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2 To commend Maximus, late prefect of Cappadocia and in great distress.
2 A trajan was commander-in-chief under Valens. cf. Theod. iv. 30 and Amm. Marcellinus xxxi. He was killed at the battle of Adrianople in 378. This may have been the same officer.
2 The Ben. notes points out that though in all the mss. the inscription is tw= au'tw= to the same, that is to Trajan, the internal evidence points to its having been written to some one else. Trajan had had no personal knowledge of the troubles of Maximus.
2 Amphilochius, not yet consecrated to Iconium, had abandoned his profession as an advocate, and was living in retirement at Ozizala, a place not far from Nazianzus, the see of his uncle Gregory, devoted to the care of his aged father, whose name he bores. Heraclidas, it appears, had also renounced bar, and devoted himself to religious life; but did not join Amphilochius on the ground that he was living in Basil's hospital at Caesarea. cf. the letters of Gregory, first cousin of Amphilochius. On the relationship, see Bp. Lightfoot in D. C. B. i. p. 104, and pedigree in prolegomena.
9 It will be observed that St. Basil's quotation here does not quite bear out his point. There is no "by them" in Acts iv. 35. "Distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." In Acts ii. 45 the primitive communists are said themselves to have "parted to all men as every man had need," the responsibility of distribution being apparently retained.
2 cf. Letter cixxxi. On those who had renounced communion with Eustathius the bishop.
3 i.e. Eustathius, the bishop, isrushing upon the knife.
4 The view of the Ben. Ed. is that the bales thrown overboard represent the loss of unity incurred by the Sebastenes by leaving the communion of Eustathius for his own. cf. Letter ccxxxvii.
2 cf. Greg. Naz., Letters cxxxiii. and cxxxiv. and Theodoret, Ecc. Hist. iv. 30. and Amm. Marc. xxxi. 7.
2 cf. Letters clxiv. and clxv. Ascholius baptized Theodosius at Thessalonica in 380, and was present at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Soc., Ecc. Hist. v. 6 and 8.
2 Supposed by Maran (Vit. Bas.) to be Julius Soranus, a relative of Basil, and dux of Scythia. Maran supposes that a copyist added these words to the title because Soranus was "a trainer" (alei/pthj) and encourager of martyrs: in Letter clxiv. Basil calls Ascholius "a trainer" of the martyr Sabas.
3 khou/gmata. On St. Basil's use of this word for decree, vide De Sp. S. c. 66. Here it seems to have the force of an appointed liturgy. cf. the letter of Firmilianus to Cyprian. (Ep. Cyp. 75.)
4 This is one of the earliest references to the preservation of relics. So late as the case of St. Fructuosus (Acta SS. Fructuosi, etc.), who died at Tarragona in 259, the friends are forbidden to keep the relics. On St. Basil's views on the subject. cf. Hom. in Mart. Jul. 2 and Hom. de SS. xl. MM.S. So Gregory of Nyssa. Hom. i. in in xl. Mar. ii. 935. As early as the time of St. Augustine (_430) a thriving trade in forged relics had already begun. (Aug., De Opere Monach. 28.) cf. Littledale's Plain Reasons, p. 51.