362 BASIL THE GREAT Basil; and was repeatedly engaged in war with the caliph of Bagdad, from whom he made valuable conquests, and with his old allies the Sicilian Arabs. But his most impor- tant war was that which resulted in the con- quest of Bulgaria. This war broke out in 987, and lasted, with few intermissions, till 1018. In the first years of it Basil conquered a con- siderable portion of the southwestern division of that kingdom ; but in 996 Samuel, its king, overran all Macedonia and Thessaly, laid siege to Thessalonica, and penetrated into the Pelo- ponnesus. During his homeward march, how- ever, he was encountered by Basil on the banks of the Sperchius, and defeated. In 999 Nice- phorus Xiphias, the general of Basil, captured two of the most important strongholds in Bul- garia proper; and in 1002 Samuel again in- vaded Macedonia and Thrace, and even took Adrianople, but was driven back to his own kingdom. Basil gave his enemies such an overthrow at Zetunium that they never recov- ered from the blow. On this occasion the em- peror showed no mercy to the vanquished. Of 15,000 prisoners he ordered the eyes of all to be put out save those of one in every 100, who was to guide his 99 unfortunate brethren in arms to their native land. The cries of these poor wretches, as they approached the camp of their countrymen, had an effect on the Bul- garian monarch which the shouts of his foes could never produce ; he fell to the ground in- sensible, and expired on the third day after. The conquest of Bulgaria was, however, not entirely completed till 1018, when it became a Greek province and was subjected to the rule of a Greek governor. Basil contemplated the expulsion of the Arabs from Sicily ; but in the midst of his preparations for it he was seized with an illness which terminated his life. To expiate the sins of his youth, Basil wore the hair shirt of a monk beneath his imperial robe, and lived the abstemious life of an ascetic. Notwithstanding his incessant wars, he accu- mulated from his surplus revenue during his reign an enormous fortune, estimated to have been equal to 8,000,000 sterling. BASIL THE GREAT, a saint of the Christian church, born at Ceesarea in Cappadocia in 328 or 329, died Jan. 1, 379. His father and moth- er were St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia. His father belonged to a noble family of Pon- tus, which had long been Christian. He had nine brothers and sisters, all of whom, accord- ing to the testimony of their intimate friend St. Gregory Nazianzen, were remarkable for sanc- tity, and three of whom are canonized, viz., St. Gregory Nyssen, St. Peter of Sebaste, and St. Macrimi. His early education was superin- tended by his father, after whose death he con- tinued his studies at Cresarea, Constantinople, and Athens. He excelled in eloquence and logic, applied himself also to philosophy, natu- ral science, medicine, poetry, and the fine arts, and was one of the most ardent advocates of the study of classical literature and eloquence in Christian schools. At Athens he formed an intimacy with St. Gregory Nazianzen. He re- turned to Ca;sarea in 355, and opened a school of rhetoric with brilliant success, but soon gave it up for the purpose of embracing a religious life. Dividing the principal part of his prop- erty among the poor, he travelled through Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, to visit the most celebrated anchorets and monasteries. In 358 he returned home, was ordained lector by Dianius, and retired to his grandmother's house in Pontus. His mother and sister had already founded a female convent in the neigh- borhood, on the bank of the river Isis, in which his sister was superior. Basil now founded a monastery, according to some authorities on the opposite bank, according to others at Seleuco- bol, and in the course of time other affiliated monasteries. He remained in his own convent as superior for four years, when he yielded his place to his brother St. Peter of Sebaste. After his election to the episcopate he continued to watch over these religious homes, and com- posed rules and spiritual treatises for them ; and the principal part of the religious in the East are hence called Basilians. In 359, dur- ing a famine, he sold the remaining portion of his property for the relief of the sufferers. Gregory joined him, and has left an interesting account of the life they led in common, in a little hut with a barren garden spot around it, where they found exercise and diversion in cut- ting stone, carrying wood, planting flowers, and making canals to irrigate the sandy soil. In 362 Basil went back to Cssarea and took with him a number of his religious brethren, it seems, to found a cloister. Julian the Apostate was now emperor ; he had been Basil's fellow stu- dent at Athens, and he sent a hypocritical in- vitation to him to come to his court. This in- vitation was declined, and was followed by an- other, which was accompanied by an order to pay 1,000 pounds of gold to the treasurer or be dragged through the city. Basil replied in a very bold and severe style to his old comrade, who soon afterward found his death in the Per- sian war. In his 35th year Basil was ordained priest by Eusebius, the successor of Dianins in Csesarea, but for some reason was soon dis- missed from the high post which the bishop had assigned him. Eusebius's conduct met with general censure. Basil retired again to Pontus, but in 366 Eusebius was obliged to recall him to Csesarea, to stem the irruptions which Arianism was making under the auspices of the emperor Valens. In 870, on the death of Euse- bius, he was elected archbishop of Cajsarea. During the remaining nine years of his life he presided over this important see in such a manner as to win the reputation of one of the greatest bishops of the church. The whole city followed him to the grave, Jews and heathen wept with the Christians at his death, and St. Gregory Nazianzen pronounced his panegyric. The principal efforts of St. Basil the Great were directed to the defence of the
