Late Antique Rhetoric and the Rhetorical School in R. Cribiore's Research

Abstract

The article discusses the scientific biography and the main directions of research of the American antiquarian and classical philologist Raffaella Cribiore, one of the world's leading specialists in the study of Late Antique rhetoric and school as the most important link in the cultural continuum between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Among the personalities of most interest to the scholar is Libanius, the Antiochian rhetorician, the greatest representative of the Third Sophistic. Quite a few works by Libanius have been preserved, most of this corpus is still awaiting translation. The researcher's interests were territorially localized in Egypt. The third leading theme of Cribiore's narrative is gender (female epistolography of Late Antiquity). One of the leading directions in Cribiore's research is the study of the history of education and the higher rhetorical school, rhetoric and sophistry of Late Antiquity, especially 4th century Antioch, and rhetoric as a cultural phenomenon. It was possible to establish that R. Cribiore's particularly detailed study of Late Antique sophistry and epistolography, which was not only an academic discipline and a necessary skill, but also an important aspect of academic and, more importantly, social career in Late Antiquity. The analysis of the content and comparative comparison of the works of modern studies within the framework of the designated problems allows us to assert that R. Cribiore was a leading specialist in the field of ancient rhetorical education, and in general higher education in Late Antiquity, and on some positions — even before the 8th century.