At an early age he seems to have been sent to
school at Cæsarea, i.e. the
Cappadocian Cæsarea. The theory of Tillemont that
Cæsarea of Palestine was the scene of Basil’s early school
life seems hardly to deserve the careful refutation of Maran (Vit.
Bas. i. 5). cf. Ep. xlv. p. 148, and p. 145, n.
cf. also note on p. 141 on a possible intercourse between the
boy Basil and the young princes Gallus and Julian in their seclusion at
Macellum. The park and palace of Macellum (Amm. Marc.
“fundus”) was near Mt. Argæus (Soz. v. 2) and
close to Cæsarea. If Basil and Julian did ever study the
Bible together, it seems more probably that they should do so at
Macellum, while the prince was still being educated as a Christian,
than afterwards at Athens, when the residence at Nicomedia has resulted
in the apostasy. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ii.
4. and there to have
formed the acquaintance of an Eusebius, otherwise unknown, Ep.
cclxxi. Hesychius, Ep. lxiv. and Gregory of
Nazianzus, Greg. Naz.
Or. xliii. and to have
conceived a boyish admiration for Dianius the archbishop. Ep. li.