Libanius autobiography texts
- In his lifetime Libanius was an acknowledged master of the art of letter writing.
- Autobiography and selected letters.
- Libanius' Autobiography (Oration I). The Greek Text.
- •
Libanius' Autobiography
Libanius' Autobiography
Copyright:
Available Formats
Copyright
Available Formats
Share this document
Share or Embed Document
Did you find this document useful?
Is this content inappropriate?
Copyright:
Available Formats
Copyright:
Available Formats
- •
on the Declamations, so that the reader is left with the indelible impression of Libanius as a mere word-monger, a recluse student whose sole preoccupation was with the glories of a Greece long gone. Of his merits and standing as an epistolographer Gibbon was particularly dismissive, according him but seven words of text supported by a brief but tendentious note, in which the dreaming pedant of Bentley’s Phalaris is identified, without more ado, with Libanius himself. In this note Gibbon’s lack of sympathy is complete, but his wording demands more scrutiny. His total for the number of the letters (“near two thousand”) reveals his assumption that the inanities of Zambecari’s Latin versions, as reproduced in the edition of J. C. Wolf, were part of the genuine Libanian corpus, while the back-handed compliments to previous literary judgements about the charm of Libanius’ style give some cause for suspecting that his assessment of this branch of his work has been influenced as much by a reading of Wolf’s accompanying Latin as by the original text. Such suspicion may be reinforced by G
- •
LIBANIUS AND LATE ANTIQUE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The text, translation and commentary of Libanius’ Autobiography is Frank Norman’s first book. It was published in 1965. But many years before the publication of this book, indeed before he had published anything at all, Norman had lent me the notes on Libanius which he had taken while working on his PhD to help me with mine. That was the kind of person he was, just as ready to help the work of others as to further his own.
Norman noted that Libanius was sixty years old when he decided to write his autobiography, and that it was to be «a scholar’s apologia pro vita sua , presented with all the skill of his sophistic art» '. But when modern critics for want of a better word use the word «autobiography » to describe Libanius’ First Oration, this is misleading in that it implies that Libanius set out to write an autobiography in the modern sense. To day it is almost taken for granted that a person who has lived an interesting, or at least has achieved celebrity in one way or another, will want to preserve the memory of his individuality and t
Copyright ©backaid.pages.dev 2025