Educating the sovereign: court teachers of the heirs of the roman emperors of the late 4th century – the first half of the 5th century

Abstract

This article is dedicated to a variety of problems related to the education of the heirs of the Valentinian-Theodosius dynasty. It covers the biographies of the tutors of the royal children (Ausonius, Themistius, Arsenius, Antiochus, Anastasius, Petronius Maximus), evaluates the activities of the court schools, traces the transformation of the status of the tutors assigned to the heirs to the throne, describes the principles of their recruitment, and makes an attempt to reconstruct the curriculum of their schools. The conclusion is made that in contrast to the 1st – 3rd century A.D., the status of the court teacher had significantly strengthened. The educational programs of the court schools generally repeated the curricula of the ordinary grammar and rhetorical schools of the Empire. The article argues that the teachers of the heirs, as a rule, were chosen from the segments of the nobility, in whose support the government was most interested at the time. In addition, it is noted that children of prominent officials and military officers were involved in the education of future sovereigns. This practice introduced a competitive element into the educational process and served as a guarantee of the loyalty of the fathers of classmates of the heirs.