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Text and Paratext: Reading the Emperor Julian via Libanius' Epitaphios
- American Journal of Philology
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 141, Number 2 (Whole Number 562), Summer 2020
- pp. 241-281
- 10.1353/ajp.2020.0011
- Article
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Abstract:
We possess more extant literary works by Julian (361–3 c.e.) than by any other Roman emperor. This article examines the role of Libanius of Antioch in the early dissemination of Julian's texts. Rather than focusing on the identification and activities of possible early collators and editors, it makes a case for the application of paratextuality to study the way that Libanius sought to condition the reception of a Julianic oeuvre among a contemporary readership. A brief comparison with Julian's detractor, Gregory of Nazianzus, exposes a similar paratextual agenda among other of Julian's interlocutors, and throws Libanius' objectives into higher relief.