This letter, the first of six to Meletius of Antioch, is supposed to be assigned to this date, because of Basil’s statement that the state of the Church of Cæsarea was still full of pain to him.  Basil had not yet overcome the opposition of his suffragans, or won the position secured to him after his famous intercourse with Valens in 372.  Meletius had now been for seven years exiled from Antioch, and was suffering for the sake of orthodoxy, while not in full communion with the Catholics, because of the unhappy Eustathian schism.