Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VIII/The Letters/Letter 349

Libanius to Basil.

you not give over, Basil, packing this sacred haunt of the Muses with Cappadocians, and these redolent of the frost and snow and all Cappadocia&#8217;s good things? They have almost made me a Cappadocian too, always chanting their &#8220;I salute you.&#8221;

I must endure, since it is Basil who commands. Know, however, that I am making a careful study of the manners and customs of the country, and that I mean to metamorphose the men into the nobility and the harmony of my Calliope, that they may seem to you to be turned from pigeons into doves.