LIBANIO. – Pagan rhetorician, born at Antioch in Syria in A.D. 314, died there in 393. He studied in Athens under the African rhetorician Diophantus, having as fellow students St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, with whom he maintained friendly relations, although he remained resolutely pagan. He taught at Constantinople with great success, to such an extent that the jealousy and envy
of his colleagues forced him to leave. He then taught at Nicomedia in Bithynia, where he came to know the future emperor Julian. He subsequently transferred his teaching to his native city (354), and remained there until his death, always listened to with admiration.
The most brilliant period of his life was that during which the emperor Julian stayed at Antioch for nearly two years and gave him great proofs of esteem and affection. And L.’s most ardent hopes seemed in that brief period to be fulfilled through Julian’s efforts, as he devoted himself to the restoration of the pagan religion. The young Emperor’s unexpected death in battle overwhelmed him with grief and almost drove him to suicide. Because of the fame of his learning and his gentle urbanity, even Christians treated him with respect; his fellow student Gregory of Nazianzus hailed him as the prince of orators, and John Chrysostom was his devoted pupil; his voice was heeded even by high Roman magistrates and by the emperor Theodosius himself. To the latter he asked, for example, to restrain the fury of certain Christian fanatics who were destroying noble buildings and beautiful sculptures of pagan art, and to grant pardon to his fellow citizens, who were always prone to unrest and rebelliousness.
A most prolific writer, and preserved to a considerable extent thanks to the admiration of the Byzantines, he left orations (Λόγος), declamations (Μελέτας), rhetorical exercises (προγυμνάματα), studies on Demosthenes, and 1544 letters. All his concerns are naturally directed toward form, pedantically faithful to the models of Attic orators. Amid so much affected emptiness, a few felicitous moments may be found in the oration on Julian’s death and in the panegyric for his Antioch.