Libanius

Libanius (Greek Libanios) (ca 314 AD - ca 394) was a Greek-speaking teacher of rhetoric of the later Roman Empire, an educated pagan of the Sophist school in an Empire that was turning aggressively Christian and publicly burned its own heritage and closed the academies.

Related Topics:
Greek - 314 - 394 - Sophist - Academies

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He was born into a once-influential, deeply cultured family of Antioch that had recently lost most of its wealth and influence. When 14 years old, Libanius fell in love with rhetoric and focused his whole life on it. Like many 4th century pagans of high education, Libanius withdrew from public life and devoted himself to scholarship.

Related Topics:
Antioch - Rhetoric

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He studied in Athens and began his career in Constantinople as a private tutor, but was soon exiled to Nicomedia.

Related Topics:
Constantinople - Nicomedia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Before his exile, Libanius was friend of the emperor Julian, with whom some correspondence survives, and used his arts of rhetoric as a potent defender of private and political causes. Among his pupils: John Chrysostom, Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, and the historian Ammianus Marcellinus. Libanius has much to tell us about the fanatical world of the later 4th century. Libanius's first Oration I is a revealing and colorful autobiographical narrative revised throughout his life, a scholar's account that ends as an old exile's private journal.

Related Topics:
John Chrysostom - Basil - Ammianus Marcellinus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 354, he accepted the chair of rhetoric in Antioch, where he stayed until his death. Although a pagan, his students included the Christians John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia. He was a friend of the pagan emperor Julian (361-363), yet was made an honorary praetorian prefect by the very Christian emperor Theodosius I (379-393).

Related Topics:
354 - Pagan - Christians - John Chrysostom - Theodore of Mopsuestia - Julian - Theodosius I

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~