Ipsa satellitibus pellitis Roma patebat,
et captiva prius quam caperetur erat.[1367]
But subtler still than gradual infiltration of foreigners in producing the decline of culture were the ideas and ideals that lay at the root of the imperial and the rhetorical systems. While on the one hand the Empire made the schools of Gaul its proper care, it was, by its economic system, calling into life the subversive power of Bagaudae bands.[1368]
While the schools were fostering education and creating a love of learning, they were at the same time killing the true spirit of education by the methods they employed. It was a matter of ends and ideals, and these we must now briefly consider.
3. Ideals
Ἐν οὐρανᾥ ἴσως παράδειγμα ἀνάκειται τῷ βουλομένῳ ὁρᾶν, καὶ ὁρῶντι ἑαυτὸν κατοικίζειν.
Plato, Republic 592 B.
The rhetorical system of education, much praised and universally accepted, had many points in its favour. It seemed to be the only method, backed as it was by a great tradition. It was regular and well organized and stable by reason of its imperial support. It had produced many great men in the past and had the blessing of mighty names. That was enough for the fourth-century Gaul, who did not trouble to make distinctions. For the voices of protest had long died down, and this was the time of ‘Rhetorica triumphans’.
It was also undoubtedly a necessary means of training men for public speaking, popular because the emperor so substantially encouraged the imperial orator. The service of the State was a laudable aspiration. Moreover, the rhetorical exercises produced ingenuity and nimbleness of wit. They were very laudable, also, for creating lucidity of thought, by insisting-on clear-cut arrangement in every theme. The ‘Panegyrici Latini’ are an example of this. To themselves they could have applied the saying of Voltaire: ‘nous sommes comme les petits ruisseaux: sommes clairs parce que nous sommes peu profonds’.[1369] They have neither the formlessness of the Fathers nor the complexity of Sidonius. Further, there was a good side to all the concentration on form that is so prominent in this period. It kept the language pure at a time when it was feared that Latin would be utterly barbarized.[1370] It preserved the grammar, and did much to preserve the form. When we find Rome tenaciously keeping for herself the teaching of law, and standardizing education by connecting the teachers directly with the emperor, it is because she realizes that the Latin language is the medium through which she rules, and that uniform obedience depends on her subjects uniformly understanding her commands.