Themistios, a recognised philosopher of his time, is regarded as one of the most successful eulogists of the 4th century AD. For a long time, the role of a government spokesman was attributed to him and his claim that he praised the emperor as a philosopher was considered pure rhetoric. Based on the premise of the acceptance model, this work primarily examines the question of how Themistios' great success can be explained, given that he was the main speaker for four successive emperors. The textual examination of the speeches shows that Themistios, as a non-Christian philosopher, differs greatly from the Neoplatonic philosophers of his time and that they in particular denied Themistios the right to speak as a philosopher. One result of the study is that the group of non-Christian philosophers was less homogeneous than previously assumed, and that Themistios was closer to Christian ideas of domination than previously assumed. It turns out that Themistios' idea of a good ruler cannot be reconciled with that of the Neoplatonists and yet it was very popular with the majority of the elites. Themistios can therefore be regarded as one of the first political philosophers. Simone Mehr, Universität Erlangen - Nürnberg (FAU). "La présentation matérielle du livre dans son ensemble est parfaitement réussie, et les fautes de typographie sont rares. On ne peut que recommander la lecture du présent ouvrage : elle permet de mieux comprendre, ce que rien ne laissait présager, la relation de confiance nouée entre Valens, un petit officier passablement inculte, et Thémistios, le philosophe-orateur à l'immense érudition. Bref, voilà un excellent livre qui honore la prestigieuse collection où il prend place." Jacques Schamp in: sehepunkte 25 (2025), Nr. 4 [15.04.2025]
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