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6 i.e. on the seizure of the Acropolis by Pisistratus, Solon, resisting the instance of his friends that he should flee, returned them for answer, when they asked him on what he relied for protection, "on my old age." Plutarch, Solon 30. The senate being of the faction of Pisistratus, said that he was mad. Solon replied:
Dei/cei dh\ mani/hn me\n e'mh\n Baio\j xro/noj a'stoi=j,
Deicei a'lhqei/hj e'j me/son e'rxome/hj
Diog. Laert. 1-49
1 About the same date as the preceding.
2 cf. Letters xxxiii. cxlvii. clxxviii. cxcvi. and ccciv.
1 Of the same date as the preceding.
2 i.e. magister offciorum. cf. Letters xxxii., xcvi., clxxvii., clxxx., cxciii., cclxxii.
1 Of the same date as the preceding.
2 Perhaps to Elpidius. Therasius is probably the governor referred to in Letter xcvi. to Sophronius.
3 The text is here corrupt. The Ben. Ed. say "corruptissimus."
2 cf. Letter cxic. Sebaste is Siwas on the Halys. On Eustathius to Basil a type at once of the unwashable Ethiopian for persistent heresy (Letter cxxx. 1) and of the wind-driven cloud for shiftiness and time-serving, (Letter ccxliv. 9.) Vide proleg.
1 Placed in 371 or early in 372.
2 cf. Letter 1. The see of this Innocent Is unknown. cf Letter lxxxi. and note. To the title of this letter on e manuscript adds "of Rome," as the Ben. Ed. note "prorsus absurde".
3 e!kgonoj, i.e. the spiritual offspring of Hermogenes, by whom he had been ordained.
4 Bishop of Caesarea, in which see he preceded Dianius. cf. Letters ccxliv. 9 and cclxiii. 3. "The great Synod" is Nicaea. Baronius on the year 325 remarks that Basil's memory must have failed him, inasmuch as not Hermogenes but Leontius was present at Nicaea as Bishop Caesarea. But Hermogenes may have been present in lower orders. cf. Stanley, East. Ch. pp. 105, 140.
1 Placed at the end of 371 or the beginning of 372.
2 The fitness of this figure in a letter to the bishop of Alexandria will not escape notice. At the eastern extremity of the island of Pharos still stood the marble lighthouse erected more than 600 years before by Ptolemy II., and not destroyed till after the thirteenth century.
3 On Basil's use of this nautical metaphor, cf. De Spirtu Sancto, chap.xxx. It is of course a literary commonplace, but Basil's associations all lay inland.
4 The story of "the boy bishop" will be remembered, whose serious game of baptism attracted the notice of Alexander and led to the education of Athanasius in the Episcopal palace. Soc., Ecc. Hist. i. 15. Rufinus i. 14. cf. Keble, Lyra Innocentium, "Enacting holy rites."
2 Censitor, i.e. the magistrate responsible for rating and taxation in the provinces.
3 cf. Aristotle Eth. Nic. viii. 12, 3; and Cic. Loel. xxi. So, amicus est tanquam alter idem.
2 Probably Elias. cf Letters xciv. and xcvi. The orphan grandson of the aged man in whose behalf Basil writes had been placed on the Senatorial roll, and the old mane in consequence was compelled to serve again.
2 The distress of the Cappadocians under the load of taxes is described in Letter lxxiv. An objectionable custom arose, or was extended, of putting the country people on oath as to their inability to pay.
1 Of the same date as the preceding.