Libanius, Lemmatius and the Location and Career of a Pagan (High?) Priest under and after Julian

Article Authentication required
Subscibe in publisher´s online store Share via email
Libanius, Lemmatius and the Location and Career of a Pagan (High?) Priest under and after Julian
Van Hoof, Lieve

From the journal Historia Historia, Volume 70, September 2021, issue 3

Published by Franz Steiner Verlag

article, 9326 Words
Original language: English
Historia 2021, pp 375-393
https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2021-0014

Abstract Related content References

Abstract

Six letters of Libanius concern a man called Lemmatius or (C)lematius, whom scholars have been taken to be a pagan high priest in either Palestine or Athens under and after Julian. Revisiting the evidence, this article shows that Lemmatius was based in Palestine, that he was a priest but not necessarily a high priest, that the chronology of his vicissitudes as described by Libanius is different from what is usually suggested, and that his name was probably Lemmatius. This reassessment is important as it contributes to changing our understanding of high priests and their careers under and after Julian.

Author information

Lieve Van Hoof

Keywords

Libanius | Julian | High priests | Palestine | Epistolography

Related content

References

  • 1. Athanassiadi, Polymnia , . Julian and Hellenism: An Intellectual Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.
  • 2. Beard, Mary , . ‘Ciceronian correspondences: Making a book out of letters’. In Classics in progress, ed. T.P. Wiseman, 103-44. British Academy Centenary Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
  • 3. Bidez, Joseph , . La Vie de l’Empereur Julien. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1930.
  • 4. Bradbury, Scott , . Selected Letters of Libanius: From the Age of Constantius and Julian. Translated Texts for Historians 41. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2004.
  • 5. Connelly, Joan Breton , . Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
  • 6. Cribiore, Raffaella , . Libanius the Sophist: Rhetoric, Reality, and Religion in the Fourth Century. Townsend Lectures: Cornell Studies in Classical Philology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013.
  • 7. Dietz, Karlheinz , . ‘Kaiser Julian in Phönizien’. Chiron 30 (2000): 807-55.
  • 8. Dillon, Matthew , . Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. London; New York: Routledge, 2002.
  • 9. Drijvers, Jan Willem , . Cyril of Jerusalem: Bishop and City. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 72. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004.
  • 10. Fatouros, Georgios / Krischer, Tilman , . Libanios: Briefe. Tusculum-Bücherei. Munich: Heimeran, 1980.
  • 11. Foerster, Richard , . Libanius: Opera. Volumen X: Epistulae 1-839. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Leipzig: Teubner, 1921.
  • 12. Foerster, Richard , Libanius: Opera. Volumen XI: Epistulae 840-1544. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Leipzig: Teubner, 1922.
  • 13. Fraser, Peter Marshall / Elaine, Matthews et al., eds. A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987- .
  • 14. Giangrande, Giuseppe , . Eunapii Vitae sophistarum. Rome: Istituto poligrafico e zecca dallo Stato, 1956.
  • 15. Gibson, Roy K. ‘On the Nature of Ancient Letter Collections’. The Journal of Roman Studies 102 (2012): 56-78.
  • 16. Harries, Jill , . Law and Empire in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  • 17. Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin / Martindale, J. R. / Morris, J. , . The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
  • 18. Jordan, Borimir , . Servants of the Gods: A Study in the Religion, History and Literature of Fifth-Century Athens. Hypomnemata 55. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1979.
  • 19. Kelly, Christopher , . ‘Comes domorum’. In Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, ed. J. Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018: 375.
  • 20. Kelly, Christopher ‘Domus Divina per Cappadociam’. In Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, ed. J. Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018: 498.
  • 21. Lenski, Noel Emmanuel , . Failure of empire: Valens and the Roman state in the fourth century A. D. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
  • 22. Liddell, Henry George / Scott, Robert / Jones, Henry Stuart , . A Greek-English lexicon with a revised supplement. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  • 23. Mitchell, Stephen , . ‘Cappadocia’. In Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, ed. J. Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018: 290-291.
  • 24. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther , . Libanios: Zeuge einer schwindenden Welt. Standorte in Antike und Christentum 4. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 2012.
  • 25. Norman, Albert Frank , Libanius: Autobiography and Selected Letters. Volume 1. The Loeb Classical Library 478. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
  • 26. Olszaniec, Szymon , . Prosopographical Studies on the Court Elite in the Roman Empire (4th Century A. D.). Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2013.
  • 27. Petit, Paul , . Les fonctionnaires dans l’oeuvre de Libanius: Analyse prosopographique. Avec une préface d’André Chastagnol. Annales Littéraires de l’Université de Besançon: Centre de Recherches d’Histoire Ancienne 134. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994.
  • 28. Sandwell, Isabella , . Religious Identity in Late Antiquity: Greeks, Jews and Christians in Antioch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  • 29. Schwabe, Moshe , . ‘Chapters on Hellenistic Palestine in the time of the editing of the Palestinian Talmud’. Tarbiz 5 (1934): 358-69.
  • 30. Seeck, Otto , . Die Briefe des Libanius zeitlich geordnet. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1906.
  • 31. Sievers, Gottlob Reinhold , . Das Leben des Libanius. Berlin, 1869.
  • 32. Silomon, Hans , . De Libanii Epistularum Libris I-VI. Göttingen: Officina Academica Dieterichiana, 1909.
  • 33. Smith, Rowland , . Julian’s Gods: Religion and Philosophy in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate. London and New York: Routledge, 1995.
  • 34. Stemberger, Günter , . Jews and Christians in the Holy Land: Palestine in the Fourth Century. Translated from German. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1987.
  • 35. Van Hoof, Lieve , . ‘The Letter Collection of Libanius of Antioch’. In Late Antique Letter Collections: A Critical Introduction and Reference Guide, eds. Cristiana Sogno, Bradley K. Storin, and Edward Jay Watts, 113-30. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017.
  • 36. Van Nuffelen, Peter / Van Hoof, Lieve , . Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris: An Inventory of Late Antique Historiography (A. D. 300-800). Turnhout: Brepols, 2020.
  • 37. Wiemer, Hans-Ulrich , . ‘Neue Priester braucht das Land, oder: Wollte Kaiser Julian eine „heidnische Kirche“ schaffen?’ Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity 21 (2017): 520-58.