1

Epistulae

TO BASIL1.1 I broke my promise, I confess, having agreed to be with you and to philosophize together, a promise made back in Athens and born of our friendship and affinity there; for I can mention nothing more intimate than these. 1.2 But I did not break it willingly, but because one law overcame another, the law which commands us to care for our parents overcoming that of companionship and intimacy. 1.3 However, I will not break it entirely, if you yourself accept this: let us be with you for part of the time, and be willing for you to be with us for the rest, so that all things may be in common and our friendship on equal terms. For in this way it will be possible both not to grieve them and to enjoy your company. 2.T TO THE SAME 2.1 I cannot bear being reproached for Tiberina and the mud and winters here, O you who are so free from mud and walk on tiptoe and tap the paving stones, or you winged and lofty one, borne along on the arrow of Abaris, so that though a Cappadocian you flee from Cappadocia. 2.2 Or are we unjust because you are pale and breathe with difficulty and have the sun measured out to you, while we are sleek and well-fed and not circumscribed? But these things are not for you. 2.3 But you live in luxury and are rich and go to the market; this I do not praise. Either, then, stop reproaching us for the mud (for neither did you build the city, nor we the winters); or we too shall bring up against you, instead of the mud, the shopkeepers and all the evils that cities produce. 3.T TO EVAGRIUS 3.1 I was pleased to be praised. For that our son Evagrius is held in high esteem, means that we are held in high esteem; for the virtue of children is the glory of their fathers. 3.2 We, as for letters, are conscious of having benefited your son little or not at all, perhaps, for letters are not a great thing for us; but one thing in place of all, and the greatest, we have contributed to him, I will not deny it: the fear of God and persuading him to despise present things. 3.3 For him, then, we have prayed and do pray for the best things, that the principles he received from us he may bring to full fruition and that we may bear some fruit of our zeal. 3.4 To your honor, all thanks, that you deign to remember us and to honor us with reminders of your friendship, which, being not small, we have received with greater pleasure. 4.T TO BASIL 4.1 You may mock and ridicule our affairs, whether in jest or in earnest, it matters not; only smile and be filled with learning and enjoy our friendship; all things from you are good to us, whatever they may be and however they may be. 4.2 For you seem to me to mock even the things here not in order to mock, but to draw me to yourself, if I understand you at all, just as those who dam up streams to divert them elsewhere. Such are always your ways with us. 4.3 But I shall admire your Pontus and the Pontic gloom and the retreat worthy of exile, and the crests above your head and wild beasts, which test your faith, and the underlying desolation, or rather, dormouse-hole, with the august names of school of thought and monastery and academy, and the thickets of wild plants and the crown of precipitous mountains by which you are not crowned, but shut in, 4.4 and the rationed air and the longed-for sun, which you behold as through smoke, O Pontic Cimmerians and sunless ones, condemned not only to a six-month night, as some are said to be, but having not one part of life without shadow, but one long night for your whole life and truly a 20shadow of death20, to use the words of Scripture. 4.5 I praise also the 20narrow and afflicted way20, —I know not whether it leads to the kingdom or to Hades, but for your sake let it lead to the kingdom, —and the place in the midst, what do you wish, shall I falsely call it Eden and the spring divided into four heads from which the inhabited world is watered, or the dry and waterless wilderness, which some Moses will tame by striking a rock with his rod to make it gush? 4.6 For as much as has escaped the rocks, is a torrent bed; and as much as has escaped the torrent beds,

1

Epistulae

ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΙ1.1 Ἐψευσάμην, ὁμολογῶ, τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν συνέσεσθαί σοι καὶ συμφιλοσοφήσειν καθομολογήσας ἐκ τῶν Ἀθηνῶν ἔτι καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖσε φιλίας καὶ συμφυΐας· οὐ γὰρ ἔχω τι τούτων εἰπεῖν οἰκειότερον. 1.2 Ἐψευσάμην δὲ οὐκ ἑκών, ἀλλὰ νόμου νόμον νικήσαντος, τοῦ θεραπεύειν κελεύοντος τοὺς γεννήτορας τὸν τῆς ἑταιρείας καὶ συνηθείας. 1.3 Οὐ μὴν παντάπασι ψεύσομαι, ἂν τοῦτο αὐτὸς καταδέξῃ· τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἡμεῖς σοι συνεσόμεθα, τὰ δὲ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν θέλησον, ἵν' ᾖ τὰ πάντα κοινὰ καὶ τὸ τῆς φιλίας ὁμότιμον. Οὕτω γὰρ ὑπάρξει καὶ τὸ τούτους μὴ λυπεῖν καὶ τὸ σοῦ τυγχάνειν. 2.Τ ΤΩΙ ΑΥΤΩΙ 2.1 Οὐ φέρω τὴν Τιβερινὴν ἐγκαλούμενος καὶ τοὺς ἐνταῦθα πηλοὺς καὶ χειμῶνας, ὦ λίαν ἄπηλε σὺ καὶ ἀκρόβαμον καὶ τὰς πλάκας κατακροαίνων, ἢ ὑπόπτερε σὺ καὶ μετάρσιε καὶ τῷ Ἀβάριδος ὀϊστῷ συμφερόμενε, ἵνα καὶ Καππαδόκης ὢν φεύγῃς τὰ Καππαδοκίας. 2.2 Ἢ ἀδικοῦμεν ὅτι ὑμεῖς μὲν ὠχριᾶτε καὶ στενὸν ἀναπνεῖτε καὶ μετρεῖσθε τὸν ἥλιον· ἡμεῖς δὲ λιπῶμεν καὶ κορεν νύμεθα καὶ οὐ περιγεγράμμεθα; Ἀλλ' οὐ ταῦτα ὑμῖν ἐστι. 2.3 Τρυφᾶτε δὲ καὶ πλουτεῖτε καὶ ἀγοράζετε· τοῦτο οὐκ ἐπαινῶ. Ἢ τοίνυν παῦσαι τοὺς πηλοὺς ὀνειδίζων ἡμῖν (οὔτε γὰρ τὴν πόλιν σὺ δεδημιούργηκας, οὔτε τοὺς χειμῶνας ἡμεῖς)· ἢ καὶ ἡμεῖς σοι προσοίσομεν ἀντὶ τῶν πηλῶν τοὺς καπηλοὺς καὶ ὅσα αἱ πόλεις μοχθηρὰ φέρουσιν. 3.Τ ΕΥΑΓΡΙΩΙ 3.1 Ἥσθην ἐπαινούμενος. Τὸ γὰρ τὸν υἱὸν ἡμῶν Εὐάγριον εὐδοκιμεῖν, ἡμᾶς ἐστιν εὐδοκιμεῖν· τέκνων γὰρ ἀρετὴ δόξα πατέρων. 3.2 Ἡμεῖς δέ, εἰς λόγους μέν, οὐδὲν ἢ μικρὸν ἴσως σύνισμεν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς ὠφελήσασι τὸν σὸν υἱόν, οὐδὲ γὰρ μέγα ἡμῖν τὸ τῶν λόγων· ἓν δὲ ἀντὶ πάντων αὐτῷ καὶ μέγιστον συνεισηνέγκαμεν, οὐκ ἀρνήσομαι, τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ φόβον καὶ τὸ πεῖσαι τῶν παρόντων καταφρονεῖν. 3.3 Ἐκείνῳ μὲν οὖν τὰ κάλλιστα συνηυξάμεθά τε καὶ συνευχόμεθα, ἵν' ἃς ἔλαβε παρ' ἡμῶν ἀρχὰς τελέως καρποφορήσῃ καί τινα τῆς σπουδῆς καρπὸν ἐνεγκώμεθα. 3.4 Τῇ δὲ σῇ τιμιότητι πᾶσα χάρις, ὅτι καὶ μεμνῆσθαι ἡμῶν ἀξιοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι τιμᾶν τῆς φιλίας· ἅπερ οὐ μικρὰ ὄντα μειζόνως ὑπεδεξάμεθα. 4.Τ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΙ 4.1 Σὺ μὲν σκῶπτε καὶ διάσυρε τὰ ἡμέτερα, εἴτε παίζων, εἴτε σπουδάζων, οὐδὲν τοῦτο πρᾶγμα· μειδία μόνον καὶ τῆς παιδεύσεως ἐμφοροῦ καὶ τῆς φιλίας ἡμῶν ἀπόλαυε· πάντα χρηστὰ ἡμῖν τὰ παρὰ σοῦ, ὁποῖά ποτ' ἂν ᾖ καὶ ὅπως ἂν ἔχῃ. 4.2 Καὶ γάρ μοι καὶ τὰ ἐνταῦθα σκώπτειν δοκεῖς οὐκ ἵνα σκώψῃς, ἀλλ' ἵνα πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἑλκύσῃς, εἴ τί γε ἐγώ σου συνίημι, ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ ῥεύματα φράσσοντες, ἵν' ἀλλαχοῦ μεθελκύσωσι. Τοιαῦτα ἡμῖν ἀεὶ τὰ σά. 4.3 Ἐγὼ δέ σου τὸν Πόντον θαυμάσομαι καὶ τὴν ποντικὴν ξουφηρίαν καὶ τὴν φυγῆς ἀξίαν μονήν, τούς τε ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς λόφους καὶ θῆρας, οἳ τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν δοκιμά ζουσι, καὶ τὴν ὑποκειμένην ἐσχατίαν, εἴτ' οὖν μυωξίαν μετὰ τῶν σεμνῶν ὀνομάτων τοῦ φροντιστηρίου τε καὶ τοῦ μοναστηρίου καὶ τῆς σχολῆς, λόχμας τε ἀγρίων φυτῶν καὶ βαθυκρήμνων ὀρῶν στέφανον ὑφ' ὧν μὴ στεφανοῦσθε, ἀλλὰ συγκλείεσθε, 4.4 τόν τε μετρούμενον ἀέρα καὶ τὸν ποθούμενον ἥλιον, ὃν ὡς διὰ κάπνης αὐγάζεσθε, ὦ ποντικοὶ Κιμμέριοι καὶ ἀνήλιοι καὶ οὐ τὴν ἑξάμηνον νύκτα μόνον κατακριθέντες, ὃ δή τινες λέγονται, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἓν μέρος τῆς ζωῆς ἄσκιον ἔχοντες, μίαν δὲ νύκτα μακρὰν τὸν ἅπαντα βίον καὶ ὄντως 20σκιὰν θανάτου20, ἵν' εἴπω τὸ τῆς Γραφῆς. 4.5 Ἐπαινῶ καὶ τὴν 20στενὴν καὶ τεθλιμμέ νην ὁδόν20, -οὐκ οἶδα εἴτε εἰς βασιλείαν εἴτε εἰς Ἅιδου φέρουσαν, σοῦ δὲ ἕνεκεν εἰς βασιλείαν φερέτω, -καὶ τὴν ἐν μέσῳ, τί βούλει, πότερον Ἐδὲμ ὀνομάσω ψευδόμενος καὶ τὴν εἰς τέσσαρας ἀρχὰς μεριζομένην πηγὴν ἐξ ἧς ἡ οἰκουμένη ποτίζεται, ἢ τὴν ξηρὰν καὶ ἄνυδρον ἐρημίαν, ἥν τις ἡμερώσει Μωσῆς ῥάβδῳ πέτραν πηγάσας; 4.6 Ἔστι γὰρ ὅσον μὲν διαπέφευγε τὰς πέτρας, χαραδρεών· ὅσον δὲ τὰς χαράδρας,