LIBA'NIUS, a celebrated teacher of rhetoric, was born at Antioch in Syria, in 314, of an ancient and noble family. After pursuing his studies with great diligence in his native city, he repaired to Athens, where he remained four years. He taught the arts of rhetoric and declamation at Athens, Constantinople, and Nicomedia, in succession; but being obliged to leave these places in consequence of the opposition of rival teachers who envied his superior talents, he returned in 354 to Antioch, where he chiefly resided during the remainder of his life. He was considered the moat eminent rhetorioian of his age; his school was frequented by numerous pupils, and he numbered among his disciples John Chrysoatom and Theodore of Mopsueatia. The Emperor Julian was a great admirer of his works ; he imitated his style in his own writings, and after his accession to the empire formed an intimate friendship with the rhetorician, and bestowed upon him the dignity of qutestor. It is related by Eunapius (' De Vit. Philosop. at Soph.,' p. 135) that one of the emperors (probably Theodosius the Great) gave him the honorary rank of prmfect of the prmtorium, but that it was declined by Libanius as a lees illustrious title than that of Sophist. Libanius was alive in the year 390, since he mentions in a letter to Priscus Ep: 866) that he was then seventy-six years of age.
Libanius was a pagan, and many of his works are written in defence of the heathen religion; yet this did not his being on good terms with St. Basil. [BASIL.] There is a curious speech of his still extant addressed to the Emperor Theodosius respecting the heathen temples, which has been translated into English by Dr. Lardner, in the eighth volume of his of the Gospel History.' Most of the writings of Libanius have come down to us ; they are chiefly declamationa on the leading events of Greek history, and are characterised by Gibbon as the "vain and idle compositions of an orator who cultivated the science of words ; the productions of a recluse student, whose mind, regardless of his contemporaries, was Incessantly fixed on the Trojan war and tho Athenian commonwealth." His oratorical works and moral treatises were published by Morel, 2 vols. foL, 1600-27. The best edition of his declamations is by Iteiske, 4 vols. 8vo, Leip.,1791. The letters of Libaniue, which amount
to more than 1600, were published by Wolf, fol., 1738.
• Ll BELT, KAROL, a Polish philosophical and political writer, born at Posen in 106, was educated there and at Berlin, where in the second year of his studies at the university he obtained a prize for a Latin dissertation, Do Pantheismo: After receiving his degree of Doctor of Philosophy, he went in 1830 to Paris, and at the close of the same year to NVarsaw, where he took a part in the national influx.
rection ; and served during the ensuing war, first as an artilleryman, then as an officer of artillery. At its conclusion he gave his attention for some time to farming in Posen, and it was not till 1840 that be appeared again in literature. He was part editor of a weekly periodical, the Tygodnik Literacki,' resembling the ' Literary Gazette ;' then of a quarterly collection of essays entitled 'Rok,' or ' The Year,' which received the contributions of the most distinguished writers in Prussian Poland. In the year 1846 he was implicated in the democratic con spiracy of Mieroslawaki, and, after more than a, year's imprisonment, was still awaiting his trial in Berlin when unexpectedly released in 1818 by the March revolution. He was elected a member of the Slavonio Congress which met at Prague, of the Prussian Second Chamber, and of the German Parliament at Frankfurt, all three of which ended in failure. He then established a newspaper at Posen, under the title of 'Dziennik (' The Polish Journal'), which was suppressed in consequence of the re-action. A collection of his smaller writings, Pisma Pomniejse,' was published at Posen in six volumes, 1849-52. The political ones are written in a moderate tone, and not remarkable for either wideness of view or elevation of sentiment. He speaks, for instance, of the war commenced by the United States against Mexico as offering a favourable opportunity for France to depress England. His philosophical and critical works ore of a higher character, and his name is placed with that of Trentkowaki at the head of Polish writers on these subjects. One of his works, the Dziewica Orleanska,' or Maid of Orleans,' was composed when in prison at Berlin.