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

Basil to Libanius.Letter CCCXXXV.Basil to Libanius. 3267I am really ashamed of sending you the Cappadocians one by one. I should prefer toinduce all our youths to devote themselves to letters and learning, and to avail themselvesof 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 timeare won over; and this I do with the assurance that I am conferring on them a boon as greatas that which is given by those who bring thirsty men to the fountain. The lad, whom I amnow sending, will be highly valued for his own sake when he has been in your society. Heis already well known on account of his father, who has won a name among us both forrectitude of life and for authority in our community. He is, moreover, a close friend of myown. To requite him for his friendship to me, I am conferring on his son the benefit of anintroduction to you—a boon well worthy of being earnestly prayed for by all who are competentto judge of a man’s high character.3267 “Basilii et Libanii epistolæ mutuæ, quas magni facit Tillemontius, probatque ut genuinas, maxime dubiævidentur Garnier, in Vit. Bas. cap. 39, p. 172, seqq., is tamen illas spartim edidit.…Schroeckh Garn. dubitationideomnium illarum epist. mutuarum νοθεί& 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 theperiod of the retreat, partly to that of the presbyterate, while two only, the one a complaint on the part ofLibanius 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 correspondingwith a heathen philosopher, but he is of opinion that the style of most of them is unworthy both of the sophistand of the archbishop. Yet there seems no reason why they should have been invented. It is intelligible enoughthat they should have been preserved, considering the reputation of the writers; but they suggest no motive forforgery. 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.901