Ennodius also testifies to the intellectual activity of women at the close of the fifth century. In counselling his correspondents to leave grammar and rhetoric, he recommends certain teachers. Among these he mentions with enthusiasm ‘domna Barbara, Romani flos genii’. She seasons her speech with a simplicity that is at once natural and artistic, and her eloquence is enhanced by her clarity of thought. There is also Stephania ‘splendidissimum catholicae lumen ecclesiae’.[1182] One of the points that emerge in the _De Ordine_ of Augustine is that ‘Monica is not to be kept from discussing philosophy because of her sex’.[1183] On the whole, we must say that though there had been an Aspasia in the time of Pericles, and though Hypatia taught at Alexandria at the beginning of the fifth century, there had never been such a general interest in education on the part of women as in the Christian circles of the Western Empire at this time. The references to educated women in pagan authors is slight when compared with those in the Church Fathers. Of all Symmachus’s letters not one is addressed to a woman, and neither Ausonius nor Sidonius (except for one letter to his wife) had a female correspondent; whereas not only Jerome, but Augustine, Cyprian, Tertullian, Ambrose, all followed Christ’s example when he taught the woman of Samaria. Yet when all is said, we feel that the extent of female education is still small, and that Ovid’s words still apply: Sunt tamen et doctae, _rarissima turba_, puellae. But we also feel that there is an interest which contains a promise for the future: Altera non doctae turba, _sed esse volunt_.[1184] 2. HISTORY If a consideration of the state of moral education is necessary to show how far teaching had an ethical basis, we may find in an inquiry into the position and purpose of history in the schools an indication of the political basis of education. We have seen that in the pagan schools education as a whole was directed by, and aimed at the fulfilment of, the imperial policy. In considering the sort of value attached to historical study, we may see in greater detail how far the scientific attitude of mind was entertained, and how far it was abused for the sake of politics. For there is no subject which illustrates more clearly these two possibilities.