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and having adorned me in this manner. But to exhort you to help was like exhorting a father to help his children.

347.t LIBANIUS TO BASIL

347.1 Every bishop is a hard thing to catch; but you, by as much as the others

you have surpassed in eloquence, by so much do you also cause me fear lest somehow you stand in denial of my request, and since I am in need of timbers for roofing, another sophist, not being in need, would have said 'poles' or 'stakes,' but priding himself on little words rather than being in need. But as for me, if you do not provide them, I will spend the winter under the open sky.

348.t BASIL TO LIBANIUS

348.1 If 'to gain' is called 'to catch in a net' and this is the meaning

of the word which your sophistic art has produced for us from the inner sanctums of Plato, consider, O wonderful man, who is more difficult to catch: we who are thus fenced off by epistolary power, or the race of sophists whose art it is to tax words. Which of the bishops has put a tariff on words? Who has made students into wage-earners? You are the ones who put words up for sale just as the boilers of honey do honey-cakes. Do you see how you have provoked even an old man to leap about a little? But I, for you who parade in your rhetorical exercises, have ordered that timbers be provided equal in number to the soldiers who fought at Thermopylae, all of them long, or, according to your Homer, 'long-shadowing,' but it was not Homer who promised to restore them.

349.t LIBANIUS TO BASIL

349.1 Will you not cease, Basil, this sacred precinct of the Muses full

of making with Cappadocians, and these smelling of gypsum and snow and the good things from there? And they almost made me a Cappadocian too, always chanting to me 'I worship you'. But one must nevertheless put up with it when Basil commands. Know, then, that I am getting to the bottom of the manners of their country, and I will transform the men with the nobility and harmony of my Calliope, so that they might appear to you as doves instead of wood-pigeons.

350.t BASIL TO LIBANIUS

350.1 Your melancholy is dissolved. For let this be the prelude of the letter.

But you mock and revile our affairs whether in jest or in earnest. Why did you mention snow or gypsum, when you can revel in our jests? But I, O Libanius, so that I may also stir broad laughter in you, wrote this letter covered by a curtain of snow, which, when you receive it and touch it with your hands, you will know how chilly it is and that it characterizes its sender, who is holed up and unable to emerge from his chambers. For we possess our houses as tombs, until spring may take hold and bring us, who are dead, back to life again, bestowing being as it does to plants.

351.t BASIL TO LIBANIUS

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κἀμὲ τῷ τρόπῳ κεκοσμηκότας. Παρακαλεῖν δέ σε πρὸς τὸ βοηθεῖν ὅμοιον ἦν τῷ πατέρα παισὶ παρακαλεῖν βοηθεῖν.

347.τ ΛΙΒΑΝΙΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩ

347.1 Πᾶς μὲν ἐπίσκοπος πρᾶγμα δυσγρίπιστον· σὺ δὲ ὅσῳ τοὺς ἄλλους

παρελήλυθας λογιότητι, τοσούτῳ μοι καὶ φόβον παρέχεις μή πως ἔξαρνος στῇς πρὸς τὴν αἴτησιν, κἀπειδὴ στρωτήρων δέομαι, κάμακας δ' ἂν ἢ χάρακας ἄλλος εἶπε σοφιστὴς οὐ χρῄζων, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ῥηματίοις ἐγκαλλωπιζό μενος ἢ τῆς χρείας γινόμενος. Ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μὴ σὺ παράσχοιο, ὕπαιθρος διαχειμάσω.

348.τ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΣ ΛΙΒΑΝΙΩ

348.1 Εἰ τὸ κερδαίνειν τοῦτο γριπίζειν λέγεται καὶ ταύτην ἔχει τὴν σημασίαν

ἡ λέξις ἣν ἐκ τῶν Πλάτωνος ἀδύτων ἡ σοφισ τική σου ἡμῖν προεχειρίσατο, σκόπησον, ὦ θαυμάσιε, τίς μᾶλλόν ἐστι δυσγρίπιστος· ἡμεῖς οἱ οὕτω δι' ἐπιστολιμαίας δυνάμεως ἀποχαρακούμενοι, ἢ τὸ τῶν σοφιστῶν γένος οἷς τέχνη τὸ τελωνεῖν τοὺς λόγους ἐστί. Τίς τῶν ἐπισκόπων τοὺς λόγους ἐφοροθέτησε; Τίς τοὺς μαθητευομένους μισθο φόρους κατέστησεν; Ὑμεῖς οἱ προτιθέντες τοὺς λόγους ὤνια ὥσπερ οἱ τοῦ μέλιτος ἑψηταὶ τὰ μελίπηκτα. Ὁρᾷς ὡς καὶ τὸν γέροντα ὑποσκιρτᾶν παρεκίνησας; Ἐγὼ δέ σοι τῷ ταῖς μελέταις ἐμπομπεύοντι ἰσαρίθμους τοῖς ἐν Θερμο πύλαις ἀγωνιζομένοις στρατιώταις στρωτῆρας χρησθῆναι προσέταξα ἅπαντας εὐμήκεις, κατὰ τὸν σὸν Ὅμηρον δολι χοσκίους, οὐχ Ὅμηρος δ' ἀποκαταστήσειν κατεπηγγείλατο.

349.τ ΛΙΒΑΝΙΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩ

349.1 Οὐ παύσῃ, Βασίλειε, τὸν ἱερὸν τοῦτον τῶν Μουσῶν σηκὸν μεστὸν

ποιῶν Καππαδοκῶν καὶ ταῦτα ἀποζόντων γριτῆς καὶ χιόνος καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν καλῶν; Μικροῦ δέ με καὶ Καππαδόκην ἔθηκαν ἀεί μοι τὸ «προσκυνῶ σε» προσᾴδον τες. ∆εῖ δὲ ὅμως ἀνέχεσθαι Βασιλείου κελεύοντος. Ἴσθι τοίνυν ὡς τῆς μὲν χώρας τοὺς τρόπους ἐξακριβάζω, τὴν δὲ εὐγένειαν καὶ τὸ ἐμμελὲς τῆς ἐμῆς Καλλιόπης μεταμφιάσω τοὺς ἄνδρας, ἵν' ὀφθεῖεν ὑμῖν ἀντὶ φασσῶν περιστεραί.

350.τ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΣ ΛΙΒΑΝΙΩ

350.1 Λέλυταί σοι τὸ δύσθυμον. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἔστω τῆς ἐπιστολῆς τὸ προοίμιον.

Σὺ δὲ σκῶπτε καὶ διάσυρε τὰ ἡμέτερα εἴτε γελῶν εἴτε σπουδάζων. Τί δὲ χιόνος ἢ γριτῆς ἐμνημόνευσας, παρὸν ἐντρυφᾶν ἡμῶν τοῖς σκώμμασιν; Ἐγὼ δέ, ὦ Λιβάνιε, ἵνα σοι καὶ πλατὺν κινήσω τὸν γέλωτα, ὑπὸ παραπετάσματι καλυπτόμενος χιόνος τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἔγραψα, ἣν δεξάμενος ψαύων χερσὶ γνώσει ὡς κρυερά τις αὕτη καὶ τὸν πέμψαντα χαρακτηρίζει ἐμφωλεύοντα καὶ μὴ δυνάμενον ἔξω τῶν δωματίων προκύπτειν. Τάφους γὰρ τοὺς οἴκους κεκτήμεθα, μέχρις ἐπιλάβοι τὸ ἔαρ καὶ νεκροὺς ἡμᾶς ὄντας πρὸς ζωὴν ἐπανάξει πάλιν τὸ εἶναι ὥσπερ φυτοῖς χαριζόμενον.

351.τ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΣ ΛΙΒΑΝΙΩ