωμένη, Ἀθηνᾶ δὲ καὶ Ἥφαιστος τεχνῶν τιμωμένων, Διόνυσος δὲ καὶ Δημήτηρ, ὅτι αὐτοῖς οἱ καρποὶ οὐχ ὑβρίζονται, Ποσειδῶν δὲ ναυμαχιῶν μὲν καθαρευούσης τῆς θαλάττης αὐτῷ, τὰς δ´ ὁλκάδας ἀντὶ τῶν τριήρων μετειληφυίας· ὅ γε μὴν Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Ἀρτέμιδος καὶ Μουσῶν χορὸς οὔποτε διαλείπει τοὺς ὑπηρέτας ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις καθορῶν· Ἑρμῆς δὲ ἀγώνων οὐκ ἄμοιρος οὐδὲ πρεσβείων· Ἀφροδίτῃ δὲ σπόρων καὶ χαρίτων πότε μᾶλλον καιρὸς ὑπῆρξεν; ἢ πότε πλείονα μοῖραν ἔσχον αἱ πόλεις; αἱ δ´ Ἀσκληπιοῦ χάριτες καὶ τῶν κατ´ Αἴγυπτον θεῶν νῦν πλεῖστον εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἐπιδεδώκασιν. οὐ μὴν οὐδ´ Ἄρης γε ὑμῖν ἠτίμασται, οὐδὲ δέος μὴ συνταράξῃ τὰ πάντα, ὥσπερ ἐν Λαπιθῶν δείπνῳ παροφθεὶς, ἀλλ´ ἐπὶ ταῖς ὄχθαις ἔξω τῶν ποταμῶν χορεύει τὴν ἄπαυστον χορείαν, αἵματος καθαρὰ σώζων τὰ ὅπλα. ὅ γε μὴν πάντ´ ἐφορῶν Ἥλιος οὐδὲν εἶδεν ἐφ´ ὑμῶν βίαιον οὐδ´ ἄδικον οὐδ´ οἷα πολλὰ ἐν τοῖς πρόσθεν χρόνοις· ὥστ´ εἰκότως ἥδιστα ἐφορᾷ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀρχήν. δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ Ἡσίοδος, εἰ ὁμοίως Ὁμήρῳ τέλειος ἦν τὰ ποιητικὰ καὶ μαντικὸς, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος οὐκ ἠγνόησε τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀρχὴν ἐσομένην, ἀλλὰ προεῖδε καὶ ἀνεφθέγξατο ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν, οὕτως καὶ αὐτὸς οὐκ ἂν ὥσπερ νῦν ἀπὸ χρυσοῦ γένους ἀρξάμενος γενεαλογεῖν, ἢ, ἡνίκα ταύτην ἀρχὴν ἐνεστήσατο, περί γε τοῦ τελευταίου καὶ σιδηροῦ γένους διαλεγόμενος τοῦτον ἂν αὐτοῦ φάναι γενέσθαι τὸν ὄλεθρον, Εὖτ´ ἂν γεινόμενοι πολιοκρόταφοι τελέθωσιν, ἀλλ´ ἡνίκ´ ἂν ἡ ὑμετέρα προστασία τε καὶ ἀρχὴ καταστῇ, τότ´ ἂν φάναι φθαρῆναι τὸ σιδηροῦν φῦλον ἐν τῇ γῇ,

[227] while getting many opportunities for good guidance, and that the gods with favoring eyes ratify your government of the empire and give you permanent possession of it. Zeus does because, as they say, you take excellent care of an excellent thing of his — the world; Hera too is honored, because marriages take place lawfully; Athena and Hephaestus, because the arts are honored; Dionysus and Demeter, because their crops are not violated; Posidon, because his sea is clear of battles and has come to have freighters instead of war-ships. The troop of Apollo, Artemis, and the Muses never stop gazing upon their retainers busy in the theaters. Hermes is not deprived of convocations and embassies, nor Aphrodite of fecundity and grace. Was there ever such a time for them? Have cities ever had a larger share? Also, the grace of Asclepius and the Egyptian gods has now reached its highest development among men. Not even Ares is dishonored by you. No danger that he will upset everything for being slighted, as at the banquet of the Lapiths. On the banks of the outermost rivers, he does his endless dance, but keeps his weapons unstained with blood. The all-seeing Helios has seen no violence or wrongdoing in your time, nothing of the sort that he saw so much of in the past; he naturally looks upon your empire with the greatest delight. Had Hesiod been as perfect a poet as Homer, had he been — like Homer — a seer not unaware of your future empire, and foreseen and prophesied it in his epic, I believe he would not have begun his genealogy as he did with the race of gold. Nor he had made that the beginning, would he have said — in the passage about the race of iron which comes last — that this would be its doom: "When men are born with gray hair on their temples". Instead, he would have said that the breed of iron men would perish upon the earth when your hegemony and empire was established.