The School of Libanius in Late Antique Antioch

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Presents a study of the 4th-century sophist Libanius, a major intellectual figure who ran one of the most prestigious schools of rhetoric in the later Roman Empire. This book examines Libanius' training and personality, and traces how he cultivated a wide network of friends and former pupils and courted powerful officials to recruit top students.

Reviews

"In addition to providing insights into Libanius's achievements in Antioch, the author provides translations of 200 letters (most never before translated into English) that reflect vividly the practice of education and the world of the fourth century in the east. An invaluable contribution to the study of ancient education, this volume includes everything from Libanius's early successes in Constantinople to the challenge of student retention."--J. de Luce, Choice "Cribiore's new study of the school of Libanius offers a richly detailed view of the world of the late ancient classroom and the behind-the-scenes activities of one of its most famous teachers."--Craig A. Gibson, Classical World "This ... is a valuable--and extremely readable--contribution, which brings attention to underused and important evidence."--Gavin Kelly, Journal of Hellenic Studies "This is a work of outstanding scholarship, a thorough and lively account which I would not only recommend to classicists and ancient historians but to anyone with a broad interest for the history of education... Any review will do injustice to the book as a whole, which should be read and reread: undoubtedly the rich footnotes and bibliography will provide historians of childhood and youth with many new and unexpected facts."--Veronique Van Driessche, Les Etudes Classiques

Author Bio

Raffaella Cribiore is Associate Curator for Papyri and Adjunct Professor of Classics at Columbia University. She is the coauthor of "Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800" and the author of "Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt" (Princeton), which won the American Philological Association's 2004 award for the best book in classics.