Editing Libanius (section)

===Career===
He studied in [[History of Athens#Roman Athens|Athens]] under [[Diophantus the Arab]] and began his career in [[Constantinople]] as a private tutor. He was exiled to [[Nicomedia]] in 346 (or earlier) for around five years<ref name=EB1911/> but returned to Constantinople and taught there until 354.<ref name="GS370"/> At this time, he held an official appointment as a sophist in the capital and received an imperial salary.<ref name="Kaster">{{cite journal |last1=Kaster |first1=Robert A. |title=The Salaries of Libanius |journal=Chiron |date=1983 |volume=13 |pages=52;55;58-59 |url=https://kaster.scholar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf4666/files/1983_chiron_0.pdf |access-date=14 October 2024}}</ref>
Before his exile, Libanius was a friend of the emperor [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]], with whom some correspondence survives, and in whose memory he wrote a series of orations; they were composed between 362 and 365. 
In winter 353/54 he returned to Antioch in expectation of succeeding his former teacher Zenobius, but the latter refused to yield his place and Libanius could only take the position upon Zenobius' illness and following death in autumn 354.<ref name="Kaster" /> His pupils included both pagans and Christians.<ref name="GS370">{{cite book | title=Dictionary of Ancient History | editor1-last=Speake | editor1-first=Graham | publisher=Penguin Books | location=London | year=1994 | page=370 | isbn=0-14-051260-8}}</ref> There, he continued to receive an imperial salary, which was temporarily cut between , which resulted in Libanius in writing many letters trying to obtain it back.<ref name="Kaster"/>{{efn|Though some modern accounts insinuate that the salary was cut by the Christian praefect [[Helpidius (praetorian prefect)|Helpidius]] because Libanius was a pagan, relations between the two were not uniformly hostile and there is no evidence that the hostility was inspired by religious differences.<ref name="Kaster"/>}}

Libanius used his arts of rhetoric to advance various private and political causes. He attacked the increasing imperial pressures on the traditional city-oriented culture that had been supported and dominated by the local upper classes. Nevertheless, though Libanius liked to assume the role of an honourable, independent citizen, he concerned himself often with winning for himself and his friends honours and privileges bestowed by the central imperial authority.<ref name="Kaster" /> He is known to have protested against the [[persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire]]. In 386, he appealed without success to emperor Theodosius to prevent the destruction of a temple in [[Edessa]], and pleaded for toleration and the preservation of the temples against the predation of Christian monks, who he claimed:

{{quote|[...]hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues and the overthrow of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die. After demolishing one, they scurry to another, and to a third, and trophy is piled on trophy, in contravention of the law. Such outrages occur even in the cities, but they are most common in the countryside. Many are the foes who perpetrate the separate attacks, but after their countless crimes this scattered rabble congregates and they are in disgrace unless they have committed the foulest outrage...Temples, Sire, are the soul of the countryside: they mark the beginning of its settlement, and have been passed down through many generations to the men of today. In them the farming communities rest their hopes for husbands, wives, children, for their oxen and the soil they sow and plant. An estate that has suffered so has lost the inspiration of the peasantry together with their hopes, for they believe that their labour will be in vain once they are robbed of the gods who direct their labours to their due end. And if the land no longer enjoys the same care, neither can the yield match what it was before, and, if this be the case, the peasant is the poorer, and the revenue jeopardized.|Libanius, ''Pro Templis''<ref>Pro Templis (Oration XXX.8-10)</ref>}}
 
The surviving works of Libanius, which include over 1,600 letters, 64 speeches and 96 progymnasmata (rhetorical exercises), are valuable as a historical source for the changing world of the later 4th century.<ref name="GS370"/> His oration "A Reply To [[Aelius Aristides|Aristides]] On Behalf Of The Dancers" is one of the most important records of Roman [[concert dance]], particularly that immensely popular form known as [[pantomime]].<ref>Alessandra Zanobi, ''Ancient Pantomime and its Reception'', Article retrieved April 2016 [http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/learning/short-guides/ancient-pantomime-and-its-reception]</ref> His first ''Oration I'' is an autobiographical narrative, first written in 374 and revised throughout his life, a scholar's account that ends as an old exile's private journal. Progymnasma 8 (see below for explanation of a "progymnasma") is an imaginary summation of the prosecution's case against a physician charged with poisoning some of his patients.<ref>Ratzan, R.M. and Ferngren, G.B. (April 1993). "A Greek progymnasma on the
physician-poisoner". ''[[Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences]]''. '''48''' (2): 157–70.</ref>

Although Libanius was not a Christian his students included such notable [[Christianity|Christians]] as [[John Chrysostom]]<ref name=EB1911/> and [[Theodore of Mopsuestia]].<ref>[[Averil Cameron|Cameron, A.]] (1998) "Education and literary culture" in Cameron, A. and [[Peter Garnsey|Garnsey, P.]] (eds.) ''[[The Cambridge Ancient History|The Cambridge ancient history: Vol. XIII The late empire, A.D. 337-425]]''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], pp. 668-669.</ref> Despite his friendship with the pagan restorationist Emperor [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]] he was made an honorary ''[[praetorian prefect]]'' by the Christian Emperor [[Theodosius I]].