Sketch of the Life and Works of Saint Basil the Great

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From Constantinople the young Cappadocian student proceeded in 351 to Athens. Of an university town of the 4th century we have a lively picture in the writings of his friend, [40] and are reminded that the rough horse-play of the modern undergraduate is a survival of a very ancient barbarism. The lads were affiliated to certain fraternities, [41] and looked out for the arrival of every new student at the city, with the object of attaching him to the classes of this or that teacher. Kinsmen were on the watch for kinsmen and acquaintances for acquaintances; sometimes it was mere good-humoured violence which secured the person of the freshman. The first step in this grotesque matriculation was an entertainment; then the guest of the day was conducted with ceremonial procession through the agora to the entrance of the baths. There they leaped round him with wild cries, and refused him admission. At last an entry was forced with mock fury, and the neophyte was made free of the mysteries of the baths and of the lecture halls. Gregory of Nazianzus, a student a little senior to Basil, succeeded in sparing him the ordeal of this initiation, and his dignity and sweetness of character seem to have secured him immunity from rough usage without loss of popularity. [42] At Athens the two young Cappadocians were noted among their contemporaries for three things: their diligence and success in work; their stainless and devout life; and their close mutual affection. Everything was common to them. They were as one soul. What formed the closest bond of union was their faith. God and their love of what is best made them one. [43] Himerius, a pagan, and Prohaeresius, an Armenian Christian, are mentioned among the well-known professors whose classes Basil attended. [44] Among early friendships, formed possibly during his university career, Basil's own letters name those with Terentius [45] and Sophronius. [46]

[40] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii., and poem De Vita Sua.

[41] phratriai. Greg., De Vita Sua, 215.

[42] A somewhat similar exemption is recorded of Dean Stanley at Rugby.

[43] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 20, 21; Carm. xi. 221-235: ";;O d' eis en hemas diapherontos egage Tout en theos te kai pothos ton kreissonon." Ullman (Life of Greg.) quotes Cic., De Amicitia, xxv.: "Amicitiae vis est in eo ut unus quasi animus fiat ex pluribus."

[44] Soc. iv. 26 and Soz. vi. 17.

[45] Ep. lxiv.

[46] Ep. cclxxii.

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