Comment arrêter un massacre : une leçon de rhétorique appliquée (Libanios, Discours XIX)

Abstract

The Oration XIX, "To the Emperor Theodosius about the riots" is part of the set of five orations which Libanius composed shortly after the well-known Antioch riots de statuis, A.D. 387, so it cannot be read without connection to the other orations. It is a skilful piece of rhetoric, made of a prologue and two reasoning, separated by the narration of the events. Libanius claims to speak in Constantinople in front of Theodosius, asking him not to take revenge of the offence by sending soldiers to Antioch for massacre or pillage, by executing the principales of the Boule, or by imposing heavy tax. In fact, the sophist did not leave Antioch and the emperor had already forgiven when this oration was delivered. Nevertheless, there is no deceiving intention : it is clear that Libanius wanted to demonstrate how rhetoric - especially his own - could have got by itself the same forgiving. But this oration is not just an exercise : the sophist addresses simultaneously three audiences : the average citizens of Antioch to whom he gives his opinion about what has been done, his friends in paganism and in paideia, by innuendos of political and religious criticisms, and Theodosius himself, in a shape of a real political treatise on how (and why) the emperors must treat riots in the cities.