Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 8 (Augustine: Exposition on Psalms)

dedication services, lasting all night long, which, as it is told, sent his brother Gregory to sleep.¹ Here, then, Basil was taught the rudiments of religion by his grandmother² and his father,³ in accordance with the teaching of the great Gregory the Wonder-worker.⁴ Here he learned the Catholic faith.

At an early age, he seems to have been sent to school at Caesarea,⁵ and there he formed the acquaintance of an Eusebius (who is otherwise unknown),⁶ Hesychius,⁷ and Gregory of Nazianzus,⁸ and conceived a boyish admiration for Dianius, the archbishop.⁹

From Caesarea, Basil went to Constantinople, where he studied rhetoric and philosophy with success. Socrates¹⁰ and Sozomen¹¹ state that he studied at Antioch under Libanius. It may be that both these writers have confused Basil of Caesarea with the Basil to whom Chrysostom dedicated his De Sacerdotio (On the Priesthood), who was perhaps the Bishop of Raphanea who signed the Creed of Constantinople.¹²

There is no corroboration that Basil of Caesarea ever stayed at Antioch. Libanius was in Constantinople in 347,¹³ and Basil may have attended his lectures there.¹⁴

From Constantinople, the young Cappadocian student proceeded to Athens in 351. We have a lively picture of a fourth-century university town in the writings of his friend,¹⁵ which reminds us that the rough hazing of modern undergraduates is a survival of a very ancient barbarism. The students were affiliated with certain fraternities,¹⁶ and would look out for the arrival of every new student in the city to recruit him for the classes of one teacher or another. Kinsmen were on the watch for kinsmen, and acquaintances for acquaintances; sometimes, it was mere good-humored violence that secured the person of the freshman. The first step in this grotesque initiation was a party; then, the guest of the day was conducted in a ceremonial procession through the marketplace (agora) to the entrance of the baths. There, they would leap around him with wild cries and refuse him entry. Finally, they would force an entry with mock fury, and the initiate was made a member of the mysteries of the baths and the lecture halls. Gregory of Nazianzus, a student a little senior to Basil, succeeded in sparing him the ordeal of this initiation; his dignity and sweetness of character seem to have secured him immunity from rough usage without any loss of popularity.¹⁷ At Athens, the two young Cappadocians were noted among their contemporaries for three things: their diligence and success in their studies, their stainless and devout life, and their close mutual affection. Everything was common to them; they were as one soul. What formed the closest bond of union was their faith. God and their love for what is best made them one.¹⁸ Himerius, a pagan, and Prohaeresius, an Armenian Christian, are mentioned among the well-known professors whose classes Basil attended.¹⁹ Among his early friendships, formed possibly during his university career, Basil’s own letters name those with Terentius²⁰ and Sophronius.²¹

If the Libanian correspondence is accepted as genuine, we may add Celsus, a pupil of Libanius, to the group.²² But if we except Basil’s affection for Gregory of Nazianzus, no intimacy is as interesting as the one recorded between Basil and the young prince Julian.²³ One incident of his time in Athens, which led to bitter consequences in later days, was his brief communication with Apollinarius and the letter written "from layman to layman,"²⁴ which his opponents later used as an excuse for much malice, and perhaps even for forgery. Julian arrived at Athens after the middle of the year 355.²⁵ Therefore, Basil's departure and return to Caesarea may...

¹ Greg. Nyss., Orat. in xl. Mart. (Oration on the Forty Martyrs)
² Ep. ccxxiii.
³ Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.
⁴ See Ep. cciv. and note on p. 250.
⁵ i.e., the Cappadocian Caesarea. The theory of Tillemont that the Caesarea of Palestine was the scene of Basil’s early school life hardly seems to deserve the careful refutation by Maran (Vit. Bas. i. 5). cf. Ep. xlv. p. 148, and p. 145, n. cf. also the note on p. 141 regarding possible contact between the boy Basil and the young princes Gallus and Julian during their seclusion at Macellum. The park and palace of Macellum (Amm. Marc. “estate”) was near Mount Argaeus (Soz. v. 2) and close to Caesarea. If Basil and Julian ever studied the Bible together, it is more probable they did so at Macellum, while the prince was still being educated as a Christian, rather than later at Athens, when his residence at Nicomedia had resulted in his apostasy. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ii. 4.
⁶ Ep. cclxxi.
⁷ Ep. lxiv.
⁸ Greg. Naz. Or. xliii.
⁹ Ep. li.
¹⁰ Ecclesiastical History iv. 26.
¹¹ Ecclesiastical History vi. 17.
¹² Maran, Vit. Bas. ii., Fabricius, Ed. Harles, vol. ix.
¹³ He does not seem to have been at Antioch until 353, D.C.B. iii. 710, when Basil was at Athens.
¹⁴ cf. the correspondence with Libanius, the genuineness of which has been questioned, in Letters cccxxxv.–ccclix. Letter cccxxxix. suggests the possibility of some study of Hebrew. However, Basil always uses the Septuagint (LXX).
¹⁵ Greg. Naz., Or. xliii., and the poem De Vita Sua (On His Own Life).
¹⁶ Fraternities. Greg., De Vita Sua, 215.
¹⁷ A somewhat similar exemption is recorded of Dean Stanley at Rugby.
¹⁸ Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 20, 21; Carm. xi. 221-235:
original: “Ὁ δ’ εἰς ἓν ἡμᾶς διαφερόντως ἤγαγε / Τοῦτ’ ἦν θεός τε καὶ πόθος τῶν κρεισσόνων.” (But that which brought us together in a special way was God and the desire for better things.)
Ullman (Life of Greg.) quotes Cicero, De Amicitia, xxv.: “The power of friendship is such that it makes one soul out of many.”
¹⁹ Soc. iv. 26 and Soz. vi. 17.
²⁰ Ep. lxiv.
²¹ Ep. cclxxii.
²² Ep. cccvi.
²³ Greg. Naz., Or. iv., Epp. xxxix., xl., xli., on the first of which see note.
²⁴ Ep. ccxxiv. 2.
²⁵ Amm. Mar. xv. 2, 8. “Permissus” (permitted) is no doubt a euphemism for “coactus” (compelled).