ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the significance that Libanius gave to rhetoric and oratory as inseparable disciplines with a philanthropic mission. It analyzes Libanius' Autobiography as an oration in which his reports of the late antique oratorical world served him to create his public persona in the context of relevant debates in the religious and cultural landscape of the fourth century AD. Important aspects of Libanius' personal and professional experiences in Constantinople are narrated through the lens of rhetorical performance. Open criticism of a fellow sophist could have given rise to suspicions of professional jealousy. Libanius was comparing the luxuriousness and cultural superficiality that the city had from the sophist's viewpoint with the well-intentioned nature of the rhetoric that he practiced. The preference of part of the audiences in Constantinople for the eye-catching and euphonic side of rhetorical performances is reasserted by Libanius in his Autobiography.
