INTRODUCTION
viii INTRODUCTION content properly, it will be useful, therefore, if not necessary, to examine their background in some detail.
The Greek funeral speech developed out of the formal laudation or commemoration of those who had fallen in battle for their country. The famous funeral speech of Pericles as presented by Thucydides (c. 460-395 b.c.) is probably the earliest extant example. The fallen are collectively praised for their bravery. The State expresses its thanks to them for victory and preservation, public and private grief for them must be borne with dignity, and all, especially members of their families, must remember that their fellow citizens, sons, and brothers were mortal, and that in dying a beautiful death they have escaped the ravages of disease and the afflictions of old age.
Isocrates (427-329 b.c.), the great publicist and teacher of rhetoric, apparently was the first to compose a funeral oration on an historical individual. His speech on Evagoras of Cyprus, addressed to the latter's son Nicocles, and the Epitaph or funeral speech of the Attic orator Hypereides on his friend Leosthenes, in their form and content had con siderable influence on the development of the funeral speech as a literary type. Consolation is furnished by the thoughts that the dead had enjoyed many advantages and blessings in life, that all men must die, that the present dead were fortunate in the time of their death, and that they escaped disease, sorrow, and other kinds of human misfortune.
Hypereides adds the consolation to be derived from the thought of happiness in a future life for those who have honored the gods in the present life.
In the period after Alexander the Great the funeral oration was regarded more and more as a branch of epideictic oratory, and a special schema with a whole series of topoi or commonplaces was elaborated for this as well as for other branches of the epideictic genre. Fortunately, we have extant
INTRODUCTION
IX the treatise on epideictic oratory1 composed by the Greek rhetorician Menander in the third century a.d. This repre sentative work gives us much precious information on the various kinds of encomia when the genre had reached its zenith, at least on the side of theory.
Menander divides encomia or eulogies into two main classes: the basilikds logos or 'royal oration,' for the living, and the epitaphios logos or 'epitaph' for the dead. The latter is subdivided into four types:
(1) The pure encomium, which treats of one long dead, and is primarily concerned with praise.
(2) The epitaph, which has two forms: the first or general type, like the ancient funeral oration of Pericles; the second or particular type, dealing with a specific in dividual. The second type is concerned with an individual who has recently died, and usually combines praise with consolation and lament.
(3) The monody, a brief but intense lament.
(4) The consolatory speech, which is closely related to the monody, but places much more emphasis on consolation.
The schema of the typical epitaphios logos may be pre sented as follows: (1) exordium; (2) encomium (laudation proper, combined with lament and developed under the following topoi or commonplaces: family, birth, natural endowment, upbringing, education, life and occupation, with emphasis or moral qualities exhibited, achievements, fortune, and comparison with others, especially the great and famous);
(3) final exhortation, and prayer.
The epitaphios logos was much cultivated in the Greek schools of rhetoric and never with greater brilliance than in the second half of the fourth century a.d., when it was taught in theory and exemplified in practice at Athens, Constan tinople, Antioch and other centers by such famous sophists
1 For the Greek text of Menander, cf. Spengel, Rhetores Graeci III 327ff.
INTRODUCTION
as Libanius, Himerius, and Themistius. Himerius was un doubtedly one of the principal teachers of Gregory Nazianzen in rhetoric at Athens. It is not surprising, then, to find the influence of the pagan encomium and its topoi so marked in the first great Christian funeral orations. But before con sidering these in detail, we must first discuss briefly the development of the Greek treatise on consolation and the Latin consolatio, because of their close relationship with and influence upon the Greek and Latin funeral oration respec tively.
Democritus of Abdera (c. 460-c. 370 b.c.), Plato (427347 b.c.), Xenophon (c. 430-354 b.c.), Antisthenes (450366 b.c.) and Diogenes of Sinope (400-325 b.c.), the founders of Cynic philosophy, Aristotle (384-322 b.c.), Xenocrates of Chalcidon, Plato's successor as head of the Academy (339-322 b.c.), and Theophrastus (c. 372-288 b.c.), Aristotle's succes sor in the Peripatetic School, had all dealt with the theme of death and the problem and means of consolation. It remained for Crantor (c. 335-275 b.c.), however, the pupil of Xenorates, to write a treatise On Grief which was regarded throughout antiquity as the most comprehensive and model work of its kind. Crantor's treatise was cast in the form of a let ter to a certain Hippocles on the death of his children, and both in form and content it exercised a great influence on all later works on the consolation theme in the Greek East and subsequently in the Latin West. There were other important writers, including the great Stoics, Zeno and Panaetius, but none was regarded as important as Crantor in this field.
Panaetius, in fact, recommended that Crantor's treatise should be learned by heart. The theme of consolation also fell within the scope of the Cynic-Stoic diatribe from the time of Bion of Borysthenes (c. 325-255 b.c.), and the consolation equipped with a full complement of commonplaces became one of the important forms of that genre. All this earlier Greek literature
INTRODUCTION
XI on consolation had a marked influence on Cicero (c. 105-43 b.c.), Seneca (c. 5 b.c.-a.d. 65), and Plutarch (c. 46-120
A.D.) .
The 'consolation' as a literary genre was introduced into Latin literature by Cicero. His first work, On Consolation
(De consolatione), written to console himself on the death of his daughter Tullia, is lost. He has dealt, however, in detail with the theme of death and consolation in Books I and III of his Tusculan Disputations and it is thought that these books cover substantially the material which was presented in the last treatise. Seneca's most important contributions to the genre are his Ad Marciam de consolatione, Ad Helviam matrem de consolatione, and Ad Polybium de consolatione. Of these, only the first deals with death, the other two being concerned with consolation on exile. Mention must be made here also of the relatively short but magnificent letter of consolation which Servius Sulpicius Rufus wrote to Cicero on learning of the death of Tullia.2 There are a number of similar letters in Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny the Younger. The consolation was also cultivated very much as a more or less formal genre in poetry as well as in prose. On the Latin side, let it suffice to mention the consolation on death in Lucretius 3.830-1094,
Horace, Odes 1.2 and 2.9, the consolatory elegies of Propertius and Ovid, the Pseudo-Ovidian Consolatio ad Liviam, the Epicedia of Statius, the elegies of Martial.
Closely related to the Latin consolation, and much earlier in date, was the native Roman laudatio funebris. It was an ancient Roman custom for a funeral speech to be given at the death of a member of a prominent Roman family by a kinsman or friend. Such funeral orations made a strong impression on the Greek writers Polybius (Hist. 6.53-54),
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Rom. Antiq. 6.17.2-6), and Plutarch (Publicola 9.7). Unfortunately, only brief descrip2 Cicero, Epistolae 4.5.
XIX
INTRODUCTION
tions, passing ref rences,3 and scattered fragments have come down to us. The laudatio funebris was regarded as private in character. It was not published, but a copy was kept in the family archives. The Agricola of Tacitus, as a laudatory biography, probably reflects fairly well the essential features of the laudatio funebris, but at a time when it had definitely come under the influence of Greek rhetoric. Since it was essentially a eulogy, it corresponded more closely to the Greek basilikos logos than to the epitaphios logos. Cicero has in mind the laudatio funebris as well as the panegyric in general when he describes its character thus: 'He who proposes to be the panegyrist of anyone will understand that he has in the first place to deal fully with the favours of fortune. These are the advantages of race, wealth, connexions, friendships, power, good health, beauty, vigour, talent and the rest of the attributes that are either physical or externally imposed: it must be explained that the person commended made a right use of these benefits if he possessed them, managed sensibly without them, if they were denied to him and bore the loss with resignation, if they were taken away from him; and after that the speaker will marshal instances of conduct, either active or passive, on the part of the subject of his praises; whereby he manifested wisdom, generosity, valour, righteousness, greatness of soul, sense of duty, gratitude, kindliness, or in short any moral excellence you please . . . '4
The commonplaces of the pagan Greek and Latin con solation literature as a whole have a monotonous similarity.
Among them may be mentioned the following: Fortune rules all and one must always be ready to meet its blows; all men are mortal; to have lived virtuously, not long, is of prime
3 Cf. Ad Herennium 3.6.11 Off.; Cicero, De orat. 2.11.46; De invent. 1.59:
Quintilian, Inst. 3.7.10-18.
4 Cicero, De orat. 2.45-46, trans. Sutton (Loeb Classical Library).
INTRODUCTION
XUl importance; time cures all ills; death gives freedom from the ravages of disease, the evils of old age, and all other mis fortune ; the examples of others ought to give one comfort and courage; the dead no longer suffer grief or pain; many think that there is a happy life for the soul beyond the grave; rea son must temper grief; displays of emotion are unmanly.
These rather impersonal arguments based on reason became stereotyped. They have a philosophical coldness about them which, apart from Seneca's occasional emphasis on the warmth of family affection as a source of consolation, only be comes more marked with the repetition of centuries. In spite of their ineffectual character in many respects, they continued to be inculcated without essential change in the pagan schools of rhetoric until Christianity gave a new life to the traditional genres and commonplaces of consolation and added the incomparably superior means of consolation furnished by the Christian faith.
Christian consolation, whatever the literary vehicle of its expression, is based on the central doctrines of the Christian religion: belief in a personal God, the Creator of the world and of man, all-powerful but all-just and all-merciful, in the three Persons of the Trinity and their attributes, in the Incar nation of Christ the Second Person of the Trinity, and of the death of the God-Man on the cross as the supreme sacrifice for our redemption, in His resurrection as the Saviour of man kind and as Victor over sin and death, in the reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the spiritual help and comfort to be derived from participation in it, in the Church as a divine institution, in the future life as the true life, in the communion of saints, in the resurrection of the body, in a last judgment, and in an eternal life of happiness in heaven or of punishment in hell. Furthermore, in the Psalms and Prophets of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament in its entirety,
XIV
INTRODUCTION
Christians possessed a consolation literature of unique power and beauty and one enjoying unique authority as the Word of God Himself.
The Christian teachings on the resurrection of Christ and or the resurrection of the body occupy a central place in Christian apologetic and consolation. No Christian beliefs met with greater opposition or ridicule from the pagan milieu of early Christianity. After nearly two thousand years of the Christian tradition, it is difficult for us to appreciate the full significance of the great passage0 in which St. Paul cites the resurrection of Christ as certain proof of the resurrection of the body and as the fundamental and certain proof also of the validity of the Christian faith, and then proceeds to answer in detail a number of questions raised regarding the possibility of the resurrection of the body and the nature of the body after its resurrection. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that belief in the resurrection and arguments to support that belief are emphasized in early Christian con solatory literature. The supporting arguments soon develop into a body of commonplaces which appear repeatedly in the various types of Christian writings. These commonplaces, moreover, are interwoven with those employed by the pagans as arguments for the immortality of the soul and taken over by the Christians to serve the same purpose. Thus, Clement of Rome (c. 30-100) in his Epistle to the Corinthians declares that the resurrection of Christ is the strongest proof of the certainty of our resurrection, and he employs arguments from nature to support this proof: the alternation of day and night, the living plant growing from the decayed seed in the ground, and the example of the phoenix springing again into life from its ashes. The last illustration was especially effective in antiquity, because the reality of the phoenix and its life cycles was widely believed. Athenagoras (fl. 177) in his work, On 5 1 Cor. 15.12-58.
INTRODUCTION
XV the Resurrection of the Dead, shows that the resurrection is not only possible but necessary, drawing upon Pythagoras and Plato for the argument that an original whole, even after the separation of its parts, can be restored. Tertullian (d. after 200) deals with the resurrection in greater detail in his On the Resurrection of the Flesh and On the Soul. In addition to the authority of Scripture, he cites the pagan belief in the immortality of the soul and the arguments used to support it: the rising and setting of the sun, the phases of the moon, the fall and renewal of foliage, and the story of the phoenix. St.
Cyprian (d. 258) in his On Mortality stresses the reward of eternal joys and the certainty of the resurrection. Lactantius
(early 4th cent.) has a long section, 'On the Happy Life,' in his Divine Institutes. He considers the immortality of the soul the highest good, and he argues that God who created man has the power to restore bodies, however impossible this may seem under certain circumstances. In his exposition, he reviews critically the various pagan views and arguments in respect to immortality. It may be observed in passing that the most elaborate treatment of the phoenix in ancient literature is the poem On the Phoenix ascribed to Lactantius.
In the course of the three centuries, then, from the coming of Christ to the establishment of the Peace of the Church under Constantine, all the typical elements of Christian con solation were formulated and developed. The commonplaces of pagan consolation were utilized, but they were given a new life and a new meaning when combined with the in finitely more effective arguments drawn from Christian doc trine and the Scriptures. In this period the literary vehicle for consolation was the official or quasi-official letter, the homily, or the treatise. Consolation was thus presented in an incidental and general fashion, and largely as a part of Christian apologetic. But the Peace of the Church ushered in the golden age of Christian literature (c. 325-451). Al-
XVI
INTRODUCTION
most all the great Fathers and ecclesiastical writers of that period were trained in the pagan schools of rhetoric—the ancient Church did not develop a program of formal higher education except in Scriptural studies—under the leading sophists of the time. They were intimately familiar by long training with all the canons and conventions of style in a period when stylistic ornament was an obsession and pro ficiency in its employment a mark of the highest prestige and glory. They could not entirely escape the literary interests and tastes of their environment. It was only natural, under the circumstances, that they should be zealous to use their literary training and talents in the service of their faith, and that in so doing they should adapt long-established pagan literary genres to their use. Hence the polished Christian dialogues, treatises, letters and letter-treatises, homilies, pan egyrics, and funeral orations, to say nothing of the poetry of high quality in form and content, of the golden age of patristic literature. Consolation in this age finds formal ex pression in dialogues, treatises, letters, and funeral orations.
It is the last genre which is our primary concern here.
Of the ancient Christian funeral orations we have extant, four by St. Gregory Nazianzen (c. 329-c. 390), four by St.
Ambrose (339-397)—the second oration on Satyrus, how ever, is more properly a consolatio—and four by St. Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394). All the funeral orations of the first two
Fathers are included in the present volume. Those of St.
Gregory of Nyssa are omitted because they are somewhat inferior when considered as whole. They reflect the rhetorical exaggerations of the sophistic style to a greater degree and a much greater dependence upon and identity with pagan models.
St. Gregory Nazianzen was the pioneer in adapting the pagan funeral oration to Christian use. Therefore, it will be appropriate here to analyze briefly two of his funeral orations
INTRODUCTION
XVII which may be considered most typical of the genre in its Christian Greek form, namely, the oration on his brother
Caesarius, the first of his extant funeral orations, and that on his friend St. Basil, the masterpiece of Christian Greek funeral speeches.
The oration on St. Caesarius may be analyzed as follows: exordium—division of the subject (Ch. 1); encomium— ancestry and parentage (2-4); physical endowments (5); up bringing and education (6-7); occupation and achievements
(8-10); life in Constantinople (10); struggle between Cae sarius and Julian (11-14); death and funeral (15); the orator addresses his dead brother directly (16-17); exhort ation (18-21) and counsel (22-23); final exhortation and prayer (24).
A glance at the schema of Menander for the epitdphios logos given above will indicate that the oration follows the general plan. However, apart from the Christian elements, there are some differences. There is almost a complete absence of lament; on the other hand, the description of the death and funeral is borrowed from the monody. The consolatory speech suggested the development of the thoughts on the brevity of human life and on the lot of the soul after death
(16-17). The principal Christian elements are the Christian outlook throughout, the frequent Biblical quotations, the emphasis on spiritual rather than earthly goods, the emphasis on eternal happiness of the soul with God in heaven as its true home, the resurrection of the body, and the final solemn prayer to God.
But it is in the funeral oration on St. Basil that St. Gregory Nazianzen reveals his complete mastery of the genre and his originality in adapting it to a more independent and speci fically Christian use. The analysis which follows is largely taken from Boulenger6: exordium—the orator explains his
6 F. Boulenger, Gregoire de Nazianze (Paris 1908) xxix-xxxi.
xviii INTRODUCTION delay (1-2); encomium—ancestors of Basil (3); their piety and its proofs (4-8); his parents (9-10); physical endow ments (10); praise of knowledge, education in Caesarea in Cappadocia and in Constantinople (11-14) and at Athens
(14-24); his life as a priest, abuses in the hierarchy (25-27); his disgrace, persecution, and struggle, and his acts compared to Joseph's (28-36); his election as bishop and conception of the office (37-38); his administration of his church, attempts to establish unity in the Church, struggles against the em peror, the prefect, the judge, and against the bishops (3859); his moral and intellectual qualities: poverty, austerity, celibacy, solicitude for the poor and sick, refutation of the charge of arrogance, his eloquence, his writings and teachings
(60-69); comparisons with others: Adam, Enos, Henoch, Noe, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Samuel,
David, Solomon (in wisdom only), Elias and Eliseus, Daniel and his companions, Jonas, the Machabees, St. John the Baptist (in detail), St. Peter, the sons of Zebedee, and St.
Stephen (70-77); his death (78-79); funeral, lament, and counsel (80); praise of Basil for his holiness and pious acts
(81); address to Basil and solemn prayer (82).
This oration, as the schema shows, is really an epitaphios logos, but one in which the orator has made important modi fications, from the viewpoint of the traditional form, in content, topoi, and emphasis to suit his purpose. The pagan funeral oration is here transformed into a masterpiece of Christian eloquence in which the pagan elements do not as sume undue importance, but are harmoniously subordinated to Christian use. Guignet well says: 'This oration represents admirably the intelligent independence which Gregory could exhibit towards the great rhetors of whom he was the spiritual son. Obviously, Gregory's method of composition cannot be understood if we neglect the models which he followed. Given the tyranny exercised in his time in all the domains of lite-
INTRODUCTION
XIX rature, we observe in this oration a splendid emancipation.
For one who is familiar, on the one hand, with the rigidity of the sophistic teachings and, on the other, with the intel lectual pattern so strongly impressed upon young minds in the workshops of the schools of rhetoric, the easy attitude of free dom which Gregory adopts towards their precepts constitutes a definite and real effort in the direction of newness and originality.'7
St. Ambrose introduced the Christian funeral oration into Latin literature most probably under the impulse given by his great contemporaries in the East, Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa. It would hardly seem accidental that his funeral oration on Valentinian and Theodosius and his first oration on his brother Satyrus should be the only known ex amples of the genre in ancient Christian Latin literature.
Apart from his excellent rhetorical training in Latin, St. Am brose had a much better knowledge of Greek than the great majority of his intellectual contemporaries. Hence, his funeral orations proper reflect an intimate acquaintance with the canons of Menander and other Greek theorists and practi tioners in the field of rhetoric as well as the influence of the Latin laudatio funebris and consolatio. It should be empha sized, however, that St. Ambrose did not feel as closely bound by his pagan models as his Greek contemporaries. Furthermore, his funeral orations are more thoroughly permeated with Christian thought and with scriptural quotation, phraseology, and imagery, and they are distinguished as a whole by more marked personal tone and warmth of feeling. To give a concrete idea of their rhetorical structure, it will suffice to reproduce Rozynski's schema8 of the first oration on Satyrus: exordium (1-6); general grounds for lament—My sorrow for the death of Satyrus is very great, because without him I 7 M. Guignet, Saint Gregoire de Nazia'nze (Paris 1911) 310.
8 F. Rozynski, Die Leichenreden des hi. Ambrosius (Breslau 1910) 18-19.
INTRODUCTION
cannot live (14), I can no longer requite him for his benefits (19), in him I have lost all my joy, all my comfort, and every ornament of my life (33); special ground for lament—
I weep for my brother, and rightly, because many virtues adorned him: fidelity in honoring God, an extraordinary prudence, and a noble eloquence (49), courage (50), selfcontrol (56), a strict sense of rectitude, combined with kind ness (62); end of lament—The recollection of all these special excellences of his now cause me great sorrow; I shall pine away with grief; grounds for consolation—In my sorrow
I derive consolation from the favorable time of his death (68), the thought that we Christians should not mourn as pagans mourn (71), the thought that I have not lost my brother completely and the thought that my episcopal office will help much to alleviate my grief (77); conclusion—
Receive my last farewell (78) and let me soon follow you (79); prayer (80).
This oration is classified by Rozynski as a consolatory speech, but it would seem rather to be a combination of this and of a monody. Furthermore, his attempt to fit the speech a little too rigidly into the schemata of Menander leads him to de-emphasize the central role given to the Christian ele ments in the oration, and especially the copious employment of Scripture.
An analysis of the structure of the so-called second oration on Satyrus shows that it is essentially a Christian consolatio.
The commonplaces of the pagan genre and liberally employed, especially those dealing with death as a release from the troubles of this life and with the immortality of the soul.
There are many resemblances in content and language to passages in the Tusculan Disputations of Cicero, but the chief Ciceronian source or influence was most probably his lost De consolatione. The central theme of the work, how ever, is the truly Christian consolation to be derived from
INTRODUCTION
XXI an unquestioning and fervent belief in the eternal happiness of the souls of the just with God and in the certainty and reality of the resurrection of the body at the end of the world.
In the course of his exposition, St. Ambrose draws heavily upon Scriptlire and in his application of passages of the Canticle of Canticles, St. Paul, and the Apocalypse especially he exhibits a mystic exaltation which in its glowing intensity reminds one of the Psalms of David and the Prophets of the Old Testament.
The translations in the present volume are based, in general, on the reprints of the old Benedictine editions available in Migne, PG 35-36, and PL 16. In the case of the orations of St. Gregory Nazianzen on St. Caesarius and St. Basil, and of the orations of St. Ambrose on Satyrus (I), Valentinian, and Theodosius, the new or revised texts published in the special editions listed in the bibliography were also utilized. The text of St. Ambrose is so badly reprinted in Migne that it was necesssary to check the text of the second oration on Satyrus, especially, against that of the original Benedictine text of 1686-1690.
Scriptural quotations from the books of the Old Testament, except Genesis, are given according to the wording of Challoner's revision of the Douai Version. For Genesis and for the New Testament, the translations published under the auspices of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine have been em ployed.
Martin R. P. McGuire
XXII
INTRODUCTION
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts and Translations:
Gregoire de Nazianze. Discours funebres en I'honneur de son frere Cesaire et de Basile de Cesaree. Texte grec, traduction francaise, introduction et index, par Fernand Boulenger (Paris 1908) .
(Textes et Documents, pour l'Etude historique du Christianisme publies sous la direction de Hippolyte Hemmer et Paul
Lejay 16) .
S. Ambrosii Mediolanensis Episcopi de obitu Satyri fratris laudatio funebris, denuo edidit annotavit praefatus est D. Dr. Bruno
Albers (Bonnae 1921) . (Florilegium Patristicum 15) .
Sancti Ambrosii Liber de consolatione Valentiniani. A text with a translation, introduction aind commentary, by Thomas A. Kelly,
C.S.C. (Washington 1940). (Catholic University of America Pa tristic Studies 58) .
Sancti Ambrosii Oratio de obitu Theodosii: Text, translation, intro duction, and commentary, by Sister Mary Dolorosa Mannix, S.S.J.
(Washington 1925) . (Catholic University of America Patristic Studies 10).
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen, trans. by Charles G.
Browne and James E. Swallow (New York 1894) . (A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian
Church, 2nd ser. VII) .
Des heiligen Bischofs Gregor von Nazianz Reden aus dem Griechischen ubersetzt und mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen versehen, von
Dr. Theol. Philipp Hauser (Miinchen 1928) . (Bibliothek der Kirchenvater 59) .
Some of the Principal Works of St. Ambrose, trans. by H. de Romestin et al. (New York 1896). (A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, 2nd ser. X) .
Des heiligen Kirchenlehrers Ambrosius von Mailand Pflichtenlehre und ausgexudhlte kleinere Schrifte'n, ubersetzt und eingeleitet von
Dr. Joh. Ev. Niederhuber, III. Band (Kempten und Miinchen 1917). (Bibliothek der Kirchenvater 32).
INTRODUCTION
XX111 Other Works:
B. Albers, 'Ueber die erste Trauerrede des hi. Ambrosius zum Tode seines Binders Satyrus', Festgabe Ehrhard (Bonn and Leipzig
1922) 24-52.
Sister M. Melchior Beyenka, O.P., Consolation in Saint Augustine (Washington 1950) . (Catholic University of America Patristic
Studies 83) . Contains a good historical introduction on the development of the ancient consolation, pp. 1-30.
H. Dudden, The Life and Times of St. Ambrose, 2 vols. (Oxford 1935).
C. Favez, La consolation latine chretienne (Paris 1937).
Sister M. Edmond Fern, The Latin Consolatio as a Literary Type (St. Louis 1941) .
M. Guignet, Saint Gregoire de Nazianze orateur et epistolier (Paris 1911).
X. Hiirth, 'De Gregorii Nazianzeni orationibus funebribus', Dissertationes philologicae Argentoratenses selectae, Vol. 12 (Argentorati 1908) 1-160.
J. R. Palanque, S. Ambroise et I'empire romain (Paris 1933) .
A. Puech, Histoire de la litterature grecque chretienne depuis les origines jusqu'a la fin du IVe siecle, Tome III (Paris 1930) .
F. Rozynski, Die Leichenreden des hi. Ambrosius inbesondere auf ihr Verhdltnis zu der antiken Rhetorik und den antiken Trostschriften untersucht (Breslau 1910).
SAINT GREGORY
NAZIANZEN
FOUR FUNERAL
ORATIONS Translated by
LEO P. McCAULEY, S. J., Ph.D.
Boston College
' ft"'
INTRODUCTION
aesarius, whose early and untimely death is I B§t3 su^Ject °f this funeral oration, was the younger pSgjai brother of St. Gregory. Celebrated as a physician, he was highly esteemed by Emperors Constantius and Julian.
While holding an imperial office in the province of Bithynia, he escaped death in the earthquake at Nicaea in 368, but shortly thereafter fell a victim to an unspecified disease. His remains were brought back to Nazianzus and interred in the family vault. On this occasion St. Gregory delivered the present oration in the presence of his parents.
The eulogy of Caesarius has the usual rhetorical divisions.
The topics are amplified with the fulsomeness cherished by the age. The embellishments of rhetorical art are present in full vigor. Noteworthy are the sections of the encounter between Caesarius and Julian (11-14), and the stirring, if lengthy, comparisons between this life and the life to come (18-23).
The exact date of the panegyric on St. Basil is uncertain. It was delivered at Nazianzus probably three years or a little less after the death of St. Basil on January 1, 379. The orator alleges as reasons for the delay his own ill health and the labors which engaged him at Constantinople. The extreme length of the speech suggests that it was not delivered in its present form. The speech follows the traditional rhetorical pattern. The orator presents in order, after a brief exordium, an account of the ancestors of Basil, his character, his edu-