Schools of Gaul in the last century of the Western Empire : $b A study of pagan and Christian education in the last century of the Western empire — John Shaqi
Schools of Gaul in the last century of the Western Empire : $b A study of pagan and Christian education in the last century of the Western empireHaarhoff, T. J. (Theodore Johannes)
History
Schools of Gaul in the last century of the Western Empire : $b A study of pagan and Christian education in the last century of the Western empire
Haarhoff, T. J. (Theodore Johannes)
Education, Ancient -- France; Gaul -- History -- 58 B.C.-511 A.D.
From the ruins a new Bordeaux rose. Her previous activities were
suspended; her commerce failed. The desire for money was changed into a
desire for knowledge, and there was no loss of intensity. Jullian[296]
remarks on the frequency of such a transformation among the great cities
of history. Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, Athens, Massilia passed
through similar changes. The school was the last phase of their life. And
so Bordeaux from being an ‘emporium’ became an ‘auditorium’.
There is no doubt that the school of Bordeaux (about which we naturally
know more than about all the rest together) became famous in the
fourth century, but when exactly it was founded we cannot tell. There
must have been many elementary schools previously, though no trace
is left. Funeral monuments show children carrying the rolls of the
grammarian’s school; but they may be representations of slave-teachers
attached to the household. Probably the school of Bordeaux was founded
by Maximian and Constantius at the beginning of the fourth century.
For then, particularly, after the failure of imperial protection,
it was a necessary part of imperial policy to revive the confidence
and goodwill of the Gauls. It may be noted, too, that the professors
whom Ausonius commemorates had mostly died during his lifetime; which
seems to show that the professorial régime at Bordeaux belonged to
the fourth century;[297] for Ausonius in the Preface and the Epilogue
to his _Commemoratio_ certainly gives the impression that he is going
through the whole list of the ‘professores Burdigalenses’ as a duty
(_officium_[298]) which is inspired by ‘carae relligio patriae’.[299]
Thus it was that Aquitaine became ‘le dernier refuge des lettres
antiques’.[300]
If Bordeaux was the intellectual, Trèves (and afterwards, Arles) was the
political capital of Gaul during this period; and the presence of the
emperors in those cities naturally fostered education, for education
(as has been pointed out) was part of the imperial programme. As the
fourth century went on Trèves eclipsed Autun ‘sedem illam liberalium
artium’,[301] which had flourished exceedingly under Eumenius at the
beginning of the century, but seems to have declined after his death. The
imperial decrees were particularly partial to Trèves. It is as though the
emperors felt the need of an intellectual as well as a military outpost
on the German frontier. But in spite of every favour and facility, in
spite of a brilliant court and fine buildings, this object was never
accomplished. Owing to its mixed and fluctuating population and its
position on the border, it remained a predominantly military town.[302]
Nevertheless its schools were famous, and Ausonius associates it with
Roman rhetoric:
Aemula te Latiae decorat facundia linguae.[303]
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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