Libanius of
Antioch (AD 314-93), teacher, rhetorician and eloquent exponent of Greek
paideia, was one of the most prolific letter writers of late antiquity with
more than 1500 surviving letters from an even greater total. This volume
contains the first English-language translation of all the letters written
between 388 and 393, which provide insights both into his professional and
personal circumstances and the changes taking place in the political, religious
and social environment of the late fourth century. The letters while fulfilling
many of the usual functions of late antique correspondence as vehicles in
creating or maintaining friendship networks, promoting relationships with men
in power, supporting rhetoric and Hellenic learning and seeking favours for
friends, students and protégés, also reveal Libanius’ reaction to his
circumstances at the end of his life – his waning influence as a teacher, the
hostility directed towards him by factions in Antioch and in Constantinople,
the loss of friends and loved ones, in particular his son, and his ill health
and impending mortality.