He was a member of the École française de Rome from 1936 to 1938, then a teacher in a high school in Bordeaux until the breakup of World War II.
Drafted as Intelligence assessment officer, he was captured June 22, 1940, and was interned in Germany.
He was a professor in the camp captivity University before being delivered and returned to France in 1945.
He then became professor of ancient and Roman history at the Faculty of Letters of Toulouse.
He defended two thesis at the Sorbonne in 1969 and then became a doctor-es-lettres.
In addition to his teaching activities, he was also interested in archeology.