Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


Learning and Power in Late Antique Gaul

Learning and Power in Late Antique Gaul

Learning and Power in Late Antique Gaul

Classical Education and the End of Roman Rule
Alison John, All Souls College, Oxford
July 2025
Hardback
9781009543422
AUD$173.95
inc GST
Hardback

    This book traces the changing political and social roles of classical education in late antique Gaul. It argues that the collapse of Roman political power in Gaul changed the way education was practiced and perceived by Gallo-Romans. Neither the barbarian kingdoms nor the Church directly caused the decline of classical schools, but these new structures of power did not encourage or support a cultural and political climate in which classical education mattered; while Latin remained the language of the Church, and literacy and knowledge of law were valued by barbarian courts, training in classical grammar and rhetoric was no longer seen as a prerequisite for political power and cultural prestige. This study demonstrates that these fundamental shifts in what education meant to individuals and power brokers resulted in the eventual end of the classical schools of grammar and rhetoric that had once defined Roman aristocratic public and private life.

    • Explores classical education from the perspective of institutional and cultural history, thereby offering a new way of understanding the transformations of the Roman world
    • Closely examines one specific Roman region, Gaul, to allow readers to see the processes of transformation in a microcosm
    • Takes a diachronic approach to the history of classical education in Gaul, supported by prosopographical analysis

    Product details

    July 2025
    Hardback
    9781009543422
    320 pages
    229 × 152 mm
    Not yet published - available from July 2025

    Table of Contents

    • Acknowledgements
    • Abbreviations
    • Introduction
    • 1. Classical education in the late roman world
    • 2. The cultural ecosystem of late antique gaul
    • 3. The relationship between education and power
    • 4. Education in society and culture
    • 5. Classical education and church schools
    • Conclusion
    • Appendix. 1 Prosopography of Teachers and Students in Late Antique Gaul
    • Appendix. 2 CTh 13.3.11 – Gratian's 'School Edict'
    • Bibliography
    • Index Locorum
    • General Index.
      Author
    • Alison John , All Souls College, Oxford

      ALISON JOHN is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Her research focuses on the history and literature of Late Antiquity, and she has published on Greek education in Gaul, bilingual epigraphy, and the prosopography of teachers.