On This Day In Roman History, February 27
Theodosius II founds the Imperial University of Constantinople on February 27, 425 CE. The closer Greek translation of the school is known as the University of the Palace Hall of Magnaura. The Pandidakterion, as it is also commonly referred to, contained schools of law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric, as well as another 23 schools. This type of education was only uncommon in Byzantine society in the sense that it was a higher level of education; many institutions for education on a variety of subjects, including fine-arts and types of academies, could already be found within Constantinople and other large Eastern Roman cities at this time. Within Byzantine culture, education was rather widespread for the time and could be found even at the "village level".
Did you know?
The Pandidakterion only opened at the final urging of Theodosius' wife, Aelia Eudocia Augusta. Saint Eudocia, as she is more commonly known, had a prominent role in religious and educational culture within Constantinople during her lifetime. She most notably blended Christian and classic Greek Hellenistic cultures. During a speech she delivered during one of her pilgrimages to Jerusalem, she uttered the famous line "Υμετέρης γενεής τε καί αίματος εύχομαι είναι" or "Of your proud line and blood I claim to be" to her fellow Greek countrymen and woman in Antioch. For some further reading on this interesting woman I would highly recommend the book "Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity" (1982) by Kenneth Holum.
Pictured: A mosaic depicting St. Eudocia in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Bulgaria. Image by Elena Chochkova, via Wikimedia Commons. I decided it fitting to picture one if its more dedicated patrons.
Many modern scholars tend to shy away from the use of the word "University" when describing the Pandidakterion, for a variety of reasons. The most prevalent of these reasons is that this school did not have the same "cooperative structures" that are reflected in many late medieval European universities or modern universities. I feel it safe to refer to this center of higher education as a sort of "proto-university".
Many modern scholars tend to shy away from the use of the word "University" when describing the Pandidakterion, for a variety of reasons. The most prevalent of these reasons is that this school did not have the same "cooperative structures" that are reflected in many late medieval European universities or modern universities. I feel it safe to refer to this center of higher education as a sort of "proto-university".
Opinion
Welcome to my daily opinion! Even with the "dark-ages" approaching, it was still not an uncommon site for low-level (in terms of social standing) Byzantine citizens to receive a basic level of formal education, even within some of the smallest towns and villages. The Latin term "universitas" would not be used for another few hundred years, and it is important to remember that types of these higher-level educational facilities still didn't exist in this fairly well educated (for the time) society. The school would be rebuilt after the sack of Constantinople as Istanbul University, which still exists today.
Sources
Cuming, G. J. (1972). Popular belief and practice: papers read at the ninth summer meeting and the tenth winter meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Leiden: Brill.
Holum, K. G. (1982). Theodosian empresses: Women and imperial dominion in Late Antiquity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Jeffreys, E., Haldon, J., & Cormack, R. (2008). The Oxford handbook of Byzantine studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further Reading:
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