Abstract
This presentation aims to determine what the first book of Gregory of Nyssa’s Contra Eunomiumcan tell us about the text, structure, and arguments of the first book of Eunomius of Cyzicus’ Apologia Apologiae. In particular, it shall discuss the main difficulties for identifying and delimiting fragments of Eunomius’ work inside Gregory’s refutation, and for distinguishing them from testimonia, and for using these fragments and testimonia to reconstruct the structure and arguments of Eunomius’s work, at least to the extent that is possible when the fragments and testimonia are taken out of the context of Gregory’s polemical apparatus. In his first book, Eunomius responded to Basil’s Contra Eunomium 1.1–5a. Accordingly, Eunomius responded to Basil’s attacks upon his career and past associations, his character and conduct, and his motivations and methods in CE 1.1–3, as well as to Basil’s criticism of his statement of faith in CE 1.4 and the beginning of Basil’s criticism of Eunomius’ understanding of the name “Unbegotten” in CE 1.5. My reconstruction of the text (fragments and testimonia), structure, and arguments of the first book of the Apologia Apologiae shall proceed by engagement with the editorial and translation work of Werner Jaeger, Raymond Winling, Stuart Hall, Richard Vaggione, and others. The presentation will end with a detailed analysis of Eunomius’ argument against Basil’s rejection of “Unbegotten” in favor of “Father” as preserved in sections 535-689 of Gregory of Nyssa’s CEI.