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A key figure in the Arian dispute leading up to and following the Council of Nicaea, Eusebius of Caesarea (bishop c. 313-39) was not only implicated as a central player in the broader theological developments of the early fourth century but was also one of the most significant formulators of ancient literary representations of the council itself. His writings contain an eye-witness account of the council; a broader narrative of Constantine’s interactions with Christian bishops; letters of Constantine addressing issues of theological or practical debate; his own letters to his home congregation at Caesarea and to other bishops involved in the controversy; and his theological polemic against Marcellus of Ancyra, the promoter of a more radical anti-Arian position. These texts simultaneously assist and complicate modern attempts to construct the precise nature and dynamics of the controversy, the council, and its aftermath. They also provide a fascinating angle by which to discern important features of Eusebius’s fertile authorial work: he stands as a careful and creative formulator of a powerful historiographic, theological, and political vision that would make a signal impact upon later competing accounts of the Council of Nicaea.
Eusebius was born in the early 260s, probably in Caesarea, which was to be the centre of his activities for most of his life. Three events profoundly shaped Eusebius' life and activity. The first was his encounter with Pamphilus. The second great event that affected Eusebius' life was the toleration of Christianity, and indeed the growing imperial patronage of the Church, in the years following Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312. Eusebius became bishop of Caesarea soon after; his was an episcopate that experienced the dramatic change in the relationship between the Christian Church and imperial authority. The third event was his encounter with the Emperor Constantine himself, and his finding himself commissioned to compose a panegyric for his tricennalia. The apprenticeship with Pamphilus marked everything that Eusebius wrote; Eusebius emerged as a man of wide reading and great scholarly erudition. Eusebius' other works of history are his encomia of the emperor.
Basil became Bishop of Caesarea in 370 on Eusebius' death. An extensive range of Basil's writings survive, including over 300 letters and around fifty homilies. His ascetic corpus is foundational within Byzantine monastic literature. Basil's main dogmatic works are his Against Eunomius and his On the Holy Spirit. Basil's homilies on the Hexameron present a perfect example of the difficulty of reading Basil's philosophy. Basil also participates directly in ancient philosophical debate. The epistemological tensions revealed are dealt with at much greater length in Basil's Trinitarian works where questions of what we know when we speak of God press strongly. A great deal of Basil's thinking on the Trinity was worked out in response to Eunomius, sometime bishop of Cyzicus and proponent of the view that the Only-begotten Son is unlike God in substance. Basil's notion of shared substance clearly contains elements inherited from non-Christian philosophy. Basil also uses language for substance that appears to be inspired by Stoicism.
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