THE UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE THE UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE BY JOHN W. H. WALDEN, Ph.D. FORMERLY INSTRUCTOR IN LATIN IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1909 V V ^ Copyright, 1909 By Charles Scribner's Sons Published October, 1909 ©CI.A251 Sl^emotiae atmncttli PREFACE The germ of this book was first presented in the form of public lectures delivered at Harvard University in the spring of 1904. To the material then presented much other material, which it was found impossible to put in the lectures, has been added, and the whole has been thoroughly revised. It is the feeling of the author that the Greek edu- cation of the imperial times has not received the con- sideration that is due to its importance. This neglect has perhaps been partly owing to the difficulty and uncertainty that have until recently attended the read- ing of many of the authors of this period. We now have, for Libanius's speeches — though not yet for his letters — the excellent text edition of Richard Forster, but of some other authors important for this subject there is still lacking an authoritative text. In some measure also the neglect in question is prob- ably to be accounted for by the general shadow under which every period of Greek antiquity not strictly to be called 'classical* has to some extent rested. Happily this shadow, which is due to the very brilliancy of the so-called 'classical* period, has been in recent years somewhat dissipated. The attitude of mind that would see in the institutions and productions of the later age only deteriorated forms of the perfect types of the vii viii PREFACE earlier age, and things therefore to be disregarded, is less common now than it was formerly. It will not do to dismiss the Greek education of imperial times with the words 'barren* and 'superficial. ' To those who shared in it, it was a very living thing, and it was bound up with the past life and the religion of Greece in a way which we do not find it easy fully to appreciate. To those living in the eastern part of the Empire the belief in the past of the Greek race — that brilliant past that antedated the conquests of Alexander — was what the belief in the permanency of Rome was to those living in the western part of the Empire. It was an integral and vital part of their being. The education that rested on such a basis could not be wholly barren and superficial, and any system of education that sur- vived and performed its part in the world for eight hun- dred years certainly merits our closest scrutiny. Notwithstanding the insufficiency, as measured by modern standards, of the ancient sophistical education, it is well for us in this extremely 'practical* age to hold in mind the ideal which that education proposed for itself. This ideal will be found stated on page 351. It "received its embodiment in the man who had been trained, morally, intellectually, and aesthetically, to use his powers in the interest of the state. Such a man was the orator. The orator . . . was the man of broad learning and general culture, trained to see the distinc- tions of right and wrong, and to act with reference to them in the service of his 7ro\t?, or native city." A life of service in the interest of the state was here proposed — a life, however, based, not on technical knowledge or PREFACE IX scientific attainments, but on a literary and humanistic training. Though undue stress was laid in this edu- cation on the aesthetic training, and though the intel- lectual training was, as judged by modern standards, defective, these facts should not be allowed to obscure the outlines of the ideal. This book is a contribution to the study of the Greek education of imperial times. Greek education, how- ever, was a connected whole. It is impossible fully to understand its later forms without having some under- standing of those which preceded them. For this reason, a short account has been given, in the earlier chapters, of the Athenian education in pre-Alexandrian times, and of the conditions which prevailed in Grecian lands in the last three centuries B. C. Exception may be taken to the use of the term Uni- versity as applied to the congregations of professors and students described in these chapters, on the ground that no distinct charters of incorporation were granted them. At Alexandria, however, the Museum was a royal foundation and, if it did not actually receive a charter from the king of Egypt, it resembled in many other respects the modern university. The Capitolium at Constantinople, put on a new basis by Theodosius II in the fifth century, had a rigid organization and was under the immediate direction of the emperor. At other places, as at Athens and Antioch, where the edu- cational organization was less rigid than at Constanti- nople, the teachers and the students formed a recog- nized body in the community, and the teachers were from the time of the Antonines, or even earlier, granted x PREFACE privileges and held subject to governmental control. But, apart from this more formal aspect of the question, the essential elements of the university, the teachers and students, the spirit of learning, the enthusiasm for in- tellectual ideals, were present in all these centres. There seems, therefore, to be ample justification for the use of the word University in connection with them. The lectures which formed the nucleus of this book were designed, not only for professed students of educa- tion and of classical philology, but also for those whose interests were more general. It is hoped that the book will appeal to these three classes of readers, and that, while other investigators in this field may be assisted by the references in the notes, those whose interests are less specific may, by neglecting the notes and reading the pages of the text consecutively, gain a connected and comprehensive idea of the story of Greek education. I desire to express my sincere thanks to Professor Herbert Weir Smyth of Harvard University for his kindness in reading a part of the proof and suggesting to me a number of improvements in the text. To my wife I am indebted for the encouragement she gave me while I was writing the lectures and for helpful suggestions. J. W. H. W. Cambridge, September 20, 1909. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Bibliography: Selected Titles . . . xiii . I. Introductory 1 II. Education at Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B. C 10 III. The Macedonian Period 41 IV. Education and the State 58 V. Establishment of University Education in Grecian Lands 68 VI. History of University Education from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine . 97 VII. The Decline of University Education: the Conflict with Christianity . 109 VIII. The Professors : Their Appointment and Number 130 IX. The Professors : Their Pay and Position in Society 162 X. What the Sophists Taught and How They Taught It 195 XI. Public Displays 218 XII. SCHOOLHOUSES, HOLIDAYS, ETC.; THE School of Antioch 265 xi xii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIII. The Boyhood of a Sophist .... 282 XIV. Student Days 296 XV. After College 334 XVI. Conclusion 340 BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED TITLES Arnim, H. v., Leben und Werhe des Dio von Prusa. Berlin, 1898. Bernhardy, G., Grundriss der griechischen Litteratur. 5th ed. Halle, 1892. Boissier, Gaston, La fin du paganisme. 3d ed. Paris, 1898. Bujgess, T. C, Epideictic Literature. Chicago, 1902. Capes, W. W., University Life in Ancient Athens. London, 1877. Cramer, F., Geschichte der Erziehung und des Unterrichts im Alterthume. Elberfeld, 1832-38. Davidson, Thomas, The Education of the Greek People and its Influence on Civilization. New York, 1903. Dill, Samuel, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire. 2d ed. London, 1905. Freeman, K. J., Schools of Hellas. London, 1907. Girard, Paul, L'Education athenienne au Ve. et au IV e. sieclc avant J.-C. 2d ed. Paris, 1891. Gbll, Hermann, Professoren und Studenten der romischen Kaiser- zeit, in Kulturbilder aus Hellas und Rom. 3d ed. Leipzig, 1880. Grasberger, Lorenz, Erziehung und Unterricht im hlassischen Alterthum. Wiirzburg, 1864-81. Graves, F. P., A History of Education before the Middle Ages. New York, 1909. Harrent, Albert, Les ecoles d'Antioche. Paris, 1898. Hatch, Edwin, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church (The Hibbert Lectures, 1888). 8th ed. London, 1901. Hertzberg, G. F., Die Geschichte Griechenlands unter der Herr- schaft der R'&mer. Halle, 1866-75. Hulsebos, G. A., De educatione et institutions apud Romanos. Utrecht, 1875. Krause, J. H., Geschichte der Erziehung, des Unterrichts und der BUdung bei den Griechen, Etruskern und R'&mern. Halle, 1851. xiii xiv BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED TITLES Kuhn, Emil, Die stadtische und biirgerliche Verjassung des rbmischen Reichs bis auf die Zeiten Justinians. Leipzig, 1864-65. Laurie, S. S., Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education. 2d ed. London, 1900. Lerber, Th. v., Professoren, Studenten und Studentenleben vor 1500 Jahren. Bern, 1867. Mahaffy, J. P., Old Greek Education. London, 1881. Monroe, Paul, Source Book of the History of Education for the Greek and Roman Period. New York, 1906. A Text-Book in the History of Education. New York, 1907. Petit de Julleville, Louis, L'Ecole d'Athenes au quatrieme siecle apres Jesus-Christ. Paris, 1868. Histoire de la Grece sous la domination romaine. Paris, 1875. j/ Rauschen, Gerhard, Das griechisch-romische Schulwesen zur Zeit des ausgehenden Heidentums. Bonn, 1901. Rohde, Erwin, Der griechische Roman. 2d ed. Leipzig, 1900. Schemmel, Fritz, Der Sophist Libanios als Schiller und Lehrer, in Neue Jahrbiicher fur das klassische Alterthum, 20, 1907, pp. 52-69. Die Hochschule von Konstantinople im IV. Jahrhundert p. Ch. n., in Neue Jahrbiicher fur das klassische Alterthum, 22, 1908, pp. 147-168. Die Hochschule von Athen im IV. und V. Jahrhundert p. Ch. n., in Neue Jahrbiicher fur das klassische Alter- thum, 22, 1908, pp. 494-513. Sclosser, F. C., Universitaten, Studirende und Professoren der Griechen zu Julian's und Theodosius' Zeit, in Archiv fur Geschichte und Literatur, 1830, 1 Bd., pp. 217-272. Sievers, G. R., Das Leben des Libanius. Berlin, 1868. Ussing, J. L., Erziehung und Jugendunterricht bei den Griechen und R'dmern. Neue Bearbeitung. Berlin, 1885. Wilkins, A. S., National Education in Greece in the Fourth Century before Christ. London, 1873. Roman Education. Cambridge, 1905. Zumpt, H., Ueber den Bestand der philosophischen Schulen in Athen und die Succession der Scholarchen, in Abhandlungen der kbniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1844, pp. 27-119. THE UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY The period treated in these chapters on The Univer- sities of Ancient Greece is the first five centuries of the Christian era, and the part of the world the eastern half of the Roman Empire — that half of it that was domi- nated by the Greek language and Greek civilization. Ancient Greece, as the term is commonly understood, included that small district in Europe which lay south of the Cambunian Mountains and formed the southern extremity of the Balkan Peninsula; it corresponded roughly to the modern political division of that name. More properly, however, the term is applied to all those lands in which the Greek type of civilization and Greek ideals prevailed, and in this sense it included in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. the islands of the ^Egean Sea, much of the neighboring coast-land of Europe and Asia, and many outlying districts in various directions, such as parts of Sicily and southern Italy in the west, Cyrene in the south, and numerous colonies on the shore of the Black Sea. With the advent of Macedonia into the field of Grecian politics, Greek civilization was l 2 UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE spread still further abroad and the bounds of Greece were again widened. They now included, besides the Balkan Peninsula and the islands of the iEgean and eastern Mediterranean, Egypt and the adjacent parts of Libya, the whole of Asia Minor, with Syria, Pales- tine, and Arabia Petrsea, Thrace, and Macedonia. It is in this broadest sense of the term that the word Greece is used in the title of the present work. The period is one of great interest. It was the time when, throughout the Empire, the old order of things was breaking up or dissolving and the new was taking its place. In the West, Roman civilization was uniting with German arms to form the new Roman-German Empire; while, in the East, that which we call Hellenism — the later Greek civilization and culture, permeated by the ancient Greek spirit — was slowly but surely giving way before the new forces of Christianity and Byzantinism. Strictly, this is true of only the last part — approximately the last half — of the period in ques- tion; for the spirit of Byzantinism can hardly be said to have made its appearance much before the time of Diocletian, and the Christian religion was itself on the defensive as late as that emperor's reign, while the menace of the German arms was not serious in the early years of the Empire. But the seed had already been sown for the overthrow of the Hellenistic civiliza- tion before the first convert to Christianity had been made in the East, and the downfall of the Empire was foreshadowed in the corruption, profligacy, and ex- travagance of the Roman Court in the first century A. D. In the meantime, before the new capital had been built INTRODUCTORY 3 near the mouth of the Black Sea, and the Christian religion established as the Court religion by Constan- tine, and before the more serious inroads of the bar- barians began along the northern border of the Empire, Greece and Rome respectively enjoyed large measures of peace and prosperity. Indeed, in the first centuries of the period before us, there was something like a genuine revival both in Roman and in Greek letters, and even in the later years the course of affairs was not always, on its face, one of steady and uninterrupted decline. Attached to both events — the breaking up of the civilization of the West and the decline and extinc- tion of Hellenism in the East — there is a tragic interest, and it is only when we recall that on the ruins of the Roman state there was to be raised by other hands a new civilization, embodying much of the old, and that the seed of Hellenism was to be preserved through the centuries and to fructify in modern soil, that we view the events in a different light. We have to do in these chapters, not with the wars and bloodshed, but with the educational and social life, of the times. It is, indeed, not a little singular that Greece, just at the moment when she lost her political independence, should have established another sort of rule more solid and more enduring than the other. The contrast that is here presented is striking. In the field of government Greece had never been able to establish and to maintain successfully for any length of time a federation of states. The centrifugal force among the different units of which such a federation should have been composed was too great. The Greek 4 UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE language and education, on the other hand, formed, in the later centuries of Hellenism, the strongest bond of union between diverse races. This it was that dis- tinguished these races from all barbarians, and even gave them a certain superiority over their Latin-edu- cated countrymen in the western half of the Empire. More than any other thing, it appealed to a national sentiment. 1 In this study of ancient university life, the inquiry has been limited to those countries in which the prevailing language was Greek. Roman education in imperial times was, it is true, in the main modelled on that of the Greeks, and there were teachers of Greek learning in Gaul, as there were teachers of Latin learning at Con- stantinople. On the whole, however, it seems desirable to keep the two fields apart, and there is enough dis- tinction between the two on the basis of language alone to warrant this separation. 1 Lib., i. 458, 22: "EM^y tis et Kal Kpareis ''EW-^vcaw oUtu yap tf8t6v fwi KoKeiv rb rots fiapfidpois dpTiiraXov, Kal otide'v p.oi /x4p.\f/€Tai rb yivos Alvetov ib., i. 333, 8: el drj rots A6yois /xaXKov 1) rb ye'vei rbv YiWyva. KXrjre'ov. See Rohde, Gr. Rom., p. 319, and Schmid, Gr. Renais., pp. 4, 31. Greek sophistry was a protest against barbarism, and it tended to preserve the level of culture in the ancient world. Cf. H. C. Lodge, Scribner's Magazine, June, 1907, p. 658: "... I have often wondered how many people have stopped to consider that our language is one of the greatest bonds which hold the Union together, perhaps the strongest, as it is the most impalpable of all. ... In the language, too, lies the best hope of assimilating and Americanizing the vast masses of immigrants who every year pour out upon our shores, for when these new-comers learn the language, they inevitably ab- sorb, in greater or less degree, the traditions and beliefs, the aspirations and the modes of thought, the ideals and the attitude toward life, which that language alone enshrines." See p. 346. INTRODUCTORY 5 The side of education that was most prominent in the centuries we are to study, and the side, therefore, that will specially engage our attention, is that known as the sophistic. The words sophistry and sophistic are familiar to us in English, but we must not be misled by the associations of the English words. Sophistry was, no doubt, even among the Greeks, responsible for much that was pernicious in style and in form of thought, but it was far from being the wholly bad thing that it is, probably, with us. The phenomenon of the rise and spread of Greek sophistry had a basis of fact deep in the character of the Greek people, and its influence on the course of Greek letters we should find it hard to overestimate. The Greeks were by nature a people of speakers, and from early times the art of oratory was highly prized among them. Hardly a form — we may say, no form — of literature arose in Greece that did not owe much of its distinctive character to considerations of the spoken word. The Greeks were also, however, a people in whom the sense of fitness and proportion was highly developed. In the old days — the days to which the most perfect of the works of art and literature belong — the poet or the philosopher, the historian or the public speaker, if he had a message to convey, not only chose the appropriate form in which to convey it, but also, in making use of that form, attended to the careful ad- justment of words and thought; neither of these two parts of the discourse was allowed to be out of propor- tion to the other; and in this careful adjustment of words and thought lay the literary perfection for which 6 UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE the Greeks strove. But, as time went on, men came to see more and more of the possibilities that lay in this that was called language, and to observe and wonder at the many curious things that could be done with it; * then they began to cultivate literary style as a thing that was to be desired for itself. Symmetry and proportion were lost sight of. Perfection was no longer sought in the careful adjustment of words and thought, but in the polish and elegance of words alone. Now it was just this cult of style for style's sake that formed the essence of sophistry. Artistic excellence, we see, was still the ideal of the Greek, but his mental vision had become perverted. But though this was the case, the influence of sophis- try on the course of Greek letters was far-reaching and important. Sophistry served, by bringing back into favor Attic words, expressions, and peculiarities of language which had fallen, or were tending to fall, into disuse, to establish, on a basis of Attic purity, the form which the Greek literary language was to retain through several centuries. The old so-called 1 The first intimation of these possibilities was given to the Athenians by Gorgias, the famous orator and rhetorician, who came to Athens on an embassy from Leontini in Sicily in 427 B.C. "Being brought before the people," says Diodorus (xiu 53), "he spoke to the Athenians about the alliance, and the Athenians, who were naturally clever and fond of speech-making, were astounded at the strange character of his language. For he was the first to make use of exaggerated and elaborate figures, antitheses, equally balanced clauses, rhymes, and other such devices — things which nowadays [the second half of the first century B. C] are held to smack of over-niceness and strike one as ridiculous when used to excess, but were then, owing to the novelty of the style, deemed worthy of respect." INTRODUCTORY 7 1 classic ' authors, as Plato, Demosthenes, Isocrates, etc., were carefully read and studied in the schools, and collections of unfamiliar words and phrases, sometimes accompanied by explanations, were made from them. Some of these collections were designed to serve as a basis for further study, while others were meant for the use of those who wished to write in a pure Attic style. Sometimes juristic, antiquarian, or other lore was in- corporated in these works, which then took on the character of encyclopaedias. It is to this kind of ac- tivity that we owe such works as the Lexicon of Harpo- cration, the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux, and the i k.TTLKL?? /3o?. The whole body of young men who were at any time serving in this ap- prenticeship constituted the College of the Ephebi. When the Athenian youth was about to enter upon his nineteenth year, he presented himself, first before the citizens of his deme, and then before the fiovXrj, to be examined relative to his age and his parentage. It having been proven that he was really eighteen, and that he had been born of Athenian parents, his name was entered on the official register of his deme and he became a citizen forthwith. The first duty of the newly- enrolled e$77/3o? was to take the ephebic oath, which bound him not to dishonor the arms which he bore, 36 UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE not to desert his companion in battle, to fight for his j gods and his home, to advance the interests of his country, to submit to the rule of those above him, to obey the existing laws and oppose all who attempted to break them, and to respect the religion of his ancestors.] He then entered upon the course of discipline which formed the curriculum of the college and was designed to make of him one who could, in time of necessity, defend his country. The first year was a year of pre- liminary training; the recruit was then to be broken in. Besides receiving instruction in the ordinary athletic exercises of the gymnasium, he was taught the use of the bow, the javelin, etc., was, in some cases at least, made to engage in horse-riding and rowing, and was trained in the various military manoeuvres and forma- tions. At the end of the first year, he received from the state a buckler and lance, and was then put on patrol and guard duty along the frontier and in the various forts of Attica; at the same time he still continued his military practice. At many of the public festivals the ephebi appeared in a body and took part in the pro- ceedings, their presence and manoeuvres adding much to the pomp of the occasion. Such, roughly, seems to have been the ephebic sys- tem as it was up to about the beginning of the third century B. C. We see that it was almost wholly mili- tary in character and that it was a state institution. The various instructors — the TraL&oTpifirjs, or instructor in gymnastics, the o7r\o/ia%o?, or instructor in the use of arms, the a/covno-Trjs , or instructor in the art of javelin- throwing, the rof ot?7?, or instructor in bowmanship, and EDUCATION AT ATHENS 37 others — were appointed and remunerated by the state. The <7povLaTaC i or superintendents, who were com- missioned to oversee the morals and conduct of the ephebi, were state-appointed officials, and the whole college was probably under the general supervision and control of the o-Tpa,Trj* the last of the line of Seleucid kings. Other centres of literary, philosophical, or scientific activity were: Pella, the seat of the Macedonian Court; Cos; Rhodes, where were schools of rhetoric and philosophy ; Tarsus and Soli in Cilicia; and, at a later time, though founded in this period, Nicsea and Nicomedia in Bithynia. 1 1 In general, see Sandys, Hist. Clas. Schol., i. pp. 105 ff. t 146 ff., and the literature there cited. THE MACEDONIAN PERIOD 51 And the intellectual centre of this Hellenistic world — Athens 1 During the third century the material interests of Greece suffered severely, first in consequence of the wars of the Successors and then owing to her internal politics in conjunction with the continued attempts of Macedonia to gain control of the land. In 279 the Celtic hordes from the north overran and devastated the northern part of the country. In 221 took place the battle of Sellasia, which closed the Cleomenic War, and from 219 to 217 was the Social War, waged between Philip V of Macedon and his Grecian allies on the one hand, and the iEtolian League on the other. The con- dition of affairs* at the close of that war is well described by Polybius ' : " Directly the Achseans had put an end to the war, they . . . departed to take up once more their regular ways and habits. Along with the Achaeans the other Peloponnesian communities also set to work to •epair the losses they had sustained; recommenced the cultivation of the land ; and re-established their national sacrifices, games, and other religious observances pe- culiar to their several states. For these things had all but sunk into oblivion in most of the states through the persistent continuance of the late wars. . . . The Athe- nians, on the contrary, had by this time freed them- selves from fear of Macedonia, and considered that they had now permanently secured their independence. They accordingly . . . took no part whatever in the politics of the rest of Greece. ,, This policy of abstention from Grecian politics afforded Athens the opportunity to devote herself more sedulously to her intellectual inter- ■V. 106 (trans, by Shuckburgh). / 52 UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE ests, and throughout this period she displayed a grow- ing solicitude for education. The four schools of phi- losophy were her greatest educational asset, but rhet- oric, it would seem, was also taught. The heads of the philosophical schools were in few cases Athenians; they came from all parts of the Hellenistic world. Athens was in those days gradually becoming more and more a university town, such as we see her in the centuries after Christ. Foreign potentates, as we have already seen, vied with one another in endowing her with beautiful buildings, while students of all ages and all nationalities thronged her streets and drew inspiration from her associations. Toward the end of the third century the Romans for the first time entered into diplomatic relations with Greece and appeared with an armed force east of the Adriatic. In the year 229 the consuls Gnseus Fulvius Centumalus and Lucius Postumius Albinus crossed from Brundisium with an army and fleet, took Corcyra under their protection, and crushed the power of the Ulyrian pirates. In the following year the Romans were permitted by the Corinthians to take part in the Isthmian games. In 197 the Romans defeated Philip V of Macedon at Cynocephalae, and at the ensuing Isthmian games Flamininus proclaimed the independ- ence of all Greece. In 168 Lucius ^Emilius Paulus defeated Perseus, the son of Philip, at Pydna, and, after his victory, went on a tour through Greece, re- forming the governments of the cities, bestowing gifts upon the people, and admiring the artistic treasures of the land. THE MACEDONIAN PERIOD 53 We have, here recorded, three noteworthy occur- rences — not the military achievements, but the events that followed these. The Romans, coming into con- tact with Greece, acknowledged the same charm that the Macedonians and the other nations of the East had acknowledged before them. The privilege of taking part in the Greek games was prized, for it seemed to confer on those to whom it was granted a certain stand- ing in the civilized world ; to proclaim the independence of Greece was to do homage to the Greek name; while the tour of ^Emilius points to the awakening of an his- torical and antiquarian interest in the country. During the second century the material condition of Greece grew constantly worse. In the year 200, Athens was obliged to witness the destruction of her gymnasia and monuments outside the walls, and the devastation of her suburbs, by the army of Philip; and the many wars which followed these events were a severe strain on the material and physical resources of all Greece. The sufferings and losses of the country culminated in this century in the siege and destruction of Corinth in 146. Early in the first century B. C. Athens became in- volved in the First Mithridatic War, taking in that con- test the side of Mithridates. Sulla besieged the city, and, being without sufficient material for his machines of war, he cut down the beautiful trees of the Academy and the Lyceum; and, to obtain funds wherewith to continue the contest, he broke into the sanctuaries of Greece and carried off their treasures. On the 1st of March, 86, having made a breach in the city walls, he 54 UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE entered the town and massacred many of its defenders. "When they had thrown down the wall/' says Plu- tarch, 1 "and made all level betwixt the Piraic and Sacred Gate, about midnight Sulla entered the breach, with all the terrors of trumpets and cornets sounding, with the triumphant shout and cry of an army let loose to spoil and slaughter, and scouring through the streets with swords drawn. There was no numbering the slain ; the amount is to this day conjectured only from the space of ground overflowed with blood. For without mentioning the execution done in other quarters of the city, the blood that was shed about the market-place spread over the whole Ceramicus within the Double- Gate, and, according to most writers, passed through the gate and overflowed the suburb. Nor did the multi- tudes which fell thus exceed the number of those who, out of pity and love for their country, which they be- lieved was now finally to perish, slew themselves." Through the intercession of some Roman senators who were in the camp, and the prayer of two Grecian exiles, Sulla was at length induced to stay his hand and spare the majority of the citizens. The Peirseus was shortly after taken and almost totally destroyed by fire. ^JAthens seems to have recovered from this blow, and in the next years her schools of philosophy were, appar- ently, in as flourishing a condition as ever. More and more now did the Romans resort to Grecian lands — travellers, who were interested to see the works of art and the places associated with the famous names of history and song; students and men of culture and 1 Sulla, 14 (trans, by Dryden et al.). THE MACEDONIAN PERIOD 55 learning, who wished to live for a time in the intellect- ual atmosphere of the country and to converse with philosophers and orators; invalids and quasi-invalids, who, in the interests of health or of fashion, visited the cure-places of Greece. The sentiment with which men regarded Greece in those days is well brought out at the beginning of the Fifth Book of Cicero's De Finibus l : '[We arranged," says Cicero, "to take our afternoon walk in the Academy, chiefly because the spot was at that time of day entirely free from the crowd. So we met in Piso's house at the appointed hour. At first — for the six stades that lie outside the Double-Gate — we whiled away the time with general conversation ; but when we came to the walks of the Academy, so justly famed, we found the quiet which we had desired. Then said Piso: 'Is it due to a natural instinct or to some delusion, that when we look upon the places where, as we have been told, men worthy to be recorded in history have passed much of their time, we are more moved than when we happen to hear of the achievements or to read some writing of the men themselves ? I am so moved now. For I call to mind Plato, who, tradi- tion says, was the first to use this place habitually for debate ; and his little garden, yonder, not only brings him back to my memory, but seems to place the very man before my eyes. Here stood Speusippus, here Xenoc- rates, here Polemo, his pupil, whose very seat we see there before us ' " ; and much more to the same purpose. The two Grecian cities which most attracted the Ro- mans were Athens and Rhodes. The list of distinguished 1 v. 1, 1. 56 UNIVERSITIES OF ANCIENT GREECE Romans who sojourned or studied at one or both of these places is a long one — at Athens, Quintus Metellus Numidicus, Antonius, Cicero and his brother Quintus, Brutus, Horace, and many others; at Rhodes, such men as Marcus Antonius, Julius Csesar, Cicero, Brutus, and Cassius. The head of the Roman colony at Athens was Cicero's friend, Titus Pomponius Atticus. Athenian citizenship was eagerly sought, even in the time when it could be obtained for money, 1 and burial at Athens was considered an honor. When Servius Sul- picius begged for permission to bury his friend Mar- cellus within the city walls, the Areopagus refused to give its consent, and the most that could be obtained was permission to bury Marcellus in the grounds of the Academy. My bones and flesh the earth enfolds, a lovely child, My soul has upward flown into the sky; My name thou askest ? Theogeiton, Thymuch's son, Of Thebes; in famous Athens do I lie, runs an Athenian epitaph of a somewhat earlier date.' We can well understand how this city, with its tradi- tions and associations, its art treasures, its wealth of learned and cultured men, the free and democratic spirit of its people, its quiet, academic life, was destined to be, in the years to come, the university seat of the ancient world. But dark days were to intervene before that time and were even now closing in. The Civil Wars began in 1 Even as late as the third century A. D., Himerius sought Athenian citizenship for his son (Himer., ec, vii). ' Kaibel, Ep. Gr. t 90. THE MACEDONIAN PERIOD 57 49 B. C, and they lasted till 31. Many of the battles of these wars were fought out on Grecian soil, and, during the course of the wars, constant requisitions were made on the Greeks for money, troops, and supplies. At the end of the period Athens was in an exhausted condition, and her fortunes were at their lowest ebb. We are now ready, after remarking briefly in the fol- lowing chapter on the connection of the state and edu- cation in the early history of Greece, to trace, in the succeeding chapters, the regeneration of Greece, which took place in the first two or three centuries after Christ. CHAPTER IV EDUCATION AND THE STATE We have, in the chapters immediately before us, to trace the steps by which university education became established officially in the Greek world, and to follow its vicissitudes to the time when all pagan teaching in the world at large was brought to an end by the rescript issued by the Emperor Justinian, closing the Neo- Platonic school of philosophy at Athens, in 529 A. D. In the succeeding chapters we shall endeavor to gain a closer acquaintance with the inner life of the univer- sities, with the teachers and students, their methods, their manners, and their work. But before we enter upon the task of tracing the outer history of the univer- sities and observing its connection with the political and religious history of the times, it will be well to consider briefly the relation of the state to education among the Greeks in the preceding centuries. The attitude of the state toward education at Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. was one of non- interference. Schools were private institutions, and in- struction was paid for by the individual. Theorists and reasoners, like Plato and Aristotle, held that the pros- perity of the state was the chief end of education, and something of the feeling which led to this attitude seems to have been an inborn characteristic of the Greek mind in general, Ionic as well as Doric, though expressing it- 58 EDUCATION AND THE STATE 59 self in the one case in less rigid form than in the other. "The legislator," says iEschines, in speaking of the legislation which went under the name of the Solonian and Draconian, 1 "thought that the child who was well brought up would, when he had become a man, make a useful citizen"; where, however, the word well (/ca\r}ye?