L I B 
Celebrated in the Chriftian church, Bafil and John Chry- 
foftorn. He himfelf, however, was zealoufly attached to 
the ancient religion ; and, upon the acceftion of Julian, he 
was one of the firft whom that emperor invited to be near 
his perfon. Libanius, with a truly philofophic fpirit, de¬ 
clined the dignities which were offered him, and, remain¬ 
ing in his own city, rather ftirunk from the advances of 
imperial favour than courted them. He was, however, 
warmly attached to a prince who patronifed his ftudies 
and fupported the fame religious caufe: he loved him 
while living, and panegyrifed him after death. On va¬ 
rious occafions he employed his influence with Julian to 
foften his refentments. When, in confequence of a tu¬ 
mult at Antioch, the emperor had given orders to put all 
the magiflrates in prifon, Libanius pleaded for them with 
a boldnefs which drew a menacing remark from a fervile 
courtier prefent; but the orator indignantly retorted, and, 
perfifting in his plea, obtained a revocation of the order. 
Julian admitted him to the equality of a literary friend, 
and is thought to have had his afliftance in fome of his 
compofitions ; though, in fact, the emperor had a better 
talfe in writing than the rhetorician. His death was a 
fevere ftroke upon Libanius, who had flattered himfelf 
■with the triumphant reftoration of the heathen religion 
and philofophy. He furvived to an advanced age, fome- 
times endangered by fuppofed difaffeftion to the fucceed- 
ing emperors, and complaining of various injuries from 
rivals. The time of his death is not known, but he men¬ 
tions the feventy-fixth year of his age, A. D. 390. He 
was never married, but is laid to have had a concubine ; 
to which is imputed his interference with the emperor 
Valens, in order to obtain the confirmation of a law ad¬ 
mitting illegitimate children to a lhareof the paternal in¬ 
heritance. 
The writings of Libanius were very numerous; and a 
great quantity of them have come down to our times, 
confiding of orations and declamations upon real and fic¬ 
titious occafions, differtations and epiftles. They are 
chara&erifed by Gibbon as “ for the molt part the vain 
and idle compofitions of an orator who cultivated the fci- 
ence of words; the productions of a reclufe ftudent, whofe 
mind, regardlefs of his contemporaries, was inceffantly 
fixed on the Trojan war and the Athenian common¬ 
wealth.” Yet liberal fentiments frequently occur ; and 
many anecdotes refpefting the hiftory of the times cannot 
but appear in a collection of nearly two thoufand letters 
written to his correfpondents. Of the works of Libanius, 
two vols. folio, Gr. and Lat. were publiihed at Paris, 1606, 
1627. Thefe contain his declamations, orations, and dif¬ 
fertations, with his life, a prolix and vain narrative writ¬ 
ten by himfelf. Many of his epiftles and orations yet re¬ 
main in manufcript in different libraries. Gibbon. 
LIBA'NIUS (Geoyge), one of the moft able profeffors 
of the college of Cracow in Poland, who flourilhed in the 
fixteenth century, was defcended from a refpeCtable fa¬ 
mily at Lignitz, of which place he was a native. After 
purfuing his ftudies for leveral years in the moft cele¬ 
brated German univerfities, he came to Cracow’, where 
his talents and manners fecured him the efteem of the 
moft eminent characters in that city, who were diftin- 
guilhed by their love of literature. He was appointed 
one of the profeffors in the firft college at Cracow, and 
acquitted himfelf in that poll with great reputation. He 
is confidered as the firft perfon who introduced there the 
Itudy of the Greek tongue, and excited a tafte for it in 
the Polilh nation. He was the author of, 1. CEconomi- 
corum Ariftotelis Libri, Graecis et Latinis Annotationi- 
bus illuftrati, 1537, 4to. 2. Carmina Sibyllee Erithrese, 
in quibus RefurreCtio Corporum, Mutatio Steculorum, 
Dei adventus ad Judicium, Praemia et Supplicia Hominum, 
defcribuntur, Scholiis quas ad Grammaticam attinent ad- 
ditis, 154-5, 8vo. 3. Paraclefis ; id eft, Adhortatio ad Grae- 
carum Literarum Studiofos, habita Cracoviae, of the fame 
date. 4. De Muficae Laudibus Ofatio, cui annexa eft, 
quae in Scabs et Mu flea traCtantur, muitorum Vccabulo- 
L I B 571 
rum Graecorum Interpretatio, 1540, 8vo. Thefe were 
all publiihed at Cracow. He alfo compiled an Anthology, 
dated in 1528, which ftill remains in manufcript, and con- 
fifts of choice felebtions from the works of St. Bafil, St. 
Gregory Nazianzen, and St. John Chryfoftom. Moreri. 
LIBANO'TIS, f. in botany. See Athamanta, Ca- 
chrys, Ferula, Laserpitium, Ligusticum, Seselj, 
Siler, and Thapsia. 
LIB'ANUS, or Leba'non, a celebrated mountain of 
Afia, fituated on the borders of Paleftine and Syria. It 
takes its name, as fome fay, from the Hebrew laban, on 
account of the whitenefs of its fummits, which appear 
covered with fnow a great part of the year. Others de¬ 
rive it from the Greek hbanos, frankincenfe, alleging, 
without fuflicient reafon as Reland obferves, that it fur- 
nilhed this or any other aromatic gum. Anti-Liba- 
nus is fo called from its parallel courle in oppolition ta 
the other. Some ancient fathers, as St. Jerome and Eu- 
febius, have deferibed the Libanus and Antilibanus as 
one continued ridge, winding about in the form of a 
horfe-(hoe, which begins about three or four leagues from 
the Mediterranean, a little above Smyrna, and, running 
fouthward towards Sidon, takes an ealtern courle towards 
Damafcus; winding thence northward towards Laodicea 
Cabiofa. The weltern ridge is that which is properly 
called Libanus ; the ealtern is Antilibanus, and the hol¬ 
low between is Ccelofyria. See Antilibanus and Cce- 
losyria. 
St. Jerome reprefents Libanus as by far the loftieft hill 
in the whole land of promife, as well as the moft woody 
and thick-fet; and Theodoret alio ltates it to be the 
highelt of all Paleftine. Although the height of this 
mountain has not been determined by the barometer, 
Volney deduces it from another confideration. In winter 
the tops of the adjoining mountains are entirely covered 
with fnow from Alexandretta to Jerufalem ; but after the 
month of March it melts, except on Mount Libanus, 
where however it does not remain the whole year, except 
in the higheft cavities, and towards the north-eaft, where 
it is Iheltered from the fea-winds and the rays of the fun. 
Since it is well known that fnow in this latitude requires 
an elevation of fifteen orfixteen hundred fathoms, we may 
conclude, fays Volney, that to be the height of Libanus; 
and that it is confequently much lower than the Alps, or 
even the Pyrenees. Mont Blanc, the loftieft of the 
Alps, is eftirnated at 2488 fathoms above the level of the 
fea; and the Peak of Offian, in the Pyrenees, at 1900. 
Mount Libanus is computed at about one hundred 
leagues in compafs; and is bounded by Mefopotamia on 
the eaft, Armenia on the north, Paleftine on the fouth, 
and the Mediterranean on the weft. It confifts of four 
ridges of mountains, which rife one above the other ; the 
firft of thefe is very fertile in grain and fruit; the fecond 
is barren and rocky, producing nothing but briars and 
thorns; the third, though ftill higher, is faid to enjoy a 
conftant verdure and fpring, its gardens and orchards pro¬ 
ducing fuch a variety of herbs, fruits, &c. that it has 
been Ityled an earthly paradife ; the laft and loftieft is un¬ 
inhabitable, by reafon of its exceffive coldnefs, being co¬ 
vered with deep lhows almolt all the year. It is moltly 
inhabited by the Maronites below ; and by the wild Arabs, 
called Amadea, of the feft of Ali, every where elfe but 
on the top. Here are feveral churches, convents, and cha¬ 
pels, and caverns cut into the rock. The monks that in¬ 
habit it are very poor, but courteous to travellers, from 
whom they expert lome token of beneficence. The con¬ 
vent, or coenobium, where the Maronite patriarch refides, 
lies almolt in a bottom ; the defeent to it is very fteep, 
narrow, and winding; and it has only that one avenue, 
which makes it fo much the fafer, as well as the more re¬ 
tired. It chiefly confifts of fundry grottoes, cut into the 
rock ; of which the church is one of the largeft. A river, 
which empties itftrlf at Tripoli, runs a little below it, and 
fupplies it with water. Near the grotto of St. Marina, 
who is reputed to have lived here as an hermit, in man’s. 
3 clothes. 
