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Scholae (Greek:Σχολαί) is aLatin word, literally meaning "schools" (from the singularschola,school orgroup) that was used in theLate Roman Empire to signify a unit of Imperial Guards. The unit survived in theByzantine Empire until the 12th century. Michel Rouche succinctly traced the word's development, especially in the West: "The termschola, which once referred to the imperial guard, came to be applied in turn to a train of warrior-servants who waited on the king, to the group of clergymen who waited on the bishop, to the monks of a monastery, and ultimately to a choral society; it did not mean 'school' before the ninth century."[1]
While the singularschola still was used to refer to learning of singing and a mode of writing, the plural had an independent meaning. Next to the old kind of school, theScholae Palatinae, established byConstantine the Great as a replacement to thePraetorian Guard, was the training center of the imperial palace guard. It remained based at Constantinople, eventually declining to a purely ceremonial role. However, in the 8th century, theScholae were reformed into one of theelitecataphractTagmata regiments, and continued to serve until the reign ofAlexios I Komnenos.
In Christianity, achoralschola is achurch choir that singsplainsong. Also, theguilds ofnotarii (notaries) called themselves one schola, or different scholae. In the 4th century, Pope Sylvester I (died 335) was said to have founded theschola cantorum, reformed by Pope Gregory (died 604), but there was an oral tradition until the written proof for the foundation of thisschola from the 8th century.
Plural of the AncientGreek word "σχολή" (from which its Latin counterpart "Scholae" derives), meaning: 'rest, leisure' (Pi., lA), '(learned) conversation, lecture' (PI., Arist.), 'place of lecture, auditorium, school' (Arist.).[2]
Not related to scholae: