1. The Limits of the Period
In considering the extent of the last phase of Gallo-Roman education one is met by the obvious difficulty of limits. For the main traditions of the Roman schools were formed before Julius Caesar, and go on through the Middle Ages up to the present day.
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.
‘Thou, O mightiest of emperors, thou, I proclaim, hast rekindled the dead fires of literature; thou hast not only freed philosophy from prosecution, suspected as she was until recently, but hast clothed her in purple and bound on her head gold and gems, and seated her on a regal throne.’[8]
If the subjugation of the Franks thus supplies a sort of starting-point, their rise under Chlodowig gives us a terminus. The Roman connexion with Gaul officially ceased when Romulus Augustulus was deposed in 476, and Gaul was no longer Roman when Euric captured Arles and Marseilles in 480. But the culmination of Germanic influence in Gaul was the coming of the Franks in 486, when Chlodowig drove Syagrius, ‘the last of the Romans’,[9] from his kingdom of Soissons and moved southward. The Roman schools, which had flourished under Theodoric of Toulouse, disappeared when the Franks came.[10] Not that the Franks swamped the Gallo-Romans or proved the predominant element. Their invasion was in some ways like the Norman invasion of England:[11] the conqueror was captured by the conquered, and Gallo-Roman influence, especially in education, prevailed. Yet the fact remains that the Frankish invasion brought factors to bear on Gaul which modified its national life and coloured its civilization more deeply than had previously been the case, and that it represents the high-water mark of the Germanic tide which had been steadily rising during the two previous centuries.
2. Greek Influence
Nothing struck the imagination of ancient writers on early Gallic culture more than the part played by Massilia. Daughter of the Greeks, and friend of the Romans long before Gaul became part of the Empire, she stood forth as a light of civilization in the midst of barbaric darkness. With such a tradition and such a friendship it is no wonder that we find so much said in her praise.
Ammianus,[12] following the Greek Timagenes, gives the traditional account of the coming of the Phocaeans to Massilia in the sixth century B.C. Whether they really fled from the persecution of the Persian Harpalus—a motive unknown to Herodotus—or whether, as Athenaeus quoting Aristotle says, their object was merely trade,[13] need not be discussed here. Nor need we go into the confusion in ancient writers between Phocaea and Phocis[14] in regard to the origin of Massilia; the point is that it was of Greek origin, as all the authorities agree.[15] From Greece culture came to Gaul, and once more (as Norden remarks in another connexion) ‘it is the East that gives and the West that receives’.
The coins of Massilia bear testimony to her influence on Gaul. The early specimens of her drachms, bearing the head of Artemis with sprigs of olive in her hair, show a high artistic development. Their beauty diminishes as time goes on, partly because of the large numbers in which they were produced, since for a long time they were the chief currency for Southern Gaul as far as Lyons and for the whole valley of the Po. So frequently were they copied by the Celtic tribes that the imitations are far commoner than the originals.[16]
It is probable, moreover, that Massilia’s artistic contribution did not stop here. We possess a torso in sixth-century style of Aphrodite with a dove on her right hand, which Prof. Percy Gardner believes to be the work of Phocaean Greeks at Massilia. Sculpture of this kind must have been a new ray of light for the civilization (or the lack thereof) in Celtic Gaul.
Her friendship with Rome is well attested. Cicero mentions[17] the support given to Rome by the Massilians at the time of the Gallic campaigns. When Fonteius, who had been governor of Gallia Narbonensis, was impeached for extortion, Massilia came up in his defence. Strabo regards the connexion as a well-known fact.[18] Ammianus, too, knew of this traditional friendship: ‘Massilia ... cuius societate et viribus in discriminibus arduis fultam aliquotiens legimus Romam.’[19]
It is well known that at the time of the second Punic war Massilia gave faithful and effective support to her ally.[20] Yet such was the independence of Massilia’s Greek spirit, that when Caesar, in the Civil war,[21] sent Domitius to take her, she alone of all the Gallic cities refused him admittance. Her citizens replied with a dignity and a self-consciousness that argue a high level of development, that they were indeed allies of the Roman people, but that they would not and could not decide between the two parties: if they were approached in a friendly spirit they would listen to both sides; if in a hostile way they would listen to neither. Caesar’s siege of the town was at first unsuccessful, and he had to depart leaving the operations in the hands of others. When, at length, Massilia capitulated, he deprived her of her material resources, but (as was fitting) left her liberty unviolated.[22]
But the connexion with Rome was not political only. It is probable that the Massilians traded with Italy in early times[23] and that their city, once the rival of Carthage,[24] grew to renewed importance as a commercial centre for Rome after the Punic wars. The Massilians were early Rome’s agents for the products of Gaul.[25] In order to make bronze to send to Rome they obtained tin from Cornwall[26] to blend with their own copper. Theophrastus[27] speaks of their export to Rome of precious stones, and the Romans knew the value of their corn trade.[28] ‘Frumenti praecipue ac pabuli ferax (Gallia).’[29]
Yet the chief connexion with Rome, the bond most frequently mentioned by Roman writers, was along the line of Massilia’s culture. Cicero speaks with enthusiasm[30] of the city which possessed a statue of Minerva, and it is well known that the Romans regularly sent their sons there,[31] rather than to Athens,[32] to study Greek. The young Agricola looked on it as his Alma Mater.[33] The climate was milder and healthier than that of Athens and its morals had a better reputation. Plautus uses the phrase ‘mores Massilienses’ in the sense of irreproachable character.[34] Valerius Maximus speaks of the city as ‘severitatis custos acerrima’. They prohibited pantomimes on moral grounds;[35] sumptuary laws limited personal expense; and women were not allowed to drink wine.[36] Such was the moral austerity (at any rate in early times[37]) of the Massilians, and this reputation no doubt enhanced its popularity—with parents at any rate—as an educational centre.
Massilia stood for a very long time far above any other Gallic city in culture. The Rhodians in Livy[38] are made to say that the Massilians would long ago have been barbarized by the uncivilized tribes around (tot indomitae circumfusae gentes) had it not been for their sheltered situation; and Pomponius Mela[39] speaks of Massilia as ‘olim inter asperas posita’, and remarks that the Massilians nevertheless retained their individuality after the civilization of the rest. They had their own constitution, and it was prominent enough for Aristotle to notice.[40]
Many writers tell us how the Massilians spread their Greek civilization among the Gauls.[41] Strabo speaks of Massilia as the School of Gaul, which so hellenized the barbarians that they drew up their contracts in Greek.[42] So Ammianus[43] says that after the foundation of Massilia ‘men gradually became civilized in these parts, and the pursuit of praiseworthy branches of knowledge, begun by the bards and the Celtic philosophers (euhages and drasidae), grew and prospered’. The bards sang in heroic verse, to the accompaniment of tuneful music, the deeds of the valiant. The euhages were natural philosophers who investigated the secrets of the physical world, ‘scrutantes seriem et sublimia naturae pandere conabantur’. And, according to Pythagoras, the drasidae, who were of loftier spirit and lived in exclusive clubs and colleges, investigated and pronounced on occult metaphysical questions. So effectively did Greek influence spread, ‘ut non Graecia in Galliam emigrasse, sed Gallia in Graeciam translata videretur’.[44]
To a certain extent Massilia must have been influenced by her surroundings. ‘Massilia’, says the consul in Livy,[45] ‘inter Gallos sita traxit aliquantum ab accolis animorum’. Her inhabitants must have learned much of the physical features and culture of the land from the barbarians. But the overwhelming strength of influence was on their side. The fact that they were not swamped is in itself a striking testimony. It meant that they possessed a culture which was destined not only to hold its own, but to win increasingly as time went on. It was owing to them that the Gauls appointed professors and doctors,[46] and many of their teachers are mentioned in ancient literature. Telon and Gyareus are called by Lucan[47] ‘gemini fratres, fecundae gloria matris’, and together with Lydanus, Pytheas, Eratosthenes, Eudimenes, are famous for mathematics and astronomy[48] in the early days of Massilia. Seneca mentions a rhetorician Moschus, who had been found guilty of poisoning and taught at Massilia,[49] and notices also Agroitas as a rhetorician of distinction.[50] Natural philosophy was not neglected. Plutarch[51] mentions Euthymenes of Massilia, whose opinion he quotes on the overflowing of the Nile, and refers to the famous Pytheas on the causes of the tides. Of the eight recensions of Homer, which were known before Zenodotus, one was the famous διόρθωσις Μασσαλιωτική[52] to which Wolf assigns an honourable place.[53]
As for their proficiency in languages, it is well known that they were called trilingues,[54] speaking Greek and Latin and Celtic. The Greek of Massilia left its mark on the French language after a lapse of many centuries, especially on the proper names of Aquitaine,[55] and Christian times afford many instances in literature and inscriptions of this influence. To name two only, the Acta Martyrum were written in Greek, the language of Irenaeus (second century), by the order of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons,[56] and as late as the sixth century Caesarius[57] could make the people of his congregation at Arles sing in Greek. As late as the Middle Ages the territory around Massilia was called Graecia, and its sea Mare Graecum.[58]
Such was the great part played by Massilia. Tradition tells how the leaders of the Phocaeans, Protis and Simos, when they landed in Gaul, went to the local King Nannus for help. They were invited to attend a ceremony at which the daughter of the king extended a cup of water to the suitor whom she favoured. She bestowed the token on Protis, who thus married a daughter of the soil on which he was to establish Massilia.[59] So Massilia ruled the household of Gaul and set in order its culture. In imperial times there was a decline,[60] and the Massilians found their pre-eminence shaken and their trade ruined by the colony which Caesar sent to Arles (destined to develop into a commercial centre) under Tiberius, father of the Emperor.[61] Under Marcus Aurelius they had to give up their ancient constitution and fall into line with the other imperial cities.[62] But their work was accomplished. They kept the torch of civilization burning until they could pass it on to Romanized Gaul. Even then they retained their culture, and retained it longer than the other towns. The capture of Massilia in 477 by the Goths completed the separation of Gaul from Rome and prepared the way for the Gallo-Frankish state.
As she had given the impetus to letters, so, in later times, she proved their salvation. At the time of the great invasions at the beginning of the fifth century, and at its end when the Visigoths were encroaching more and more, Massilia was a refuge for Christian monks to whose labours literature owes so much. The Monastery of St. Victor ranked with Lérins as a centre of Christian education, and many famous men found a refuge there during the menace of troublous times. Victorinus, Prosper of Aquitaine, Gennadius, Musaeus, Salvian, were among those who sought its peace.[63]
Justinus tells of the Celtic chief Catumandus who was chosen by the neighbouring tribes to lead an army against the prosperous Massilia. Being terrified, however, by the figure of a fierce-looking woman whom he saw in a dream, he made peace with the Massilians and begged to be allowed to enter their city and worship their gods. In the portico of the temple he saw the statue of Minerva and exclaimed that that was the figure of his dream.[64]
Thus it was that the goddess of culture saved Massilia, and through Massilia, Gaul.
3. Celtic Influence
Bouquet[65] refers to a legendary account given by one Pezronius to explain the rise of culture among the Gauls. On the death of Pluto, Jupiter gave to Mercury the Empire of the West and he, by his wit and eloquence, civilized the people. ‘Populorum sibi subditorum ferocitatem emollivit, leges statuit, artes adinvenit, commercia inter Occidentales populos instituit’. For this service the Celts of Gaul were so thankful that for two thousand years they worshipped Mercury with the greatest veneration.
This story is a fable and an afterthought, but it is significant of the sort of culture that later people conceived of as having existed among the ancient Gauls. Long before the days of Roman rule the elder Cato had testified to the trend of their genius in the well-known words: ‘Pleraque Gallia duas res industriosissima persequitur, rem militarem et argute loqui’,[66] and it is quite certain that Mercury (and before the Romans his Celtic counterpart) was actually and almost universally worshipped in Gaul. ‘Galli’, says Caesar,[67] ‘Deum maxime Mercurium colunt’, a statement which is abundantly supported by the inscriptions. An inscription at Chalon-sur-Saône shows the figure of Mercury with his three favourite animals, a cock, a tortoise, a goat, and the words ‘Deo Mercurio Augu ... Sacro’,[68] while at Lyons there were three altars with the words ‘Mercurio Augusto et Maiae Augustae’. An inscription of Poitiers, which is as late as the third century, is dedicated to ‘the god Mercurius’.[69] Even in the barbarous North there is a large number of inscriptions referring to Mercury, especially around Trèves.[70] The worship of Minerva, too, is established by many inscriptions, e.g. the twenty on bowls and cups found at Andecavi in Lugdunensis.[71]
Thus the Gauls singled out for special worship the subtlest and cleverest of the gods,[72] and the fact may be connected with their undoubted culture in early times. Out of the darkness in which pre-Roman Gaul is shrouded we gather hints here and there concerning the first known teachers of the Gallic Celts, the Druids. One or two points may be noticed.
The warlike nature of the Celts is a subject of frequent comment. Aristotle refers to it,[73] and Aelian says Ἀνθρώπων ἐγὼ ἀκούω φιλοκινδυνοτάτους εἶναι τοὺς Κέλτους.[74] Pausanias considered them very barbarous. Their equipment for war, in which they were supposed to excel, was primitive: they had no defensive armour except shields. Of scientific warfare they knew nothing, and when they charged it was without order, like a troop of wild animals.[75] In these accounts a margin must be left for prejudice and lack of understanding on the part of the narrator. For we hear a good deal about education from various sources. Three classes of skilled men were held in particular honour among the Celts:[76] the βάρδοι, who chanted hymns in honour of the valiant; τῶν μὲν ᾀσμάτων ὑποθέσεις ποιοῦνται τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοὺς ἀποθανόντας ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ καλῶς:[77] the Οὐάτεις (Vates), who performed sacrifice and studied natural science; and the Δρυΐδαι, who studied science and ethics and theology. The bards also were the representatives of that eloquent temperament which is associated with Gaul from the earliest times, and which enabled subsequent Gallic writers and orators to assimilate classical rhetoric. They sing public panegyrics (μετ’ ᾠδῆς ἐπαίνους λέγοντες) and are taken with the army to eulogize the heroes of war.[78] They are called ποιηταὶ μελῶν by Diodorus,[79] who is constrained to remark οὕτω καὶπαρὰ τοῖς ἀγριωτάτοις βαρβάροις ὁ θυμὸς εἴκει τῇ σοφίᾳ καὶ ὁ Ἄρης αἰδεῖται τὰς Μούσας, a somewhat unusual admission, for a Greek, of culture among ‘barbarians’. It must be clearly understood, however, that they had not elaborated a system of rhetoric or studied scientifically the art of speaking. All we can say is that they had a kind of imagination and a quick enthusiasm which gave them a rough natural oratory, and made them apt students of the rhetoric which the Greeks and Romans brought. The richness and pomposity of subsequent Gallic orators was due rather to the advent of the rhetorical system and, perhaps, to the influence of Roman character, than to native Celtic qualities. Caesar does not mention the Bardi and the Vates, but only the Druids, who belonged to the upper classes, and were held in high honour as the teachers and priests of the nation. ‘They administer divine rites, attend to public and private sacrifice, and expound theology: to them a large number of youths resort for training, and great is the honour in which they are held.’[80] It is said that there were girls’ schools kept by the wives of the Druids,[81] a statement which seems to be supported by the frequent mention of female Druids, Drysidae, in later times. Their learning was thought to be derived from Britain, whither students went from Gaul.[82] Freedom from military service and public duties was granted them—a curious anticipation of the concessions granted to teachers in imperial times. Hence there were many candidates for the office, and large numbers were sent by their parents to undergo the training which sometimes lasted twenty years.[83] The students learnt by heart a great many verses, which were not written down, for this they did not consider right (fas), though for secular purposes they used Greek letters. Examples of this writing have been preserved.[84] The Druids taught the doctrine of immortality and the transmigration of souls.[85] Astronomy, physical science, and theology also formed part of their training.[86] Science was still studied by the Druids in Cicero’s time. ‘In Gaul too’ (he says), ‘there are Druids (and I had personal acquaintance with one of them, the Aeduan Divitiacus) who professed a knowledge of natural science, which the Greeks call φυσιολογία.’[87]
This education, however, was purely one of class and profession. ‘Docent multa nobilissimos gentis’, says Mela.[88] Lucan apostrophizes the Druids, as those who alone had the privilege of knowing or not knowing the gods, dwelling in the sequestered glades of deep forests.[89]
Knowledge, thus monopolized, must have grown unhealthy, and we hear of the riddling speech and obscure phrases with which the Druids worked on the superstitions of the people.[90] Monnard observes that the darkness of this Celtic philosophy was dispelled by the light of Massilia.[91]
Yet the Celts had made their contribution. For we must remember that in the centuries just preceding the Christian era it was the Celts who gave the lead to the Teutonic peoples in culture. Towards the end of the fifth century B.C. Celtic civilization flourished exceedingly. The ‘La Tène Civilization’—as the archaeologists call it—shows artistic products of fine taste and technical perfection. The centre of this civilization was perhaps in Southern France, whence it spread throughout Europe along the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, until it was succeeded by Graeco-Roman culture. And it was only between 100-70 B.C. that the Celts were expelled from lower Germany.[92]
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that it took so long for the Druids to disappear from the scene, representing as they did so ancient a culture. We should expect the warders of a national religion and tradition to be conservative, and we find that they even played a political part. In the confusion of the year A.D. 70, when the Capitol was burnt down, they circulated a rumour among the Celts that the event portended the passing of the power from the Romans to the Gauls,[93] seeing that the Capitol had once proved to be the only obstacle to Brennus’s victorious march. It was natural, then, that the Roman imperial policy should aim at the removal of an element which fostered the national sentiment.[94] Augustus later followed this tendency when he forbade the Druid’s worship to Roman citizens in Gaul, and Claudius (we are told by Suetonius) abolished once for all their monstrous practices.[95] So Aurelius Victor[96] attributes the complete suppression of the Druids to Claudius. Accordingly, when we find Pliny[97] saying that it was Tiberius who suppressed the Druids, there is a suspicion that he is guilty of a confusion: Claudius’s first name having been Tiberius.
It is clear that definite attempts were made to wipe out Druidism and the Celtic element. But they showed a remarkable tenacity in spite of laws and edicts. The elder Pliny refers to them as surviving in his time,[98] and Flavius Vopiscus (third century) tells of certain ‘wise women’ who called themselves Dryades (mulier dryas, drysada) and were, by a strange irony, consulted (if we may believe the fanciful Scriptores Historiae Augustae), even by persons in high imperial authority. Aurelianus was said to have consulted them about the future of his imperial office,[99] and a Druid prophesied the throne to Diocletian ‘cum aprum occideris’.[100] The prophetic influence seems in these later times to have passed from the men to the women, who become recognized semi-officially, and form, on a small scale, a sort of Delphic oracle.
Nothing is more difficult than to make a people forget its language, as Fauriel[101] has remarked, especially a people that largely lives on the land. This dictum, which history has so often illustrated, is instanced also by the tenacity of Celtic in Gaul. It penetrates right into the fourth and fifth centuries, and, since language and education hang so closely together, it is worth while to look into the evidence. More than 10,000 inscriptions have been found in Gaul, and of these a large number relate to the lower classes. Yet we find that scarcely twenty are in Celtic, and these probably are not later than the first century A.D.[102] This does not mean that Celtic died out then; it was never much of a written language, for the Druids had a distinct prejudice against writing, and recorded only secular matters.[103]
Strabo[104] says that the people in Narbonne began to accept Latin only in the reign of Tiberius, and it is in Narbonne that the most and best Latin inscriptions are found. Irenaeus, writing from Lyons in the second century, begs to be excused from rhetorical polish, seeing that he lives among the Celts—περὶ βάρβαρον διάλεκτον τὸ πλεῖστον ἀσχολουμενων (ἡμῶν).[105] In the following century we find Alexander Severus, in preparing his last expedition, being met by a female Druid who prophesied his death in Celtic (Gallico sermone)[106]—though the reference may have been inserted merely to adorn a tale, and Gallicus sermo may stand for Gallic Latin. At any rate, Celtic was not entirely forgotten in Ausonius’s day (fourth century), who refers to Patera, rhetor at Bordeaux, as ‘stirpe Druidarum satus’, while Phoebicius similarly is ‘stirpe satus Druidum’,[107] and is, moreover, the ‘temple-warder of Belenus’,[108] the Celtic Apollo, just as the race of Patera comes ‘Beleni ... e templo’. In satirizing the pedantic trifling of the grammarian, Ausonius gives ‘al’ and ‘tau’ as Celtic letters.[109] Even Sidonius in the fifth century has to notice it, in spite of his Roman disdain. It was owing to the zeal of Ecdicius, he says,[110] that the nobility of Gaul became cultured—‘sermonis Celtici squamam depositura’, a statement which shows that the old language was still to be reckoned with. It is rather an irony of fate that the style of Sidonius—the one point on which he prided himself—undoubtedly owes its exotic character in order, rhythm, and vocabulary[111] to Celtic and Gothic influence. His elaborate scorn for what is foreign recoils on his own head.
One final instance of the survival of Celtic must be mentioned for the controversy which it has evoked. Jerome says that the Galatians in his day had practically the same native language as the Treveri.[112] Was this language Celtic? Freeman[113] thinks that Jerome’s word may be doubted, as he was not a philologist. This would seem to rule out all the witnesses, for philology is an entirely modern development; and it would hardly have been indispensable for forming so simple a judgement. Jerome, moreover, is a considerable authority, the most learned of the Fathers. Lavisse[114] has recently accepted his statement. He mentions the objection of Perrot,[115] who maintains that Celtic had long vanished from Asia Minor, and of Fustel de Coulanges,[116] who says that the language of the Treveri was German, and answers: (1) that Celtic survived in the speech if not in the documents of Asia Minor, and (2) that Coulanges is wrong; the names of the Treveri are Celtic. This being granted, it would seem that Celtic survived well into the fifth century, and this conclusion appears to be reinforced in extent and significance by Freeman’s statement that there was a survival of the Celtic language and sentiment in Brittany during the fifth century.[117] But this statement is misleading. It is generally admitted that Gallic had entirely gone out of use in Armorica, when the fugitives from Great Britain settled in the country and introduced their insular speech from the fifth century onwards. And Breton is more closely allied to Welsh and Old Cornish than to Gallic. On the whole we must say that the evidence of modern philology points to a less considerable influence of the Celtic element than we should expect. Celtic was overshadowed by German, and especially, of course, Latin. Hitherto modern philology has found traces of Celtic loan-words in the following spheres: agriculture, carriage-building, the names of animals, trees, and plants, the parts of the body, items of clothing, weapons, and geographical terms.[118] The inscriptions in Gaul show words like cantalon,[119] a kind of building, and cantuna (canteen) which the philologists pronounce to be of Celtic origin.[120] We must conclude, therefore, that while sporadic traces of Celtic are undoubtedly found in the fifth century (as in the case of the Treviri, who in their secluded valley would naturally retain the ancient language longer than the people around them), the language had, in the main, disappeared by that time.
All this shows us that in dealing with education in Gaul we cannot attempt a thorough and systematic study. Romanization lies over the country and its institutions like a veil. Roman authors give us scattered pictures of what went on beneath that veil, but they give it from the Roman point of view. Roman rule was so mighty, and its methods so far-reaching, that everything is reduced to Roman form. The ruler did not see the native genius or native ways, or if he saw them did not understand or sympathize. It was his task to rule, and he knew, in general, only one method: the rule of force—‘parcere subiectis et debellare superbos’—though diplomacy plays a large part in the later Empire. Moreover, the mass of the people were too uneducated to give expression to their individuality, or did not know Latin sufficiently well to do so. All our evidence comes from Greek or Roman pens. As soon as the Empire is withdrawn from Gaul natural differences find expression and variety of individuality is at once displayed. Jung[121] notices that the inscriptions of Arles and Trèves are an illustration of this. While the Empire is there we catch only dim glimpses of the sort of education that (fraught with the traditions of a mighty past) may have lingered on among the mass of the people even as late as the fourth century. When we deal with the schools of Gaul, therefore, it must be with those of the Gallo-Romans who were more Roman than Gallic. But there is another element which operated, as it were, under the surface of Romanization in Gaul.
4. Germanic Influence
In trying to form an idea, of the influence of the Germanic races on the culture of Gaul during the later Empire, we must again be satisfied with only a few stray references in the contemporary authorities. Philologists think that as early as the first century A.D. the German races must have influenced the Romans. They establish indisputable cases, but it is admitted that the whole question is difficult and complicated in the extreme.[122]
The question of German influence may be looked at from two opposite points of view—from the constructive and the destructive. The latter is by far the more prominent and will be dealt with at a later stage. The former is far the more difficult, and nothing is attempted here except to set down in bare outline one or two of its aspects. It would be far easier to describe the influence of Roman civilization on the barbarians.
Yet there is something to be said. If the Roman generals prescribed a Roman form of government for the barbarians, as Corbulo did for the Frisians in A.D. 47, German fashions intruded into the Roman world and the Roman ladies wore barbarian costume and coiffure.[123] On the Rhine frontier these barbarians developed to such an extent and so many towns sprang up—Cologne the prosperous, Bonn, Coblentz, Strassburg—which grew out of the Roman camps but drew their life from the neighbouring tribes, that the law forbade the selling of certain commodities to barbarians.[124] On the other hand, the Empire needed them as cultivators and soldiers, and the Panegyrici Latini show us that it was part of the imperial policy to make them settle in the provinces.[125] Social history shows that the Germanic peoples stood on a fairly high level of culture even in the first centuries of our era. They possessed a traditional religious cult which promoted the noblest virtues—conjugal love, friendship, hospitality—a body of legends about gods and heroes, an ancestral poetry, in which clan and family feeling plays a large part.[126] In these respects they were capable of influencing the Romans, who admired their courage and feared their strength.
Besides the casual intermingling of people for various reasons, there were three main sources of intercourse: the army, the administration, and trade. The first need not be dwelt on, nor the well-known question be raised how far the German element in it was responsible for the fall of the Empire. Of the second we may mention as an instance Pliny’s picture of Trajan dispensing justice in Germany—sometimes without an interpreter—while the influence of the trade in furs, wine, and fish in introducing Germanic words into Latin has been amply established.[127]
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[128]—‘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 (foreigners, i.e. not Roman) provincialis foemina copuletur. Quod si quae inter provinciales atque Gentiles adfinitates ex huiusmodi nuptiis exstiterint, quod in his suspectum vel noxium detegitur, capitaliter expietur.’[129] This law, however, as Lavisse remarks,[130] 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.
Not only had points of contact been multiplied, but the standard of civilization among the invaders had risen. Orosius notes that the Burgundians were mild and modest enough to treat their Gallic subjects as brothers,[131] and their laws dating from the sixth century show a considerable culture. Roman civilization and Christian morality had raised them to this level, but they still had their own contribution to make. For they still had their own national character and traditions and language, and these produced blends and combinations in the already richly blended Aquitaine which have played their part in the shaping of the whole. Such influences cannot be reduced to specific items, but it is plain that they were there. They left their mark (all the more effectively because the Goths welcomed Roman culture with open arms) on the character of the people, on their literature, and on their language.[132] Even in Cicero’s day Gallic Latin had a distinctive flavour. To Brutus he says that when he comes to Gaul he will hear words not used at Rome, though the differences are not fundamental.[133] By the time of Sidonius Germanic influences have accentuated these differences. To such an extent, says this lover of Rome to his friends, had the host of idle and careless people increased, that they would soon have to weep for the extinction of the Latin language, were it not for the tiny band of scholars who might save the purity of the Roman tongue from the rust of undignified barbarisms.[134] To Arbogast Sidonius declares[135] that Latin has perished from Belgium and the Rhine; and though this may be a rhetorical preparation for the antithesis ‘in te resedit’, we cannot fail to hear in it and in the phrase ‘our vanishing culture’ the tramp of the approaching barbarians.
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 (affre, hâte, guise, orgueil, &c.), and a good number of adjectives and verbs.[136]
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,[137] 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’.[138] 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.[139] 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 (391-2) made his nominee for the Empire a former teacher of rhetoric. Seronatus speaks of ‘literature among the Goths’,[140] and Sidonius praises Arbogast, who, though ‘potor Mosellae’ is famous for his Roman eloquence and commits no barbarism, in spite of living among barbarians.[141] 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[142] 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.[143] But Latin was preponderant. It was the language of diplomacy[144] 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.[145] 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[146] 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.[147] 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 rédigée’.
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.[148] ‘Sed Gothicam fateor pacem me esse secutum’, says Paulinus of Pella,[149] 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.[150] Generally speaking, he was satisfied with Gothic rule: it was quite profitable, in spite of his many and great sufferings.[151]
Under these circumstances it was easy to forget Rome. ‘Rome était si loin de Bordeaux’, remarks Rocafort.[152] 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 châteaux[153] (ruins of which are still to be seen[154]) 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 (in both of which we see, though in different degrees, the growth of a ceremonious externalism) 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.[155] 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[156] expresses the attitude of mind: