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his people and decreeing an exodus for them (for the ruler of the Bulgarians, being unable to contend for long against the Roman forces, was again inclined to surrender), while the Christian people, who were about to be released to their homes, were being gathered before the ruler, seeing the boy Basil, noble in form and smiling gracefully and skipping about, he drew him to himself, and gave him an apple of wonderful size. The boy, guilelessly and boldly leaning on the ruler's knees, showed his own nobility in his unaffected manner, so that the ruler was amazed, but his bodyguard was secretly enraged. 5 But to cut short the intervening events, by the good will of God, the entire captive Christian populace went forth to their homes, 218 and the parents of Basil went forth with them, taking along their dearest child. Something wonderful happened concerning him right from his earliest youth, which foreshadowed his later fortune, which I think it is not right to pass over in silence. For in summertime, when his parents had gone out to their own field and were overseeing the reapers and urging them to work hard, as the day advanced toward full market-time and the sun was now burning more intensely with its midday rays, having fashioned something like a tent from a sheaf of grain, they placed the child in it to sleep, so that he might pass through the heat from the sun unharmed. And while they were occupied with the reapers, an eagle, swooping down and perching above with outspread wings, was shading the child. When a shout was raised by those who saw it that the eagle would perhaps bring destruction to the child, the mother, like a loving and affectionate mother, immediately ran out to the child. But seeing the eagle providing shade for the child with its wings, and not even startled by her approach but as if gazing at her gracefully, she was not able in the moment to arrive at a better conclusion, but threw a stone at it; and so the eagle flew up and, as it seemed, departed. But when she returned again to her husband and the workers, the eagle was present in the same manner as before, shading the child, and again likewise the shout from the onlookers, 219 and the mother to the child, and the eagle being driven off by the throwing of the stone, and the mother's return to the workers. But since Providence, it seems, wished to show more clearly that what was happening was shown not by some chance accident but by divine foreknowledge, the same things happened a third time: the eagle over the child, the onlookers shouting, and the mother at the eagle, and the eagle departing with force and difficulty. Thus God always lays down from afar certain symbols and proofs of great events to come. And this happened to him not infrequently in his subsequent years as well, but often he was found being shaded by an eagle while sleeping. But at that time these things were held in almost no account; for before his virtues became manifest, even if the omens were great, they were neglected and went unnoticed, as no one in a simple and common household could ever bring it to mind how it might come to pass. However, since dwelling on these things any longer will perhaps seem not far from a fawning manner, and we may perhaps be thought to occupy the history with these things for lack of good things about him, we will pass over all things of a similar kind and from his childhood, and let us with haste advance the account to the things that lie ahead, pushing away the insatiability for praise just as any other of the things not to be praised. 220 6 The boy, then, being raised by his father, and having him as a guide in what was to be done and an expounder of what was to be said and a teacher and trainer for everything serious and praiseworthy, needed neither the half-man Chiron, like Achilles, nor the lawgiver Lycurgus and

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τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν εξοδον αὐτοῖς πρυτα- νεύοντος (ὁ γὰρ τῶν Βουλγάρων αρχων μὴ δυνάμενος ἐπὶ πολὺ πρὸς τὰς ̔Ρωμαϊκὰς δυνάμεις ἀνταγωνίζεσθαι πάλιν εἰς ὑπόπτωσιν ενευεν), ἐν τῷ ἐπισυνάγεσθαι πρὸς τὸν αρχοντα τὸν εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα ἀπολύεσθαι μέλλοντα λαὸν τῶν Χριστιανῶν, ἰδὼν τὸν παῖδα Βα- σίλειον τῇ τε μορφῇ ἐλευθέριον καὶ χαρίεν ὑπογελῶντα καὶ περι- σκαίροντα πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐφειλκύσατο, καὶ μῆλον θαυμαστὸν τῷ μεγέθει ἐπέδωκεν. ὁ δὲ παῖς ἀκάκως καὶ θαρραλέως τοῖς τοῦ αρχοντος ἐπερειδόμενος γόνασιν ἐν τῷ ἀπλάστῳ ηθει τὴν οἰκείαν εὐγένειαν ἐπεδείκνυτο, ὡς ἐκπλαγῆναι μὲν τὸν αρχοντα, διαγριαί- νεσθαι δὲ λεληθότως τὴν δορυφόρον τάξιν αὐτοῦ. 5 ̓Αλλ' ινα τὰ ἐν μέσῳ συντέμω, ἐξῆλθεν εὐμενείᾳ θεοῦ πρὸς τὰ οἰκεῖα απας ὁ ἀπαχθεὶς ὡς αἰχμάλωτος λαὸς τῶν Χρι- 218 στιανῶν, συνεξῆλθον δὲ καὶ οἱ τοῦ Βασιλείου γονεῖς, τὸν φίλτα- τον αὐτοῖς παῖδα προσεπαγόμενοι. ἐγένετο δέ τι περὶ αὐτὸν εὐ- θὺς κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἡλικίαν θαυμάσιον, τὴν εἰς υστερον τύχην παραδηλοῦν, οπερ οὐ θέμις οιμαι σιγῇ παρελθεῖν. τῷ γὰρ και- ρῷ τοῦ θέρους τῶν τούτου γονέων ἐπὶ τὸν ιδιον ἐξελθόντων ἀγρὸν καὶ τοῖς θερισταῖς ἐπιστατούντων καὶ διεγειρόντων συντόνως ἐρ- γάζεσθαι, ὡς περὶ πλήθουσαν ἀγορὰν ἡ ἡμέρα προέκοπτε καὶ ὁ ηλιος ηδη σφοδρότερον ταῖς μεσημβριναῖς ἀκτῖσιν ἐπέφλεγεν, οἱο- νεί τινα σκηνὴν ἐκ τοῦ συνδέσμου τῶν ἀσταχύων σκευάσαντες ἐν ταύτῃ τὸν παῖδα κοιμηθησόμενον εθεντο, οπως τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου θέρμης ἀβλαβῶς διέλθῃ τὸν καύσωνα. ἐν δὲ τῷ ἐκείνους ἐνα- σχολεῖσθαι τοῖς θερισταῖς ἀετὸς ἐπικαταπτὰς καὶ ανωθεν ἐπι- καθίσας ἡπλωμέναις ταῖς πτέρυξι τὸ παιδίον ἐσκίαζεν. ἀρθείσης δὲ παρὰ τῶν ἰδόντων φωνῆς οτι ολεθρον ισως ἐπάξει ὁ ἀετὸς τῷ παιδί, ἡ μήτηρ εὐθὺς οια μήτηρ φιλόστοργος καὶ φιλότεκνος πρὸς τὸν παῖδα ἐξέδραμεν. ἰδοῦσα δὲ τὸν ἀετὸν σκιὰν ταῖς πτέ- ρυξι τῷ παιδίῳ περιποιούμενον, καὶ μηδὲ πρὸς τὴν ταύτης ἐκπλα- γέντα ἐπέλευσιν ἀλλ' ωσπερ χαριέντως πρὸς αὐτὴν ἀτενίζοντα, οὐκ ἠδυνήθη κατὰ τὸ πρόχειρον εἰς κρείττονα πεσεῖν λογισμόν, ἀλλὰ λίθον εβαλε κατ' αὐτοῦ· καὶ ουτως ἀνέπτη ὁ ἀετὸς καὶ ὡς εδοξεν ἀπεχώρησεν. ἐκείνης δὲ αυθις πρὸς τὸν ανδρα καὶ τοὺς ἐργάτας ὑποστρεψάσης, ὁ ἀετὸς κατὰ τὸ πρότερον σχῆμα παρῆν τὸ παιδίον ἐπισκιάζων, καὶ πάλιν ὁμοίως ἡ φωνὴ παρὰ τῶν θεα- 219 τῶν, καὶ ἡ μήτηρ πρὸς τὸ παιδίον, καὶ τῇ βολῇ τοῦ λίθου ὁ ἀετὸς ἀποσοβούμενος, καὶ ἡ τῆς μητρὸς πρὸς τοὺς ἐργαζομένους ἐπι- στροφή. ἐναργέστερον δὲ αρα τῆς προνοίας δηλῶσαι θελησάσης οτι οὐ κατά τινα τύχης αὐτοματισμὸν ἀλλὰ θείᾳ προγνώσει τὸ τελούμενον δείκνυται, ἐκ τρίτου συνέβη τὰ ομοια, ὁ ἀετὸς ἐπὶ τὸ παιδίον, οἱ θεωροῦντες βοῶντες, καὶ ἡ μήτηρ ἐπὶ τὸν ἀετόν, καὶ ὁ ἀετὸς πρὸς βίαν καὶ μόλις ἀπαλλαττόμενος. ουτω τῶν μεγάλων πραγμάτων ἀεὶ πόρρωθεν ὁ θεὸς προκαταβάλλεταί τινα σύμβολα καὶ τεκμήρια τῶν εἰς υστερον. τοῦτο δὲ καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐχομένην ἡλικίαν οὐκ ὀλιγάκις γέγονεν ἐπ' αὐτῷ, ἀλλὰ πολλάκις εὑρέθη ὑπὸ ἀετοῦ ἐν τῷ ὑπνοῦν σκιαζόμενος. ἀλλ' ἐν οὐδενὶ σχεδὸν λόγῳ τότε ταῦτα ἐτίθετο· πρὸ τοῦ γὰρ ἐμφανεῖς καταστῆναι τὰς ἐν αὐτῷ ἀρετάς, καν μεγάλα τὰ προφαινόμενα ἠμελεῖτο καὶ παρε- λάνθανεν, οὐδενὸς δυναμένου ἐν οἰκίᾳ λιτῇ καὶ δημοτικῇ οπως ελθῃ ποτὲ βαλέσθαι εἰς νοῦν. πλὴν ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ τούτοις ἐπὶ πλέον ἐνδιατρίβειν οὐ πόρρω τυχὸν δόξει τρόπου θωπεύοντος, καὶ νο- μισθῶμεν ισως ἀπορίᾳ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν καλῶν ἐν τούτοις τὴν ἱστορίαν ἀπασχολεῖν, τὰ τοῦ ὁμοίου ειδους καὶ τῆς παιδικῆς ἡλικίας πάντα παρήσομεν, ἐπὶ δὲ τὰ εμπροσθεν τὸν λόγον σπουδῇ προαγάγωμεν, τὴν τῶν ἐπαίνων ἀπληστίαν ωσπερ αλλο τι τῶν οὐκ ἐπαινετῶν ἀπωθούμενοι. 220 6 Τρεφόμενος τοίνυν ὁ παῖς παρὰ τῷ πατρί, καὶ αὐτὸν εχων τῶν πρακτέων ὑφηγητὴν καὶ τῶν ῥητέων ἐξηγητὴν καὶ δι- δάσκαλον καὶ παιδοτρίβην πρὸς απαν σπουδαῖον καὶ ἐπαινούμε- νον, ουτε μιξανθρώπου Χείρωνος ἐδεήθη ὡς ̓Αχιλλεὺς ουτε Λυ- κούργου νομοθέτου καὶ