Nathan Howard: “Epistolary Agōn and Exhibitions of Manhood in Fourth-Century Cappadocia”

In a perspective inherited from Second Sophistic predecessors, fourth-century pepaideumenoi (individuals trained in paideia) believed that aretē (manly virtue) had to be earned and it had to be proven repeatedly. Epistolary discourse provided literati a venue for circulating social signals that united the educated elite in a collective sense of excellence. And like public speaking, exchanging epistles constituted a context for asserting manhood. This paper will show that in letters addressed to select addressees, the Cappadocian Fathers appealed to two timeless truths: first, that leading men (agathoi) emanated from settings of conflict. And second, that classical Greece provided episodes of an agōn that illustrated ideal virility. A cross-section of letters by Basil, Nazianzen, and Nyssen illustrates that these clergy used epistolary composition to identify with ideals of manhood from classical Greece, such as boldness, constancy, and cleverness. With an emphasis on the Greek past as the crucible of masculinity, I argue, the Cappadocians staged letter exchange as a discourse analogous to the feats of warfare, athleticism, and oratory. Through such parallels, the Cappadocians re-inscribed the heritage of an agōn as their own, subsequently integrating the ideals of elite manhood into the collective consciousness of the church and identifying the Nicene episcopacy with classical notions of aretē. By compelling pepaideumenoi to compose letters, and by holding up values embedded in Greek lore, the bishops were forging a convergence of clerical authority and elite social status.