Education Creates Community
They shared a common education and consequently a common store of res memorabiles.
Again from The Craft of Thought (bold emphasis mine):
In his study of the rhetorician's role in the eastern Roman empire, Peter Brown recounts a story told in one of Libanius' orations. Libanius . . . was the Orator of the City of Antioch in the middle of the fourth century, and a member of its ruling class—indeed, by his estimate, the chief member. "Confronting the legal advisers of a newly arrived governor . . . Libanius posed the crucial question: 'How did Odysseus rule when king of Ithaca?' 'Gently as a father,' was the instant reply." Brown comments, "[t]hrough a shared paideia, [men of the urban ruling class] could set up a system of instant communication with men who were, often, members of the same social group." These men referred to themselves as "servants of the Muses": they shared a common education and consequently a common store of res memorabiles [remembered things, memorable events]. This education did surely provide a shared means of communication, but above all else it constructed the web of a community or commonality.
