Editions: Orations and declamations, J. J. Reiske (1791-1797); letters, J. C. Wolf (1738); two additional declamations, R. Förster (_Hermes_, ix. 22, xii. 217), who in 1903 began the publication of a complete edition; _Apologia Socratis_, Y. H. Rogge (1891). See also E. Monnier, _Histoire de Libanius_ (1866); L. Petit, _Essai sur la vie et la correspondance du sophiste Libanius_ (1866); G. R. Sievers, _Das Leben des Libanius_ (1868); R. Förster, _F. Zambeccari und die Briefe des Libanius_ (1878). Some letters from the emperor Julian to Libanius will be found in R. Hercher, _Epistolographi Graeci_ (1873). Sixteen letters to Julian have been translated by J. Duncombe (_The Works of the Emperor Julian_, i. 303-332, 3rd ed., London, 1798). The oration on the emperor Julian is translated by C. W. King (in Bohn's "Classical Library," London, 1888), and that in Defence of the Temples of the Heathen by Dr Lardner (in a volume of translations by Thomas Taylor, from Celsus and others, 1830). See further J. E. Sandys, _Hist. of Classical Scholarship_, i. (1906), and A. Harrent, _Les Écoles d'Antioche_ (1898).
LIBATION (Lat. _libatio_, from _libare_, to take a portion of something, to taste, hence to pour out as an offering to a deity, &c.; cf. Gr. [Greek: leibein]), a drink offering, the pouring out of a small quantity of wine, milk or other liquid as a ceremonial act. Such an act was performed in honour of the dead (Gr. [Greek: choai], Lat. _profusiones_), in making of treaties (Gr. [Greek: spondê, spendein] = _libare_, whence [Greek: spondai], treaty), and particularly in honour of the gods (Gr. [Greek: loibê], Lat. _libatio_, _libamentum_, _libamen_). Such libations to the gods were made as part of the daily ritual of domestic worship, or at banquets or feasts to the Lares, or to special deities, as by the Greeks to Hermes, the god of sleep, when going to rest.
LIBAU (Lettish, _Leepaya_), a seaport of Russia, in the government of Courland, 145 m. by rail S.W. of Riga, at the northern extremity of a narrow sandy peninsula which separates Lake Libau (12 m. long and 2 m. wide) from the Baltic Sea. Its population has more than doubled since 1881 (30,000), being 64,505 in 1897. The town is well built of stone, with good gardens, and has a naval cathedral (1903). The harbour was 2 m. S. of the town until a canal was dug through the peninsula in 1697; it is now deepened to 23 ft., and is mostly free from ice throughout the year. Since being brought, in 1872, into railway connexion with Moscow, Orel and Kharkov, Libau has become an important port. New Libau possesses large factories for colours, explosives, machinery belts, sails and ropes, tobacco, furniture, matches, as well as iron works, agricultural machinery works, tin-plate works, soap works, saw-mills, breweries, oil-mills, cork and linoleum factories and flour-mills. The exports reach the annual value of £3,250,000 to £5,500,000, oats being the chief export, with flour, wheat, rye, butter, eggs, spirits, flax, linseed, oilcake, pork, timber, horses and petroleum. The imports average £1,500,000 to £2,000,000 annually. Shipbuilding, including steamers for open-sea navigation, is on the increase. North of the commercial harbour and enclosing it the Russian government made (1893-1906) a very extensive fortified naval port, protected by moles and breakwaters. Libau is visited for sea-bathing in summer.