Anna Silvas edits here the ancient Syriac translation of Basil's lost Small or Little Asketikon of 365/6, translated into Latin by Rufinus in about 397. It was made, she affirms, probably in the early 370s ‘before the expanded Greek version’ (the Great Asketikon) ‘became available and recognised’. Gribomont, in 1953, aiming to recover the underlying Greek, did not publish the Syriac version though he had collated it; for his purpose it had no further evidential and scholarly value. Silvas takes a more positive view and justly so. The ancient versions have in many cases (I will not say in all) a right to be reckoned as literature: translated literature, of course, but appropriating and interpreting the source. The work consists of 183 questions and answers plus three extra pieces occurring in only one manuscript and though consonant with Basil probably not by him. The manuscript tradition is described and re-evaluated; the method and style of the translator are carefully and artfully analysed. This is a ‘craftsman in the Syriac language’ expanding on occasion and paraphrasing his original. About halfway through he allows himself more liberty, ‘recasting it and adding sizable passages of his own invention’. Who was this translator? Silvas springs a little surprise. The profile, she suggests, fits Eusebius of Samosata, warm supporter of Basil and respectfully referred to in his correspondence. Proof is impossible, but she might be right. The faithful English translation is reliable. It really needs far more annotation than is given here.