BASILIADE. — A hospital city founded by s. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, a short distance from the walls of that city. Surrounded by a vast enclosure and suitably divided internally according to the various illnesses, it was, however, especially intended to shelter poor lepers, expelled from every place and forced to wander without a fixed abode. The wounded also found special welcome there.
The B., the first example of hospitalization in the Eastern Empire, is regarded as the most imposing work of charitable assistance in Christian antiquity.
BIBL.: S. Gregorio Nazianzeno, Oratio XLIII, 63; Sozomeno, Hist. ecl., VI, 34; Teodoreto, Hist. ecl., IV, 19. Adalberto Pazzini