Oration to the Greeks 25

What great and wonderful thing do your philosophers achieve? They leave one of their shoulders bare, wear their hair long, grow beards, carry the claws of wild beasts about with them, and, while saying they need nothing, they need, like Proteus, a tanner for their wallet, a weaver for their cloak, a woodcutter for their staff, and, because of their gluttony, the rich and a cook. You who emulate the dog, you do not know God, and you have taken to imitating an irrational animal. Shouting in public with an air of authority, you make yourself your own avenger; if you do not get something, you hurl abuse, and philosophy becomes your way of making money. You follow Plato's teachings, and a sophist of Epicurus's school opposes you at the top of his voice. Next you want to be an Aristotelian, and a follower of Democritus abuses you. Pythagoras says he was once Euphorbus, and he is heir to the teaching of Pherecydes; but Aristotle impugns the immortality of the soul. You who have inherited your teachings in factious successions disagree with one another, and you fight against those who are in agreement among themselves. One man says that God is a body; I say he is incorporeal. That the world is indestructible; I say that it will be dissolved. That the conflagration comes at intervals; I say that it comes once for all. That the judges are Minos and Rhadamanthys; I say it is God himself. That the soul alone is made immortal; I say that the flesh with it is too. What harm do we do you, men of Greece? Why do you hate those who follow the word of God as if they were utterly abominable? There is no cannibalism among us; you, the educated, have become false witnesses. It is among you that Pelops becomes a dinner for the gods, though he was Poseidon's beloved, and Cronus devours his sons, and Zeus swallows Metis.