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. Jump to: navigation, search Events August 30 - Council of Arles, which confirmed the pronouncement of Donatism as a schism, and passed other canons. ... Events September 6 - Battle of Frigidus: The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeats and kills the pagan usurper Eugenius and his Frankish general Arbogast. ... Sophism was originally a term for the techniques taught by a highly respected group of philosophy and rhetoric teachers in ancient Greece. ... An academy is an institution for the study of higher learning. ...

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. He studied in Athens and began his career in Constantinople as a private tutor, but was soon exiled to Nicomedia. Jump to: navigation, search The city of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (modern Antakya; Greek Αντιοχεια ἡ επι Δαφνη; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is located in what is now Turkey. ... Jump to: navigation, search Rhetoric (from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar) in Western culture. ... Jump to: navigation, search Map of Constantinople. ... Nicomedes I of Bithynia founded the city of Nicomedia (modern İzmit), at the head of the Gulf of Astacus (which opens on the Propontis), in 264 BC The city has ever since been one of the chief towns in this part of Asia Minor. ...

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. Saint John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (347 - 407) was a notable Christian bishop and preacher from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople. ... Basil (ca. ... Ammianus Marcellinus is a Roman historian who wrote during Late Antiquity. ...

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 (379-395). Events Gallus deposed, executed at Antioch. ... Within a Christian context, Paganism (from Latin paganus) and Heathenry are catch-all terms which have come to connote a broad set of spiritual/religious beliefs and practices of a natural religion, as opposed to the Abrahamic religions. ... Jump to: navigation, search Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament writings of his early followers. ... Saint John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (347 - 407) was a notable Christian bishop and preacher from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople. ... Theodore (c. ... Julian solidus, ca. ... On the reverse of this coin minted under Valentinian II, both Valentinian and Theodosius are depicted with halos, holding a globus cruciger. ...

His works

• 64 orations in the three fields of oratory: judicial, deliberative, and epideictic, both orations as if delivered in public and orations meant to be privately read (aloud) in the study. The two volumes of selections in the Loeb Classical Library devote one volume to Libanius' orations that bear on the emperor Julian, the other on Theodosius; the most famous is his "Lamentation" about the desecration of the temples (peri ton leron);
• 51 declamationes, a traditional public-speaking format of Rhetoric in Antiquity, taking set topics with historical and mythological themes (translations into English by e.g. D.A. Russell, "Libanius: Imaginary Speeches"; M. Johansson, "Libanius' Declamations 9 and 10";
• 57 hypotheses or introductions to Demosthenes' orations (written ca 352), in which he sets them in historical context for the novice reader, without polemics;
  • Craig Gibson, translator, Summary of “Libanius, Hypotheses to the Orations of Demosthenes”
• several dozen model writing exercises, Progymnasmata, that were used in his courses of instruction and became widely admired models of good style;
• 1544 letters have been preserved, more letters than Cicero. The Middle Ages uncritically accepted some 400 additional letters in Latin, purporting to be translations, but were demonstrated to be misattributed or forgeries by the Italian humanist Francesco Zambeccari in the 15th century, in a dispassionate examination of the texts themselves, of which Libanius would have been proud.

Orator is a Latin word for speaker (from the Latin verb oro, meaning I speak or I pray). In ancient Rome, the art of speaking in public (Ars Oratoria) was a professional competence especially cultivated by politicians and lawyers. ... The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by the Harvard University Press, which present important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each... Jump to: navigation, search Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... Demosthenes Demosthenes (384 BC – 322 BC) is generally considered the greatest of the Attic orators, and thus the greatest of all Ancient Greek orators. ... Jump to: navigation, search Humanism is an active ethical and philosophical approach to life, focusing on human solutions to human issues through rational (reasonable) arguments, without recourse to a god, gods, sacred texts or religious creeds. ...

External link

• Litarba, the Libanius Site by P.-L. Malosse.
• Two moral anecdotes from the Progymnasmata: (in English) on the harshness of classical Roman education and an encomium of Thersites