Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Libanius

LIBANIUS, a Sophist, was the most distinguished Greek writer of the 4th century a.d. He was born at Antioch beween 314 and 316. He studied at Athens, and spent most of his earlier manhood in Constantinople and Nicomedia. His private classes at Constantinople were much more popular than those of the public professors; and their jealousy found means of having him expelled from Constantinople in 346 on the charge of studying magic. He was recalled from Nicomedia after five years. Ill health obliged him to retire to Antioch, where he spent the later part of his life. Though a pagan by religion, he enjoyed the favour of the Christian emperors. When Julian restored paganism as the state religion, Libanius showed no intolerance. Among his pupils he numbered St John Chrysostom and St Basil. His works, consisting chiefly of orations, declamations on set topics, and letters, are very voluminous, and have not yet been published in one single edition. He devoted much time to the study of the classical Greek writers, on whom his style is modelled with considerable success.

The best edition of the orations and declamations is Reiske’s, of the letters Wolf’s. See Westermann, Gesch. d. Griech. Beredtsamkeit; Bernhardy’s and other histories of Greek literature; Förster, Zur Schriftstellerei des Libanios, and articles in Hermes, vols. ix. and x.