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Libanius

Libanius

c. 314 CE–c. 393 CE · Antioch

Libanius (314-c. 393 CE) was a Greek rhetorician and teacher of Antioch, one of the most celebrated orators of late antiquity and a devoted defender of traditional Greek culture and religion. A very large body of his work survives, including orations, rhetorical exercises, and over a thousand letters, making him an invaluable source for the social and intellectual life of the 4th-century eastern Roman Empire. He taught many leading figures of his day.

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AntiochSyria

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

About Antioch

Antioch (Antakya), today in the Hatay province of southern Turkey near the Syrian border, was a major late-antique city that came under Muslim rule after the conquest of Syria, was retaken by the Byzantines in 969, and changed hands repeatedly during the Crusades. The poet al-Ma'arri (d. 1057) came from nearby Ma'arrat al-Nu'man; the astronomer al-Battani (d. 929) was active in the wider Syrian region.

Across the traditions, in Antioch at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Libanius’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Libanius’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(102)