Elogio delle virtù nell’immagine politica di Giuliano in Libanio

Abstract

Libanius’ Julianic orations play an important role to move closer to knowledge of the interior portrait of this emperor. Julian’s personality is based on four virtues: philoponia, phronesis, philanthropia, sophrosyne. These virtues are panegyrical topoi in the eulogy of the rulers (Basilikos logos), and in the Libanian context they are freely reused, adapted to the present in order to return an image of Julian politically useful; all this doesn’t necessarily imply systematic distortion of the truth. In this connection, Julian’s political image is the exact opposite of the image of his predecessor: the reader is given the conviction that Constance, unlike Julian, would have achieved only a semblance (sch'ma) of imperial power, and nothing more. Starting from the works by J. Bouffartigue on Julian and by P.-L. Malosse on Libanius and from relevant elements that can be found in various points of Libanian oratory works, it is possible to try to develop a theory about the use of monarchical power that, among other things, demonstrates several consonances with many passages from Historia Augusta.