A Professor of Latin Language and Literature at the Sorbonne, he was Director-General of Education in 1944 and Director of the École française de Rome from 1952 to 1960.

A specialist of Latin literature and Religion in ancient Rome, Jean Bayet, through his works and the theses he directed, played a decisive role in the development of a French school of history of the Roman religion, particularly active in the second half of the twentieth century.

He taught first in secondary education (at the Lycée Charlemagne and the Lycée de Laon), while continuing the preparation of his doctoral theses on Les Origines de l'Hercule romain and the critical study of the main monuments related to the Etruscan Hercules, which he defended in 1926.

[1] At the Liberation of France, he was appointed Director-General of Education and took part in the work of the commission Langevin-Wallon [fr].

He was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 3 December 1948.