As for the free artisans and the slaves, Denk cites the education of the old Roman slaves. Cato had demanded that household slaves should be able to read and write, and Mommsen says[749] that the lower classes had considerable knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Similarly, Lavisse says[750] that the uneducated, on the whole, could not have been too numerous, for even the humble sergeant had to be able to read the word of command on the tablets, and there were schools for the sons of veterans. What authority Jullian has for saying that the distinction between classes broke down in the matter of education he does not say; and an examination of the Theodosian Code and of contemporary authorities makes it entirely improbable. First of all, it was only the upper class that could compete for the higher grades of imperial office, which was regarded as the prize of education. The pride which Ausonius took in his imperial honours is only half concealed,[751] and he puts before his grandson the same goal of studies.[752] Sperabo tamen, nec vota fatiscent, ut patris utque mei non immemor, ardua semper praemia musarum cupias facundus, et olim hac gradiare via, qua nos praecessimus et cui proconsul genitor, praefectus avunculus instant. This particular incentive to education was lacking in all but the senatorial class, from which, Jullian confesses,[753] the greatest number of pupils was drawn. Freedmen were definitely excluded by law. The emperors of 426 forbade all of their station to stand for the higher offices, or to be admitted as soldiers of the Imperial Guard.[754] The laws which prevented the curial from leaving his class[755] were many and stringent. Once a curial, always a curial, and not even flight from his town could save him. The prize of five ‘aurei’ offered by the government would be sure to find him a captor. Denk’s argument that the curial must have had a school training to manage municipal affairs does not go very far. The reading, writing, and arithmetic taught by the ‘litterator’ he would certainly need, but there is no reason for supposing that he went any further. The respectable curial on his freehold farm probably had little incentive to education, and found no inspiration in his forced work of somewhat anxious tax-gathering. He would probably have considered the poetical flourishes of the rhetor beside the point for his son. It would be much more important for him to learn the practical wisdom which his father had formulated as to the best methods of making people pay their taxes or of managing the problems of agriculture.