But even if something of the sort has actually taken place in Sicily, we of Delphi need not trouble ourselves about it, unless we now want to be judges instead of priests, and when we should be sacrificing and performing the other divine services and helping to dedicate whatever anyone sends us, sit and speculate whether people on the other side of the Ionian sea are ruled justly or unjustly.

Let the situation of others be as it may: we, in my opinion, must needs realize our own situation— what it was of old, what it is now, and what we can do to better it. That we live on crags and cultivate rocks is something we need not wait for Homer to tell us—anyone can see it for himself.“Rocky Pytho” is twice mentioned in the Iliad (2, 519; 9, 405). But Lucian is thinking particularly of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, toward the close of which (526f.) the Cretans whom Apollo has settled at Delphi ask him haw they are to live; "for here is no lovely vine-land or fertile glebe.” He tells them that they have only to slaughter sheep, and all that_men bring him shall be theirs. As far as the land is concerned, we should always be cheek by jow] with starvation: the temple, the god, the oracle, the sacrificers and the worshippers—these are the grain-lands of Delphi, these are our revenue, these are the sources of our prosperity and of our subsistence. We-should speak the truth among ourselves, at any rate! “Unsown and untilled,” Homer, Od. 9, 109; 123. as the poets say, everything is grown for us with the god for our husbandman. Not only does he vouchsafe us the good things found among the Greeks, but every product of the Phrygians, the Lydians, the Persians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Italians and even the Hyperboreans comes to Delphi. And next to the god we are held in honour by all men, and we are prosperous and happy. Thus it was of old, thus it has been till now, and may we never cease leading this life!

Never in the memory of any man have we taken avote on a gift, or prevented anyone from sacrificing or giving. For this very reason, I think, the temple has prospered extraordinarily and is excessively rich in gifts. Therefore we ought not to make any innovation in the present case and break precedents by setting up the practice of censoring gifts and looking into the pedigree of things that are sent here, to see where they come from and from whom, and what they are: we should receive them and dedicate them without officiousness, serving bothparties, the god and the worshippers.

It seems to me, men of Delphi, that you will come to the best conclusion about the present case if you should consider the number and the magnitude of the issues involved in the question—first, the god, the temple, sacrifices, gifts, old. customs, timehonoured observances and the credit of the oracle; then the whole-city and-the interests not only of our body but of every man in Delphi; and more than all, our good or bad name in the world. I have no doubt that if you are in -your senses you will think nothing more important or more vital than these issues.

This is what we are in consultation about, then: it is not Phalaris (a single tyrant) or. this bull of bronze only, but all kings and all monarchs who now frequent the temple, and gold and silver and all other things of price that will be given the god on many occasions. The first point to be investigated should be the interest of the god. Why: should we not manage the matter of gifts as we have always done, as we did in the beginning?