Towards the later years of his life the archbishop’s days were darkened not only by ill-health and anxiety, but by the death of some of his chief friends and allies.  Athanasius died in 373, and so far as personal living influence went, there was an extinction of the Pharos not of Alexandria only, but of the world. cf. Epp. lxxxii. and note.  It was no longer “Athanasius contra mundum,” The proverbial expression is conjectured by Dean Stanley to be derived from the Latin version of the famous passage concerning Athanasius in Hooker, Ecc. Pol. v. 42.  Vide Stanley, Grk. Church, lect. vii. but “Mundus sine Athanasio.”  In 374 Gregory the elder died at Nazianzus, and the same year saw the banishment of Eusebius of Samosata to Thrace.  In 375 died Theodotus of Nicopolis, and the succession of Fronto was a cause of deep sorrow.