Libanius of Antioch

314-393

Libanius of Antioch was among the best known public figures in the later Roman Empire. When he was 15 he decided to pursue a career in rhetoric. In 336 he went to study in Athens. During the decade of the 340s he taught in Constantinople and Nicaea, and then went to Nicomedia. He developed a reputation of excellence as a public performer.

In 349 Libanius was asked by the emperor in Constantinople to become a chair of rhetoric there. He went to Antioch in 354 where he was appointed the city's official sophist in 355.

Libanius wrote an autobiography, 63 speeches, and more than 1500 letters, many of which were to his current and past students. He also developed a collection of exercises in prose composition (progymnasmata) to be used in his teaching. His students, young upper class boys, would enroll with a teacher of rhetoric, such as Libanius, to study the works of classical literature and learn to write exercises (progymnasmata). The exercises would offer them a method for determining what was at issue in a given piece of text.

Libanius (2008) Libanius' Progymnasmata: Model Exercises in Greek Prose Composition and Rhetoric, Malcolm Heath (ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

Libanius (2008). Libanius' Progymnasmata: Model Exercises in Greek Prose Composition and Rhetoric, Craig A.Gibson (Ed.). Society for Biblical Literature. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=kRi-If9IAOYC&dq=Libanius%27+Progymnasmata&source=gbs_navlinks_s March 1, 2010.