Letter 355: Are you living at Athens, Basil? Have you forgotten yourself? The sons of the Cæsareans could not endure to hear these things.
Basil, are you still living in Athens? Have you forgotten who you are? [Athens: still the prestigious center of Greek rhetoric and philosophy]
The young men of Caesarea couldn't bear to hear what I'm about to tell you. My own tongue wasn't used to saying it either. It was like stepping onto unfamiliar ground — startled by something it had never heard before, it turned on me and said: *Father, you never taught us this. This man is Homer, or Plato, or Aristotle, or Susarion.* [Susarion: credited as the founder of Greek comedy] *He knows everything.*
That's what my tongue said.
I only wish, Basil, that you could praise me the same way.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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