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.

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

  • 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.

    Links

    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

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