A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

LIBANIUS. LIBANIUS. 775
in one of the orations of Libanius (i. p. 94,.ed. he afterwards succeeded in winning the favour of
Reiske). He received his first education, which that monarch also ~ Libanius -wrote a eulogy upon
was probably not of a very high character, in his him, and prevailed upon him to promulgate a law
native place, but' being urged on by an invincible by which certain advantages were granted to nadesire of acquiring knowledge and cultivating his tural children, in which Libanius himself was inmind, he went to Athens. He himself mentions terested, because he himself was not married, but
among his teachers Cleobulus, Didymus, and Ze- lived in concubinage (1. c. pp. 97,-125, 166; Eunap.
nobius (Epist. 50, 100, 321, 407, 1181). While p. 133). The emperor Theodosius likewise showed
at Athens, he became the object of a series of in- him esteem (De Fort. sua, p. 137), but notwithtrigues, against which he had to struggle throughout standing the marks of distinction he received from
his subsequent life. The pedantry then prevalent high quarters, his enjoyment of life was disturbed
at Athens, to which he was obliged to submit, by ill health (1. c. pp. 94, &c., 119, 146, &c.), by
made a bad impression upon him, so that he appears misfortunes in his family (1. c. pp. 67, &c., 126,
to have devoted himself more to private study than &c., 165, &c.), and more especially by the disputes
to the methodic but pedantic system adopted in the in which he was incessantly involved, partly with
schools (Liban. De Fort. sua, p. 13, &c.; Eunap. rival sophists, and partly with the prefects (1. c. pp.
Fit. Sopls. p. 130). His favourite study was the 76, 86, 69, &c., 92, &c., 98, &c., 112, &c.). It
classical writers of Greece, and the love he thus cannot, however, be denied, that he himself was as
early imbibed for them, accompanied him through much to blame as his opponents, for he appears to
life (De Fort. sua, pp..9, 100, 144; Eunap. p. have provoked them by his querulous disposition,
131). His talent and perseverance attracted ge- and by the pride and vanity which everywhere
neral attention, and he had the certain prospect of appear in his orations, and which led him to interobtaining the chair of rhetoric at Athens (De Fort. fere in political questions which it would have been
sua, p. 19, &c.), but he himself was not inclined to wiser to have left alone (1. a. pp. 129, 132, 140).
accept the office, and left Athens, accompanying In other respects, however,'his personal character
his friend Crispinus to Heracleia in Pontus (De seems to have been gentle and moderate, for alFort. sua, p. 21, &c.). On his return, as he passed though he was a pagan, and sympathised with the
-through Constantinople, he was prevailed upon by emperor Julian in all his views and plans, still he
the rhetorician Nicocles, who held out to him the always showed a praiseworthy toleration towards
most brilliant prospects, to remain in that capital; the Christians. He was the teacher of St. Basil
but before he settled there, he went to Athens to and John Chrysostom, with whom he always kept
settle some of his affairs. On his return to Con- up a friendly relation. The year of his death
stantinople, he found that a sophist from Cappa- is uncertain, but from one of his epistles it is evidocia had in the meantime occupied the place which dent that in A. Dn. 391 he must have been still
he had hoped to obtain (De Fort. sua, p. 25, &c). alive (Epist. 941), but it is probable that he died
He was accordingly obliged to set up 4 private a few years after, in the reign of Arcadius.
school, and in a short time he obtained so large a This account of the life of Libanius is mainly
number of pupils, that the classes of the public based upon an autobiography of the rhetorician
professors were completely deserted (1. c. p. 29). which is prefixed to Reiske's edition of his works
The latter, stimulated by envy and jealousy, de- (vol. i. p. 1, &c.), under the title Bios 4)?6-yos 7repl
vised means of revenge: they charged him with'rks 6avuoT0 TOXuqs, or De Fortuna sua, the brief
being a magician, and the prefect Limenius, who article of Suidas (s. v. ALcdvLos), and on the inwas a personal enemy of Libanius, supported them, formation given by Eunapins in his Vitae Sop/isand about A. D. 346 expelled him from the city of tarum (p. 139, &c.). We still posses a considerable
Constantinople (1. c. p. 30, &c.; Eunap. p. 131, number of the works of Libanius, but how many
&c.). He went to Nicomedeia, where he taught may have been lost is uncertain.
with equal success, but also drew upon himself an 1. fIpoyv1ozaaod~'w'v r'apaael-ytav'a, i. e. model
equal degree of malice from his opponents (De Fort. pieces for rhetorical exercises, in thirteen sections,
sua, p. 36, &c.). After a stay of five years, which to which, however, some more sections were added
he himself calls the happiest of his whole life (l. c. p. by F. Morellus in his edition (Paris, 1606). But
38), he was called back to Constantinople. But he modern criticism has shown pretty clearly that the
met with a cool receptionthere, and soon after re- additions of Morellus are the productions of two
turned to Nicomedeia, to which place he had formed other rhetoricians, Nicolaus and Severus (Walz,
a strong attachment. An epidemic disease, how- Rhet. Graec. i. pp. 394, &c., 546).
ever, which raged there, obliged him again to go back 2. AoyoL or orations, whose number, in Reiske's
to Constantinople (1. c. p. 54, &c.). Strategius, edition, amounts to sixty-five (vol. i. —iii.). Anoone of his friends, procured him an invitation to ther oration of Libanius IIsp)'OAvpyrI'ov, was disthe chair of rhetoric at Athens, which however covered in a Barberini MS. by J. Ph. Siebenkees,
Libanius declined to accept (1. c. p. 58, &c.), and who published it in his Anecdota Graeca (Niirnbeing tired of the annoyances to which he was ex- berg, 1798, pp. 75, 89). A sixty-seventh oration
posed at Constantinople, he paid a visit to his was first published by A. Mai in his second edition
native city of Antioch; and as on his return to of Fronto (Rome, 1823, p. 421, &c.).
Constantinople, he began to suffer from ill health, 3. MsAeraL or declamations, i. e. orations on fichis medical attendants advised him to give up titious subjects, and descriptions of various kinds.
teaching, and he sued for and obtained from the Their number in Reiske's editionis forty-eight, but
emperor Gallus permission to settle at Antioch, two additional ones were published afterwards, one
where he spent the remainder of his life. The by F. Morellus (Venice, 1785, 8vo.), and the other
emperor Julian, who showed him great favour and by Boissonade, in his Anecdota Graeca (i. pp. 165
admired his talent, corresponded with him (1. e. p. -171).
87; Eunap. p. 135; Sulidas, s.v. Atdivros). In 4. A life of Demosthenes, and arguments to
the reign of Valens he was at first persecuted, but the speeches of the same orator. They are printed
3D 4