Letters CCCLXI. and CCCLXIII., to Apollinarius, and Letters CCCLXII. and CCCLXIV., from Apollinarius to Basil, are condemned as indubitably spurious, not only on internal evidence, but also on the ground of Basil’s asseveration that he had never written but once to Apollinarius, and that “as layman to layman.”1559    Ep. ccxxiv. § 2.    Ep. ccxxiv. § 2.    Ep. ccxxiv. § 2.    Ep. ccxxiv. § 2.    Ep. ccxxiv. § 2.  Letter CCCLXV., “to the great emperor Theodosius,” on an inundation in Cappadocia, is also condemned by the Ben. Ed. as spurious, and contains nothing of ecclesiastical or theological interest.  Tillemont however (vol. v., p. 739) thought its style not unworthy of a young man and a rhetorician, and conjectures the Theodosius to whom it is addressed to be not the great emperor, but some magistrate of Cappadocia.

ΑΠΟΛΙΝΑΡΙῼ

[1] Τῷ δεσπότῃ μου τῷ αἰδεσιμωτάτῳ ἀδελφῷ Ἀπολιναρίῳ Βασίλειος. Διημάρτομεν τῶν προφάσεων δι' ὧν ἐνῆν προσειπεῖν σου τὴν εὐλάβειαν, καίτοιγε ἡδέως ἂν ἐπὶ τοῖς γράμμασιν ἐκείνοις ἐπιστείλαντες. Σὲ γὰρ ἐν σιωπῇ κατέχειν τὴν ἡδονὴν ἐπ' ἐκείνοις ἥσθημεν. Ὄντως γὰρ ἡμῖν ἔδοξας οἶος πεπνύσθαι, τῶν ἑρμηνευόντων δὲ σκιαὶ ἀΐσσουσιν, οὕτως ἐπ' ἀσφαλοῦς τῆς διανοίας τὴν ἐξήγησιν ἄγων. Καὶ νῦν δὴ πλέον ὁ ἔρως τῆς γνώσεως τῶν θείων λογίων ἅπτεται τῆς ψυχῆς μου. Προβαλεῖν μὲν οὖν σοι τῶν ἀπορουμένων τινὰ ἀποκνῶ, μὴ δόξω πέρα τοῦ μέτρου ἐμφορεῖσθαι τῆς παρρησίας. Σιωπᾶν δὲ πάλιν οὐ καρτερῶ ὠδίνων καὶ ἔτι προσλαβεῖν ἐφιέμενος. Ἄριστον οὖν μοι κατεφάνη πυθέσθαι σου πότερον ἐφίης ἡμῖν, ὦ θαυμάσιε, ἐρωτᾶν τι τῶν ἀπορουμένων ἢ χρὴ τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν. Ὁπότερον δ' ἂν ἀποκρίνῃ, τοῦτο φυλάξομεν τοῦ λοιποῦ. Ἐρρώμενόν τε καὶ εὔθυμον καὶ ὑπερευχόμενον ἔχοιμέν σε διὰ παντός.