10.  Who has not known Basil, our archbishop’s father, a great name to everyone, who attained a father’s prayer, if anyone, I will not say as no one, ever did?  For he surpassed all in virtue, and was only prevented by his son from gaining the first prize.  Who has not known Emmelia, whose name was a forecast of what she became, or else whose life was an exemplification of her name?  For she had a right to the name which implies gracefulness, and occupied, to speak concisely, the same place among women, as her husband among men.  So that, when it was decided that he, in whose honour we are met, should be given to men to submit to the bondage of nature, as anyone of old has been given by God for the common advantage, it was neither fitting that he should be born of other parents, nor that they should possess another son:  and so the two things suitably concurred.  I have now, in obedience to the Divine law which bids us to pay all honour to parents, bestowed the firstfruits of my praises upon those whom I have commemorated, and proceed to treat of Basil himself, premising this, which I think will seem true to all who knew him, that we only need his own voice to pronounce his eulogium.  For he is at once a brilliant subject for praise, and the only one whose powers of speech make him worthy of treating it.  Beauty indeed and strength and size, in which I see that most men rejoice, I concede to anyone who will—not that even in these points he was inferior to any of those men of small minds who busy themselves about the body, while he was still young, and had not yet reduced the flesh by austerity—but that I may avoid the fate of unskilful athletes, who waste their strength in vain efforts after minor objects, and so are worsted in the crucial struggle, whose results are victory and the distinction of the crown.  The praise, then, which I shall claim for him is based upon grounds which no one, I think, will consider superfluous, or beyond the scope of my oration.

Τίς οὐκ οἶδε τὸν τούτου πατέρα, Βασίλειον, τὸ μέγα παρὰ πᾶσιν ὄνομα, ὃς πατρικῆς εὐχῆς ἔτυχεν, ἵνα μὴ λέγω μόνος, εἴπερ τις ἀνθρώπων; Παντὸς γὰρ κρατῶν ἀρετῇ, παρὰ τοῦ παιδὸς κωλύεται μόνου τὸ πρωτεῖον ἔχειν. Τίς Ἐμμελίαν, τὴν ὅπερ ἐγένετο προκληθεῖσαν ἢ γενομένην ὃ προεκλήθη, τὴν τῆς ἐμμελείας ὄντως φερώνυμον, ἣ τοῦτο ἐν γυναιξὶν ὤφθη, εἰ δεῖ συντόμως εἰπεῖν, ὅπερ ἐν ἀνδράσιν ἐκεῖνος: ὥστ' εἴπερ ἔδει δουλεύσαντα πάντως τῇ φύσει τὸν νῦν εὐφημούμενον ἀνθρώποις δοθῆναι ὥσπερ τινὰ τῶν πάλαι παρὰ Θεοῦ δεδομένων εἰς κοινὸν ὄφελος, μήτε ἐξ ἄλλων μᾶλλον ἁρμόζειν ἢ ἐκείνων τοῦτον γενέσθαι, μήτε ἐκείνοις ἑτέρου μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦδε πατράσιν ὀνομασθῆναι: ὅπερ οὖν καλῶς ποιοῦν καὶ συνέδραμεν. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰς ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἐπαίνων νόμῳ θείῳ πειθόμενοι, ὃς πατράσι κελεύει πᾶσαν νέμειν τιμήν, τοῖς μνημονευθεῖσιν ἀποδεδώκαμεν, ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἴωμεν ἤδη, τοσοῦτον εἰπόντες, ὃ καὶ πᾶσιν ἂν οἶμαι δόξειεν ἀληθῶς λέγεσθαι τοῖς ἐκεῖνον ἐπισταμένοις, ὅτι μόνης ἡμῖν ἔδει τῆς ἐκείνου φωνῆς ἐκεῖνον ἐγκωμιάζουσιν. Ὁ γὰρ αὐτὸς ὑπόθεσίς τε λαμπρὰ τοῖς ἐπαινοῦσι, καὶ μόνος τῇ τοῦ λόγου δυνάμει τῆς ὑποθέσεως ἄξιος. Κάλλους μὲν δὴ καὶ ῥώμης καὶ μεγέθους, οἷς τοὺς πολλοὺς ὁρῶ χαίροντας, τοῖς βουλομένοις παραχωρήσομεν: οὐχ ὅτι κἀν τούτοις ἔλαττόν τινος ἠνέγκατο τῶν μικρολόγων καὶ περὶ τὸ σῶμα καλινδουμένων, ἕως ἦν ἔτι νέος καὶ οὔπω φιλοσοφίᾳ τῶν σαρκῶν κατεκράτησεν: ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ ταὐτὸν πάθω τοῖς ἀπειροτέροις τῶν ἀθλητῶν, οἳ τὴν ἰσχὺν ἐν τοῖς εἰκῇ παλαιομένοις καὶ παρέργοις κενώσαντες, ἥττους ἐν τοῖς καιρίοις εὑρίσκονται, καὶ τοῖς ἐξ ὧν τὸ νικᾶν ὑπάρχει καὶ στεφανίτας ἀναγορεύεσθαι. Ἃ δὲ οὐδαμῶς ἂν εἰπὼν οἶμαι περιττὸς δόξειν οὐδὲ ἔξω τοῦ σκοποῦ βάλλειν τὸν λόγον, ταῦτ' ἐπαινέσομαι.