It is difficult to find a starting-point. The fifth century, the transition period between ‘ancient’ and ‘modern’ history,[1] forms a general terminus, but it is not so easy to find a particular one. To say that the year 476 was the end of things Roman in Gaul is to be guilty of a generalization which many scholars have attacked.[2] This year, ‘so dear to the compiler and the crammer’, is not of any special moment for Gaul. If we must fix a boundary, it seems better to connect it with the Franks. It is often nationality which produces great changes in civilization. It was the coming of the Romans which shaped the education of Gaul, and it was the coming of the Franks which most modified that shape and gave rise to the French nation. The defeat of the Franks by Julian in 358 meant the continuation of Roman culture in Gaul. He came as the saviour of a despairing Gaul.[3] The Salian Franks were allowed to settle in Toxandria in the North as members of the Empire, to which, for a long time, they remained loyal. It is true that Arbogast the Frank set up the usurper Eugenius in 392. On the other hand, one of Gratian’s wisest and most faithful adherents was the Frankish Merobaudes,[4] and when the great invasions of 406 and the following years began the Franks allied themselves with Stilicho and defeated the Vandals. Even as late as 451 we find that only a part of the Franks join Attila in his invasion of Gaul, in spite of the growing weakness of the Empire which had left Gaul exposed to the barbarians in 406. Such was the effect of Julian’s victory, though as a military achievement it was not very remarkable. Not merely was it of political importance, but its significance for education was enormous. Mamertinus expresses[5] the gratitude of a provincial for the order which Julian restored. ‘Shall I’, says he, ‘tell the tale of the Gallic provinces, now rewon by thy valour, of the rout of barbarism, as though it were some new and unheard of thing? Such exploits as the voice of fame has so lavishly bruited abroad....’ Julian has been constant in his care for Gaul, and on the list of his good deeds the orator would record his diligence: ‘Ita illi anni spatia divisa sunt ut aut barbaros domitet aut civibus iura restituat, perpetuum professus aut contra hostem aut contra vitia certamen.’ A great cause of joy is the repulse of _barbaria_. Julian has spared no trouble ‘to restore peace to the loyal provinces and to banish, at the same time, all barbaric elements’.[6] He attended to right living and to justice, ‘emendatio morum iudiciorumque correctio....’[7] Most important of all, studies have revived under his fostering care, and the orator becomes eloquent with an enthusiasm which is not entirely exaggerated.