Bordeaux

Ausonius's loyal record of the grammarians and rhetoricians of his native town was composed sometime after 385, near the end of his long life.^[2] Living in retirement as a former praetorian prefect and consul, Ausonius had by then far surpassed the successes of any other teacher of Bordeaux; he had also far outstripped the mediocritas of his own origins as the son of a physician of curial status and a woman of good birth but small means.^[3] Looking back over more than half a century to the days when he himself had been a grammarian and then a rhetorician, Ausonius may have found that experience somehow remote and difficult to bring into focus: so much at least would account for his inconstancy and ambiguity in characterizing the grammarians' status at Bordeaux, speaking now of the exilis cathedra , now of the nomen grammatici . . . tam nobile .^[4]

Yet this ambiguity is perhaps not inappropriate, for the nineteen grammarians of Bordeaux catalogued by Ausonius seem to have been a notably mixed lot, comprising, at one extreme, men a generation removed from slavery, and, at the other, a descendant of a noble family of old

[2] The best general treatment of the Professores as a social document is by Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 244ff., to which this section owes much; less balanced for the grammatici is Étienne, Bordeaux 254, 256f. Valuable discussion of prosopographical questions is provided by Booth, "Notes" and "Academic Career"; and by Green, "Prosopographical Notes." For full documentation and discussion of the teachers touched on in this and the following section, the reader is referred to the entries in Part II.

[3] The family of Ausonius: Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 240ff. But the suggestion (p. 241), based largely on Ausonius's silence, that Ausonius's paternal grandfather was a freedman should be resisted; cf. Matthews, Western Aristocracies 81f.

[4] Exilis cathedra, Prof . 7.9-12; with Prof . 10.41, fama . . . tenuis (cf. Prof . 12.6); Prof . 10.51-52, gloriolam exilem / et patriae et cathedrae ; cf. Prof . 22.17-18, exili nostrae fucatus honore cathedrae, / libato tenuis nomine grammatici , of the subdoctor Victorius. For nomen grammatici . . . tam nobile , see Prof . 9.2.5; and cf. Praef . 1.18, nomen grammatici merui; Prof . 18.8, grammatici nomen divitiasque , of Marcellus at Narbo.

Rome.^[5] Thus, three were sons of freedmen;^[6] another five are grouped by Ausonius under the general rubric "of lowly origin, standing, and deserts."^[7] But three others were of not less than curial rank (Ausonius, his nephew Herculanus, and Acilius Glabrio), and similar origins can be conjectured fairly confidently for a fourth.^[8] Unfortunately, Ausonius offers no information on the families of the remaining seven. If one is willing to trust his silence concerning these teachers, they presumably fell somewhere between the two extremes, "freeborn, but in general undistinguished"; but this might place some of them too low.^[9]

The evidence suggests, then, a middling group of men, with the balance perhaps tipped more obviously toward the lower end of the range than in our evidence from other areas of the empire (see "Beyond"). There is, however, another feature of the grammarians' origins, which we will see

[5] Nineteen grammarians: the number includes Ausonius and excludes Marcellus (Prof . 18), who only taught at Narbo, and the subdoctor Victorius (Prof . 22); cf. Appendix 4. Stemmate nobilium deductum nomen avorum: Prof . 23.3, of Acilius Glabrio.

[6] Prof . 10.15-16, of Sucuro. Prof . 21.27, of Crispus and Urbicus: for Ausonius's sense of the inconsistency of their cultural standing and their birth, see Prof . 21.25-28, quoted at Chap. 2 n. 133.

[7] Prof . 10.5-6, humili stirpe, loco ac merito , covering Macrinus, Phoebicius, Concordius, Ammonius, Anastasius, as well as the freedman's son Sucuro; note that all teachers so described were active early in the period covered by the Professores (see Part II no. 35). It is of course difficult to say with any precision what Ausonius, writing from the perspective of his own success, might have meant by humilis (cf. Chap. 1 n. 59), save that the men were likely of less than curial status. That he takes the trouble specifically to note the libertina progenies of Sucuro might suggest a somewhat more honorable origin for the rest, but that does not take us far; neither does the Druid stock claimed by Phoebicius, nor his service as aedituus of the temple of Apollo-Belenus at his native Bayeux (Prof . 10.24-25; cf. Prof . 4.9ff.).

[8] Nepotianus (Prof . 15), grammarian and subsequently rhetorician and provincial governor. Unless his later career is an example of truly extraordinary mobility, his origins will have resembled those of his friend Ausonius (ibid. 4ff.), whose career was comparable to Nepotianus's; see below. The noble marriage enjoyed by Marcellus at Narbo (Prof . 18.5-6) might also presuppose at least respectable antecedents at Bordeaux.

[9] Cf. Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 246. Ausonius does not comment at all concerning Iucundus, Leontius, Corinthus, Spercheus, Menestheus, or Citarius (the last four all grammatici Graeci ), and he states his ignorance in the case of Thalassus (Prof . 12). Hopkins' inference from Ausonius's silence might here be justified, but we should remember that Ausonius elsewhere omits information that we would think too significant to pass over: note that we know of Herculanus's relatively high origins from the Parentalia (Par . 15, on his father, Pomponius Maximus), not from the Professores , Cf. Booth, "Notes" 238 n. 12; and below, n. 24, on the social origins of the rhetoricians at Bordeaux.

elsewhere: the noticeable (but by no means exclusive) tendency for recruitment to follow family lines. Thus, besides the Greek grammatici Spercheus and Menestheus, father and son, we find the two brothers Iucundus and Leontius, as well as Ausonius and his nephew Herculanus, the son of a vir primarius in the curia of Bordeaux. There is also an example of professional mobility from one generation to the next in Phoebicius, a grammarian and the father of a rhetorician, Attius Patera, whose success carried him as far as a chair at Rome.^[10]

As for other indications of status, there is little to be found except at the upper level of the group. Acilius Glabrio and Ausonius are the only landholders we know among them. Concerning Glabrio, we are given no specific information;^[11] in Ausonius's case, the evidence suggests that by the end of his life he may have owned as many as eight properties.^[12] Of

[10] On Patera at Rome, see Booth, "Notes" 244. For the family's fortunes in the third generation, see the account of the career of Attius Delphidius Tiro—advocate, political adventurer under Procopius, and finally teacher of rhetoric at Bordeaux—in Booth, "Notes" 236f.; cf. Green, "Prosopographical Notes" 23. Besides Phoebicius, only 4 of the grammatici , Nepotianus, Acilius Glabrio, Ausonius, and Spercheus, are known to have had children; Citarius married but died before children were born; Herculanus died young, leaving his family without heirs. Of the rest—all three freedmen's sons and the four remaining humiles (nn. 6, 7, above), plus Leontius, Iucundus, Thalassus, Menestheus, and Corinthus—we are told nothing. Compare the showing of 19 epitaphs raised to or by grammarians in the earlier empire (i.e., all those from which some inference can be drawn): 9 give evidence of marriage and/or children (CIL 3.10805 = AIJ 249 Neviodunum; CIL 6.9447 = ILS 7770, CIL 6.9448, CIL 9.1654 = ILS 6497 Beneventum, CIL 10.3961 Capua, CIL 13.3702 = ILS 7768 Trier, IGVR 3.1261, GVI 1182 = IKyzik . 515 Kirmasti [Hellespontus]); 10 (dedicated by a friend, mother, libertus, vel sim .) suggest that the grammarian either had not married or was not survived by wife or children (CIL 2.3872 = ILS 7765 = ILER 5715 Saguntum, CIL 2.5079 = ILER 5713 Asturica Augusta, CIL 3.12702 [with 13822] = ILS 7767 Doclea, CIL 6.9444, CIL 6.9449 = ILS 1848, CIL 6.9450, CIL 6.9454 = ILS 7769, CIL 6.33859, CIL 8.21107 Caesarea, Kaibel 534 = GVI 1479 Byzantium). Cf. also CIL 5.5278 = ILS 6729 Comum, a bequest by the Latin grammarian P. Atilius Septicianus of his universa substantia to Comum, probably implying that he had no heirs of his blood.

[11] Prof . 23.7: cultor in agris .

[12] For what follows, see esp. Étienne, Bordeaux 351ff. (following Loyen, "Bourg-sur-Gironde," with some adjustments), who is certainly correct to insist that Ausonius's villula (the parvum herediolum of Dom . 1) must be distinct from the estate Lucaniacus (see also below, n. 21; differently Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 240f., following Grimal, "Villas"). But Étienne and Loyen may go too far in attributing to Ausonius villas of which he may simply have enjoyed the hospitality; cf. the restraint of Green, "Prosopographical Notes" 26 n. 33. For the evidence of Ausonius and the patterns of land tenure in Roman Gaul, see Wightman, "Peasants."

these, one derived from his father (the parvum herediolum described in Dom . 1), as perhaps did two others (a house in Bordeaux proper and land in the pagus Novarus ); his wife's dowry certainly brought one property (the estate Lucaniacus), and possibly another in the territory of Saintes. Ausonius tells us most about the parvum herediolum , a parcel of 1,050 iugera (200 arable, 100 vineyard, 50 pasturage, 700 woodland) tended by his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father before Ausonius inherited it.^[13] This herediolum was parvum only relatively: as Keith Hopkins has remarked, although the estate was a good deal smaller than some known senatorial or even curial holdings, it would have been "very much larger than the average."^[14] Ausonius did not come to his teaching career a wealthy man—certainly not by the standards with which he would have become familiar in the orbit of the emperor. But neither did he come to it a pauper in the modern sense.^[15] It is worth recalling that Ausonius's father, a physician, could offer his skills without fees to all^[16] and that Ausonius evidently completed his literary education up through rhetoric—and thus satisfied one of the central expectations of upper-class life—with none of the financial strains apparent, for example, in Augustine's schooling.^[17]

Ausonius's education is significant in another respect: it allowed him, at least early in his career, to divide his time between the classroom and practice as an advocate. Here again he is joined by Acilius Glabrio,

[13] Description: Dom . 1.21-23. Inheritance: ibid. 1-3, pace Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 240f., who argues against a paternal line of succession in the belief that Ausonius's paternal grandfather was a freedman, and who equates the herediolum with the tenuis . . . pecunia acquired with much effort by his maternal grandfather, Arborius (Par . 4.15-16). On the status of his paternal grandfather, cf. above, n. 3; note that Ausonius clearly attributes the tenuis . . . petunia to the efforts of his maternal grandfather only—i.e., it could not have come down from his maternal proavus , as Dom . 1.1-3 would require.

[14] Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 241 n. 3. The value of the property would depend greatly on the quality of the arable (1 iug . vineyard = 4 iug . 1st-class arable = 8 iug . 2d-class = 12 iug. 3d-class; so Ausonius's 100 iug . of vineyard would have been worth 2-6 times his 200 iug . of ager ). On the relative value of arable, vineyard, and pasture, see A. H. M. Jones, Roman Economy 228f.

[15] Ausonius characterizes as pauperes Aemilia (his maternal grandmother, Par . 4.14; compare ibid. 15-16, on his grandfather Arborius) and his paternal aunt Iulia Cataphronia (Par . 26.5; contrast the magna petunia attributed to his patruus at Par . 2.3). In Aemilia's case, at least, this probably indicates nothing worse than reduced circumstances of a not very harrowing sort, a lack of conspicuous wealth (opes ) that was at odds with the high standing of Aemilia's family (cf. Prof . 16.5-8, on her son, Aemilius Magnus Arborius) and with Arborius's earlier high fortune (Par . 4.3-8).

[16] Epiced . 11-12; cf. n. 128 below.

[17] Conf . 2.35.

whose advocacy Ausonius also recalls.^[18] Practice at the bar is another index of social status, implying rhetorical training and so the wherewithal to support it. Advocacy might also be taken as a sign of ambition; for although it was not the route that Ausonius eventually chose, it could provide an entry into the imperial service.^[19] There were other opportunities open to grammarians at or from Bordeaux. Ausonius's respectable origins and his literary skills, combined no doubt with other ornaments attributable more to his family than to himself,^[20] brought him a noble wife and a substantial dowry, probably at an early date in his career.^[21] Again, Ausonius was not alone in this good fortune: the Greek grammarian Citarius also found a rich and noble wife at Bordeaux not long after his arrival from Sicily.^[22] But the loftiest prospects seem to have been open only to those who moved beyond their positions as grammarians. We know of two instances of professional mobility among the grammatici Burdigalenses : Ausonius and Nepotianus, both of whom began as grammarians but moved upward in the professional hierarchy to teach as rhetoricians.^[23] This movement in itself probably accounts for the fact that these two alone among the grammarians made their way into the imperial service, Ausonius initially as tutor to the prince Gratian, Nepotianus as a provincial governor.

Indeed, where such opportunities are concerned, the contrast between the rhetoricians and the grammarians at Bordeaux seems clear; and it is worth noting that the difference between the two groups is less evident in their origins than in their prospects.^[24] For example, more rhetoricians

[18] Glabrio: Prof . 24.7. Ausonius: Praef . 1.17f., nec fora non celebrata mihi, sed cura docendi cultior ; on the interpretation of this remark, see Part II no. 21.

[19] Thus the path taken by Attius Delphidius Tiro: see above, n. 10; cf. at n. 133 below.

[20] Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 242, well emphasizes the fame at court of his maternal uncle, the rhetorician Aemilius Magnus Arborius, and the local influence of his brother-in-law, Pomponius Maximus.

[21] Attusia Lucana Sabina (Par . 9.5, nobilis a proavis et origine clara senatus ), daughter of Attusius Lucanus Talisius (Par . 8). The estate Lucaniacus (see Epist . 16.36, villa Lucani—mox potieris—aco , with Epist . 26.1.12, 26.2.43-44, Epigr . 48.7; and cf. Paulin. Nol. Carm . 10.256, aut quum Lucani retineris culmine fundi ) is to be associated with this family; cf. n. 12 above.

[22] Prof . 13.9; and cf. Marcellus, a native of Bordeaux who taught as a grammarian at Narbo, Prof . 18.5-6. Note that the grammarians appear to have been not much less successful than the rhetoricians in finding uxores nobiles : see Prof . 16.9, on Aemilius Magnus Arborius, Prof . 7.35-36, on Alethius Minervius; cf. Prof . 23.5, on Dynamius, like the grammarian Marcellus a native of Bordeaux who taught in a different city (Ilerda), where he found a wealthy wife.

[23] Prof . 15 tit. and 10ff., on Nepotianus, Epist . 22.73-76 and Prof . 24.5-6, on Ausonius, with the comments in Part II nos. 105, 21.

[24] On the differences in mobility, see Hopkins, "Social Mobility" 247. Although none of the rhetoricians is said to have had origins as lowly as those of some grammarians (e.g., the sons of freedmen), Ausonius describes only two rhetoricians in terms that show they were of at least curial background (Prof . 14.7, Censorius Atticus Agricius; 16.8, Aemilius Magnus Arborius). Yet it is difficult to believe that the majority of the rhetoricians of Bordeaux were of less than curial origin, given the great rarity of such instances elsewhere; Ausonius's silence here may simply pass over something that his audience would take for granted, and may lead us to underestimate the origins of many teachers. It would follow, then, that at least some of the grammarians whose origins are not specified were men of higher standing than we might at first conclude; cf. at n. 9 above. In general, we can think that the social composition of the two groups significantly overlapped, with the lower range of grammatici more humbly placed than the corresponding rhetores , and perhaps with the upper range of rhetores possessing loftier origins than most grammatici . Cf. also n. 22 above.

than grammarians practiced at the bar,^[25] though of course public advocacy may have been at least partially a consequence of their profession. More revealing are the instances of professional and social mobility: only two of the grammarians are said to have left positions at Bordeaux to teach elsewhere, one apparently out of financial necessity, another out of ambition.^[26] None achieved the success of several of the rhetoricians, whose fame made them sought, or drove them to chairs at Rome or Constantinople, bringing reflected glory to Bordeaux.^[27] No doubt such men may have been more talented in their metier than their colleagues among the grammatici . Yet one suspects that beneath the language of fame and compulsion lie the workings of patronage (which we will have occasion to examine in a later chapter) and that patronage at the level necessary for such brilliant success was more easily available to the rhetoricians of Bordeaux than to the grammarians. That suspicion is hardly diminished by the other clear distinction between the two groups of teachers, the opportunity for entry into the imperial service: all the professores who rose to the governing class had first been rhetoricians.^[28]

[25] Prof . 2.17, on Latinus Alcimus Alethius, 3.11, on Luciolus, Par . 3.13-14, on Aemilius Magnus Arborius; cf. Prof . 23.2, on Dynamius, with n. 10 above, on the career of Attius Tiro Delphidius.

[26] Cf. Prof . 10.19-21, on Concordius, qui profugus patria / mutasti sterilem / urbe alia cathedram (on patria here, see Part II no. 35); ibid. 46ff., on Anastasius, whom transtulit ambitio / Pictonicaeque dedit (Ausonius notes his failure at Poitiers in vv. 49-53). Cf. below at n. 153.

[27] Ti. Victor Minervius (Prof . 1.3-4; Jer. Chron . s.a. 352), Attius Patera and Censorius Atticus Agricius (Prof . 14.9, with Booth, "Notes" 244); and cf. Aemilius Magnus Arborius (Par . 3.15), whose crescens fama made him petitus , and (Prof . 16.14) whose fama drove him (pepulit ) to Constantinople.

[28] The governorship of Nepotianus (Prof . 15.18) has already been mentioned; with the success of Ausonius via his service as imperial tutor, cf. the career of Exuperius, a native of Bordeaux who taught as a rhetorician at Toulouse and Narbo (Prof . 17.7ff.; for his governorship in Spain, cf. v. 13). Hopkins ("Social Mobility" 242) and others are probably wrong, however, to attribute a praesidatus of Narbo to Aemilius Magnus Arborius on the strength of Par . 3.12; the reference is probably to his advocacy. Green, "Prosopographical Notes" 20, is rightly skeptical; cf. also Booth, "Academic Career" 330.

Taken individually, then, the grammarians of Bordeaux show considerable range in their social origins; as a group, they probably enjoyed a middling respectability in the city's elite. Their profession appears to have been a social bridge, sufficiently prestigious to attract the son of the leader of the local senate but not of such high status that it was beyond the reach of some freedmen's sons, for whom it no doubt represented a step up in the world. The position held some opportunity for professional, social, and geographic mobility, but without direct access to the highest prizes mobility could bring. In this respect, the grammarians were overshadowed by the men at the next level of the professional hierarchy, the rhetoricians. In the next section we will attempt to supplement this bare summary by drawing on the more abundant but more fragmentary evidence from other cities of the empire.