ABSTRACT
The physical evidence of the Flabellum of Tournus at the epicenter of the Christian cult complements abundant textual evidence of how intimately ancient Roman classics were part and parcel of the intellectual and educational revival sparked by the Carolingian literary elite. Carolingian authors for the most part comfortably joined their thoughts to those of their Roman predecessors. Carolingian teachers believed it important that their students know the context of the works they studied. Over the centuries, medieval teachers composed more than thirty lives of Virgil to help orient their students. Carolingians knew that Virgil wrote to curry favor with and to gain the support of the emperor and the emperor's political family. They knew, too, that as in their own day, being on the wrong side in a conflict could be costly. There are also differences between the Laon vita and the other texts in the vitae Virgilianae tradition.
