Letter 198 (375)
THE FATHERS SPEAK
out being in communion [6:Kolvcbvrrroc;] and that so far he has received only vain promises. The present situation in Anatolia has certainly not escaped the ears of Your Piety and the brother we have mentioned shall report everything to you in greater detail. Kindly grant him his leave soon after Easter, because he expects the answers of those of Samosata.
Welcome his zeal, comfort him by your prayers, and dispatch him to do what has been decided.
Basil writes to his fellow bishop of Samosata after several attempts of communicating by letters sent either through the imperial couriers or through private messengers. Letter 198 was entrusted to a cleric summoned by Basil. The last paragraph, which we omit, refers presumably to political intrigues by the Arians, which Basil's envoy shall expose viva voce to the Syrian bishop.
BASIL TO EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF SAMOSATA,
LETTER 198 (375)
After the letter that was delivered to us by the late ofticiales [imperial couriers], we have received only one which had been sent to us thereafter. We did not write much ourselves, because we did not find anyone who could go to you. Yet, in addition to the earlier letters of Your Reverence, which we have received from Samosata, we sent more than four sealed letters to the venerable brother Leontios, the assessor of taxes at Nicaea, and we asked him to transmit them to the house of the venerable brother Sophronios. who will see to it that they be delivered unto you. Since the letters pass through so many hands, it is likely that, either because a messenger was detained by his business, or through another failure, Your Reverence has not received them. We
Glimpses of Daily Life
beg you, therefore, to pardon the scarcity of our letters. We should have sent someone of our people, but we did not.
That is precisely what you wanted to figure out and to digest! Know then that the winter has been so bad that all the roads were impassable until the days of Pascha, and we had nobody who dared to affront the hardships of the journey; for if our clergy seems to be numerous, they are unprepared for traveling. They are not itinerant businessmen, and are reluctant to live abroad far from home, where most of them practice sedentary crafts from which they draw their daily sustenance. We are sending to Your Piety this brother whom we have called from the country, using his services to carry our letters to Your Holiness. He will explain to you the situation and bring back to us accurately and promptly, God willing, the news from your region. As for the beloved brother Eusebius the Reader [avcxyvwo'(Tl<;], who has been for a long time eager to meet Your Piety, we retain him here, waiting for the weather to be milder. Now
I am not a little concerned, because I fear that his inexperience in traveling may cause him trouble and sickness, for his body is already prone to disease.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO OLYMPlOS, PROVINCIAL
GOVERNOR, LETTER 126 (382)
... I had hoped to meet with you and I was holding, so to speak, this pleasant prospect in my hands, but all of a sudden I was caught by a fit of the illness which had already afflicted me. If a comparison is wanted to describe my condition, it was with me like the squids, which one has to tear from the rocks on the sea shore; they leave part of their arms stuck to the stone. or else tear away pieces of rock.
That is how I am. Now what I wanted to beg from Your Excellency, if I had been there, I dare to ask in absentia. I
THE FATHERS SPEAK
have found my "son" Nicoboulos [in reality Gregory's nephew] exhausted from his charge as dispatcher of the couriers and from his functions as postmaster [praeJectlis mansion is]. The man has not too much health and is not used to that kind of work in a remote post. Kindly assign him to some other function of your choice, for he is eager to serve your governorship in everything. But if it is possible, deliver him from his burden.
Notes of Introduction or Recommendation A number 0/ notes recommending persons in need and charitable instillltions have already been given in chapter 6.
We add here letter 13 of Gregory of NazianZlls, written toward 365, and leiters 103 and 104, written toward the end of his ministry in Constantinople or even shortly after his return to Cappadocia. Letter 103 is addressed to Palladios, in charge of the imperial charities, a close friend of Gregory, who illlroduces to Palladios a shy young man, an orphan, after a previolls nOle of recommendation had been lost. Letter 104 is addressed to Olympios, governor of Cappadocia, in favor of a widow and her children.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO AMPHILOCHIOS, THE
FUTURE BISHOP OF ICONIUM, WHO WAS NOT
YET IN HOLY ORDERS. LETTER 13 (365)
I like the words of Theognis [verses 643-644], who praises not the friendship that does not go further than drinking and pleasure, but a friendship that rests on facts.
What does he write? "Many are the friends who accompany us around the mixing bowl [KPTl'(~pl]; but for a serious affair, they make themselves rare!" To be sure we did not