Whereas Poem 2.1.12, “On Himself and Concerning the Bishops,” unleashes Gregory’s invective against, in his view, corrupt, ambitious, and self-centered clergy members, Oration 43.1, “Funeral Oration for Basil the Great, Bishop of Cappadocian Caesarea,” presents a radically positive image of a bishop. The text is a long eulogy for Bishop Basil of Caesarea (ca. 329–378) delivered three years after his death, which makes it almost precisely contemporaneous to Poem 2.1.12. Basil was Gregory’s friend, and the careers of the two men overlapped significantly: they shared some of the same education at Athens; they practiced asceticism together in the early 360s on Basil’s property in Pontus; they were ordained to the priesthood around the same time; and both were thrust into the politics of provincial church life almost immediately after their ordinations. While their relationship was perhaps more complicated than Gregory’s idealized portrait suggests, here readers get a sense for the lifestyle, ascetic regimen, theology, and pastoral concern that Gregory valued in Christian leaders. The sections translated here pertain to Basil’s episcopacy (the sections about his education, monastic retreat, and priesthood have been omitted for brevity).