Letter XXXIV.279    Placed in 369.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.

How could I be silent at the present juncture?  And if I cannot be silent, how am I to find utterance adequate to the circumstances, so as to make my voice not like a mere groan but rather a lamentation intelligibly indicating the greatness of the misfortune?  Ah me!  Tarsus is undone.280    Silvanus, Metropolitan of Tarsus, one of the best of the Semi-Arians (Ath., De synod. 41), died, according to Tillemont, in 373, according to Maran four years earlier, and was succeeded by an Arian; but events did not turn out so disastrously as Basil had anticipated.  The majority of the presbyters were true to the Catholic cause, and Basil maintained friendship and intercourse with them.  cf. Letters lxvii., cxiii., cxiv.  This is a trouble grievous to be borne, but it does not come alone.  It is still harder to think that a city so placed as to be united with Cilicia, Cappadocia, and Assyria, should be lightly thrown away by the madness of two or three individuals, while you are all the while hesitating, settling what to do, and looking at one another’s faces.  It would have been far better to do like the doctors.  (I have been so long an invalid that I have no lack of illustrations of this kind.)  When their patients’ pain becomes excessive they produce insensibility; so should we pray that our souls may be made insensible to the pain of our troubles, that we be not put under unendurable agony.  In these hard straits I do not fail to use one means of consolation.  I look to your kindness; I try to make my troubles milder by my thought and recollection of you.281    Basil is supposed to have in the meanwhile carried out his previously-expressed intention of paying Eusebius a visit.  When the eyes have looked intently on any brilliant objects it relieves them to turn again to what is blue and green; the recollection of your kindness and attention has just the same effect on my soul; it is a mild treatment that takes away my pain.  I feel this the more when I reflect that you individually have done all that man could do.  You have satisfactorily shewn us, men, if we judge things fairly, that the catastrophe is in no way due to you personally.  The reward which you have won at God’s hand for your zeal for right is no small one.  May the Lord grant you to me and to His churches to the improvement of life and the guidance of souls, and may He once more allow me the privilege of meeting you.

ΕΥΣΕΒΙῼ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠῼ ΣΑΜΟΣΑΤΩΝ

[1] Πῶς ἂν σιωπήσαιμεν ἐπὶ τοῖς παροῦσιν ἤ, τοῦτο καρτερεῖν μὴ δυνάμενοι, ἄξιόν τινα λόγον τῶν γινομένων εὕροιμεν, ὥστε μὴ στεναγμῷ προσεοικέναι τὴν φωνὴν ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ θρήνῳ τοῦ κακοῦ τὸ βάρος ἀρκούντως διασημαίνοντι; Οἴχεται ἡμῖν καὶ ἡ Ταρσός. Καὶ οὐ τοῦτο μόνον δεινόν, καίπερ ἀφόρητον ὄν: ἔστι γὰρ τούτου χαλεπώτερον πόλιν τοσαύτην, οὕτως ἔχουσαν εὐκληρίας ὥστε Ἰσαύρους καὶ Κίλικας καὶ Καππαδόκας καὶ Σύρους δι' ἑαυτῆς συνάπτειν, ἑνὸς ἢ δυοῖν ἀπονοίαις ἀνθρώπων ὀλέθρου γενέσθαι πάρεργον, μελλόντων ὑμῶν καὶ βουλευομένων καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀποσκοπούντων. Κράτιστον οὖν, κατὰ τὴν τῶν ἰατρῶν ἐπίνοιαν (πάντως δέ μοι πολλὴ ἀφθονία, διὰ τὴν σύνοικον ἀρρωστίαν, τῶν τοιούτων παραδειγμάτων), οἵ, ἐπειδὰν τὸ τῆς ὀδύνης μέγεθος ὑπερβάλλῃ, ἀναισθησίαν τῇ ἐπινοίᾳ ἐπιτεχνῶνται τῷ κάμνοντι, καὶ ταῖς ἡμετέραις αὐτῶν ψυχαῖς, ὡς μὴ ταῖς ἀφορήτοις ὀδύναις συνέχεσθαι, ἀναλγησίαν τῶν κακῶν συνεύξασθαι. Οὐ μὴν ἀλλά, καίπερ οὕτως ἀθλίως ἔχοντες, μιᾷ παραμυθίᾳ κεχρήμεθα πρὸς τὴν σὴν ἀπιδεῖν ἡμερότητα καὶ ἐκ τῆς σῆς ἐννοίας καὶ μνήμης πραῧναι τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ λυπούμενον. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, ἐπειδάν ποτε συντόνως τὰ λαμπρὰ καταβλέψωσι, φέρει τινὰ ῥᾳστώνην πρὸς τὰ κυανὰ καὶ χλοάζοντα τῶν χρωμάτων ἐπανελθεῖν, οὕτω καὶ ταῖς ἡμετέραις ψυχαῖς οἷον πραεῖά τις ἐπαφὴ τὸ ὀδυνηρὸν ἐξαιροῦσα ἡ μνήμη τῆς σῆς πραότητος καὶ ἐμμελείας ἐστί, καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν ἐνθυμηθῶμεν ὅτι τὸ κατὰ σεαυτὸν ἅπαν ἐπλήρωσας. Ἐξ ὧν ἱκανῶς καὶ ἡμῖν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ἐὰν εὐγνωμόνως τὰ πράγματα κρίνωμεν, ὡς οὐδὲν ἐκ τῆς σῆς αἰτίας ἀπόλωλεν ἐνεδείξω, καὶ παρὰ Θεῷ τῆς τῶν καλῶν προθυμίας μέγαν σεαυτῷ τὸν μισθὸν κατεκτήσω. Χαρίσαιτο δέ σε ἡμῖν καὶ ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ Ἐκκλησίαις ὁ Κύριος, ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ τοῦ βίου καὶ διορθώσει τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν, καὶ καταξιώσειε πάλιν τῆς ἐπωφελοῦς συντυχίας σου.