Βασίλειος

Bishop of Cappadocian Caesarea↗ (which in the past used to be called Mazaca);¹ a close friend of Gregory the bishop of Nadianda [= Nazianzus]. He came from illustirous parents, Basil and Emmelia, whose family [is discussed] above. A very famous man and one who advanced to the summit of every [branch of] education.² This man wrote many works, of which especially the commentaries on the Hexaemeron are admired.³ He also composed⁴ remarkable orations against Eunomius, and a book on the Holy Spirit, and the nine homilies on the Hexaemeron; another work on the ascetic lifestyle, [and] one on virginity; an oration in praise of the Forty Martyrs, another in praise of Gordius, another in praise of Barlaam, and another in praise of Julitta.⁵ [There are] several edifying orations on different Psalms; letters -- unsurpassed -- to the sophist Libanius and to his friend Gregory and to many others.⁶ On this Basil, also, Philostorgius has made a record in a story about him. He wrote as follows.⁷ "For in those times Basil flourished in Cappadocian Caesarea↗ and Gregory in Nadiandus (this place was a station in Cappadocia) and Apollinarius in Laodicea in Syria↗. These three men then fiercely defended the consubstantiality against the heterosubstantiality, having surpassed by and large everybody who in the past and later, until my own day, supported this same heresy, so that Athanasius would be judged a child in comparison to them.⁸ They progressed far in the so-called education "from outside"; and of the holy scriptures, as much as they through the reading filled their memory, they had much experience and of them Basil had the most. And each one of them was in his own way a most respectable writer. Basil was by far at his best in the panegyrical genre: he was indeed most brilliant in delivering festival orations; Apollinarius on the other hand was excellent in the commentary genre. Gregory, however, had -- and this was also the judgment of the other two -- the largest resources for the composing of homilies." These things Philostorgius the Arian as if in passing wrote about them. Basil died when Gratianus held the scepter of the Romans.⁹
Basil the Great had four brothers: Gregory the bishop of Nyssa, and Peter (also a bishop), and two others who became monks.¹⁰