And let no one suppose that it is through pride or desire of human reputation that I go down to this truceless and implacable warfare to engage with the foe. For if it were allowed me to pass a peaceful life meddling with no one, it would be far enough from my disposition to wantonly disturb my tranquillity, by voluntarily provoking and stirring up a war against myself. But now that God’s city, the Church, is besieged, and the great wall of the faith is shaken, battered by the encircling engines of heresy, and there is no small risk of the word of the Lord being swept into captivity through their devilish onslaught, deeming it a dreadful thing to decline taking part in the Christian conflict, I have not turned aside to repose, but have looked on the sweat of toil as more honourable than the relaxation of repose, knowing well that just as every man, as saith the Apostle, shall receive his own reward4    1 Cor. iii. 14. according to his own labour, so as a matter of course he shall receive punishment for neglect of labour proportioned to his strength. Accordingly I supported the first encounter in the discussion with good courage, discharging from my shepherd’s scrip, i.e. from the teaching of the Church, my natural and unpremeditated arguments for the subversion of this blasphemy, needing not at all the equipment of arguments from profane sources to qualify me for the contest; and now also I do not hang back from the second part of the encounter, fixing my hope like great David5    Psalm cxliv. 1. on Him “Who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight,” if haply the hand of the writer may in my case also be guided by Divine power to the overthrow of these heretical opinions, and my fingers may serve for the overthrow of their malignant array by directing my argument with skill and precision against the foe. But as in human conflicts those who excel in valour and might, secured by their armour and having previously acquired military skill by their training for facing danger, station themselves at the head of their column, encountering danger for those ranged behind them, while the rest of the company, though serving only to give an appearance of numbers, seem nevertheless, if only by their serried shields, to conduce to the common good, so in these our conflicts that noble soldier of Christ and vehement champion against the aliens, the mighty spiritual warrior Basil—equipped as he is with the whole armour described by the Apostle, and secured by the shield of faith, and ever holding before him that weapon of defence, the sword of the spirit—fights in the van of the Lord’s host by his elaborated argument against this heresy, alive and resisting and prevailing over the foe, while we the common herd, sheltering ourselves beneath the shield of that champion of the faith, shall not hold back from any conflicts within the compass of our power, according as our captain may lead us on against the foe. As he, then, in his refutation of the false and untenable opinion maintained by this heresy, affirms that “ungenerate” cannot be predicated of God except as a mere notion or conception, whereof he has adduced proofs supported by common sense and the evidence of Scripture, while Eunomius, the author of the heresy, neither falls in with his statements nor is able to overturn them, but in his conflict with the truth, the more clearly the light of true doctrine shines forth, the more, like nocturnal creatures, does he shun the light, and, no longer able to find the sophistical hiding-places to which he is accustomed, he wanders about at random, and getting into the labyrinth of falsehood goes round and round in the same place, almost the whole of his second treatise being taken up with this empty trifling—it is well accordingly that our battle with those opposed to us should take place on the same ground whereon our champion by his own treatise has been our leader.

Καί με μηδεὶς οἰέσθω φιλοτιμίᾳ τινὶ καὶ δόξης ἀνθρωπίνης ἐπιθυμίᾳ πρὸς τὸν ἄσπονδον τοῦτον καὶ ἀκήρυκτον πόλεμον ἑτοίμως κατιόντα τοῖς ἐναντίοις συμπλέκεσθαι. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἐξῆν ἀπραγμόνως καθ' ἡσυχίαν διάγειν ἐν εἰρηνεύοντι βίῳ, πόρρω τοῦ καθεστῶτος ἂν ἦν ἑκουσίως ἐπιταράσσειν τὴν ἡσυχίαν, αὐθαίρετον ἐκ προκλήσεως πόλεμον καθ' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ἐπεγείροντας. ἐπεὶ δὲ πολιορκεῖται μὲν ἡ πόλις τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡ ἐκκλησία, κατασείεται δὲ τὸ μέγα τεῖχος τῆς πίστεως τοῖς μηχανήμασι τῆς αἱρέσεως ἐν κύκλῳ περιδονούμενον, κίνδυνος δὲ οὐ μικρὸς αἰχμάλωτον οἴχεσθαι παρὰ τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐπιστρατείας ἀνάρπαστον τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου γενόμενον, διὰ τοῦτο φοβερὸν εἶναι κρίνας τὸ μὴ συμμετασχεῖν τῆς τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἀγωνίας οὐκ ἐπὶ τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἀπέκλινα, προτιμοτέρους δὲ μᾶλλον ἐποιησάμην τοὺς ἐκ τῶν πόνων ἱδρῶτας τῆς ἐκ τοῦ ἡσυχάζειν ἀνέσεως, εἰδὼς ἀκριβῶς ὅτι ὥσπερ τὸν μισθὸν λήψεται, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, κατὰ τὸν ἴδιον κόπον ἕκαστος, οὕτω πάντως καὶ τὴν τιμωρίαν ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν κατὰ δύναμιν πόνων ὀλιγωρίᾳ. διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν πρώτην τοῦ λόγου μάχην εὐθαρσῶς ὑπέστην, ἐκ τοῦ ποιμενικοῦ καδδίου, τουτέστιν ἐκ τῶν ἐκκλησιαστικῶν δογμάτων, τοὺς ἀκατασκεύους τούτους καὶ αὐτοφυεῖς λόγους εἰς ἀνατροπὴν τῆς βλασφημίας ἀφεὶς καὶ οὐδεμιᾶς τῆς ἐκ τῶν ἔξωθεν λόγων ὁπλίσεως ἐπὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα προσδεηθείς, καὶ νῦν πρὸς τοὺς δευτέρους τῶν ἀγώνων οὐκ ἀναδύομαι, τὴν ἐλπίδα θέμενος κατὰ τὸν μέγαν Δαβὶδ ἐπὶ τὸν διδάσκοντα χεῖρας εἰς παράταξιν καὶ δακτύλους εἰς πόλεμον, εἴ πως γένοιτο καὶ ἡμῖν ἐκ θείας δυνάμεως εὐθυνθῆναι μὲν τὴν γράφουσαν χεῖρα πρὸς τὴν τῶν αἱρετικῶν δογμάτων ἀναίρεσιν, ὑπηρετῆσαι δὲ τοὺς δακτύλους τῇ ἀνατροπῇ τῆς πονηρᾶς παρατάξεως, ἐμπείρως καὶ ἀγωνιστικῶς διατιθέντας κατὰ τῶν πολεμίων τὸν λόγον. ὥσπερ δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων πολέμων οἱ μὲν ἀνδρείᾳ τε καὶ δυνάμει τῶν λοιπῶν διαφέροντες, καὶ κατησφαλισμένοι τοῖς ὅπλοις καὶ ταῖς πρὸς τοὺς κινδύνους μελέταις τὴν τοῦ πολεμεῖν ἐμπειρίαν προσειληφότες ἐπὶ τοῦ μετώπου τῆς φάλαγγος ἵστανται τῶν κατὰ τὸ βάθος ἐπιτεταγμένων προκινδυνεύοντες, ὁ δὲ λοιπὸς ὅμιλος εἰς μόνην φαντασίαν πλήθους συντείνοντες αὐτῷ τῷ συνασπισμῷ δοκοῦσί τι κέρδος τῷ κοινῷ συνεισφέρειν, οὕτως καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων ἀγώνων ὁ μὲν γενναῖος τοῦ Χριστοῦ στρατιώτης καὶ σφοδρὸς κατὰ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἀγωνιστής, ὁ μέγας τοῦ πνεύματος ὁπλίτης Βασίλειος, ὁ τὴν ἀποστολικὴν πανοπλίαν ἐνδεδυκὼς καὶ τῷ θυρεῷ κατησφαλισμένος τῆς πίστεως τό τε ἀμυντήριον ὅπλον, τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος λέγω μάχαιραν, ἀεὶ προβαλλόμενος, οὗτος μὲν προπολεμεῖ τῆς τοῦ κυρίου στρατιᾶς ἐν τῷ πονηθέντι κατὰ τῆς αἱρέσεως λόγῳ ζῶν τε καὶ ἀμυνόμενος καὶ κατὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἀριστεύων, ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ πλῆθος τῷ θυρεῷ τοῦ προμάχου τῆς πίστεως ἑαυτοὺς ὑποκρύψαντες, καθ' ὅπερ ἂν προηγῆται πρὸς τοὺς ἐναντίους ὁ στρατηγός, τῶν κατὰ δύναμιν ἀγώνων οὐκ ἀφεξόμεθα.
Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν διελέγχων ἐκεῖνος τὴν ἠπατημένην τῆς αἱρέσεως καὶ ἀνυπόστατον φαντασίαν οὐδαμῶς ἄλλως τὴν προσηγορίαν τῆς ἀγεννησίας ἢ κατ' ἐπίνοιάν φησιν ἐπιλέγεσθαι τῷ θεῷ καὶ τὰς ἀποδείξεις ἐπήγαγε ταῖς τε κοιναῖς ἐννοίαις καὶ ταῖς γραφικαῖς μαρτυρίαις ἠσφαλισμένας, ὁ δὲ τῆς ἀπάτης εὑρετὴς Εὐνόμιος οὔτε συντίθεται τοῖς εἰρημένοις οὔτε ἀνατρέπειν δυνατῶς ἔχει, συνεχόμενος δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ὅσῳ τηλαυγέστερον διαλάμπει τῆς εὐσεβείας τὸ δόγμα, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον κατὰ τὰ νυκτινόμα τῶν ζῴων πρὸς τὸ φῶς ἀμβλυώττων καὶ οὐδὲ τὰς συνήθεις τῶν σοφισμάτων καταδύσεις εὑρίσκων μάτην διαπλανᾶται καὶ πρὸς τὸ τοῦ ψεύδους ἀδιεξόδευτον εἰσιὼν περὶ τὰ αὐτὰ συνειλεῖται καὶ πᾶς αὐτῷ σχεδὸν περὶ τὴν φλυαρίαν ταύτην ὁ δεύτερος κατησχόληται πόνος, διὰ τοῦτο καλῶς ἔχει καὶ ἡμῖν ἐν τούτῳ γενέσθαι τὴν πρὸς τοὺς ἀντιτεταγμένους μάχην, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ὁ πρόμαχος ἡμῶν διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου καθηγήσατο λόγου.