Becoming Bishop in the Letters of Basil and Synesius: Tracing Patterns of Social Signaling across Two Full Epistolary Collections

Abstract

To explore the social significance of clerical office, this article compares the correspondence of Basil of Caesarea with that of Synesius of Cyrene, treating each as an archive of socio-rhetorical “data.” It examines all dateable letters in each collection for the author’s social signals to various recipients—such as Biblical or classical literary references, patronage requests or indications of intimacy. It then graphically depicts each man’s attested communication for two periods, before and after his becoming bishop. Such socio-rhetorical mapping affords a new perspective on the two authors. For Basil it reveals a segmented social life, in which he discussed classical culture, Nicene doctrine, and asceticism with different groups of contacts. While usually cast as a clerical/ascetic convert, Basil continued all his segmented conversations after he was consecrated. For Synesius, rhetorical mapping showcases a mixed social life, in which he widely discussed his patronage, literary interests, and philosophy. In contrast with the prevailing portrayal of Synesius as an unbending Neo-platonist, the article shows how he interwove Christian discourse with familiar social signals after his selection as bishop. Basil and Synesius lived differing lives, but their patterns of social signaling look like related approaches to pressures faced by most fourth- and early fifth-century local notable men who became bishops.