Intellectual Culture And Literary Practices 319
The fact that late antique education and culture were strongly oriented
towards rhetoric and literature, which has often been emphasized by modern
scholars, does not mean that other areas remained entirely neglected.10 Rather,
literary knowledge served as a framework and foundation for learning about
other subjects, both within and beyond the scope of the liberal arts. Thus
Ennodius listed not only poetry, but also law, dialectic, and arithmetic among
the disciplines nurtured by Rhetoric.11 In fact students would begin picking up
information about a variety of things in the course of their studies with a gram-
marian or rhetor while reading and interpreting the auctores of the school
curriculum. An understanding of Virgil, for instance, would require not only
proficiency in Latin grammar and appreciation of the text’s literary qualities,
but also some knowledge of Roman history, geography, and natural sciences.
Virgilian commentaries, such as those attributed to Servius, contained expla-
nations that went beyond purely literary properties of the text.12
Those who so wished could continue their education, pursuing studies
of philosophy, law, or medicine. Under Theoderic, teachers of the latter two
disciplines received salaries from the state, along with teachers of grammar
and rhetoric.13 Although no direct evidence about education in law and medi-
cine survives from Ostrogothic Italy, sources testify to the traditional impor-
tance of those professions. For instance, compiling a document such as the
so-called Edictum Theoderici, which most modern scholars have attributed to
Ostrogothic Italy, would have required a participation of experienced jurists
trained in the Roman legal tradition. The same would be necessary for draw-
ing up other edicts issued by Ostrogothic kings, which are mentioned by
Cassiodorus.14
Medicine and its practitioners must also have been in demand and com-
manded respect. In a formula letter for the appointment of the supervising
physician of the royal household (comes archiatrorum), Cassiodorus declared
10 Riché, Education and Culture, pp. 45–8 notes decline but also emphasizes the importance
of encyclopedic erudition, pp. 41–3.
11 Ennodius, Opusc. 6.17, p. 314.
12 Geography provides a good example, see Gautier Dalché, “L’enseignement de la géogra-
phie dans l’antiquité tardive”.
13 As stated in Justinian’s Pragmatic Sanction of 554: Corpus iuris civilis, Novellae, Appendix
7.22; Riché, Education and Culture, p. 140; Vitiello, “Nourished at the Breast of Rome,”
p. 403.
14 The most recent treatment is Lafferty, Law and Society: for dating, see pp. 22–46; for
Cassiodorus, pp. 30–1; also Lafferty’s chapter in this volume.