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Turning to Gaul in particular, we find many avenues of Germanic influence; for, besides the big invasions of the third and fifth centuries, we find the Goths officially settled in Aquitaine in A.D. 419, and the Burgundians about the same time, in the north and north-eastern parts. It is not surprising, therefore, to catch from Ausonius glimpses of fairly familiar intercourse between German and Gallo-Roman in the fourth century. His enthusiastic praise of Bissula, the Suebian maid who was captured beyond the Rhine--'Barbara, sed quae Latias vincis alumna pupas'--is an indication of this. Now there is a law of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, given in A.D. 370, forbidding all intermarriage. 'Nulli provincialium', it says, 'cuiuscumque ordinis aut loci fuerit, cum barbara sit uxore coniugium: nec ulli gentilium provincialis foemina copuletur. Quod si quae inter provinciales atque Gentiles adfinitates ex huiusmodi nuptiis exstiterint, quod in his suspectum vel noxium detegitur, capitaliter expietur.' This law, however, as Lavisse remarks, does not seem to have had much effect. Such laws very rarely have. We may assume, therefore, that there was considerable intercourse even before the Visigoths were settled in Aquitaine.

The contribution of Germanic to the peculiar character of Gallic Latin is traced by modern philology to the following spheres: proper nouns, weapons and military terms, administration and jurisdiction, animals and plants, terms of domestic economy, and, what is more, certain abstract names , and a good number of adjectives and verbs.

Looking at this Germanic influence from the point of view of French, the decadence of Gallic in the fifth century and the preponderance of Germanic, to omit Latin for the moment, are accomplished facts. But from the point of view of the fourth and fifth centuries, what we find is that philologists have never clearly distinguished between those Germanic words which came in after the third-century invasions and those which were imported in the fifth century. The fact that most of the Germanic words recognized in French are Frankish seems to point to the conclusion that the most important German influence came with Chlodowig--i.e. after our period. Here, then, is a point which we would recommend for philological research: an estimation of the relative importance of Germanic influence in Gaul, after the third-century invasions and after those of the fifth.

Sidonius has given us a few glimpses of Gothic life in Gaul towards the end of the fifth century. Theodoric, whose 'civilitas' he commends, does not load his table with tasteless profusion: 'maximum tunc pondus in verbis est'. And it is to his credit that in his case, 'cibi arte, non pretio placent'. A wise balance is kept: 'videas ibi elegantiam Graecam, abundantiam Gallicanam, celeritatem Italam.' He does not go in for those cheap amusements which were all too common as meal-time entertainments: there is no hydraulic organ, no choir, no flute, or lyre or performing girl. If we take this with Salvian's panegyrics on the morals of the Goths, it may not perhaps be unjustifiable to conclude that the Gothic element gave some stability to the moral education of Southern Gaul.

Intellectually, too, they stood high. It is not without significance that Arbogast made his nominee for the Empire a former teacher of rhetoric. Seronatus speaks of 'literature among the Goths', and Sidonius praises Arbogast, who, though 'potor Mosellae' is famous for his Roman eloquence and commits no barbarism, in spite of living among barbarians. The greater part of the nobility understood Latin well, though Gothic was probably spoken in ordinary intercourse. The lower classes among the Goths understood Latin very imperfectly. At the collapse of the conspiracy vaguely mentioned by Sidonius an interpreter is used. The persons concerned were clearly Goths. And Ennodius speaks of an interpreter at an interview between Euric and Epiphanius, when the latter made a speech in Latin. But Latin was preponderant. It was the language of diplomacy and legislation; it was the language of a mighty civilization, and of Placidia, the wife of Ataulf. Theodoric II was trained by Avitus in Latin literature, and Euric encourages the teaching of classical literature. Lampridius sang in praise of the Gothic kings at Bordeaux, and Leo, Euric's minister, was famous as a rhetorician. In fact, the Visigothic court became the last refuge of Roman letters. Nor did the activity of the Goths end with literature. In 484, feeling the complexity and difficulty of the Theodosian code, they called a conference of lawyers and ecclesiastics who produced an abridged form, with interpretations, which was destined to replace the older code throughout the country occupied by the Goths. That there were schools of jurisprudence in this part, notably at Arles, we gather from Sidonius. Fauriel thinks this revised form, published A.D. 506, bore traces of the Germanic spirit and tradition, and was, in comparison with the Roman code, 'plus concise et mieux r?dig?e'.

There is no doubt that a large number of people in Gaul welcomed the government of the Goths, whose influence was thereby extended to the classes whose interest did not reach to books and codes. For the poor, crushed by the cast-iron imperial system, looked to the Goths as their deliverers, and the middle classes, oppressed with taxation, welcomed any change, while many eagerly sought the service of the Gothic government. 'Sed Gothicam fateor pacem me esse secutum', says Paulinus of Pella, who, though a nobleman, preferred Gothic rule, because he felt how uncertain imperial protection was becoming. He also mentions the 'summa humanitas' which the Goths showed in shielding the people on whom they were billeted. Generally speaking, he was satisfied with Gothic rule: it was quite profitable, in spite of his many and great sufferings.

Under these circumstances it was easy to forget Rome. 'Rome ?tait si loin de Bordeaux', remarks Rocafort. And so Gallo-Romans very often came to treat their Gothic neighbours on terms of friendliness and equality.

But among the upper classes of the Gallo-Romans generally Roman pride was still very strong. They held high offices at the court of the barbarians, for whom they cherished a secret contempt, or else retired to their great ch?teaux and bewailed to one another the encroachment of the Goths, who retained, to a large extent, their lawless and roving instinct. There is a feeling that literature and religion are the only things left. Sidonius asks Basilius to see to it that the bishops obtain the right of ordination in those parts which the Goths have taken, so that there may be, at any rate, a religious if not a political bond. And both in religion and literature they despised the Goths. For the Goths were Arians, and their jargon was barbarous. The well-known epigram of the Latin Anthology expresses the attitude of mind:

How can one write poetry, exclaims Sidonius, among people who put rancid oil on their hair? 'The Muse of the six-foot metre has scorned her task, since the appearance of patrons seven feet high.' And to Philagrius he confesses: 'barbaros vitas quia mali putentur: ego etiamsi boni'.

How sensitive men of Sidonius's class were to the charge of barbarism we may see from Avitus's letter to Viventiolus. Rumour whispers that in one of his sermons he has slipped into a 'barbarism', and his friends are openly criticizing. 'I confess', says the bishop with wounded pride, 'that such a thing may have happened to me. Any learning I may have had in more youthful years is now the spoil of age, "omnia fert aetas"'--a Virgilian quotation to indicate that, in spite of his profession to his friend, his 'studia litterarum' still remain to mark his culture. The barbarism at issue is the quantity of the middle syllable of 'potitur', to which he devotes most of the letter.

Having glanced at the negative side of Gallic Romanization, it is important to look a little closer at the positive side, in order to form an idea of the extent of Gallo-Roman education.

How mighty the Roman impress was is seen in the many Roman roads, the amphitheatres, the inscriptions where Gauls very often appear as priests of Rome and Augustus, in the famous altar at Lyons, mentioned by Juvenal, on which the sixty peoples of Gallia Comata inscribed their names after the pacification of the country by Drusus in 12 B.C., and which formed the common sanctuary for the province, and was the scene of regular rhetorical contests in Latin and in Greek. And the speech of Claudius to the Senate shows how eager the emperors were to speed on the rapidly advancing Romanization of Gaul.

It is a tribute to the thoroughness of Caesar's work that when Classicus rebelled in A.D. 70 his associates were two Julii, one of whom tried to pass himself off as a descendant of the Dictator, while the other assumed the insignia of the Roman Emperor. So mighty was the Roman name that even its enemies in attacking it desired a part of its glory. 'Between Classicus and the first Buonaparte', says Freeman, 'no man again dreamed of an Empire of the Gauls.' And Strabo had some justification when he spoke of the Gauls as ???????????? ??? ?????? ???? ?? ??????????? ??? ??????? ?????? ???????.

Te canimus semperque, sinent dum fata, canemus: sospes nemo potest immemor esse tui, obruerint citius scelerata oblivia solem, quam tuus ex nostro corde recedat honos.

Even if conquered peoples chafe under the yoke of Rome at first, Rutilius is confident that it is all for their good:

Profuit invitis, te dominante, capi.

The great achievement of the Empire is that it made a city of the world: 'urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat'. Rome, he maintains, is greater than her deeds: 'Quod regnas minus est quam quod regnare mereris'. And as her buildings dazzle his sight, he exclaims in admiration:

Ipsos crediderim sic habitare deos.

The whole of Gaul was not equally loyal. While the South remained predominantly Roman to the end, the North, 'audax Germania', Claudian calls it, was less friendly, and its hostility increased as time went on.

The Aeduan panegyrist, who implores help for the future from the Emperor Constantine, while he thanks him for the benefits of the past, shows the bearing of physical features upon this difference between North and South. In contrast with the cultivated fields of the South, its 'viae faciles', its 'navigera flumina', we find in Belgica 'vasta omnia, inculta squalentia, multa tenebrosa, etiam militaris vias ita confragosas et alternis montibus arduas atque praecipites, ut vix semiplena carpenta, interdum vacua, transmittant'. The roads are very bad , and even an ardent panegyrist must admit that loyalty is damped, when, in addition to an exiguous harvest, you must experience difficulties of transport. It is remarkable how important a part the road plays in the Roman Empire, one way or another. Here, barbarism on the one hand and bad roads on the other proved a formidable combination against civilization. It is not surprising to find, therefore, that as we go north traces of Gallo-Roman schools become fewer, inscriptions bearing on education almost non-existent, and Greek almost unknown.

But the testimony of literature to the Romanization of Gaul is far less eloquent than that of the extant remains. The modern traveller in Provence might well be tempted to exclaim with Pliny 'Italia verius quam provincia'. The theatres and amphitheatres at Fr?jus and Arles, the arch and theatre at Orange, the temple of Augustus and Livia at Vienne, and above all the Maison Carr?e, the Porta Augusta and the Thermae at N?mes, and the neighbouring Pont du Gard, challenge comparison with the great buildings of Italy and even of Rome herself. And these are but the most notable examples of evidence which may be found in less degree in almost every village of Provence.

Outside the 'old province', though the evidence is naturally less impressive in bulk and less widely spread in area, yet the walls and gates of Autun, the amphitheatre at Paris, the Porte de Mars at Reims, the arch at Langres, the Porte Noire and amphitheatre at Besan?on, and the theatre at remote Lillebonne, tell the tale of Roman influence on the Tres Galliae; and to these must be added the great buildings of Tr?ves which, as an imperial capital, occupies a place apart.

And what is writ large on these great monuments is written no less unmistakably in the contents of the French museums. That of the world-famous statues of Venus three come from Narbonensis is significant of the taste of Gallic connoisseurs. These great masterpieces were of course imported, but the discoveries at Martres Tolosanes attest the existence of local schools of sculpture. Even if the reliefs of Gallic tombstones in the north and centre diverge somewhat sharply from the Roman convention in preferring the naturalistic to the allegorical in their choice of subject, yet the form is predominantly classical. And the readiness of Gaul to learn the industrial arts of Italy is strikingly proved by its pottery. The manufacture of the red 'Arretine' ware or 'terra sigillata' was already flourishing among the Ruteni in the first century A.D., and met with such success that it was actually exported to Italy, and finally displaced the home product. In this useful if humble art, Gaul, like Greece, took captive her captor.

The causes of this all but complete Romanization are not far to seek. The sword of Caesar was mighty and its argument efficient. Part of this argument the Romans always retained, but as time went on they mingled diplomacy with their militarism. The altar at Lyons had its persuasive side, though the spirit that moved the orator's tongue was no doubt quickened by the scourge and the river in the background. Yet imperial policy is as clearly seen here as in the utterances of the panegyrists, who are regularly employed to publish the prince's praises. Caracalla's extension of the citizenship to provincials is part of the same policy .

Not to exterminate the barbarian tribes, but to bring them within the Empire as cultivators and soldiers, was the aim of the later emperors--an aim which they sometimes followed with ruthless cruelty. Of Constantine the panegyrist says that he entirely cleared Batavia of the Franks who had occupied it, and made them live among Romans, so that they might lose not only their arms but also their savage temper. He brought the barbarous Franks from their original homes in the distant North to till the soil and to fill the armies of the Roman Empire.

Moreover, as Glover remarks, the schoolmaster of the West was the ally of the Empire. The elaborate system of imperial protection in the schools had in view the important object of Romanizing the growing generation. Besides, by increasing lines of communication, by rendering news and books accessible, by making intercourse secure, the emperors helped forward Roman influence. The security which the provincial felt in the protection of the Eternal City was one of the strongest pillars of loyalty. The effect of Alaric's success upon minds like those of Jerome and Augustine, critical as they were of Pagan Rome, is some measure of the confidence which people felt in her power. Yet even after Rome had deserted the Gauls in the great invasions of the fifth century, we have the picture of Sidonius's passionate ardour for the Roman name and his bitter grief when he ceased to be a Roman citizen in 475.

'Birth in the Gallic provinces during the fourth century brought with it no sense of provincial inferiority. Society was thoroughly Roman, and education and literature more vigorous, so far as we can judge, than in any other part of the West.' While we agree with this in the main, it may be questioned whether the Roman did not sometimes tend to look on the Gaul as a mere provincial. In the first century we find Pliny saying that he is pleased to hear that his books are being sold at Lyons, where he evidently does not expect so civilized a thing as a book-shop. Symmachus, in the fourth century, writes to a friend in Gaul 'rusticari te asseris ... non hoc litterae tuae sapiunt', and adds sarcastically 'nisi forte Gallia tua dedux Heliconis'. And Cassiodorus implies that there were some who thought that Latin literature should be confined to Rome. 'You have found Roman eloquence' he writes to a friend, 'not in its native place, and you have learned oratory from your Cicero in the country of the Celts. What are we to think of those who maintain that Latin must be learnt at Rome and Rome only? Liguria too sends forth her Ciceros.' A protest of this kind as late as the sixth century suggests that the idea of provincialism was pretty strong. One of the panegyrists, a Gaul of uncertain name, illustrates this same tendency. And though his words are probably as insincere as his praise of the Emperor, yet they imply a tradition which he found it expedient to recognize.

'Full well I know how much we provincials lack of Roman intelligence. For, indeed, to speak correctly and eloquently is the Roman's birthright ... our speech must ever flow from their fountain.'

The extent of Romanization in Gaul gives us a general idea of the influence of Roman civilization in that country; for wherever the Roman went he spread his culture. It remains to investigate very briefly the traces of actual schools and teachers in the times that lead up to the fourth and fifth centuries.

Schools were widely spread. 'Il n'y a pas lieu de douter', says Bouquet, 'qu'il n'y e?t d?s lors autant d'?coles publiques qu'il y avait de villes principales.' Narbonne, stirred by the culture of the neighbouring Massilia, Arles, Vienne, Toulouse, Autun, Lyons, the scene of Caligula's famous rhetorical contests and the imperial seat before Tr?ves and Arles, Tr?ves, N?mes, Bordeaux, and a large number of other towns, 'cultivated learning and produced great men'. Jullian thinks that Bourges was probably a scholastic centre of some importance. Claudius, the Emperor, remarked: 'insignes viros e Gallia Narbonensi transivisse'. Tradition says that Toulouse was called Palladia on account of its love of letters, and Martial rejoices that his poems are so widely read at Vienne. It may not be mere rhetoric when Tacitus says that Roman education came to Britain from Gaul, and that Agricola, in his attempt to Romanize the Britanni, took a particular interest in their education. 'Iam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire, et ingenia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteferre, ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent.' Thus the educational influence of Gaul was early great.

During the second century education continued to flourish. Lucian introduces a Gaul ??? ?????????? ?? ??????? ... ??????? ?????? ????? ??????, ?????????, ?? ?????, ?? ????????, who discourses in learned fashion on the question whether Mercury or Hercules should be the patron god of the art of speaking. It was the time of the wandering rhetor--'die zweite Sophistik'--and Greek flourished under the patronage of the philhellenic Hadrian. Aulus Gellius has left us a picture of the pupils escorting the sophist from place to place. 'Nos ergo familiares eius circumfusi undique eum prosequebamur domum'; and in the case of Favorinus at Rome they went about with him 'spellbound, as it were, by his eloquence'. Intercourse was quite free and easy and not always serious: 'in litteris amoenioribus et in voluptatibus pudicis honestisque agitabamus.' These literary clubs set the fashion for the rhetorical schools and perpetuated the distinctive methods of the Greek- and Latin-speaking sophist-rhetorician--'rhetoricus sophista, utriusque linguae callens'.

Almost all records of the Gallic rhetors during this interesting period have been lost. The letters of Valerius Paulinus, of Geminus, of Trebonius Rufinus to the younger Pliny, the orations of the lawyers, the books of the famous philosopher Favorinus, the poems of Sentius Augurinus, have all perished. Only the work of L. Annaeus Florus has come down to us. Yet the general trend of education may be discerned. If one great feature of this century was the wandering sophist, another was the power of the Christian religion, whose influence went forth from Lyons in particular, where Irenaeus was predominant. 'Christi religio novam admovit oratorum ingenio facem.' This influence has been exaggerated, especially by eighteenth-century writers. One of them lays stress on the revival of the finer accomplishments as a result of this influence, and on the dignity and polish of language in which the Christian writers agreed with the ancients. This is manifestly an overstatement: the Church on the whole had neither the time nor the inclination to pay much attention to 'elegantiora studia'; its attention was directed to the search for truth and it is hence that its real inspiration to education came.

We find imperial interest in education during this period beginning to take a more definite form. Antoninus Pius gives teachers' salaries and honours, and fixes the number of rhetors in each town. No doubt the influence of M. Cornelius Fronto, the famous tutor of Marcus Aurelius, the model of succeeding generations of orators, told in this direction. In a fragment of this teacher we have a reference which seems to point to schools in the North during the second century. He speaks of Reims as 'illae vestrae Athenae', and it would not be surprising if the imperial policy had selected this important frontier town as a centre of Romanization, just as it afterwards patronized Tr?ves for the same purpose.

In the third century a large number of churches sprang up, whose educational value among the people must have been important. Pagan letters, on the other hand, had been showing signs of decline since the end of the second century. Under Caracalla, who in his hatred for literature put to death many men of education, culture sank still lower. It is true that Alexander Severus was a patron of literature and founded schools and fixed salaries, but the general trend of education was one of decline. Barbarian invasions and civil unrest increased this tendency. And so Gaul was disorganized, and amid her disorder education grew feeble. But when in 292 Gaul passed under the government of Constantius Chlorus, interest in culture revived and grew strong. Constantius fixed his abode at Tr?ves and actively set himself to aid the cause of education. The school of Massilia was declining, but, on the whole, Gallic education grew and gained individuality. Eumenius has told us at length how much the Gallic youth owed to his interest and protection , and how thankful he is to the Emperor who transferred him 'from the secrets of the imperial chambers to the private shrines of the Muses'.

Autun is mentioned by Tacitus as a centre of education in the time of Tiberius: 'nobilissimam Galliarum subolem, liberalibus studiis ibi operatam'. It flourished until the last quarter of the third century, when it was destroyed by the plundering Bagaudae. Eumenius pleads earnestly with the Emperor for the restoration of the famous Maeniana, 'vetustissima post Massiliam bonarum artium sedes,' the university of the North even, perhaps, in pre-Roman days, just as Massilia was of the South--the Latin university of Gaul as Massilia was the Greek. Of all the Gallic towns, except Lyons, Autun was the soonest Romanized, though no Roman colony had been sent there. It had the Aeduan tradition of voluntary friendship with Rome. Its Gallic nobles had renounced Celtic connexions in favour of Roman civilization. There was a current legend that Autun had been founded by Hercules; like the Romans, the Aeduans wanted to establish an ancestry for themselves which did not smack of barbarism. If Lyons in these days was the political centre, the intellectual centre was certainly Autun.

PART II

PAGAN EDUCATION

A. THE GENERAL PROSPERITY OF THE SCHOOLS IN THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES

'Gaul', says Norden in his monumental work, 'was destined to be, in a higher measure than the actual mother-country, Italy, the support of the ancient culture during the time of the Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages. Flooded with barbarians, sown with cloisters, she held aloft the banner of the traditional education to the glory of herself and the service of mankind.'

This is true more particularly of the fourth and fifth centuries. For the impulse given to education at the end of the third century continued to gather momentum during the fourth. It was a time of peace and quiet in contrast to the preceding and the succeeding centuries. For more than a hundred years Aquitaine enjoyed respite from barbarian invasions. We catch a note of this restfulness in the pages of Ausonius. 'I kept clear of party-strife and conspiracies: unmarred by them was the sincerity of my friendships', is the happy testimony which he puts into his father's mouth, and the phrase 'otium magis foventes quam studentes gloriae' reflects the placid life of a Bordeaux professor. Gaul had been reorganized by Maximian and Constantine, and this period of peace gave splendid opportunities for the development of the imperial policy and the latinization of Gaul. The Emperors consistently supported the schools and encouraged literature, which gained such strength that it overcame even the barbarians. The Visigoths accepted its influence and attended its schools. Jullian goes so far as to say that it was only in the fourth century that the victory of Latin letters in Gaul was complete.

The orator is working up to a rhetorical climax, and the first part of his picture is consequently grossly warped and exaggerated. But the central fact of the advancement of studies is clear and incontestable. Were it not true the rhetorician would not have dared to use such language to a man like Julian.

Moreover, it was the age of the 'ecclesia triumphans', and this meant fresh ideals and the access of energy that comes from such inspiration. In the fourth century, and more particularly in the fifth, there was an intellectual activity in theological and philosophical subjects which produced a new interest in education and built up the rampart that saved culture from entire barbarization during the darkness of the succeeding centuries. The Church, while it rejoiced in the overthrow of paganism, and with its enmity to paganism often joined a hostility to pagan letters, was nevertheless the instrument of saving the literature and the culture which it opposed. And so, when we hear Jerome's exultant cry at the triumph of Christianity, we hear also the victory shout of Roman civilization.

'All the Roman temples', says Jerome, 'are covered with soot and cobwebs. They who once were the gods of nations are left in desolation with the owls and night-birds on the house-tops.... Now has even the Egyptian Serapis become Christian ... from India and Persia and Ethiopia we daily receive multitudes of monks; the Armenian has laid aside his quivers, the Huns learn the Psalms, the cold of Scythia is warm with the glow of our Faith.' The Roman nobles, who set the fashion in education, were coming over to the Church in great numbers. 'Gracchus, an urban prefect, whose name boasts his patrician rank, has received baptism.' Paulinus of Nola, Honoratus of L?rins, Salvian, Eucherius, Sidonius, all leaders of Christianity, were all of noble rank. Even Ausonius professed to be a Christian.

In these circumstances it is not surprising to find many indications of flourishing studies in Gaul during this period. Roman Gaul, enriched by its background of Greek, of Celtic, of Germanic influence, became at length greater than Rome itself. Eumenius is ready to spend his salary on the rebuilding of the Maeniana at Autun. In Ausonius's family there is much interest in education. His father gives the impression of having been a cultured physician, and his grandfather, Arborius, was a student of astrology.

Tu caeli numeros et conscia sidera fati callebas, studium dissimulanter agens. non ignota tibi nostrae quoque formula vitae, signatis quam tu condideras tabulis.

Among the nobility letters were highly prized. Sidonius reminds Syagrius of his descent from a poet to whom letters would certainly have given statues. He admires the learning of the praefectorian Paul, the subtleties he propounds, his elaborate figures, the polish of his verses, the cunning of his fingers. In him he sees 'studiorum omnium culmen'. At a dinner given on the occasion of the games, the Emperor Severus engaged in a literary conversation with an ex-consul. Even Seronatus aspires to literary culture and talks about 'Literature among the Goths'. In fact, owing largely to the zeal of Ecdicius, the nobility was now becoming familiar with oratorical and poetical style. Thus, in spite of the invasions, the schools of the fifth century prosper and cultivate all the branches of learning prescribed by the rhetorical tradition.

Three tendencies have been distinguished among the Christian schools of this period: that of Sidonius which is 'essentially heathen with a veneer of churchmanship'; that of men like Paulinus of Nola, who 'jealously guards his pupils from contamination by the Gentile classics'; and that of 'the wiser and more catholic teachers' such as Hilary of Poitiers and Sulpicius Severus , who are liberal enough to imitate and benefit by the older pagan literature.

All these sides of Christian education show an activity which corresponds to that of the pagan schools and outlives it. Sidonius's letters present an interest in literature which is very often shallow, but never slack. He is continually sending round specimens of his literary efforts to his friends, and is assiduous in writing polished epitaphs or inscriptions that will live on the plate if not in the memory of men. There is one thing that his friends must never neglect, the reading of many books: 'opus est ut sine dissimulatione lectites, sine fine lecturias'.

Even among the stricter Christians there was generally an interest in learning outside theology. 'In the East and in the West', says Montalembert, 'literary culture, without being by right inseparably attached to the religious profession, became in fact a constant habit and a special distinction of the greater number of monasteries.' In every monastery there was established, as time went on, a library, a studio for copying manuscripts and a school. The monasteries, in fact, became schools where science and profane learning were taught, as well as theology, and where Latin was studied at the same time with Hebrew and Greek. This teaching was sometimes primitive and defective, and the picture is not so glowing as Montalembert suggests; but there were, at any rate, the beginnings of better things, the interest in education, and the means of protecting a valuable culture. The letters of Jerome to the Gallic women who ask him questions about the scriptures, and his letters to Laeta on the education of her daughter Paula, are indications of a similar activity, no less than Caesarius's exhortations to reading and study, the Christian pamphlets on difficult points which passed from hand to hand, and Eucherius's list of answers to the questions of his son Salonius. The pedagogic significance of such works of exposition is apparent.

The evidence of the inscriptions is disappointing. With such a general interest in culture we should have expected more frequent references to teachers and their activities. As it is, we find only a few inscriptions, and those in Southern Gaul, that bear on the subject. There is the epitaph of a grammarian at Vienne, and the lament of a woman for her foster-son, whom she had educated, in the same town.

'icissima ae ... quem vice fili educavit et studiis liberalibus produxit, sed qui se non est frunitus, nec quod illi destinatum erat; sed quod potuit mulier infelix et sibi viva cum eo posuit et sub ascia dedic.'

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