The article analyses the influence of Antiquity on J.-J. Rousseau’s ideas of social education. It is noted that Rousseau's interest in Antiquity emerged in childhood and was stimulated by Plutarch's works. In later years, he studied Latin and elements of the ancient Greek language, and translated the works of Tacitus and Seneca into French. Modern scholars place an emphasis on Rousseau's direct acquaintance with the works of ancient authors, in particular, under the influence of the home education that he received from his father, a Geneva watchmaker. At the same time, the article draws attention to the fact that Rousseau's interest in Antiquity coincided with his life choice: he decided to make a career as a writer and composer, and therefore focused on popular examples of creative writing. Montesquieu, Fenelon, Marquis d'Argens introduced ancient themes into the context of literary and academic polemics. Their example was followed by Rousseau, which is convincingly illustrated by the comparative analysis of Fenelon’s Dialogues of the Dead and Prosopopoeia of Fabricius in Rousseau's first Discourse. While retaining the main intention of the great moralist, namely the moral education of society by the writer on the examples of Antiquity, Rousseau rethinks it in the context of his own social anthropology. Antiquity is not an example to follow, but a starting point for a person of his time to think about their own social and cultural identity that is different from the past. Being a writer-moralist and political thinker, Rousseau essentially solved the problem of moral education regarding the perception and assessment of the ancient culture by his contemporaries and society.