Letter 1: (Perhaps about a.d. 357 or 358; in answer to a letter which is not now extant.) I have failed, I confess, to keep my promise. I had engaged even at Athens, at the time of our friendship and intimate connection there (for I can find no better word for it), to join you in a life of philosophy.
Gregory to his dear friend Basil.
I confess I have failed to keep my promise. Back in Athens, during the time of our friendship and our close bond there -- I can find no better word for it -- I pledged to join you in a life of philosophy. But I have broken that pledge, not by my own choice, but because one obligation overpowered another: the duty to honor my parents prevailed over the claims of our friendship and our shared life.
Yet I will not abandon you entirely, if you will accept this arrangement. I shall be with you half the time, and the other half you will be with me, so that we share everything equally and our friendship rests on even terms. In this way my parents will not be grieved, and yet I shall still have you.
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