Basil the Great’s references to Eunomius

Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of Eunomius’ Liber Apologetius and Basil of Cesarea’s Adversus Eunomium. As a result, we can discover that Basil wrote his treatise as a typical refutation and is quite precise when refer­ring to Eunomius. Despite some omissions that can be explained basing on the structure of The Eunomian work or historical context, we can find one important omission which is strongly connected with one of the most important topics of the anti-Eunomian polemic. Although Basil pretends to comment Eunomius’ Liber Apologeticus systematically, he deliberately skips one of the most important ele­ments of his adversary’s teaching.

Keywords

• Basil the Great
• Eunomius
• Contra Eunomium
• refutation