Self-Portrait in !ree Colors Gregory of Nazianzus’s Epistolary Autobiography Bradley K. Storin UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press Oakland, California © "#$% by Bradley K. Storin Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Storin, Bradley K., author. Title: Self-portrait in three colors : Gregory of Nazianzus’s epistolary autobiography / Bradley K. Storin. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, ["#$%] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identi&ers: '(() "#$%##*"*+ (print) | '(() "#$%##%%$+ (ebook) | ,-.) %/+#0"#%/"%1# () | ,-.) %/+#0"#*#1$*# (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: '(-2: Gregory, of Nazianzus, Saint. Correspondence. | Gregory, of Nazianzus, Saint—Criticism and interpretation. Classi&cation: '(( 34*%%+.5/* (ebook) | '(( 34*%%+.5/* -/6 "#$% (print) | 77( ++6/.#$—dc"* LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/"#$%##*"*+ Manufactured in the United States of America "+ "/ "6 "0 "1 "* "" "$ "# $% $# % + / 6 0 1 * " $ '()*+)*, Acknowledgments vii Note on Translations ix !. An Epistolary Autobiography ! ". #e Architecture of the Letter Collection "# $. “#e Most Eloquent Gregory” !$! %. “Father of Philosophers” !"! &. “Basilist” !%& Epilogue !'( Abbreviations !)! Notes !)# Works Cited ""' Index of Gregory’s Epistulae "%# Index of Subjects "(( )*+,-./01230,45 !is book has been in the making for a decade now and has taken several forms. It began as a dissertation that includes not only a full-length critical analysis of Gre- gory of Nazianzus’s epistolary discourse and late antique epistolary culture writ large but also a translation of all the letters in Gregory’s collection. I came to realize near its completion, however, that I had not discussed in any detail the construction of the collection as a cohesive and coherent autobiographical text; indeed, this line of inquiry has been largely untapped in scholarship more broadly. And so, I followed a new research path that has culminated in the production of both this monograph and its partner publication, Gregory of Nazianzus’s Letter Collection: !e Complete Translation (University of California Press, "#$%). As with any project with so long a life-span, a host of people have le& their mark on these books in one way or another. First and foremost is my doctoral adviser, David Brakke, whose constant support and guidance has been nothing short of exceptional. I also appreciate the early feed- back and helpful comments from Constance Furey, Bert Harrill, and Ed Watts, the other members of my dissertation committee. A&er I completed my graduate stud- ies, Ed and I began to plan a separate volume on letter collections from late antiquity and quickly asked Cristiana Sogno to lend her expertise to the project; the fruits of our work were published as Late Antique Letter Collections: A Critical Introduction and Reference Guide ("#$'), also with University of California Press. Ed and Cris- tiana proved to be not only terri(c conversation partners and drinking companions but also paragons of graciousness and professionalism. In our work on that volume, I came into contact with many scholars whose insights informed my thought on Gregory, especially Susanna Elm, Christopher Jones, Lillian Larsen, Bronwen Neil, Michele Salzman, Dennis Trout, and Lieve Van Hoof. Numerous friends and scholars vii viii 6*+,-./01230,45 of late antique Christianity have also pushed me in fruitful directions, so special thanks to Ellen Muehlberger, Diane S. Fruchtman, and David Maldonado; Andrew Radde-Gallwitz and Mark DelCogliano; Paul M. Blowers, Ryan Clevenger, Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, Nathan Howard, David G. Hunter, Anthony Kaldellis, Joel Kalves- maki, Morwenna Ludlow, Heidi Marx, Neil McLynn, Alexander J. Petkas, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard, Philip Rousseau, Kristina Sessa, Stephen Shoemaker, Arthur Urb- ano, and Raymond Van Dam. !anks also go to friends who don’t study late antique Christianity in a professional capacity but nevertheless permitted me to talk about aspects of the project with them, including Brandon Beck, Joy Brennan, Blake Davis, Geo7rey Goble, Erik J. Hammerstrom, Patrick Michelson, and Steven Weitzman. Louisiana State University has been a great home in which to (nish these books, most notably because of the generosity of colleagues like Paul Anderson, Paula K. Arai, Delbert Burkett, Maribel Dietz, Stephen C. Finley, Stuart Irvine, Charles Isbell, Sherri Franks Johnson, Suzanne L. Marchand, Austin McCray, Andy McLean, Michael Pasquier, François Ra7oul, Maria Rethelyi, Mary Sirridge, James R. Stoner, Margaret O. Toups, and Michelle Zerba. Portions of this work were publicly presented at Indiana University, Louisiana State University, the University of California–San Diego, the Seventeenth Interna- tional Conference on Patristic Studies at Oxford, and many meetings of the North American Patristics Society. I remain grateful to the thoughtful audiences for lis- tening to me talk about Gregory, his letters, and his autobiographical habits and for o7ering reliably helpful feedback. I am particularly grateful to Christopher A. Beeley, the editor of the Christianity in Late Antiquity Series. He has been an excellent shepherd for this series, gener- ously discussing the ins and outs of publication with precision and promptness. Unsurprisingly, we have also talked a great deal about Gregory. I extend my warm- est thanks to Eric Schmidt, the classics and religious studies acquisitions editor for University of California Press, who has endured numerous conversations over the years about this project and provided steadfast support and professionalism along the way. !e editorial sta7 at UC Press has been nothing short of exceptional, par- ticularly Archna Patel and Cindy Fulton. I have also been fortunate to work with Juliana Froggatt, the copy editor whose eagle eye and expertise have vastly improved the manuscript of this book. I consider myself lucky to have worked with her. Finally, I cannot overlook the unwavering support I have received from my parents and sister—Rochelle, Phil, and Kim—who, through times dark and bright, never discouraged me from choosing a career path characterized by unpredicta- bility and luck, nor from Suzannah, my wife and really just my favorite person, who tolerated endless Gregory-talk and endured the frustrations and delights of academia with abiding grace, patience, elegance, and sweetness. And thanks to my daughters, Corrina and Ruby, for being constant sources of curiosity, charm, noise, fun, and, above all, unadulterated hilarity. %&'( &% ')*%+,*'-&%+ Unless otherwise indicated, all translations in this monograph are my own. Although considerations of space prevent me from providing the original pas- sages, each translation is accompanied by a note indicating the critical edition, including the relevant page numbers, on which it is based. References to or para- phrases of primary sources simply follow the conventional notation, providing book, chapter, and subsection numbers where appropriate. All translations of Gregory of Nazianzus’s letters are my own, published in a partner volume, Gregory of Nazianzus’s Letter Collection: !e Complete Translation (University of California Press, !"#$). ix ! An Epistolary Autobiography MAKING A LETTER COLLECTION In late "#" or early "#$, Gregory of Nazianzus sent a packet of letters to his great- nephew Nicobulus, who had recently begun his studies of rhetoric and classical literature in Caesarea, the capital and metropolitan city of the province Cappadocia Prima. Gregory had recently retired from a long and tumultuous career in the church as a priest and bishop, a career that saw him move from the margins of pro- vincial politics to the center of Roman imperial power and back out again to the social periphery in his later years. Now, it seems, he intended to spend his remain- ing days at Arianzus, his family’s property near his hometown, attending dinner parties and weddings, conversing with his peers, enjoying the otium in which he could compose new literary texts and edit old ones, and perhaps even pursuing stints of ascetic renunciation—in other words, living the life of a provincial Chris- tian elite in his waning days. %ese last years of his life are obscure to modern his- torians (the year of Gregory’s death—"&'—is known only because of a comment that Jerome makes in his De viris illustribus),( but there is little reason to suspect that Gregory’s quotidian existence then was anything other than calm and easy. Nicobulus had asked for some of Gregory’s letters to use as models for his own epistolary composition, the )rst subject of study at the start of his advanced educa- tion.* “You’re requesting +owers from the meadow in late autumn,” Gregory responded, “and arming the aged Nestor with your current demand for something expedient for eloquence from me, who long ago abandoned the delight of all discourse and society” (Gr. Naz., Ep. ,-.!). Retirement was the goal now, but nevertheless the task that Nicobulus put to his great-uncle was no “struggle of ! - ./ 0123456789 .:45;25<871=9 Eurystheian or Herculean proportions, but one quite gentle and suited to me, col- lecting for you as many of my epistles as I can” (Ep. ,-.-). What Gregory sent, it turns out, was a massive collection, likely consisting of more than -$' letters, all selected for their demonstration of eloquence, or elite learning. One even provided Nicobulus with a cheat sheet of sorts, a theoretical overview of what Gregory thought to be the de)nitive features of his signature