Letter CCCVII.
Without address.
[A request to mediate between two litigants.]
Letter CCCVIII.
Without address.
[Commendatory, with the mention of a place called Capralis.]
Letter CCCIX.
Without address.
[Commendatory on behalf of a man reduced from wealth to poverty, with three children, and anxious about his rating.]
Letter CCCX.
Without address.
[Commendatory on behalf of some kinsfolk, and of the people of Ariarathia, a place in the Sargaransene, about 60 m. E. of Cæsarea. [3263] ]
[3263] Ramsay, Hist. Geog. A. M. p. 55.
Letter CCCXI.
[Commendatory: short and of no importance.]
Letter CCCXII.
[Commendatory: short and unimportant.]
Letter CCCXIII.
[Commendatory of the interests of Sulpicius.]
Letter CCCXIV.
Without address.
[Commendatory.]
Letter CCCXV.
Without address.
[Commendatory of a widow.]
Letters CCCXVI., CCCXVII., CCCXVIII., CCCXIX.
Without address.
[Commendatory; short.]
Letter CCCXX.
Without address.
[A salutation.]
Letter CCCXXI.
To Thecla.
[Included among the Letters of Gregory of Nazianzus, who is assumed by the Ben. Ed. to be indubitably the writer. [3264] ]
[3264] Vide Greg. Naz., Ep. lvii.
Letter CCCXXII.
Without address.
[Asking a friend to come with his wife and spend Easter with him.]
Letter CCCXXIII.
To Philagrius Arcenus.
Letter CCCXXIV.
To Pasinicus, the Physician.
Letter CCCXXV.
To Magninianus.
Letter CCCXXVI.
Without address.
[Monitory.]
Letter CCCXXVII.
Without address.
[Hortatory.]
Letter CCCXXVIII.
To Hyperectius.
[On Basil's health.]
Letter CCCXXIX.
To Phalirius.
With thanks for a present of fish.]
Letters CCCXXX., CCCXXXI., CCCXXXII., CCCXXXIII.
[All short and without address. Letters from CCCXXIII. to CCCXXXIII. have no importance.]
Letter CCCXXXIV.
To a writer.
Write straight, and make the lines straight. Do not let your hand go too high or too low. Avoid forcing the pen to travel slantwise, like Æsop's crab. Advance straight on, as if following the line of the carpenter's rule, which always preserves exactitude and prevents any irregularity. The oblique is ungraceful. It is the straight which pleases the eye, and does not allow the reader's eyes to go nodding up and down like a swing-beam. This has been my fate in reading your writing. As the lines lie ladderwise, I was obliged, when I had to go from one to another, to mount up to the end of the last: then, when no connexion was to be found, I had to go back, and seek for the right order again, retreating and following the furrow, [3265] like Theseus in the story following Ariadne's thread. [3266] Write straight, and do not confuse our mind by your slanting and irregular writing.
[3265] Of the use of this word to indicate the lines in mss., cf. Aristoph., Thesm. 782, and Anth., Pal. vi. 82.
[3266] i.e. in the Labyrinth of Crete. Ope virginea, nullis iterata priorum, Janua difficilis filo est inventa relecto. Ov., Metam. viii. 172.
Letter CCCXXXV.
Basil to Libanius. [3267]
I am really ashamed of sending you the Cappadocians one by one. I should prefer to induce all our youths to devote themselves to letters and learning, and to avail themselves of your instruction in their training. But it is impracticable to get hold of them all at once, while they choose what suits themselves. I therefore send you those who from time to time are won over; and this I do with the assurance that I am conferring on them a boon as great as that which is given by those who bring thirsty men to the fountain. The lad, whom I am now sending, will be highly valued for his own sake when he has been in your society. He is already well known on account of his father, who has won a name among us both for rectitude of life and for authority in our community. He is, moreover, a close friend of my own. To requite him for his friendship to me, I am conferring on his son the benefit of an introduction to you--a boon well worthy of being earnestly prayed for by all who are competent to judge of a man's high character.
[3267] "Basilii et Libanii epistolæ mutuæ, quas magni facit Tillemontius, probatque ut genuinas, maxime dubiæ videntur Garnier, in Vit. Bas. cap. 39, p. 172, seqq., is tamen illas spartim edidit....Schroeckh Garn. dubitationi deomnium illarum epist. mutuarum nothei& 139; quædam opponit." Fabricius. Harles., Tom. ix. Maran (Vit. Bas. xxxix. 2) thinks that the Libanian correspondence, assuming it to be genuine, is to be assigned partly to the period of the retreat, partly to that of the presbyterate, while two only, the one a complaint on the part of Libanius that bishops are avaricious, and Basil's retort, may perhaps have been written during the episcopate. He would see no reason for rejecting them on the ground merely of the unlikelihood of Basil's corresponding with a heathen philosopher, but he is of opinion that the style of most of them is unworthy both of the sophist and of the archbishop. Yet there seems no reason why they should have been invented. It is intelligible enough that they should have been preserved, considering the reputation of the writers; but they suggest no motive for forgery. The life of Libanius extended from 314 to nearly the end of the fourth century. J. R. Mozley, in D.C.B. (iv. 712) refers to G. R. Siever (Das Leben des Libanius, Berlin, 1868) as the fullest biographer.