"In this first English translation of Themistius's private orations, equipped with introduction and ample annotations, Robert J. Penella makes accessible a dossier of texts that shed significant light on the intellectual and political culture of Constantinople and the eastern Roman empire in the fourth century A.D. Themistius was a philosopher, a prominent Constantinopolitan senator, and an adviser to Roman emperors in the East. In the "private" or unofficial orations presented here, he concerns himself with apologetics, rhetorical and philosophical programs, material of autobiographical interest, and ethical themes. These orations should be of interest to students of late antiquity and of Greek intellectual and rhetorical history."--BOOK JACKET.