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In Quest of Basil's Retreat: An Expedition to Ancient Pontus*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Anna M. Silvas
Anna M. Silvas*
Affiliation:
The University of New England
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Extract

Basil of Caesarea (AD 329–378), his brother, Gregory of Nyssa (335–394), and their friend, Gregory Nazianzen (328–389), are a group of three great Christian thinkers of the late 4th century AD known as the ‘Cappadocian Fathers’. All were steeped in the culture of traditional Hellenism, and at the same time were great theologians and leaders who steered the Christian church of the eastern Roman empire in the turbulent years of the late 4th century. Theologically they are best known for bringing to a close the Arian controversy that had wracked the Christian church for most of the 4th century. Basil, called ‘the Great’ in the Christian tradition for his leading role in steering the Arian controversy to a conclusion, is also known for his reforms of the unruly ascetic movement in Asia Minor, documented in such works as his Asketikon. As a result of his labours he effectively established Greek cenobitic (common-life) monasticism. But his influence as a preceptor of Christian monasticism was destined to spread far, both east in Syria and in the Latin West. A Latin translation was an important source of the Rule of St Benedict, which set the tone of western monasticism for many centuries to come.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 41 , 2007 , pp. 73 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2007

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Footnotes

*

This article resulted from research that was partly funded by the ASCS “Early Career” Award, of which Anna Silvas was the inaugural winner. The award was used to help fund travel to Turkey to examine the area more closely and to identify (successfully, it would seem) the site.

References

1 Basil synthesised his own ideas on the place of classical Hellenism in the education of Christian youths in his , written for the benefit of nephews. This work became a great favourite in the Renaissance as a classic statement of Christian humanism. For text and translation see Saint Basil / The Letters, ed. and tr. Deferrari, Roy J., vol. 4 (London 1934)Google Scholar, ‘Address to young men on reading Greek literature’, 365-435. For analysis see Moffatt, Ann, ‘The Occasion of St Basil's Address to Young Men’, Antichthon 6 (1972) 74–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 For a general survey of the Arian controversy culminating in the council of Constantinople in 381 with the triumph of the Neo-nicene cause, which had been captained by Basil, see Chadwick, H., The Early Church, rev. ed. (London 1993), 133-51Google Scholar, and Daniélou, J. and Marrou, H., The Christian Centuries: The First Six Hundred Years (London 1964) 255-68Google Scholar.

3 See Silvas, A., The Asketikon of St Basil the Great (Oxford 2005)Google Scholar, especially chap. 4, ‘The Emergence of Christian Monasticism in Fourth Century Anatolia’, 51-101.

4 This is the ancient Amaseia, hometown of the geographer Strabo. From the time of the emperor Tiberius, this area south of the Black Sea was the Roman province of Pontus (with varying administrative subdivisions and configurations) for more than a thousand years.

5 Translated from Saint Basile: Correspondence, ed. and tr. Courtonne, Y., 3 vols, vol. 1: Lettres I-C, 2nd ed. (Paris 2003) 42-5Google Scholar. See also Deferrari, (n. 1) 106-11Google Scholar.

6 Evidently referring to the mountain pass mentioned in Gregory Nazianzen, Letter 4, appearing below.

7 The geographic connotation of is not immediately apparent. The noun as such is not recorded in LSJ, Greek-English Lexicon, or Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon. Gregory of Nyssa, however, uses it in his Letter 1.8, where it refers to a look-out reached along a mountain pass, with a view over the valley beneath. See Gregorii Nysseni Epistulae, ed. Pasquali, G., editio altera, GNO 8.2 (Leiden 1959) 1–12Google Scholar at 3, and Silvas, A., Gregory of Nyssa: The Utters (Leiden 2007) 105-14Google Scholar at 109.

8 The river Strymon rises in Mt Scomius in Macedonia, then flows S and SE, passing through Lake Presias, and discharges into a bay of the Aegean Sea just south of Amphipolis, a city founded by the Athenians, and at one period the chief Greek city in the northern Aegean. The ruins of Amphipolis are on the western side of a hill girded by the Strymon on the NW and a valley to the East On the river Strymon and Amphipolis see Hes. Theog. 339, Aesch. Ag. 192, Hdt. 8.75, Thuc. 2.96,4.108,5.7, Strabo 7.7.4,7.35, 7.36,7.47.

9 This seems to be an implied criticism of the disadvantages of the Via Pontica which ran right through or by the Annisa estate, and indeed lay on the other side of the high ridge which safety cut off the retreat from any ready traffic.

10 This is the district in which was located the country estate of Gregory Nazianzen's family at Arianzus. It was in southern Cappadocia. The present author visited the site of Arianzus in March 2006. It was in a small, secluded valley just below the mountain-pass village of Sivrihisar (reached through Güzelyurt). With the remains of its ancient ‘Red Church’, standing solitary in the valley, it was one of the most evocative of all places connected with the Cappadocian Fathers. Here Gregory spent his last years in the 380s.

11 See Nazianzen, Gregory, Lettres. ed. and tr. Gallay, P., 2 vols, vol. 1 Lettres I-C, 2nd ed. (Paris 2003) 3–8Google Scholar.

12 Translated from Gallay, , Saint Grégoire de Naziame: Correspondence, 1, 3–5Google Scholar.

13 Ar, . Clouds 94Google Scholar.

14 Hom, . Od. 11.15–19Google Scholar: since the sun never shone on them the Cimmerians lived in perpetual shadow.

15 . Gregory plays on the word for ‘kingship’, ‘dominion’, ‘reign’ used in the Gospels , and Basil's name, (‘kingly’, ‘royal’).

16 These are cataracts of the Nile.

17 One of Tantalus' punishments was to be threatened constantly by the falling of a rock suspended above his head.

18 Translated from Gallay, , Saint Grégoire de Nazianze: Correspondance, 1, 5–7Google Scholar.

19 Od. 7.492Google Scholar.

20 Od. 9.84Google Scholar.

21 Od 8.59–61Google Scholar: Alcinous offered a sumptuous feast in honour of Odysseus.

22 Her name was Emmelia, which we learn from Gregory's Epigrams 161, 162 and 164.

23 Translated from Gallay, , Saint Grégoire de Nazianze: Correspondence, 1, 7–8Google Scholar.

24 . This was the beginning of that study and literary activity that resulted ultimately in Basil's Asketikon, and other documents on the ascetic that helped establish cenobitic monastic life.

25 According to Hdt. 7.31, while Xerxes was passing through Lydia he came across a plane tree he thought so beautiful that he adorned it with gold and assigned one of his Immortals to guard it.

26 Again, the play is between the word for ‘king’ and Basil's name.

27 See Deferrari (n. 1) 1, 24-9 at 26-7: ‘a rustic, one of those who lived with us at Annisa'. How important this solitary piece of information mentioned so incidentally, and yet linking up with subsequent toponymy! The only other ancient source that possibly confirms it is the 2nd cent, AD geographer Ptolemy, . Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, ed. Talbert, Richard J.A. (Princeton 2000)Google Scholar map 87, records the name of the site as Boinasa, citing Ptol. Geog. 5.6.8.

28 For the text see Vita Sanctae Macrinae, in Ascetica, ed. Callahan, Virginia Woods, Gregorii Nysseni Opera 8.1 (Leiden 1963)Google Scholar, Grégoire de Nysse: Lettres, ed. and tr. Maraval, Pierre, Sources Chrétiennes 363 (Paris 1990)Google Scholar. For an English translation see Saint Gregory of Nyssa/Ascetical Works, tr. Callahan, Virginia Woods (Washington DC 1967)Google Scholar, ‘The Life of Macrina’, 161-91. A new annotated translation by the present author will appear in Silvas, A., Macrina the Younger, Philosopher of God (Turnhout forthcoming 2007)Google Scholar.

29 Translated from Callahan, Woods, Vita Sanctae Macrinae, 378-9Google Scholar.

30 See The Epigrams of St Gregory the Theologian, Book VIII, in The Greek Anthology, ed. and tr. Paton, W.R. (London 1919) 399–505Google Scholar.

31 Adapted from the translation in Paton, , The Epigrams, 468Google Scholar. The last sentence means that when Naucratius embraced Baptism he chose at the same time to pursue an ascetic life in the wooded hills near the river, and that life-style (which came with Baptism) led to his being drowned in the river.

32 Girard, D.M., ‘Dans les solitudes du Pont Types et paysages’, Les missions catholiques 37 (1905) 33-5Google Scholar. The author is indebted to P.J. Fedwick (Toronto) for sending a copy of this article.

33 de Jerphanion, G., ‘Ibora-Gazioura? Etude de géographie pontique’, Université Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth (Syrie)Google Scholar, Mélanges de la Faculté Orientate 5 (1911) 333-54Google Scholar. While in the offices of the Museum at Nevşehir in March 2006, the present author saw mounted on the walls several historically valuable photographs taken by de Jerphanion during his expeditions in Cappadocia and Pontus.

34 Along the same lines as Samsun, which is the Amisos of Roman and Byzantine times.

35 Rousseau, P., Basil of Caesarea (Berkeley 1994) 62Google Scholar n. 7.

36 See Mitchell, S., Anatolia. Land, Men and Gods in Asia Minor, 2 vols (Oxford 1993)Google Scholar, vol. I: The Celts and the Impact of Roman Rule; vol. 2Google Scholar: The Rise of the Church.

37 Pompey defeated Mithridates VI Eupator, in the Third Mithridatic War, 66 BC. Sources are: Appian, Mithridatica (Book 12 of his Romaica) and also his Bella Civilia 1.80ff; Plutarch, Sertorius, Lucullus, and Pompey; see also Pliny and Dio Cassius. The Cambridge Ancient History, ed. Cook, S.A.et al. (Cambridge 1966)Google Scholar vol. IX, 376-83, 390-6, summarises Pompey's movements in this area: ‘After a winter spent in Armenia Minor, Pompey proceeded in the spring of 64 BC to Amisus on the Pontic coast, where he gave audiences to client-kings and nude a provisional settlement of Asia Minor’ (p. 381)... ‘At the end of 63 he went into winter quarters at Amisus, and he spent the next year in Asia Minor, putting the finishing touches to his political settlement’ (p. 390)... ‘Under the terms of the Lex Manilla (66 BC, which gave Pompey the provinces of Cilicia, Bithynia and Pontus) Pompey carried out a general settlement of the Near East, without the assistance of the usual decemviral commission from the Senate’ (p. 392)... ‘In Bithynia the ‘Lex Pompeia’ was still in force in the days of the younger Pliny [ad Traian. imp. 79, 80, 112, 114, 115]’ (p. 394).

38 Anderson, J.G.C., Stadia Pontica, I: A Journey of Exploration in Pontus (Brussels 1903) 73-9Google Scholar at 75-6.

39 The author is much indebted to her colleague, Denis Wright, for help in preparing this composite map, and all the photographs and graphics for publication.

40 Anderson, (n. 38) 74-8Google Scholar. Eupatoria was a town in the vicinity being built by Mithridates Eupator. After his defeat by the Romans, it was renamed after Pompey the Great (Magnus). See Strabo, 12.3.30Google Scholar. Similarly, further west along the Via Pontica, another town was named after him, Pompeiopolis, today Taşköprü.

41 Bryer, Anthony M. and Winfield, David, The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos, 2 vols, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 20 (Washington DC, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1985)Google Scholar, vol. 1, 41 and 43.

42 See Biyer, Anthony M., ‘Trebizond: The Last Byzantine Empire’, History Today 10:2 (1960) 125Google Scholar-35, and ‘Trebizond’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 29 (1975) 115-48Google Scholar.

43 The author is indebted to GUlgun Girdivan, secretary of the British Institute at Ankara, for translating and forwarding the tetter. Indeed the help of the BIA staff in all ways is warmly acknowledged.

44 Carmel Silvas has a three-year diploma in horticulture and identified the species from the shape of the dried leaves and from the seed ball. It was too early in spring for the trees to have come into leaf.