Libanius

Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae holds a prominent position in modern studies of the emperor Julian as the fullest extant narrative of the reign of the last 'pagan' emperor. 'Ammianus' Julian: Narrative and Genre in the Res Gestae' offers a major reinterpretation of the work, which is one of the main narrative sources for the political history of the later Roman Empire, and argues for a re-examination of Ammianus' agenda and methods in narrating the reign of Julian.

Building on recent developments in the application of literary approaches and critical theories to historical texts, Ammianus' presentation of Julian is evaluated by considering the Res Gestae within three interrelated contexts: as a work of Latin historiography, which consciously sets itself within a classical and classicizing generic tradition; in a more immediate literary and political context, as the final contribution by a member of an 'eyewitness' generation to a quarter century of intense debate over Julian's legacy by several authors who had lived through his reign and had been in varying degrees of proximity to Julian himself; and as a narrative text, in which narratorial authority is closely associated with the persona of the narrator, both as an external narrating agent and an occasional participant in the events he relates. This is complemented by a literary survey and a re-analysis of Ammianus' depiction of several key moments in Julian's reign, such as his appointment as Caesar, the battle of Strasbourg in 357AD, his acclamation as Augustus, and the disastrous invasion of Persia in 363AD. It suggests that the Res Gestae presents a Latin-speaking, western audience with an idiosyncratic and 'Romanized' depiction of the philhellene emperor and that, consciously exploiting his position as a Greek writing in Latin and as a contemporary of Julian, Ammianus wished his work to be considered a culminating and definitive account of the man and his life.

Reviews:

N. Greenwood (Religious Studies Review 43.4)

U. Lambrect (H-Net 2016) https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=48416

S. Tougher (Classical Review 68) doi:10.1017/S0009840X1700230X

D. Woods (Acta Classica 59): http://www.casa-kvsa.org.za/AC59-Woods.pdf

This article provides an update on one of the most famous characters in the history of Ancient Caucasian Iberia. As an Iberian prince exiled in the Roman Empire owing to the changeover of his fatherland in the Sasanian orbit c. 368, Bacurius led career in the Roman army to become General of Theodosius.
Several testimonies by Ammianus Marcellinus, Libanius and Themistius, Rufinus, and Byzantine ecclesiastical historians enable to better understand this ambivalent figure, who was well favored by Christians as well as pagans.
This article offers a detailed explanation showing that the death of Bacurius during the Battle of Frigidus in 394 prevents him from being confused with other Iberian princes of the fifth century CE.
The account narrating the conversion of the Iberian king to the Christian faith delivered by Bacurius to Rufinus must also be understood as a political act in the context of the Acilisene Treaty of 387.

Revised and corrected working paper dated October 25, 2019.

Access to the original paper published in Iberia-Colchis, № 13, 2017, p. 166-192 :
http://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/242318

This article explores the relationship between historiography and panegyric in Late Antiquity. It argues that in his Oration 59, a panegyric addressed to Constantius II and Constans in the late 340s, Libanius of Antioch adopts and deploys several authoritating topoi developed by historians. The article's conclusions address Libanius’ political objectives in the composition of this speech, and his relationship with the emperor Constantius II.

The Final Pagan Generation shows how the generation of Romans born in the 310s adapted to their changing religious and political environments.  The included chapter introduces the religious landscape of the Roman world of the early fourth century and sets the stage for their story.

The Roman Empire historically obtained success on the battlefield through its
strategic offense ending with a decisive open field battle where the sword was the final
arbitrator. Amongst all the wars fought by the Roman Empire against Persia, the Nisibis
War (337-363) stands out as the first instance where Rome maintained a position of
strategic defense. After a twenty-four year defensive war, a change in Emperors (from
Constantius II to Julian) resulted in transition back to the strategic offense. Instead of
expected success based on historic experience this time Rome was decisively defeated
within six months. Historians have studied and analyzed the failed offense lead by
Emperor Julian the Apostate, but have generally neglected the overall conflict. This
neglect is surprising since up to this time of the Nisibis War the strategy was unique. The
use of the strategic defense by small frontier (limitanei) armies, based in fortified cities
and fortress, supported by maneuvers and limited operational and tactical offensives by
the Field (comitatus) Army of the East allowed the Eastern Roman Empire to survive the
advancing barbarians, as well as Persian and Muslim invaders until almost the 8th
century. This thesis will focus on the importance of the Nisibis War and its resulting
impact upon the defense of Rome’s Eastern provinces.

Christian writers of the patristic era sometimes engaged in polemicism against Judaism and Judaizing Christians, leading some today to charge that the church fathers were hopelessly anti-Semitic. The present work sheds new light on this debate, offering the first, comprehensive examination of John Chrysostom’s view of the patriarch Abraham. Although Chrysostom is one of the most important Eastern church fathers and a critical antagonist in many portrayals of Christian anti-Semitism, very little attention has been paid to his understanding of the pivotal figure of Abraham. This oversight was certainly not characteristic of Chrysostom himself. Throughout his homilies and discourses the celebrated Antiochene preacher made hundreds of references to Abraham, crafting a classical encomium in which he presented Abraham as a preeminent Christian model of virtue for his flock to emulate. An analysis of the full range of references to Abraham reveals the ways in which Chrysostom used the scriptural figure of Abraham to serve as a didactic model of philosophical and Christian virtue, familial devotion, philanthropy, and obedient faith. It also reveals the ways in which Chrysostom used Abraham as part of his diatribe against both Judaism and Judaizing Christians, specifically because he felt Christians were the true inheritors of the Abrahamic promise.

A distinguishing feature of the study is its original examination of Chrysostom’s encomiastic model of Abraham and the ways in which he used that model to convey various pastoral and theological viewpoints. The result is a holistic understanding of a single scriptural figure throughout the entire corpus of a prominent church father that provides broad insights into his pastoral, theological, and apologetical outlook. From this comprehensive examination of Chrysostom’s treatment of Abraham, we also gain a better understanding of the rhetorical and exegetical influences that shaped this important Christian thinker.

While Chrysostom upheld the tradition according to which early church fathers viewed the narrative of the Jewish Bible and the figures of that narrative as part of a Christian legacy, which they believed originated in the opening verses of the Book of Genesis, Chrysostom took an additional step of great interest. This early Christian cleric held up the figures of the Jewish Bible even while he engaged in polemical discourse directed at the contemporaneous Jewish community and those members of his flock who attended their services. In particular, he singled out the figure of the patriarch Abraham, not only to substantiate Christian claims to the Jewish Bible but also to serve as an exemplar of Christian virtue that his flock should emulate.

This thesis addresses an intriguing question concerning the death of emperor Julian, known throughout history as “the Apostate.” Although Julian ruled for less than two years, his reign and death were the center of debate for centuries. Ancient writers composed different death narratives for the last “pagan” emperor, elaborating upon certain details in the narratives and adding portions, probably fictionalized, of the story where they thought necessary. It is my view that these different death narratives were used as literary loci to discuss the growing power of the church and the relations between church and state. Analysis of these narratives, written by Gregory Nazianzus, Libanius, Ammianus Marcellinus, and the ecclesiastical historians of the fifth century (Socrates of Constantinople, Sozomen of Gaza, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus) allows the historians a more nuanced view of the religious and political history of late antiquity, specifically concerning Christianization in the empire and relations between bishop and emperor, church and state. This thesis will argue that the narratives of Julian’s death, written in the fourth and fifth centuries, were colored by these two political and religious concerns of the period.

My work offers the translation and commentary of the 20 letters that Libanius, official sophist of the city of Antioch, sent to Datianus, Christian influential member of the imperial court, over the course of ten years, from the summer of 355 to February 365. Of the 20 letters, seven have already been translated by other scholars in English, and thirteen have never appeared in English translation. The commentary offers the necessary background information for understanding the texts, including the prosopography of the characters that appear in the correspondence; it accounts for translation choices when the Greek is obscure or odd; it notes correspondence of themes between letters. Letters have been grouped by theme, but have been kept in chronological order. The correspondence offers the narrative of the efforts Libanius put in place to secure his stay in Antioch (Chapter 2); the difficult mediation between the city council and Datianus at the time of the revolt that destroyed the latter’s properties (Chapter 3); the correspondence about private matters (marriage, recommendations, friendship) of the later years of Datianus’ life (Chapter 4). This work, therefore, provides a complete picture of the relationship between the pagan Libanius and his Christian friend at court.

https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/seminars/philological/supplementary-volumes

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Steely-Eyed-Athena-by-David-Neal-Greenwood/9781913701420

From the back cover:
This monograph uses the life and work of groundbreaking female classicist Wilmer Cave Wright to examine several questions about the rise of women in that discipline. First, what went into the creation of a classics scholar under circumstances that would seem to preclude that? Second, why was it arguably Wright’s time in Chicago that was her formative experience and period? Third, why did Wright want so desperately to leave Bryn Mawr, and then stay and pour herself into her students? Fourth, through what lens did she approach the evidence of classical literature, and did it make a difference? Fifth, how did Wright survive the Thomas years at Bryn Mawr? Sixth, why did she abruptly abandon her long-term project on Libanius of Antioch? Seventh, what led her to suddenly switch from classical Greek literature to translating medieval Latin medical texts? Wright's journey from Mason College to Girton College, Cambridge, the University of Chicago, and Bryn Mawr College is placed into historical context. Throughout, the significance of Wright’s work, particularly on the life of the Emperor Julian, is assessed. The author is a research fellow at the University of St Andrews, and the author of Julian and Christianity (Cornell) as well as numerous articles in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Classical Quarterly, and Classical Philology.

Table of Contents:
Front matter
1. Introduction
2. Sowing the Seeds of Scholarship (England, 1868-1892)
3. Chicago and The Teacher (1892-1896)
4. Of Monsters and Heroes (1897-1910)
5. Wars Foreign and Domestic (1910-1923)
6. Altering Course (1922-1951)
7. Character in Adversity (1933-1951)
Conclusion
End matter

The Cambridge Philological Society is the publishing arm of Cambridge University's Faculty of Classics.

The gradual imposition of Christianity over the public space at Rome had changed the face of traditional paganism itself. Although many changes in the collective forms of devotio had occurred already in the third century AD, it was during the ‘‘long’’ fourth century that new mentalities and practices alienated Roman paganism from the traditional forms of worship. Julian’s attempt of establishing a ‘Pagan Church’ and later the so called ‘last pagan revival’ at Rome during the 390’s under the Nicomachi contributed to the emergence of a new ‘Reactionary’ paganism. New manners of worship destined for the selected few and radical practices like human sacrifice alienated even further this activity from its previous classical forms. In order to preserve a distinct identity and presence, this last generation of pagan aristocrats experimented with a new interpretation of the mos maiorum and in their attempt to defend their version of Romanitas against an expanding Christianity they inevitably forged a pagan ‘doctrine’ and ‘salvation plan’ similar to that of their Christian contemporaries. This new pagan counter-reformation was characterized by new radical messages and an attempt of constructing a collective identity accompanied with an articulate, monolithic form of belief, either as a defense mechanism or as a result of a more esoteric change or need. This paper will attempt to explore this new pagan identity that emerged only a few years before the (public) extinction of polytheism and will attempt to trace the potentials of this last Pagan Revolution.

From the CUA catalog:

Ancient biographies were more than accounts of the deeds of past heroes and guides for moral living. They were also arenas for debating pressing philosophical questions and establishing intellectual credentials, as Arthur P. Urbano argues in this study of biographies composed in Late Antiquity. With its origins in the competing philosophical schools of Hellenistic Greece, the genre of the "philosophical life" provided verbal portraits of paradigmatic figures - usually rulers and philosophers - that epitomized diverse approaches to knowledge, piety, and the virtuous life. An eruption of biographical literature in Late Antiquity attests to a similar, but more intense, struggle to influence the future directions of religion, education, politics, and morality in the Roman Empire as leaders of Neoplatonism and Christianity engaged one another through historical figures.

In a close analysis of the texts and the circumstances surrounding their composition, he argues that the production of biographies was a standard competitive practice among Greek educated intellectuals. Christian thinkers who wrote biographies, for the most part bishops, simultaneously drew upon the literary and philosophical education they shared with their rivals and challenged it. Proposing alternate histories and new paradigms of philosophy, including ascetics and women, they came to terms with the past and aimed to shape a new Christian future. Urbano traces the transformation of the late Roman empire through the lens of biographies which debated such issues as proper worship, access to God, politics, ethnicity, gender, and philosophic pedigree. He covers the writings of several Christian and Neoplatonist authors between the 3rd and 5th centuries to demonstrate how biographical literature played a significant role in the transformation of Rome into a Christian empire.

"A significant contribution to the history of Late Antiquity, specifically, the history of philosophy and the history of religion... unique for using biography as the lens through which to view an age of religious and cultural transformation."—Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara"

Mit Libanios und Basilios treten im Vierten Jahrhundert zwei wortgewandte Akteure auf, die in jenem Briefwechsel verewigt werden. Ob echt oder Fälschung, die Briefe geben Aufschluss über Zweckbündnisse in der dynamischen Spätantike zwischen Christen und Heiden. Die gemeinsame Sprache und Kultur bilden das Fundament der Kommunikation zwischen diesen beiden Persönlichkeiten.

This is a final draft of the book's index locorum, generated from a Word document, and not the published version (which is available through Brill online). It is posted here both to help other researchers by informing them of the book's contents and to encourage them to do the same with their own indexes.

This paper attempts to trace the activity and influence of the Neoplatonic  philosopher Damascius and his disciples who after the closing of the Academy of Athens by Justinian I (529 AD) decided to move their intellectual establishment in Sassanind Persia (532), away from imperial oppression. There they managed to convince Khosrau I to include their case in a clause of the Eternal Peace of 532 with Justinian, guaranteeing their safety and freedom of traveling and preserving their beliefs undisturbed in Roman territory. The Philosophers settled in Harran in Northern Mesopotamia, a border-point between the two Empires, and re-established their School there. The Graeco-Aramaic background of some of Damascius’ disciples in combination with the bilingual environment (Greek and Persian) of the city encouraged the cultural osmosis and the translation of Greek texts to Syriac and later to Arabic. This well-established tradition was continued by local Syrian and Arab successors until approximately the ninth century and was responsible to an extent for the transmission of Neoplatonic Philosophy in Baghdad of the Abbasids.  Standing at the crossroad of Empires and Cultures the legacy of the School of Harran and of the last Neo-Platonists of Athens proved to be fundamental for the intellectual flourishing of the Arab World and its famous Golden Age.

Six letters of Libanius concern a man called Lemmatius or (C)lematius, whom scholars have taken to have been a pagan high priest in either Palestine or Athens under and after Julian. Revisiting the evidence, this article shows that Lemmatius was based in Palestine, that he was a priest but not necessarily a high priest, that the chronology of his vicissitudes as described by Libanius is different from what is usually suggested, and that his name was probably Lemmatius. This reassessment is important as it contributes to changing our understanding of high priests and their careers under and after Julian.

The article analyses a number of late antique Christian sources that use choreutic gesture to highlight the cultural alterity of pagan cults, Judaism and heretical movements. The Christian intellectual critique of dancing is not interpreted as an aversion to the practice per se, but as part of an anthropological process that encouraged men to become perfect imitators of the angelic choreia in the Platonic framework. This Christian choreia did not only characterize a presumed Ideal City, but also had to be performed during life on earth. It excluded infames, pagans, Jews and heretics, namely all those that did not comply with the new gestural and behavioural schemata defined by Christian intellectuals.

This book length translation of Bessarion's encomium of Trebizond (mod. Trabzon) makes available for the first time in English this crucial source for the history of the empire of Trebizond and the Greek Pontos. Conforming to the genre of late antique encomia of cities, this text draws heavily on Isocrates, Aelius Aristides, and Libanios to retell the history of Trebizond from Xenophon's Anabasis to the present day. It examines issues such as Byzantine identity and alterity during the fifteenth century, while also providing a valuable descriptions of the Komnenoi and their palace. As such, it is a valuable source not only for late Byzantine history, but also rhetoric and the construction of the past.

I also translate Michael Panaretos' chronicle of Trebizond, our only surviving history of Trebizond. It provides the backbone of what we know about the empire of Trebizond, while also offering the historian key information on Trebizond's relations with its Turkish and Turkmen neighbors. Panaretos's chronicle is notoriously obscure and laconic. This translation provides detailed historical and topographical commentary.

This thesis deals with the topic of word order in Byzantine Greek with comparison to ancient Greek, from the point of view of functional linguistics and the Prague linguistic circle, especially the ides of Jan Firbas. In addition, I check the Byzantine Greek as Hochsprache in socio-linguistic terms.

Il presente volume mette per la prima volta a disposizione degli studiosi e dei lettori la traduzione italiana e il commento storico di tutte le lettere degli ultimi anni di Libanio (388-393), con le quali il maestro di retorica antiocheno tenne viva dalla sua città - nello scorcio del regno di Teodosio - una fitta relazione epistolare con politici, amministratori, funzionari, colleghi, studenti e loro famiglie, offrendo un vivido quadro della società dell' Oriente romano nella seconda metà del IV secolo d.C.

ANDREA PELLIZZARI (Alessandria, 1966) è ricercatore confermato di Storia Romana presso l' Università degli Studi di Torino. I suoi interessi di ricerca privilegiano la storia politica e culturale dell' età tardoantica, con particolare attenzione all' epistolografia e all' esegesi di fonti storico-letterarie. È autore di due monografie (Commento storico al III libro dell' Epistolario di Q. Aurelio Simmaco, Pisa-Roma 1998 e Servio. Storia, cultura e istituzioni nell' opera di un grammatico tardoantico, Firenze 2003) e di numerosi contributi in volumi e riviste scientifiche italiane e straniere.

Year: 2017
Publisher: L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER
Series: Monografie del Centro Ricerche di Documentazione sull'Antichità Classica, 42
ISBN: 978-88-913-1232-7
ISBN: 978-88-913-1234-1 (PDF)
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 584, 1 ill. Col.
Size: 17 x 24 cm

Our purpose here is to examine why Lucian of Samosata in The Dance and Libanius in On Behalf of the
Dancers consider that tragedy and dance are related, what elements they share and how these authors
understand tragedy as spectacle, because in their times it had not the same meaning as we understand
nowadays the classical tragedy.

This study explores how Late Antique rhetors – Christian and pagan – develop the festival as a literary space for the contemplation of the divine. Andrea Wilson Nightingale has shown how the Platonic dynamic of philosophical contemplation is built upon a metaphor of festival pilgrimage and spectatorship: theoria at the festival is used to develop the idea of theoria as metaphysical pilgrimage. This article shows how fourth-century rhetors follow earlier imperial authors in exploiting this metaphor and reinserting Platonic contemplation into its original festival setting.
From the second through the fourth centuries CE, the rhythms of urban life in the Greek East were dominated by festivals. In literature, festivals become settings for the evocation and performance of Hellenism. Since Platonic contemplation had become the feature of Hellenism with the most valuable cultural currency, imperial authors like Dio Chrysostom or Aelius Aristides turn festivals into sideshows for a new main event: the rhetorical performance of Platonic theoria.
This tradition is crucial for understanding the “festival rhetoric” of 4th century rhetors: an ekphrasis of a festival attributed to Libanius reenacts Socrates practicing philosophy in the agora; and Gregory of Nazianzus uses his orations for Christian festivals to lead his audience in the Platonic contemplation of theological truths. The festival – whether in the city or church – has become a site for the performance of Platonic theoria.

Libanius (born 313, died post 393) was a sophist (professor of rhetoric). He was born in Antioch and taught in the city from 354 until his death. His works are many and varied. Among his speeches, the Antiochicos or « Antiochean » (speech), is entirely dedicated to the praise of Syrian Antioch. Libanius delivered it during the Antiochean Olympic Games of 356. In the edition of the collected speeches of Libanius in the “Collection des Universités de France” it takes up volume III. Odile Lagacherie and Michel Casevitz edited the Greek text and translated it into French. My task was to write the introduction (47 pages) and the historical notes (122 pages). I discussed the text as a historical source.

The introduction deals first with the date of the text. A detailed analysis follows: this analysis shows the compliance of Libanius to the rules and clichés of the rhetoric of praise. The speech is nonetheless an important document for the history of Antioch and its famous suburb, Daphne, but also for the history of the civic and urban reality from Hellenistic times to Late Antiquity. Libanius claims to inform his listeners both about the past and the present of his city. Nearly a third of the Antiochicos is devoted to its past. Libanius tells of the legends of pre-foundations and foundation, and then gives an outline of the history of the city in the Hellenistic period. These narratives are a valuable source concerning the various functions of the foundation stories, the conditions of their emergence and their importance at the beginning of Late Antiquity. The main function of these narratives, however, is to celebrate contemporary Antioch. The important thing for Libanius is the present, and the Antiochicos can be used as a source not only about the realities of the urban landscape and the functioning of the institutions in the fourth century but also about some of the great debates of the 4th c. The excavations conducted in Antioch and Daphne have so far produced a lot of mosaics but few results of relevance to knowledge of public architecture and the urban space, and the texts which inform us about the history of Antiochean urban space are in their majority written after the middle of the fourth century: in many ways, and despite its rhetoric, the best source on Antioch in 356 is in fact the Antiochicos. For this reason, I took care to identify, analyse and evaluate all the insights given by Libanius, and chose to provide the text with a topographic index (p. 202-205). In ancient rhetorical tradition, the orator must speak on behalf of the city, as its servant. The way in which Libanius understands this task and carries it out it is in itself the subject of history. The study of the text as a historical document depends on our understanding of Libanius’ goals when he pronounces his speech, and then revises it for publication. Libanius’ aims are to build a consensus and to contribute to maintaining the Antiocheans as an imagined community, regardless of their religion, and to defend Antioch as a city (polis), in an era where the traditional vision of the city and its role within the Roman empire is questioned not only by Christianity, but also by the institutional changes linked to the emergence of a new definition of the empire. The introduction concludes with a study of the reception and posterity of the speech.

In the notes, my goal was both to explain the text and identify its historical interest and the questions it raises. The 36-page bibliography is indicative of the breadth and quantity of the reading required. But beyond just reading, this work conducted in 1993 led me to undertake a great deal of research and to specialize gradually in the field of the urban history of the Late Roman East. Many notes are based on articles published between 1999 and 2016 regarding in particular the Antiochicos, or more generally the work of Libanius, or Antioch, studied from different angles under various aspects and with the help of multiple sources. A lot of work has also been done to explain the various allusions made by Libanius and to highlight the apport of his speech to the cultural history of Late Antiquity.

For reviews, see:
http://www.hsozkult.de/searching/id/rezbuecher-27409?title=m-casevitz-u-a-hrsg-libanios-antiochicos&q=Malalas&sort=&fq=&total=48&recno=1&subType=reb ;
A. Busine, L’Antiquité Classique 86, 2017, p. 351-352, disponible en ligne : http://www. https://sites.uclouvain.be/antclas/AC_2017_cr/Busine_Casevitz.pdf).