Letter 339
Late Antiquity Basil of Caesarea Greek- Basil to Libanius What would a sophist not say—and such a sophist as you, for whom it is acknowledged to be the very mark of the art both to make great things small whenever he wishes, and to invest small things with greatness? Just such a thing you have displayed in our case. For that squalid letter of mine—as you who revel in eloquence would call it—which was in no way more tolerable than this one you now hold in your hands, you raised so high by your discourse as to feign yourself defeated by it, and to yield to us the first prize in writing; doing the same as fathers do in their games, when by their own victories they let their children plume themselves, neither harming themselves at all, and nourishing the children's love of honour. And in truth the speech, in its play toward us, held untold delight: like some Polydamas or Milo declining the contest of pancratium or wrestling against me; for though I searched much, I found no sample of any weakness—so that those who seek out the extravagances of eloquence admire you more here for your power, in being able to come down to play with us, than if you had brought the barbarian sailing his fleet above Athos. But we, my admirable friend, keep company with Moses and Elijah and men so blessed as these, who tell us their own affairs in the barbarian tongue; and we utter what comes from them, with a true meaning but an unlettered diction, as these very lines make plain. For if we had learned anything from you, we have forgotten it through the lapse of time. But you, write to us, framing other themes for your letters, such as will both display you and not put us to shame. The son of Anysius I have already presented to you as my own son. And if he is my child, then the boy is his father's—poor, the son of a poor man. And the saying is well known to a man both wise and a sophist.