The concluding chapter reflects upon how the themes and questions explored in the book speak to familiar concerns of families, communities, and societies across time. What is the purpose of education? What do we expect of our education, and in what ways does our pursuit of knowledge and our learning define who we are? The conclusion draws together the arguments from the preceding chapters, considering in what ways the ‘fall’ of Rome meant the end of the schools of grammar and rhetoric in Gaul. Without the superstructure of the Roman empire, the socio-political culture that valued literary education disappeared, and the schools soon followed suit; it was not primarily material changes caused by the political, cultural, and religious upheavals of the fifth century that led to the decline of the schools, but rather marked changes in the attitudes and mindset towards education and learning of the emerging power brokers of post-imperial Gaul – the barbarian kingdoms and the Church.

This chapter considers the ideological aspects of classical education, exploring how the shifting political and cultural landscapes of Gaul changed the way Gallo-Roman aristocrats practiced and perceived education, and how this is reflected in our sources from the fourth to sixth centuries. While in the fourth century classical education is valued mainly for its tangible rewards and is closely linked to imperial structures of power, throughout the fifth century Gallo-Romans increasingly highlight the personal and ideological uses of education in shaping and affirming their status and identity. Teachers of grammar and rhetoric are more closely linked to aristocratic literary circles, which goes hand in hand with an increased blurring of the distinctions between grammatical and rhetorical teaching and a narrowing of education and literary networks. These changing attitudes and practices of education reflect the underlying political and social transformations of fifth-century Gaul and Gallo-Roman aristocratic anxieties and responses to them.

This chapter focuses on the practical aspects of education, such as the organisation and funding of the classical schools. It traces the status of classical education as a public institution in the late imperial period, during the transformations of the fifth century, and within the early barbarian successor kingdoms. The chapter begins by establishing the extent of direct involvement of the imperial government in education, arguing that cities and individuals had always played a far more important role in patronising and funding classical schools. It then considers opportunities for ‘graduates’ of classical schools in late and post-imperial Gaul, the crucial difference between literacy and literary education, and emphasises the important connection between classical education and structures of power that promote and demand literary training.

The introduction sets out the approaches, sources, and scope of the book. It acquaints the reader with the main features of classical education and places the book within the modern historiography.

When they became acquainted with Crete, the Mycenaeans were influenced by the Minoans, not only in artistic matters but also in the whole system of organization of their socio-economic life and most importantly in the field of religion; but a thorough examination shows that the ancestral religion of the Mycenaeans differs from the Minoan one, even if at first sight there are similarities. The Mycenaean religion is polytheistic; the nameless Cretan Great goddess is worshipped but also a number of male gods (though without any iconography), named Zeus, Poseidon or Hermes; syncretism was its central characteristic. In later times, as the Cretan spiritual dominance waned, typically Minoan symbols lost their prime symbolic power to the benefit of Mycenaean conceptions. Official and popular religion, the function of open-air and built sanctuaries, the symbols, rituals and Linear B tablets are subjects constantly debated, and yet the essence of Mycenaean religion, the related ideas and concepts escape us.

IIn the LH I period a social organization appears and a wealthy ruling class emerges. The foundation of the ‘palace’ structure is laid and the ‘ideology of power’ as well. The period is mainly known from tombs, the shaft graves excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in Mycenae being the most celebrated. The finds produced by the two Grave circles of Mycenae, remarkable for their variety and wealth, give plentiful information about the burial customs, the identity of the deceased and the art of the period. Stonework for precious vases, metalwork in gold, electrum or silver show sophisticated techniques – repoussé, inlaying, cloisonné – in the fashioning of cups, rhyta, weapons with decorated hilts. Outstanding are the Silver Siege Rhyton, the daggers with elaborate inlaid blades and the funerary masks, a special offering; also the distantly coming amber used in jewellery. Faience items bear Minoan influence, as do the seals and signet rings, a special category.

The first Linear B tablets were found by Evans in Knossos, many more by Blegen in Pylos in 1939 and progressively in all Mycenaean centres. Crete had three writing types Hieroglyphic, Linear A being more widespread, still undeciphered, and Linear B which descends from Linear A and appeared in mainland Greece around 1400 BC. After many endeavours, it has been deciphered in 1952 revealing a syllabic script for an early stage of Greek language. The debate of concordance between the Knossos and the Pylos tablets followed and is still alive. The inscribed clay tablets, simply dried, were baked by the fires that destroyed the palaces and thus preserved. They are administrative documents mostly inventory or tax statements teaching us a lot about Mycenaean life, palatial system, social hierarchy but no literature or history.