Memoriae A. Vitelli Valeri
hic annorum X in studiis
Romae de(cessit) parentes
Nymphi(us) et Tyche
uni(co) et carissimo fil(io).[1335]
It is evident that the translation must be something like this: ‘To the memory of Aulus Vitellius Valerius. He died at the age of ten while studying at Rome. His parents Nymphius and Tyche (set up this stone) to their beloved and only son.’ But how a boy of Lyons could reasonably be a student in Rome at the age of ten is less clear. We may arrive at an explanation by supposing that ‘X’ is wrong; more especially as the editors quarrel over it, some omitting it altogether, while others find a variant reading. On this assumption the only way of making it fit in with the facts known about Gallic students at Rome is to read ‘XX’. The student would then have come over at the usual age, and have been in the last year of his studies at the time of his death. If the reading ‘X’ is adhered to, on the grounds that it is much the clearest, we suggest that ‘in studiis’ here means in the office of the imperial secretary ‘a studiis’, who did researches for the emperor when he had a difficult rescript to compose involving historical or legal research, and that the boy was a sort of Bodleian boy employed in fetching and carrying books.[1336] It is not inconceivable, however, that he may merely have been sent to a grammarian at Rome as a sort of junior boarder.
2. The Invaders
But in spite of the extent and the fame of Gallic studies there come to us, every now and then, hints of decadence in education. The fourth-century Ammianus says that even the few homes in which the studious atmosphere of earlier days had survived were in his day given over to vanity. All they abound in is the trifling of sluggish idleness, while they resound with voices and the wind-borne tinkling of the lute. The singer replaces the philosopher, and instead of the orator they summon the actor to give them amusement.[1337] In the fifth century we find Sidonius frequently referring to the decline of culture,[1338] and Paulinus of Pella says of his former studies that they have all ceased to flourish, because, as all know, they have fallen on evil days.[1339] Claudianus Mamertus, in the letter to the learned Sapaudus, after a eulogy on Greece as ‘Disciplinarum omnium atque artium magistra’, uses strong language about the failing culture of his age: ‘Bonarum artium ... facta iactura, et animi cultum despuens’, ‘deliciis et divitiis serviens et ignaviae et inscitiae famula’, ‘pessum dedit cum doctrina virtutem’.[1340] There is no progress and creative genius: hardly any one wants to learn. It cannot be, he reflects, that the nature of the human mind changes: history testifies to the contrary. No, the truth is that there is no enthusiasm or application. ‘Nostro saeculo non ingenia deesse, sed studia.’ A mark of decadence is the barbarization of the Latin language.[1341] Barbarism and solecism are the tyrants that reign. Rhetoric (conceived in the Ciceronian sense) is too big for the petty compass of these present-day Epigoni. Music, geometry, and arithmetic call forth only their violent hate, and philosophy is utterly despised. The emphasis laid on oratory makes us suspect that the truth of some of his statements rather suffers from that ‘declamationum suavitas’ which he finds in Sapaudus.[1342] But in the main he was undoubtedly right. No matter how enthusiastic the fifth-century ‘litterati’ were about letters, the stern march of economic and political events inevitably made for a decline. At the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century the Salian Franks, who were destined to conquer Gaul, were established in Toxandria in the north; and in ceasing to recognize the supremacy of Rome they slipped away from Roman civilization and from Christianity.[1343] In the south the Goths were settled in the second Aquitaine and Toulouse under their own king in 419, and the step was significant of the decentralization of the Empire. More and more the Teutonic element encroached. ‘The process of history in the Western Empire during the period which lies between the death of Alaric (410) and the fall of Romulus Augustulus (476) is toward the establishment of Teutonic Kingdoms.’[1344] However imperialistic Gaul might be, the Goths in the south-west, the Franks in the north, the Burgundians in Savoy, the Alemanni on the upper Rhine, and the Alani at Valence and Orleans in the middle years of the fifth century proved an effective barrier to the direct advance of Roman civilization. This civilization might advance, ultimately, through the barbarians: but meantime there was a transition period in which the shock of nations produced confusion and darkness. Euric aspired to dominion over Gaul, and by 476 he had attained his desire.
But more direct in their effect upon education than these large political movements, and swifter than the ‘barbarization’ of Latin as it passed into the Romance languages, were the invasions. Pagan and Christian alike testify to their horror. Rutilius Namatianus gives us a description of Gaul, piteously defaced by long wars, when he returned thither in 416 after having been prefect at Rome.
Illa (Gallica rura) quidem longis nimium deformia bellis,