Beschreibung:
Competition among cultural elites, strategies of self-presentation and the making of religious orthodoxy often took the shape of narrations of rhetorical performances in which comments on the display of oratorical skills also incorporated moral and ethical judgments about the performer. Using texts from late antique authors (in particular, Themistius, Synesius of Cyrene, and Libanius of Antioch), this book proposes that this type of narrative should be understood as a valuable way to decipher the cultural and religious landscape of the fourth century AD.
Contents;Index;Acknowledgments;Abbreviations;Introduction;1: Theory and Practice of Rhetorical Performance from Classical Antiquity to Imperial Times;Literature Review;Theoretical Approaches to Rhetorical Performance in Antiquity;Narrations of Rhetorical Performances in Greco-Roman Literature;2: Charlatans, Philosophers, and Philostratean Bishops in Late Antique Literature;Philosophers, Belletrists and Charlatans;Philostratean Bishops;3: All the world's a stage. Libanius' life as a Rhetorical Performance;Literature Review;Becoming a sophist;A Performable Life. The Narrations of Rhetorical Performances in Libanius' Autobiography;A star is born;Homecoming;4: Conclusions;Index