NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To the notables of Neocæsarea.Letter CCX. 2768To the notables of Neocæsarea.I am really under no obligation to publish my own mind to you, or to state the reasonsfor my present sojourn where I am; it is not my custom to indulge in self advertisement,nor is the matter worth publicity. I am not, I think, following my own inclinations; I amanswering the challenge of your leaders. I have always striven to be ignored more earnestlythan popularity hunters strive after notoriety. But, I am told, the ears of everybody in yourtown are set a thrilling, while certain tale-mongers, creators of lies, hired for this very work,are giving you a history of me and my doings. I therefore do not think that I ought tooverlook your being exposed to the teaching of vile intention and foul tongue; I think thatI am bound to tell you myself in what position I am placed. From my childhood I have beenfamiliar with this spot, for here I was brought up by my grandmother; 2769 hither I have oftenretreated, and here I have spent many years, when endeavouring to escape from the hubbubof public affairs, for experience has taught me that the quiet and solitude of the spot are favourableto serious thought. Moreover as my brothers 2770 are now living here, I have gladlyretired to this retreat, and have taken a brief breathing time from the press of the laboursthat beset me, not as a centre from which I might give trouble to others, but to indulge myown longing.2. Where then is the need of having recourse to dreams and of hiring their interpreters,and making me matter for talk over the cups at public entertainments? Had slander beenlaunched against me in any other quarter, I should have called you to witness to prove whatI think, and now I ask every one of you to remember those old days when I was invited by2492768 Placed in 375, the year after the composition of the De Spiritu Sancto. It apparently synchronizes withLetter ccxxiii., in which Basil more directly repels those calumnies of the versatile Eustathius of Sebaste whichhe had borne in silence for three years. On Annesi, from which he writes, and the occasion of the visit, seeProlegomena.2769 Macrina, at her residence at Annesi.2770 cf. Ep. ccxvi., where he speaks of going to the house of his brother Peter near Neocæsarea. One of thefive brothers apparently died young, as the property of the elder Basil was at his death, before 340, divided intonine portions, i.e. among the five daughters and four surviving sons, the youngest, Peter, being then an infant.(Greg. Nyss. Vita Mac. 186.) Naucratius, the second son, was killed by an accident while hunting, c. 357. Gregoryof Nyssa must, therefore, be referred to in the text, if by “brothers” is meant brothers in blood. Was it to Peter’s“cottage” or some neighbouring dwelling that Gregory fled when he escaped from the police of the Vicar Demosthenes,in order not to obey the summons of Valens to his synod at Ancrya? Is the cottage of Peter “somequiet spot” of Ep. ccxxv.? The plural ἀδελφῶν might be used conventionally, or understood to include Peterand a sister or sisters.706