LIBANIUS

born AD 314, , Antioch, Syria died 393 Greek Sophist and rhetorician whose orations and letters are a major source of information on the political, social, and economic life of Antioch and of the eastern part of the Roman Empire in the 4th century. After beginning his teaching career in Constantinople and Nicomedia, Libanius went to Antioch (354), where his school soon became famous. Devoted to the classical authors in both teaching and writing, he tried to maintain the Greek tradition in the face of the rise of Rome, and as a friend of the emperor Julian, he attempted to live and write as though Christianity did not exist, though he knew and esteemed individual Christians. His works give valuable pictures of contemporary education.