THE STORY OF NAUCRATIUS

The second of the four brothers, Naucratius by name, who came next after the great Basil, excelled the rest in natural endowments and physical beauty, in strength, speed and ability to turn his hand to anything. When [968A] he had reached his twenty-first year, and had given such demonstration of his studies by speaking in public, that the whole audience in the theatre was thrilled, he was led by a divine providence to despise all that was already in his grasp, and drawn by an irresistible impulse went off to a life of solitude and poverty. He took nothing with him but himself, save that one of the servants named Chrysapius followed him, because of the affection he had towards his master and the intention he had formed to lead the same life. So he lived by himself, having found a solitary spot on the banks of the Iris----a river flowing through the midst of Pontus. It rises actually in Armenia, passes through our parts, and discharges its stream into the [968 B] Black Sea. By it the young man found a place with a luxuriant growth of trees and a hill nestling under the mass of the overhanging mountain. There he lived far removed from the noises of the city and the distractions that surround the lives both of the soldier and the pleader in the law courts. Having thus freed himself from the din of cares that impedes man's higher life, with his own hands he looked after some old people who were living in poverty and feebleness, considering it appropriate to his mode of life to make such a work his care. So the generous youth would go on fishing expeditions, and since he was expert in every form of sport, he provided food to his grateful clients by this means. And at the same time by such exercises he was taming his own manhood. Besides this, he also gladly obeyed his mother's wishes whenever she issued a command. And so in these two ways he guided his life, [968 C] subduing his youthful nature by toils and caring assiduously for his mother, and thus keeping the divine commands he was travelling home to God.

In this manner he completed the fifth year of his life as a philosopher, by which he made his mother happy, both by the way in which he adorned his own life by continence, and by the devotion of all his powers to do the will of her that bore him.

Ἦν τῶν τεσσάρων ἀδελφῶν ὁ δεύτερος μετὰ τὸν μέγαν Βασίλειον, Ναυκράτιος ὄνομα αὐτῷ, φύσεως εὐκληρίᾳ καὶ σώματος κάλλει καὶ ῥώμῃ καὶ τάχει καὶ τῇ πρὸς πᾶν ἐπιτηδειότητι διαφέρων τῶν ἄλλων. Προελθὼν οὗτος εἰς δεύτερον ἔτος καὶ εἰκοστὸν καὶ δοὺς τῶν οἰκείων πόνων ἐπὶ δημοσίας ἀκοῆς τὰς ἀποδείξεις, ὥστε ἅπαν ἐπ' αὐτῷ σεισθῆναι τῶν ἀκουόντων τὸ θέατρον, θείᾳ τινὶ προμηθείᾳ τῶν ἐν χερσὶν ἁπάντων ὑπεριδὼν πρὸς τὸν μονήρη καὶ ἀκτήμονα βίον ἀπῆλθεν ἐν μεγάλῃ τινὶ τῆς διανοίας ὁρμῇ, οὐδὲν ἐπαγόμενος μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ πλὴν ἑαυτόν: εἵπετο δέ τις αὐτῷ καὶ τῶν οἰκετῶν Χρυσάφιος τοὔνομα, τῷ τε πρὸς αὐτὸν ἔχειν ἐκεῖνον ἐπιτηδείως καὶ τῷ τὴν αὐτὴν προαίρεσιν περὶ τὸν βίον ἐνστήσασθαι. Διῆγε τοίνυν καθ' ἑαυτὸν ἐσχατιάν τινα καταλαβὼν πρὸς τῷ Ἴριδι. Ποταμὸς δὲ ὁ Ἶρίς ἐστι μέσον διαρρέων τὸν Πόντον, ὃς ἀπ' αὐτῆς τῆς Ἀρμενίας τὰς ἀρχὰς ἔχων διὰ τῶν ἡμετέρων τόπων ἐπὶ τὸν Εὔξεινον Πόντον τὸ ῥεῖθρον ἐκδίδωσι. Περὶ τοῦτον εὑρών τινα τόπον ὁ νεανίας ὕλῃ βαθείᾳ κομῶντα καὶ λαγόνι τινὶ τῆς ὑπερτεταμένης τοῦ ὄρους ῥαχίας ἐγκεκρυμμένον ἐν αὐτῷ διῆγε, τῶν ἀστικῶν θορύβων καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ στρατείας τε καὶ τῆς ἐν δικαστηρίοις ῥητορικῆς ἀσχολημάτων πόρρω γενόμενος. Καὶ πάντων τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον περιηχούντων τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ζωὴν ἑαυτὸν ἐλευθερώσας πρεσβύτας τινὰς πενίᾳ καὶ ἀρρωστίᾳ συζῶντας ταῖς ἰδίαις χερσὶν ἐθεράπευε, πρέπειν δοκιμάσας τῷ ἰδίῳ βίῳ τὴν τοιαύτην ἀσχολίαν διὰ φροντίδος ἔχειν. Θηρεύων τοίνυν διὰ τὸ πρὸς πᾶν εἶδος θηρευτικῆς ἐπινοίας ἐπιτηδείως ἔχειν ἐπόριζε τοῖς γέρουσι τὴν τροφὴν καὶ τὴν νεότητα τοῖς τοιούτοις ἅμα κατεδάμαζε πόνοις: ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς μητρῴοις θελήμασιν, εἴ ποτέ τι παρ' αὐτῆς προσταχθείη, προθύμως ὑπηρετῶν δι' ἀμφοτέρων κατώρθου τὸν βίον, τοῖς τε πόνοις κατακρατῶν τῆς νεότητος τῇ τε περὶ τὴν μητέρα σπουδῇ διὰ τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν εὐοδούμενος.
Πέμπτον διήγαγεν ἔτος τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον φιλοσοφῶν καὶ μακαριστὴν ποιῶν τὴν μητέρα τῇ ἰδίᾳ ζωῇ, οἷς τε κατεκόσμει διὰ σωφροσύνης τὴν οἰκείαν ζωὴν οἷς τε παρεῖχε πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν ἑαυτοῦ τῷ θελήματι τῆς γεννησαμένης.