Class 
 Book 
 
 Ajk. 
 
 SMITHS0NIAN..DEP0S1T 
 
THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN 
 AT ROME 
 
j^m 
 
The Education of Children 
 AT Rome 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE CLARKE, Ph.D. 
 
 Senior Moderator, Trinity College, Dublin 
 
 Principal of Jarvis Hall Academy 
 
 MoNTCLAiR, Colorado 
 
 o444'"^o 
 
 MACMILLAN AND COMPANY 
 
 London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 
 1896 
 
 All rights reserved 
 

 Copyright, 1896, 
 By MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
 Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 In preparing this little treatise, which 
 was originally written as a dissertation for 
 the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 
 the University of Colorado, the following 
 modern authorities have been consulted. 
 It is believed that the list will be found to 
 be a nearly complete bibliography of the 
 special works on the subject. 
 
 Cramer, F. Geschichte der Erziehung und des 
 
 Unterrichts im Alterthume. (Elberfeld, 
 
 1832.) 
 Krause. Erziehung u. s. w. bei den Griechen 
 
 Etruskern und Romern. (Halle, 1851.) 
 Becker. Callus. (New York, 1866.) 
 Hulsebos. De Educatione apud Romanes. 
 
 (Utrecht, 1867.) 
 Ussing. Erziehung- und Unterrichtswesen 
 
 bei den Griechen und Romern. (Altona, 
 
 1870.) 
 
VI PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 Bergmann. Die Sociale Stellung der Ele- 
 mentarlehrer und Grammatiker bei den 
 Romern. (Leipzig, 1877.) 
 
 Grasberger. Erziehung und Unterricht im 
 klassischen Alterthum. (Wiirzburg, 1867- 
 1881.) 
 
 Goll. Kulturbilder aus Hellas und Rom. 
 (Leipzig, 1878.) 
 
 Stadelmann. Erziehung und Unterricht bei 
 den Griechen und Romern. (Triest, 1 89 1.) 
 
 Stein. Das Bildungswesen der alten Welt. 
 (Stuttgart, 1883.) 
 
 Schmid. Geschichte der Erziehung. (Stutt- 
 gart, 1884.) 
 
 Saalfeld. Der Griechische Einfluss auf Erzie- 
 hung in Rom. (Leipzig, 1882.) 
 
 Linder. Die Erziehung zur Pietas im alten 
 Rom. (Leipzig, 1890.) 
 
 To this list must be added the work on 
 Pre-Christian Education by Dr. S. S. 
 Laurie (Longmans, 1895), which, how- 
 ever, did not reach me until the present 
 treatise was entirely written. 
 
 I have to thank Dr. Carl W. Belser, 
 Professor of Latin in the University of 
 Colorado, for kind suggestions and criti- 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. PURPOSE OF EDUCATION AT ROME . I 
 
 II. THE child's EARLIEST TRAINING . 20 
 
 III. SCHOOL-EDUCATION . . -3^ 
 
 IV. SCHOOL BUILDINGS. HOURS OF 
 
 SCHOOL. HOLIDAYS . . .5! 
 
 V. STUDIES IN THE ELEMENTARY 
 
 SCHOOL 71 
 
 VI. THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS . . 94 
 VII. PEDAGOGICAL IDEAS OF THE RO- 
 MANS 125 
 
 VIII. STATUS OF TEACHERS . . .154 
 
 vii 
 
EDUCATION OF CHIL- 
 DREN AT ROME 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PURPOSE OF EDUCATION AT ROME 
 
 If we wish to form a correct esti- 
 mate of the educational system of a 
 people, we shall find it useful to be- 
 gin by inquiring what the objects 
 were which that people desired to 
 gain by means of education. Differ- 
 ent nations have different educational 
 ideals, resulting from their separate na- 
 tional characteristics and tastes, which 
 in their turn are the consequences of 
 
2 EDUCATION OF 
 
 the combined influences of race and 
 environment. It will not be necessary 
 here to inquire into the particular in- 
 fluences which made the Romans what 
 they were ; we shall merely take them 
 as we find them towards the close of 
 the republican period and during the 
 early part of the Empire, and begin 
 our study of their educational methods 
 and ideas by a brief examination of 
 the general character and purpose of 
 their education. We shall deal only 
 with the intellectual and moral aspect 
 of the question, leaving untouched 
 their physical training, which had less 
 of distinctive interest. 
 
 It has been often remarked that the 
 Romans were eminently practical, and 
 we find this national trait no less con- 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 
 
 spicuous in their educational system 
 than in other departments. It never 
 occurred to them, as it did to the 
 Greeks, to set before themselves an 
 ideal of perfect mental and physical 
 development, — an ideal which origi- 
 nated in an inborn desire for perfec- 
 tion and harmony, and was altogether 
 independent of the utiHtarian value of 
 such a plan of education. They had, 
 of course, an ideal, but it was one 
 which they themselves would have jus- 
 tified by demonstrating its practical 
 value, and they would have con- 
 demned as worthless any ideal which 
 was not capable of this justification. 
 The Romans of an early period 
 thought it useful for their sons to 
 have a knowledge of husbandry, of 
 
4 EDUCATION OF 
 
 war, of arithmetic, and of the laws, 
 for their practical needs as individ- 
 uals and heads of families ; and of 
 the deeds of their forefathers and the 
 history of their country, in order to 
 make them patriotic citizens. Under 
 Greek influence the circle of culture 
 was greatly widened, but the same 
 practical tendency remained and pre- 
 vented Roman education from being 
 at any time entirely assimilated to that 
 of the Greeks. The educated Roman 
 of the later period was expected to 
 be acquainted with the works of the 
 great poets, philosophers, and histo- 
 rians ; but he took an interest in 
 these studies rather on account of 
 the practical advantage he expected 
 to derive from them, than because 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 5 
 
 he felt any strong natural inclination 
 for them or hoped by their means to 
 approach some ideal of mental or 
 moral perfection. These studies were 
 useful to a man of the world, and 
 would be of service in forming his 
 oratorical style and in enabling him 
 to defend his opinions in the senate, 
 and his friends or himself in the law 
 courts. Quintilian proposes a very 
 liberal educational scheme, embracing 
 almost every department of culture, 
 but that is chiefly because he believes 
 that such a comprehensive plan is 
 necessary for the training of the per- 
 fect orator. The ideal and the ab- 
 stract had little attraction for the 
 Romans ; their tastes and capacities 
 were bounded by the tangible and 
 
6 EDUCATION OF 
 
 concrete. Their view of the purpose 
 
 of education is aptly expressed in 
 
 PUny's question, " Quotus enim quis- 
 
 que tarn patiens ut veht discere quod 
 
 in usu non sit habiturus?"^ Even in 
 
 poetry the taste of the ancient Roman 
 
 was for the kind that contains some 
 
 instruction ; as Horace ^ says, 
 
 *' Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci, 
 Lectorem delectando pariterque monendo."^ 
 
 Owing to this practical standpoint, 
 the principal occupations and pursuits 
 
 1 Pliny, Epp. VIII. 14. 3. 
 
 2 Ars Poet. 343. 
 
 3 In Seneca's opinion, the only proper aim of 
 education was to elevate the moral nature and to 
 lead to a virtuous life, and any study which did 
 not further this object was to him worthless. 
 Although this view disregarded material advan- 
 tages and motives, it was still, of course, strictly 
 utilitarian and very different from that held by 
 the Greeks. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 7 
 
 in which the Romans engaged must 
 have had considerable influence on 
 the character of the instruction which 
 they wished to be imparted to their 
 children, and it will not be amiss to 
 consider briefly what these occupa- 
 tions were. 
 
 During the early times of the Re- 
 public, the only pursuits regarded Avith 
 favour were those of warfare and agri- 
 culture. Every citizen was liable to 
 be called on to fight for his country, 
 and, as wars were frequent, miUtary 
 training was universal. Military dis- 
 tinction was a necessary precursor of 
 political power and honour; no man 
 could be a candidate for office until 
 he had served twenty years in the 
 infantry or ten years in the cavalry. 
 
8 EDUCATION OF 
 
 The army consisted of a militia which 
 took the field when occasion de- 
 manded, and when the war was over 
 the soldier returned to resume his 
 peaceful occupation at home. But 
 when the Roman dominions had ex- 
 tended to Spain, Asia, and Africa, wars 
 became more constant and tedious, 
 and armies were obliged to remain 
 abroad for many successive campaigns; 
 so that the soldiers were for many 
 years at a time unable to return to 
 their homes. Thus the army became 
 a profession for a certain class of men, 
 and the terms citizen and soldier, 
 instead of being synonymous, were 
 contrasted. It was no longer neces- 
 sary for a man who aspired to political 
 distinction to win laurels on the bat- 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME ' 9 
 
 tie-field and promotion in the army, or 
 even to serve a military term. There 
 was in the law courts and on the 
 political platforms at home abundant 
 opportunity for obtaining prominence. 
 Agriculture was the only peaceful 
 pursuit in the early days which was 
 deemed suitable for a Roman gentle- 
 man, and although in later times it 
 was not so extensively followed, people 
 still looked upon old Cincinnatus, who 
 left his plough to fight the ^Equians, as 
 the model of what a true Roman ought 
 to be. Cato and Varro wrote treatises 
 on farming, and the sweetest of Roman 
 poets devoted his most perfect poem 
 to the praise of rural life and the art 
 of the husbandman. The small agri- 
 cultural holdings, indeed, gradually 
 
lO EDUCATION OF 
 
 disappeared, but even at the close of 
 the Republic there were throughout 
 Italy numerous landed proprietors who 
 lived on their estates and person- 
 ally superintended their management. 
 With the increase of luxury in the 
 capital, and the consequent larger 
 demand for fruits and other delicacies 
 of the table, agriculture became no 
 less profitable than respectable. 
 
 Besides those estate-owners who re- 
 sided on their property, there was 
 another class of propertied men which 
 attained great importance in the first 
 century B.C., and of which T. Pom- 
 ponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero, 
 is an example.^ This class amassed 
 
 1 Mommsen, History of Rome, Vol. IV., p. 
 608 (American edition). 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME II 
 
 large fortunes by lending money not 
 only in Italy, but in the provinces, and 
 by estate-farming on a large scale. 
 They did not reside on their estates, 
 but had their properties managed for 
 them by agents. Their wealth gave 
 them prominence both socially and 
 politically, even when, as in the 
 case of Atticus, they took no part in 
 public affairs. They were often men 
 of culture, who patronized literature 
 and the arts; and along with the pro- 
 vincial governors who returned to 
 Rome "spoliis Orientis onusti " and 
 the men who became wealthy by farm- 
 ing the state revenues, they formed 
 the circle of fashionable and luxurious 
 society in the capital, whose lavish 
 style of living has made the extrava- 
 
12 EDUCATION OF 
 
 gance and self-indulgence of that age 
 proverbial. 
 
 Cicero ^ enumerates the occupations 
 which in his time were considered re- 
 spectable. "Those," he says, "which 
 require a high degre of intelligence 
 or are of considerable utility, such as 
 medicine, agriculture, or instruction 
 in the liberal arts, are honourable for 
 men with whose rank they are consis- 
 tent. Commerce on a small scale is 
 mean (sordida) ; on a large and liberal 
 scale it is not to be despised; and it 
 is even to be commended when it is 
 satisfied with its gains and finally 
 betakes itself to an estate and landed 
 property. But of all lucrative pursuits 
 agriculture is the best, most produc- 
 
 1 De Officiis, I. 42. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 3 
 
 tive, most delightful, and most suit- 
 able to a gentleman." Mommsen^ 
 remarks on this that it indicates "a 
 thoroughly developed aristocracy of 
 planters, with a strong infusion of 
 mercantile speculation, and a slight 
 shading of general culture." 
 
 In this list of occupations Cicero 
 omits one which is the most important 
 of all for our present subject — the 
 
 1 History of Rome, Vol. IV., p. 608, note. For 
 the high estimation in which agriculture was held 
 see the beginning of Cato's De Re Rustica. 
 Horace attributes the decline of morals in his 
 own day to the abandonment of the old virtuous 
 country life when 
 
 " Rustics brave a manful seed beheld, 
 Expert the wood their arms had felled 
 To fetch at their strict mother's nod, 
 Or cleave with Sabine spade the clod." 
 
 Od. III. 6 (Gladstone's translation). 
 
14 EDUCATION OF 
 
 profession of Law. It was not a 
 recognized profession in his time, the 
 acceptance of fees for legal services 
 not being sanctioned by law until the 
 reign of Claudius. But even in the 
 last century of the Republic one of 
 the chief avenues to political influence 
 and office was through practice in the 
 law courts. The opportunity which 
 forensic practice gave to ambitious 
 young men for acquiring dialectical 
 and oratorical skill which would after- 
 wards prove useful in the senate and 
 on the rostra could not be overlooked; 
 and to this advantage must be added 
 the opportunities offered them by the 
 courts for the public display of their 
 abilities, and for making powerful 
 friends by dexterous support in time 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 
 
 15 
 
 of need.^ And although the law for- 
 bade the payment of ."ees to advocates, 
 there were other means by which 
 clients might and did testify their 
 gratitude.^ Besides these political 
 advantages, the legal profession en- 
 joyed a high estimation in public 
 opinion; the distinguished orator was 
 pointed out to visitors at the city as 
 one of the most notable sights of 
 Rome. Thus it happened that it was 
 for this profession that most of the 
 education at Rome was planned as a 
 preparation. The only Latin educa- 
 
 1 Tacitus, Dial, de Orat, 36. Quanto quisque 
 plus dicendo poterat, tanto facilius honores ad- 
 sequebatur. . . . Hos et praeturae et consulatus 
 vocare ultro videbantur, hi ne privati quidem 
 sine potestate erant. 
 
 2 See Tyrrell's Correspondence of Cicero, 
 Vol. I., Introduction, p. xxxix. 
 
1 6 EDUCATION OF 
 
 tional works of importance which we 
 possess deal exclusively with the train- 
 ing of the advocate.^ 
 
 Horace ^ complains of the hankering 
 after riches which characterized all 
 classes and ages in his time. From 
 one end of the forum to the other, he 
 says, young and old alike recite the 
 lesson, "Money must be sought first 
 of all, virtue after money." Juvenal^ 
 declared that although no temples had 
 as yet been erected to the goddess 
 
 1 Cicero (pro Murena, 14) places the profes- 
 sions of the army and the bar side by side as the 
 two which confer the highest dignity. " Duae 
 sunt artes quae possunt locare homines in amplis- 
 simo gradu dignitatis : una imperatoris, altera 
 oratoris boni. Ab hoc enim pacis ornamenta 
 retinentur : ab illo belli pericula repelluntur." 
 
 2 Epp. I. I. 53. 
 s Sat. I. 112. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 7 
 
 Money, her majesty was most sacred 
 of all. An age in which pleasure had 
 so many votaries could not fail to pay 
 homage to riches. The vast fields 
 opened up in the East for commercial 
 and financial speculation created at 
 Rome a plutocracy which soon rivalled 
 in importance the aristocracy of birth. 
 A new career was thus thrown open 
 for the Roman youth. Banking was 
 one of the most certain roads to 
 wealth. Reckless expenditure of 
 money had become so fashionable 
 that men desirous of making a display 
 were obliged to borrow large sums, 
 and there were frequent transitions 
 from wealth to poverty and from 
 poverty to wealth. The rich parvenu 
 is a familiar character in the literature 
 
1 8 EDUCATION OF 
 
 of the early Empire. Such a state of 
 society must have given high impor- 
 tance to those branches of education 
 which are needed for the conduct of 
 business. 
 
 We have now before us the pursuits 
 in which Romans of good position 
 engaged — warfare, agriculture, law, 
 mercantile and financial business. 
 The professions of medicine, archi- 
 tecture, and instruction in the higher 
 branches of learning, which Cicero 
 includes in his list of reputable occu- 
 pations, were naturally limited to a 
 small section of the community, so 
 that they did not to any great extent 
 affect the general scheme of educa- 
 tion. This preliminary review of the 
 pursuits for which the Romans might 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 9 
 
 wish to prepare their children seemed 
 necessary, in view of the practical 
 character of education at Rome, be- 
 fore entering upon our main subject, 
 though we shall not find much indica- 
 tion that the first two, warfare and 
 agriculture, exercised any great influ- 
 ence on educational plans or methods. 
 The highest aim of school education 
 was to produce able lawyers and ora- 
 tors; but since a thorough training in 
 the studies necessary for other pursuits 
 was deemed needful also for the law- 
 yer, elementary schools designed as a 
 preparation for the study of law and 
 oratory fulfilled the requirements of 
 other callings at the same time. 
 
20 EDUCATION OF 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE child's earliest TRAINING 
 
 Although it is here intended to 
 deal chiefly with the intellectual side 
 of education, it is not possible in 
 doing so to keep the moral aspect of 
 the question entirely out of view. 
 This would be true of all education, 
 and is especially so in the present 
 case. The Roman teacher was re- 
 garded as an instructor in morals and 
 conduct as well as in mental accom- 
 plishments. There was not, indeed, 
 instruction in any definite or special 
 system of morals in the schools for 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 21 
 
 the young. Religion and morality 
 were not, at least in the period of 
 Roman history best known to us, 
 inseparably connected; religion was 
 chiefly a matter of forms and cere- 
 monies. After Greek culture had 
 gained a foothold the old belief in 
 the vengeance inflicted by the gods 
 on evil doers lost much of its strength, \ 
 and although Vergil, and at times even 
 Horace, give us intimations that re- 
 ligious faith was not yet dead, and 
 although superstitions of all kinds 
 flourished nowhere more rankly than 
 at Rome, it is apparent in the litera- 
 ture of the time that of genuine piety, 
 as we understand it, there was com- 
 
 1 Hon Od. I. 35, 36: unde manum juventus 
 metu deorum continuit ? 
 
22 EDUCATION OF 
 
 paratively little. Children were accus- 
 tomed to witness and share in various 
 ceremonies in honour of the gods, 
 perhaps even to hear a daily prayer 
 offered by the head of the household/ 
 and to consider each of the day's pro- 
 ceedings as presided over by a special 
 deity, but the gods, where believed 
 in at all, were regarded not as the 
 rewarders of right and avengers of 
 wrong, but rather as powerful beings 
 who were jealous of their prerogatives 
 and whose good-will it was wise to 
 conciliate. But there was a morality 
 independent of religion and founded 
 on the natural human sense of right 
 and wrong, and it was considered 
 part of a teacher's duty to encour- 
 
 1 Cato, De Re Rustica, CXLIII. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 23 
 
 age and educate this instinct in his 
 pupils. 
 
 Horace ^ describes the moral training 
 which he received from his father, and 
 which may, perhaps, be taken as a 
 sample of what was regarded at that 
 time as sound and sufficient moral 
 instruction. It does not exhibit what 
 we should now regard as a high stand- 
 ard of principle and conduct. It was 
 the practical wisdom of a man who 
 took common-sense views of life; who 
 had no ambition that his son should 
 be a paragon of virtue, but would feel 
 satisfied if he lived an honourable life, 
 fulfilling the ordinary duties towards 
 his neighbours, and, above all, towards 
 himself. The method was one of 
 
 1 Sat. I. 4. 105 sq. 
 
24 EDUCATION OF 
 
 examples and warnings, taken from 
 the pupil's own experience and ac- 
 quaintance, to enforce good conduct. 
 The sanction of morality which he 
 most relied on was public opinion. 
 When exhorting to frugality, and 
 warning against extravagance, he 
 pointed to certain notorious spend- 
 thrifts who had reduced themselves to 
 misery by their prodigality. He left 
 it to the philosophers to assign the 
 reasons why some things should be 
 avoided and others sought after, con- 
 tenting himself with endeavouring to 
 maintain in his son the traditional 
 Roman virtue. The disrepute which 
 attended the commission of certain 
 actions was appealed to as the most 
 cogent reason for avoiding them. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 25 
 
 There is no suggestion of a higher 
 motive. 
 
 The virtues which the Romans most 
 admired and were most desirous of 
 having cultivated in their children 
 were pietas, in its threefold aspect of 
 duty towards the gods, towards ances- 
 tors and parents, and towards fellow- 
 men; miodesty (pudor), which was 
 especially valued in the young; and 
 the manly qualities of firmness of 
 character (constantia), courage (forti- 
 tudo, virtus), and seriousness or 
 earnestness (gravitas). In order to 
 foster these virtues, children were 
 instructed in the history of - their 
 forefathers, and taught to admire the 
 ancient heroes of their country, who 
 had been embodiments of the charac- 
 
26 EDUCATION OF 
 
 teristic Roman virtues. The almost 
 unlimited authority (patria potestas) ^ 
 which a father was allowed by the laws 
 over his children is in itself a remark- 
 able indication of the national feeling 
 with regard to the reverence which 
 ought to be shown by the young to 
 
 1 In the eyes of the law children were even 
 more absolutely the property of their father than 
 his slaves were. If a father sold his children and 
 they were manumitted by the purchaser, they did 
 not become free, but passed again into the posses- 
 sion of their father, and it was not until they had 
 been sold three times that he lost his claim to them. 
 There are many instances in Roman history of 
 sons being punished with death by their fathers 
 for some crime against the State. Even the 
 attainment of high office did not free a man from 
 the parental authority. The patria potestas, 
 however, seems to have been rarely abused. 
 Public opinion would naturally act as a check 
 upon it. Cato the elder (see Plutarch's life of 
 him, cap. 20) warned fathers to beware of even 
 striking their children. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 27 
 
 their parents. Respect for authority 
 and for established institutions was 
 constantly and imperatively inculcated 
 in children, and the effect of this early 
 training remained as a potent factor in 
 their conduct as men.^ A frank, open 
 character was also highly valued in 
 children. 
 
 The influence of the mother in the 
 early times, and in the best Roman 
 families at all times, was one of great 
 
 1 Pliny, Epist. VIII. 23, laments the rareness 
 of modesty in children in his day as compared 
 with those of former times. " How many are 
 there," he asks, "who will give place to a man 
 from respect for his age or dignity ? They are 
 shrewd men already, and know everything; they 
 are in awe of nobody and imitate nobody, but 
 take themselves for their own examples." One 
 might suppose him writing in the 19th century. 
 There were still, however (Juvenal, X. 298), fami- 
 lies in which the old manners were preserved. 
 
28 EDUCATION OF 
 
 importance. Woman enjoyed at Rome 
 a high position and dignity. The care 
 of the child's earliest years was en- 
 trusted to its mother. The author of 
 the Dialogus de Oratoribus (cap. 28) 
 tells us that in early times the son, 
 born of a virtuous mother, was edu- 
 cated, not in the chamber of a slave- 
 nurse, but in his mother's arms (gremio 
 ac sinu matris). It was the mother's 
 chief glory to keep the house and wait 
 upon her children. Sometimes an 
 elderly female relative of faultless 
 character was chosen, and to her were 
 entrusted all the children of the same 
 family; she allowed no wrong words 
 or actions in her presence; by the 
 respect and reverence which she in- 
 spired she controlled not only their 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 29 
 
 Studies, but their play. So Cornelia 
 presided over the education of the 
 Gracchi, Aurelia over that of Caesar, 
 Atia over that of Augustus. And they 
 made of their children great men. 
 The object of this discipline was to 
 keep the young hearts pure and 
 untainted and uncorrupted by vices, 
 so that they might readily receive good 
 instruction, and all their energies 
 might be devoted to their one pursuit 
 in life — warfare, law, or oratory. 
 Tacitus says of Agricola ^ that his child- 
 hood was surrounded by a mother's 
 care and love, and so he spent his early 
 years in none but honourable pursuits. 
 His mother, Julia Procilla, was a 
 woman of rare purity of character. 
 1 Agric, 4. 
 
30 EDUCATION OF 
 
 The influence of the mother was 
 succeeded by that of the father. In 
 the earliest period of the Republic, 
 before culture had found a place 
 among the Latins, the education of a 
 boy was almost entirely in his parents' 
 hands. As soon as he was old enough 
 to do without his mother's immediate 
 care, the Roman boy became the con- 
 stant companion of his father. He 
 attended him in the fields, in the 
 senate, and at the houses of his 
 friends. It is true that there were 
 schools at Rome at a very early period, 
 which gave instruction in reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic, and educa- 
 tion in these elementary branches was 
 general throughout the community. 
 Even slaves and the poorer people 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 3 1 
 
 were not unfrequently taught these 
 subjects. But it was the opinion of 
 the man who was by common consent 
 the type of the old Roman character, 
 Cato the Elder, that freeborn citizens 
 ought not to be instructed by slaves, 
 and at that time most of the teachers 
 were slaves. He himself took the 
 entire education of his son in charge, 
 teaching him reading, writing, and 
 Roman law, as well as the manly exer- 
 cises of riding, wrestling, boxing, and 
 swimming. The object kept in view 
 was that of training up a good sol- 
 dier-citizen for the warlike republic. 
 There was no thought of cultivating 
 the sesthetic side of the mind, of train- 
 ing the taste in literature and art, or 
 of producing that harmonious develop- 
 
32 EDUCATION OF 
 
 ment of body and mind after which 
 the Athenians sought. Cato lived at 
 the time when Greek influence was 
 just beginning to be felt. He did his 
 best to delay the complete revolution 
 of national manners and education 
 which he saw to be imminent; but 
 even he so far yielded to the new 
 movement as to study Greek literature 
 in his old age and communicate to 
 his boy in Latin whatever of the Greek 
 wisdom he thought likely to be service- 
 able to a Roman. 
 
 The fact that Cato took into his 
 own hands the education of his son is 
 all the more remarkable from the fact 
 that he had a slave who was capable of 
 performing that duty, and who even 
 earned money for his master by teach- 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 33 
 
 ing other people's children. Cicero's 
 friend Atticus was instructed ^ by his 
 father in the elementary studies. 
 Cicero himself, becoming dissatisfied 
 with Dionysius, the teacher of his son 
 and nephew, personally took charge of 
 their education.^ Augustus taught his 
 daughter's sons, and with them other 
 children.^ 
 
 The Romans attached a high impor- 
 tance to early associations, and to the 
 influences to which the tender and 
 plastic minds of children were ex- 
 posed. This was not merely from 
 considerations of morality, but also 
 on account of the effect produced on 
 
 1 Corn. Nepos, Att. I. 2. 
 
 2 Cicero, Ad Att. VIII. 4. i. 
 
 3 Suetonius, Aug. 64. 
 D 
 
34 EDUCATION OF 
 
 the child's phraseology and pronuncia- 
 tion by the language of those about 
 him, Cicero attributes the correct 
 use of language for which Curio, not- 
 withstanding his lack of culture, was 
 distinguished, to the associations of 
 home. "It is of great moment," he 
 remarks,^ "whom one hears every day 
 at home, with whom one speaks in 
 boyhood, and what language one's 
 father, mother, and pedagogues use. 
 We have read the letters of Cornelia, 
 mother of the Gracchi: it is evident 
 that her sons were brought up no less 
 truly in their mother's language than 
 in their mother's arms." Quintilian 
 is of the same opinion. "Above all 
 things," he urges,^"let the language 
 
 1 Brutus, 2IO. 2 Inst. Orat. I. i. 50. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 35 
 
 of nurses be free from faults. Chry- 
 sippus would have wished them to be 
 learned, if that were possible, and at 
 any rate desired that the best available 
 nurses should be chosen. It is true 
 that their morals are a more important 
 consideration, but their language also 
 ought to be correct. They are the 
 first whom the boy will hear; it is 
 their words that he will try to imitate 
 and reproduce. We naturally retain 
 most firmly what we have learned in 
 our earliest years, just as vessels retain 
 the flavour with which they have been 
 imbued when new, and dyes cannot 
 be washed out of wool. And errors 
 naturally stick more persistently in 
 proportion as they are more faulty." 
 He adds that the same care should be 
 
36 EDUCATION OF 
 
 exercised regarding the language used 
 by the child's playmates, parents, and 
 pedagogues, and if it is impossible to 
 obtain perfection in all these cases 
 there should at least be one constant 
 attendant to correct any faulty expres- 
 sions used in the child's presence. 
 
 The quick imitative faculty of chil- 
 dren being so justly appreciated by 
 the Romans, it was one of their 
 educational principles to take every 
 advantage of it. The great characters 
 of history were held up to the young 
 as examples to be followed; it was 
 sought to train their moral sense and 
 to stimulate their ambition by awaken- 
 ing in them a desire to emulate the 
 deeds and characters of the national 
 heroes. We have seen that the method 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 37 
 
 used by Horace's father in educating 
 his son was that of example rather than 
 precept. As Seneca^ says, "Longum 
 est iter per prsecepta, breve et efficax 
 per exempla." Juvenal^ deplores the 
 fact that in his day the young were 
 corrupted by evil examples which 
 were found at home, and which de- 
 moralized all the sooner when they 
 entered the mind under the high 
 authority of parents.^ One reason 
 alone, he says, should be sufficient to 
 make us moral; namely, that our 
 children may not imitate our vices, 
 "Maxima debetur puero reverentia." 
 
 1 Ep. VI. s. 2 Sat. XIV. 31. 
 
 3 Compare Tacitus, Dial, de Orat. 29. 
 
38 EDUCATION OF 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 SCHOOL-EDUCATION 
 
 Plutarch^ says that a freedman, 
 Spurius Carvilius, who lived between 
 the first and second Punic wars, was 
 the first to open a grammar school at 
 Rome. This probably only means, as 
 Grasberger ^ remarks, that he was the 
 first to obtain celebrity in this way, or 
 that his school was one for higher 
 literary and rhetorical instruction. 
 We know from the story of Virginia, 
 as told by Livy,^ and from various 
 
 1 Quaest. Rom. 59. 
 
 2 Erziehung und Unterricht bei den Griechen 
 und Romern, Vol. II., p. 211. ^ Liv. III. 44. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 39 
 
 other sources, that schools were in 
 existence long before this time. It 
 was customary in later times to begin 
 to attend school at the age of seven. 
 At no time, however, was it a universal 
 custom at Rome for children to receive 
 their education at school. There were 
 persons even in Quintilian's day who 
 preferred to have them taught at heme. 
 Tacitus^ seems to be opposed to a 
 school education, at least in its higher 
 branches, and Pliny ^ commends a 
 friend for having his son educated in 
 the elementary subjects in his own 
 house. 
 
 The State did not for a long time 
 exercise any supervision over schools 
 or provide in any way for their main- 
 1 Dial, de Orat 35. 2 Ep. III. 3. 
 
40 EDUCATION OF 
 
 tenance. They were private enter- 
 prises, undertaken and conducted by 
 individuals, who were generally slaves 
 or freedmen, and often Greeks or of 
 Greek parentage. This latter was the 
 case even with instruction in Latin; 
 there were as early as the third cen- 
 tury before Christ numbers of Greeks 
 among the lower classes in the capital, 
 and some of these opened schools 
 for Roman children. A learned slave 
 sometimes earned money for his mas- 
 ter, as Chilo did for Cato the Elder, 
 by giving instruction to the children 
 of other families. 
 
 Polybius, writing in the middle of 
 the second century B.C., blamed the 
 Romans for neglecting to provide a 
 state superintendence of education.^ 
 
 1 Cicero, De Rep. IV. 3. 3. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 4 1 
 
 There were, indeed, in early times, 
 when the introduction of Greek ideas 
 and manners began to excite alarm 
 among conservative Romans, occa- 
 sional half-hearted interferences with 
 education on the part of the authori- 
 ties. Suetonius^ quotes a decree of 
 the senate empowering the praetor to 
 banish from Rome the philosophers 
 and rhetors, and a later censorial edict 
 which complains of " men who intro- 
 duced a new kind of learning, at whose 
 schools the youth assembled, and who 
 called themselves Latin rhetors, and 
 with whom young men wasted whole 
 days." The edict concludes merely 
 with an expression of censorial disap- 
 proval (nobis non placere), without any 
 
 1 De Rhet. i. 
 
42 EDUCATION OF 
 
 definite prohibition. Suetonius adds 
 that the art of rhetoric gradually came 
 to be considered useful and honour- 
 able and was sought after both for its 
 ornamental and for its practical advan- 
 tages. It was not, however, till the 
 reign of Vespasian that schools of any- 
 kind were subsidized by the state. 
 Quintilian was the first to open a 
 state-supported school and to receive 
 a salary from the exchequer. 
 
 The objections of Tacitus, referred 
 to above, to a school education are 
 directed mainly against the advanced 
 or rhetors' schools, in which the 
 declamations on imaginary topics met 
 with his strong disapproval, as they 
 did with that of Petronius.^ Tacitus^ 
 
 1 Petronius, Satyricon, i, 2. 2 Dial, de Orat, 35. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 43 
 
 thought that the mutual applause of 
 the pupils in these schools, when every 
 declamation however poor was certain 
 of flattering acclamations, was likely 
 to prove injurious by giving the pupils 
 excessive self-confidence.^ Marcus 
 Aurelius also seems to have thought 
 home education preferable, for he 
 says ^ that he had to thank his great- 
 grandfather that he did not go to 
 a public school, but had excellent 
 instruction at home. 
 
 In the second chapter of Quintilian's 
 first book we find a long discussion 
 of the rival advantages of home and 
 school education, and a warm advo- 
 cacy of the latter. The chief objec- 
 tion to schools, the author says, are, 
 
 1 Compare Quintilian, 11. 2. 10. 2 Medit. I. 4. 
 
44 EDUCATION OF 
 
 first, that they are dangerous to morals, 
 and second, that the teacher cannot 
 give as much time to each individual 
 in the school as he would be able to 
 bestow on a single pupil at home. 
 He answers the first objection by 
 saying that the opportunities offered 
 at home for the corruption of the 
 moral character are not fewer than are 
 to be found at school, if the child's 
 nature is already prone to vice, or too 
 little diligence is exercised in pre- 
 serving his purity. The teacher at 
 home may be immoral, or the slaves 
 by whom the child is surrounded may 
 be so. If the boy's natural disposi- 
 tion be good, and his parents are not 
 blind or negligent, they may choose 
 a teacher of irreproachable character 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 45 
 
 (and wise parents will take particular 
 care to do so) and a discipline of the 
 strictest kind, and at the same time 
 attach to the boy's side some friend 
 or faithful freedman who will con- 
 stantly attend him and exert a salutary 
 influence on all around him. Quin- 
 tilian goes on to say that parents have 
 themselves to blame when their chil- 
 dren acquire evil habits. The lax 
 indulgence shown to children, the fine 
 dresses in which they were clothed, 
 the dainty food supplied to them, the 
 luxurious way in which they were car- 
 ried about in litters, never touching 
 the ground unless supported on either 
 hand by attendants, the pleasure and 
 lafughter with which their improper 
 speeches were listened to, the scenes 
 
46 EDUCATION OF 
 
 of license and debauchery which they 
 were permitted to witness in their own 
 homes, — all this formed their training 
 at home; what wonder if instead of 
 learning these vices at school they 
 carried them to school with them? 
 
 In reply to the second objection he 
 urges that even in schools individual 
 attention is not impossible, and if it 
 were, the counterbalancing advantages 
 are great. The best teachers delight 
 in a numerous class, while inferior 
 men generally, conscious of their 
 weakness, confine themselves to single 
 pupils, and do not disdain to perform 
 the office of mere pedagogues. The 
 foremost teachers cannot be induced 
 to give their entire time to one pupil. 
 Besides, a teacher's presence is not 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 47 
 
 necessary while the pupil is engaged 
 in writing, learning by heart, or pre- 
 paring his studies, and there are cer- 
 tain kinds of instruction which can be 
 imparted at once to a class of pupils 
 as conveniently as to one individual. 
 There are of course times when indi- 
 vidual attention is indispensable, as 
 in the correction of faults, and, doubt- 
 less, there is here some inconvenience 
 resulting from the presence of num- 
 bers, but this disadvantage is offset by 
 the many advantages of school educa- 
 tion. It is especially in the case of 
 boys who intend to become orators 
 that Quintilian ^ thinks the school pref- 
 erable. He whose life is to be passed 
 in intercourse with men and before the 
 
 1 Quintilian, I. 2. 18. 
 
48 EDUCATION OF 
 
 public eye must be habituated while 
 young to society, so as not to fear his 
 fellowmen or become pallid in a soli- 
 tary existence uncheered by the sun. 
 Further, the man who never matches 
 himself against other men is likely 
 to become conceited and self-opin- 
 ionated, and he, moreover, loses the 
 advantage of forming enduring friend- 
 ships; for initiation in the same 
 studies is as sacred a bond as initi- 
 ation in the same religious rites. 
 Where will a man acquire the communis 
 sensus, the social instinct that binds 
 humanity together, if he secludes him- 
 self from that intercourse with his 
 fellows which is natural even to dumb 
 animals ? 
 
 There is also, Quintilian continues, 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 49 
 
 this benefit in school education, that 
 each pupil profits not only by the 
 information given directly to himself, 
 but also by that imparted to the others. 
 The praise and blame meted out to 
 his fellow-pupils will be serviceable to 
 him also. His ambition to excel will 
 be stimulated, and imitation of his 
 successful classmates will be easier 
 and, therefore, more agreeable, than 
 imitation of his teacher. Another 
 consideration is the fact that the 
 instructor himself does not feel the 
 same inspiration and enthusiasm when 
 addressing a single pupil as when 
 teaching a large number. He has a 
 secret disdain of letting the powers 
 which he has acquired with so much 
 labour stoop to one auditor. At the 
 
50 EDUCATION OF 
 
 same time ^ children should not be sent 
 to so large a school that there would 
 be danger of their being neglected. 
 But no good teacher will burden him- 
 self with a greater number than he 
 can sustain. He must, moreover, 
 take care to be on friendly terms with 
 each pupil, and teach from affection 
 rather than from duty. 
 
 1 Quintilian, I. 2. 15. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 5 I 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS. HOURS OF SCHOOL. 
 HOLIDAYS 
 
 There were three principal kinds 
 or grades of schools at Rome, — the 
 elementary school, presided over by 
 the ludi magister, the grammar school 
 of the litteratus or grammaticus, and 
 the rhetor's school. To these might 
 be added the philosophic schools in 
 which the representatives of the vari- 
 ous philosophic systems gave their 
 lectures. In the first or elementary 
 schools reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic were taught; in the grammar 
 
52 EDUCATION OF 
 
 schools technical grammar, exegesis of 
 poets, and sometimes, if not always, 
 geometry and music; in the rhetors' 
 schools young men were prepared for 
 public life and the bar by declama- 
 tions, dissertations, etc. It is only 
 with the first two that we are here 
 concerned. 
 
 The general term for school in Latin 
 was ludus, which was applied not only 
 to schools for children, but also to the 
 training schools of gladiators. In late 
 times the Romans borrowed the Greek 
 word schola, and this term was very 
 generally used. The place where 
 instruction was given was sometimes 
 called pergula, a word which indicates 
 a shed or booth in front of a house 
 such as was used for exhibiting goods 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 53 
 
 for sale. In the story of Virginia^ 
 we read that the litterarum ludi were 
 among the shops. Such a pergula, 
 when used as a school, would perhaps 
 be enclosed and shut out from public 
 view by hangings or a board partition. 
 It was provided with benches (sub- 
 sellia) for the pupils to sit upon, and 
 stools (scamella) for their feet. The 
 master sat in a chair (sella, cathedra) 
 raised on a platform (pulpitum), and 
 each pupil came forward in his turn 
 to recite his lessons. Mention is 
 made^ of a monument to a school- 
 master in Capua on which was carved 
 in high relief an elderly man sitting 
 on a high throne, with a boy on his 
 
 1 Livy, III. 44. 2 Grasberger, Erziehung und 
 Unterricht, Vol. II., p. 216. 
 
54 EDUCATION OF 
 
 right and a girl on his left, and an 
 inscription "Magister ludi literarii." 
 Some authorities mention an outer 
 hall (proscholium) in which the peda- 
 gogues who accompanied the pupils to 
 school waited to conduct them home 
 when their studies were over. Here, 
 also, the children left their cloaks, and 
 put the finishing touches to their toilets 
 before entering the presence of the 
 master. On the walls of the school- 
 room were hung pictorial representa- 
 tions of events in mythology and 
 history, which served to bring vividly 
 before the pupils' minds the subjects 
 of their reading lessons. Geography 
 was probably taught only incident- 
 ally, though the Romans were familiar 
 with maps, even in the time of Pro- 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 55 
 
 pertius.-^ Lyres also were suspended 
 on the walls, to be taken down at the 
 music lesson. Conspicuous likewise 
 was the master's rod (ferula), the sign 
 and instrument of his authority. 
 
 Children brought to school with 
 them, or their pedagogues (in this 
 capacity called capsarii) brought for 
 them, a box (capsa, scrinium), which 
 could be slung on the arm, containing 
 the writing-materials, book-rolls, tab- 
 lets, and reckoning-stones (calculi), 
 
 1 Prop. Eleg. V. 3, 37. Cogor et e tabula 
 pictos cognoscere raundos. This line has been 
 separated from its context and treated as if it 
 implied the teaching of geography from maps in 
 schools, to which it has no reference whatever. 
 The suggestion Conor for Cogor seems very- 
 probable. In later times maps were very com- 
 mon and their educational value duly appre- 
 ciated. See Eumenius, Pro Instaur. Schol. 
 Augustod. c. 20. 
 
56 EDUCATION OF 
 
 which they would need at school. The 
 familiar verse of Horace, in which 
 children on their way to school are 
 spoken of as "laevo suspensi loculos 
 tabulamque lacerto,"^ shows that the 
 children in his native town did not 
 enjoy the luxury of a capsarius. 
 
 This lower sort of pedagogue took 
 no part in the instruction of his young 
 master, his duty being merely to con- 
 duct him to and from school, and 
 watch over his behaviour while under 
 his charge. Careful parents selected 
 the most trustworthy of their slaves to 
 fill this office, but we learn from Plu- 
 tarch ^ that parents were often culpa- 
 bly negligent in this respect. "The 
 
 iSat. I. 6, 74; Epp. 1. 1, 56. 
 2 De Liberis Educandis, VII. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 
 
 57 
 
 most worthy slaves," he says, "are 
 made farmers, shipmasters, merchants, 
 house-stewards, money-lenders; but 
 when a slave is found who is a drunk- 
 ard or a glutton, or useless for any 
 kind of business, the sons of the 
 house are entrusted to his care." In 
 rich families there was often a superior 
 kind of pedagogue who superintended 
 the boys' studies at home. Men of 
 considerable learning were sometimes 
 engaged for this position and were 
 treated with consideration and respect. 
 Augustus ^ assigned them special seats 
 in the theatre beside the praetextati. 
 But this class of pedagogues was gen- 
 erally composed of Greeks who were 
 hard-up and glad to barter their mul- 
 
 1 Suetonius, Aug. 44. 
 
58 EDUCATION OF 
 
 tifarious knowledge for the certainty 
 of a good dinner. JuvenaP sneers 
 at the "starveling Greek" (Graeculus 
 esuriens) who knows everything and 
 is ready to act as teacher of grammar, 
 rhetoric, or geometry, as painter, 
 gymnastic trainer, soothsayer, rope- 
 dancer, physician, or magician. Quin- 
 tilian ^ says that the pedagogue should 
 be either well educated or conscious 
 of his ignorance: "There is nothing 
 worse than those who, having advanced 
 a little beyond the first rudiments, 
 have assumed a false conceit of know- 
 ledge; for they are too proud to sur- 
 render the province of instruction to 
 others." 
 
 Children usually began to attend 
 
 1 Sat. III. 78. 2 instit. Orat. I. i. 8. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 59 
 
 school at the age of seven. Quin- 
 tilian^ thought this too late. He 
 admits that scarcely as much can be 
 accomplished in the first seven years 
 as in one year afterwards, but even 
 this slight advantage should not be 
 missed. What better thing can a child 
 do than study, he asks, as soon as it 
 can speak? The rudiments demand 
 mere memory, and this is strongest 
 in children of that age. Quintilian, 
 indeed, makes large demands on the 
 mental energy of his pupils. He 
 justifies himself ^ by saying that chil- 
 dren are less easily fatigued than 
 persons of a more mature age and that 
 the mind is more teachable before it 
 becomes hardened. For proof he 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. i. 17. 2 jbid, I. 12. 8. 
 
6o EDUCATION OF 
 
 refers to the fact that within two years 
 after a child is able to articulate it 
 can speak sufficiently well, while for- 
 eigners at Rome required many years 
 to become familiar with Latin. ^ So it 
 is that those who are expert in any art 
 are called TratSo/xa^ets. The fact that 
 all the mishaps and tumbles that befall 
 children, their creeping on hands and 
 knees and running about the entire day, 
 do not harm them, shows that they 
 can bear more hardship than men. 
 
 1 He leaves out of account two considerations : 
 first, that the child has nothing to unlearn ; no 
 formed habits of articulation, no disposition to 
 produce instead of the exact sounds of the lan- 
 guage he is learning the more or less approximate 
 sounds of a language already learned ; and sec- 
 ond, that during the years preceding his ability 
 to articulate he has been acquiring familiarity 
 with the spoken sounds. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 6 1 
 
 This is because their bodies are not 
 heavy, and similarly their minds are 
 moved with slight effort, and, not 
 depending in their studies on their 
 own efforts, but surrendering them- 
 selves to be moulded by others, they 
 are not greatly fatigued. Besides, they 
 do not reflect upon and measure the 
 work that they have done, and thought 
 is more fatiguing than actual labour. 
 
 This is an expression of opinion 
 that we should hardly have expected 
 from a teacher of Quintilian's long 
 experience, whose humanity and ten- 
 derness to children are conspicuous 
 throughout his writings. One might 
 compare it with the early training 
 which J. S. Mill received from his 
 father. That Quintilian did not wish 
 
62 EDUCATION OF 
 
 to overstrain the powers of his pupils 
 he assures us ^ in another place. " I 
 am not so ignorant," he says, "of what 
 the different ages require as to think 
 that those of tender years ought to be 
 hurried on and labour exacted from 
 them at all costs. For we must take 
 particular care that the child hate not 
 the studies which he cannot yet love, 
 nor carry his dread of the unpleasant 
 draught he has once drunk even 
 beyond the years of childhood. Let 
 his study take the form of play; let 
 him be coaxed and praised, and some- 
 times experience the pleasure of having 
 displayed knowledge; . . . give him 
 occasionally an opportunity to match 
 himself against another pupil, and let 
 1 1. 1. 20. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 6$ 
 
 him often suppose himself victorious; 
 and stimulate him with such prizes as 
 are attractive to boys of his age." 
 
 Children were required to rise be- 
 fore daybreak, and present themselves 
 at school before sunrise, where they 
 found the master awaiting them. Mar- 
 tial ^ addresses an angry epigram to a 
 schoolmaster who lived near him and 
 who, he says, kept him awake a// night 
 by the sound of his harsh voice and 
 the beatings he gave his pupils. The 
 same poet ^ speaks of children buying 
 their breakfast of bakers, probably on 
 their way to school, at the hour when 
 the cocks were beginning to crow. 
 
 1 Epig. IX. 68. 
 
 2 Martial Epig. XIV. 222. 
 
 Surgite : iam vendit pueris ientacula pistor, 
 Cristataeque sonant undique lucis aves. 
 
64 EDUCATION OF 
 
 Artificial light was necessary for these 
 morning studies. Each of the pupils 
 brought his lantern with him, so that ^ 
 their copies of Virgil and Horace were 
 smudged by the smoke from the lan- 
 terns,^ and the teacher was obliged to 
 put up with their disagreeable odour, 
 sitting, as Juvenal says, in a place 
 where no blacksmith or weaver would 
 stay. After this morning session was 
 over the pupils went home for a meal, 
 after which they again returned to 
 school. The entire time spent at 
 school each day was about six hours 
 in the forenoon; in the afternoon the 
 schools were not opened. 
 
 1 Juvenal, VII. 226. 
 
 2 The Romans had not invented the lamp- 
 chimney, and so there v^^as nothing to consume 
 the smoke. See Becker's Gallus, p. 309. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 65 
 
 There were pauses at intervals dur- 
 ing the hours of school work to prevent 
 over-fatigue and to enable the children 
 to collect their thoughts. Quintilian 
 strongly insists on the principle that 
 every effort should be made to prevent 
 the distaste for learning that is likely 
 to result from too constant an appli- 
 cation. With this object frequent 
 change of subjects was recommended. 
 "Variety itself," Quintilian says,^ "re- 
 freshes and reinvigorates the mind. 
 Rest from writing is obtained by 
 reading, and the fatigue of reading is 
 in its turn relieved by a change to 
 something else. However many things 
 we may have done, we are somehow 
 always fresh for that which we are just 
 1 1. 12. 4. 
 
66 EDUCATION OF 
 
 beginning. . . . Facilius est multa 
 facere quam diu." With the same 
 object he recommended frequent 
 change of masters. "Nothing in 
 nature," he remarks, in another place, ^ 
 "can bear continuous labour; even 
 inanimate and insensate objects re- 
 quire relaxation at intervals in order 
 to preserve their force." Love of 
 play, he adds, is a good sign in boys; 
 the gloomy and downcast boy is not 
 likely to have an alert mind at study. 
 But relaxations must not be excessive, 
 or they will cause a habit of idleness. 
 Advantage may be taken of recreation 
 for character study, for characters are 
 exhibited with least restraint in play. 
 Plutarch speaks in a similar strain. 
 1 1. 3. 8. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 67 
 
 Those fathers/ he says, are to be 
 condemned who, from a desire to see 
 their children excel others, lay upon 
 them excessive tasks so that they 
 become discouraged and finally reject 
 study altogether. "As plants are 
 nourished by water in moderation, but 
 choked by a large application of it; 
 so the mind is improved by moder- 
 ate exertion, but drowned (^aTrnXerat) 
 if the exertion is excessive. So we 
 ought to give boys a relaxation from 
 labour, considering that life is divided 
 between resting and working." 
 
 Roman boys, like boys in our own 
 times, occasionally shirked school, or 
 contrived to feign illness in order to 
 avoid reciting their lessons. The 
 
 1 De Liberis Educandis, XIII. 
 
68 EDUCATION OF 
 
 master hung up, where all might read 
 it, a board with the names of pupils 
 who absented themselves or had run 
 away.^ Persius ^ tells us that when a 
 boy he used to rub his eyes with olive 
 oil to give him the appearance of ill- 
 ness, though how oil would have that 
 effect is not apparent. Pliny ^ says 
 that school children sometimes took 
 cumin to make them pale. 
 
 The schools of Rome were kept 
 open during only eight months of the 
 year. The summer vacation lasted 
 during the warm months, from the 
 middle of June until the middle of 
 October. Our authority for this state- 
 
 1 Grasberger, Erziehung und Unterricht, Vol. 
 II., p. 224. 
 
 2 Persius, III. 24. 
 
 3 N. H. XX. 14. 57. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 69 
 
 ment is not merely the much-contested 
 line of Horace.^ 
 
 Ibant octonis referentes Idibus sera, 
 
 the meaning of which can still hardly 
 be regarded as settled. Martial ^ 
 appeals to a schoolmaster who (appar- 
 ently for pecuniary reasons) kept his 
 school open during the summer, to 
 let his pupils rest until the Ides of 
 October, "for," he says, "if the boys 
 keep their health during summer, that 
 is enough of learning for them." 
 There were also holidays at the Quin- 
 quatrus or festival of Minerva, which 
 lasted five days, in the latter half of 
 March. This brief vacation was espe- 
 cially welcome, and all the more 
 1 Sat. I. 6. 75. 2 Epig. X. 62. 
 
70 EDUCATION OF 
 
 enjoyed for its shortness.^ At these 
 holidays the teacher was presented by 
 each pupil with a gift (some authori- 
 ties regard this as a tuition fee) called 
 Minerval. The only other vacation 
 seems to have been at the Saturnalia, 
 which took place in December, when 
 there was a season of general rejoic- 
 ing. The Roman school year was, 
 therefore, divided in a manner very 
 similar to our own, with its sum- 
 mer, Christmas, and Easter vacations. 
 There were also single holidays on 
 the nundinae, or weekly market-days,^ 
 which would correspond to our Satur- 
 day holiday. 
 
 1 Hor. Epp. II. 2. 199. 
 
 2 Grasberger, Erziehung und Unterricht, Vol. 
 II., p. 254. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 71 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 STUDIES IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 In the elementary school (ludus lit- 
 teramm, Indus litterarius), instruction 
 was confined to reading, writing, and 
 arithmetic. The teacher was called 
 magister ludi, or more specifically, 
 magister ludi litterarum. Unless the 
 school was very large he took entire 
 charge of all the subjects. The gen- 
 eral term for the instruction given in 
 the elementary school was litterse. 
 For the methods employed in teach- 
 ing reading and writing we are de- 
 pendent chiefly on Quintilian, who 
 treats the subject at considerable 
 
72 EDUCATION OF 
 
 length and with his usual good judg- 
 ment, in the first chapter of his first 
 book. 
 
 In teaching to read the first step 
 was to obtain familiarity with the 
 forms and sounds of the letters. It 
 was a practice in Quintilian's time, of 
 which he did not approve, to teach 
 the names and order of the letters 
 before their forms. The senses of 
 sight and hearing ought to work side 
 by side. The method of learning 
 the names and order first, in Quin- 
 tilian's opinion, prevents the pupil 
 from recognizing a letter when he sees 
 it, as he does not give attention to its 
 shape, but depends on his memory of 
 the sequence. For this reason, he 
 says, when teachers think the letters 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 73 
 
 have been sufficiently imprinted on 
 the mind in their usual sequence, 
 they reverse the order and pick the 
 letters out promiscuously until the 
 pupil recognizes them from their 
 shape and not from their position. 
 "Moreover," he adds, "I do not dis- 
 approve of the familiar practice of 
 seeking to stimulate children to learn 
 by giving them ivory letters to play 
 with, or if anything else can be 
 invented in which they will take more 
 pleasure, and which it will delight 
 them to handle, look at, and call by 
 its name." Tiles, on which alphabets 
 or verses were scratched before bak- 
 ing, were used in the youngest classes. 
 Horace ^ speaks of children being 
 
 1 Sat. I. I. 25. 
 
74 EDUCATION OF 
 
 coaxed to learn their letters by tid-bits 
 of pastry. It is said that Herodes 
 Atticus, who lived under the Anto- 
 nines, had a son who was unable to 
 learn the names of the letters until his 
 father arranged to have him educated 
 with twenty-four other boys, each of 
 whom went by the name of one of the 
 letters. 
 
 The letters having been thoroughly 
 learned, the next step was to master 
 their various combinations into sylla- 
 bles. From Quintilian's remark ^ that 
 the custom of learning the sounds 
 before the forms, which was injurious 
 in the case of letters, was not so in 
 the case of syllables, it would seem 
 that it was usual to give pupils succes- 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. i. 26. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 75 
 
 sive combinations such as ba^ be, bi, 
 etc., ca, ce, ci, etc., to spell and repeat 
 until they had memorized them, and 
 then to proceed to more difficult ones. 
 Every possible combination had to be 
 thoroughly mastered (syllabis nullum 
 compendium est, perdiscendse omnes) 
 before the child was permitted to read 
 words. "It is a bad plan, though a 
 common one, to let him postpone the 
 most difficult syllables, so that when he 
 has to write words he will be at a loss. 
 Much trust must not too readily be 
 placed in the first act of memorizing; 
 constant and long-continued repetition 
 will be necessary. In reading there 
 must not be too much haste about 
 connecting syllables into words, or 
 about reading fast, until the pupil can 
 
76 EDUCATION OF 
 
 form the combinations of letters in 
 syllables without stumbling or hesita- 
 tion, or at any rate without having to 
 stop to think about it. Then he may 
 begin to form words from syllables 
 and continuous sentences from words. 
 It is incredible how much delay is 
 caused in reading by undue haste. It 
 gives rise to hesitation, interruptions, 
 and repetitions when pupils attempt 
 more than they are equal to, and 
 when, going wrong, they lose confi- 
 dence even in what they already know. 
 Reading should first of all be sure, 
 then continuous; it must for a long 
 time be slow, until by practice speed 
 and accuracy are acquired." ^ 
 
 The same author suggests^ that at 
 
 1 Instit. Oral. I. i. 30-33. 2 /^^^, ^ 36. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 77 
 
 this stage pupils should have their 
 memories trained by learning by heart 
 the sayings of wise men and chosen 
 passages from the poets (the latter 
 being more agreeable to children), by 
 way of amusement. The memory, he 
 says, is almost the only faculty in 
 children of this age (when they are 
 incapable of originating anything) 
 which can be improved by the teacher's 
 care. He recommends as a means for 
 rendering the organs of speech more 
 perfect and the pronunciation more 
 distinct, that pupils should be re- 
 quired to repeat as rapidly as possible 
 words and verses of intentional diffi- 
 culty, composed of many syllables 
 harshly combined together. Without 
 such practice as this he thinks that 
 
7 8 EDUCATION OF 
 
 faults of pronunciation will become 
 hardened and incurable. In reading 
 poetry due attention was paid to metre 
 and accent. 
 
 The characteristic feature of the 
 Roman method of teaching to read, 
 as above described, was a painstaking 
 diligence, and a determination to lay 
 once for all a solid foundation for the 
 educational superstructure. A thor- 
 ough knowledge of the phonetic value 
 of each letter and of each simple 
 combination of letters was insisted on 
 before reading was attempted; so that 
 the pupil might be able without diffi- 
 culty to read even words which he had 
 never seen or heard before. 
 
 The texts used for reading-lessons 
 were generally the works of the poets. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 79 
 
 "The poetSj" says Horace/ "shape the 
 tender stammering lips of childhood." 
 In old times the laws of the twelve 
 tables were used in this way, and were 
 also committed to memory, but Cicero 
 says^ that since his boyhood this 
 practice had fallen into disuse. The 
 favourite poets were Livius Androni- 
 cus, whose translation of Homer was 
 commonly used as a school text-book, 
 and in later times Vergil and Horace. 
 The works of Terence, Cato the Elder, 
 and the "sentences " of Publilius Syrus 
 were also used, and passages were 
 chosen from them to be learned by 
 heart. 
 
 Meantime the pupil was learning 
 to write. There were apparently two 
 1 Epp. 11. 126. 2 De Leg. II. 23. 
 
8o EDUCATION OF 
 
 methods of teaching beginners to form 
 the letters. One, and probably the 
 usual method, was that according to 
 which the teacher placed his hand 
 on that of the child ^ and guided his 
 fingers, a "head-line" (prsescriptum) 
 having been first written out for imita- 
 tion. The instruments used were the 
 common writing tablets (i.e. thin 
 boards with a raised margin and 
 resembling in appearance our framed 
 school slates, the surface of the 
 interior portion being covered with 
 wax), and the stilus or metal point 
 with which lines were scratched on 
 the waxed surface. The other end of 
 the stilus was made flat for the pur- 
 pose of obliterating, when necessary, 
 1 Seneca Ep. 94, 51. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 8 1 
 
 what had been written; hence the 
 expression used by Horace for mak- 
 ing corrections — stilum vertere. The 
 other method of teaching to write was 
 one recommended by Quintilian,^ and 
 consisted in carving on wooden tablets 
 the forms of letters and causing the 
 pupils to draw their stilus repeatedly 
 over the furrows thus traced for them 
 until they became familiar with the 
 movements necessary to form the let- 
 ters, and the muscles of their fingers 
 were strengthened. 
 
 The practice of employing amanu- 
 enses, which was so common among 
 the well-to-do Romans, made good 
 and rapid penmanship a matter of less 
 importance than would have been the 
 
 1 Instit, Orat. I. i. 27. 
 G 
 
82 ' EDUCATION OF 
 
 case if every one did his own writing. 
 When every Roman of the higher 
 classes had among his slaves men 
 sufficiently educated to act as his sec- 
 retaries, it was natural that he should 
 hand over to them the mechanical part 
 of his correspondence or authorship, 
 and dictate to them what he had to 
 communicate to his friends or to the 
 world. Yet Quintilian^ thinks it a 
 mistake to neglect the formation of a 
 good and rapid hand. "Writing is 
 of the first importance in our studies; 
 by it alone is true and well-grounded 
 progress obtained; but a slow pen 
 delays thought, while ill-formed and 
 confused hand-writing is not easily 
 legible, and creates the additional 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. i. 28. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME S^ 
 
 labour of dictating what needs to be 
 transcribed. Especially in private 
 and intimate correspondence it will 
 be found advantageous not to have left 
 this part of education neglected." It 
 is characteristic of the Roman utili- 
 tarian standpoint that nobody seems 
 to have thought beauty of penmanship 
 worth cultivating. 
 
 Occasion was taken at the writing 
 exercises to impart by the way instruc- 
 tion in language and to inculcate 
 moral maxims. The head-lines some- 
 times consisted of definitions of rare or 
 difficult words, the meanings of which 
 it would afterwards be useful for the 
 child to know, and sometimes of moral 
 precepts or wise sayings. 
 
 Besides the waxed tablet already 
 
84 EDUCATION OF 
 
 mentioned, paper (papyrus) or parch- 
 ment (membrana) and ink (atramen- 
 tum) were used. The pen (calamus, 
 arundo) was made of a reed cut to a 
 point; the ink was of lampblack, made 
 from burnt pitch or rosin and gum- 
 water. The dark fluid obtained from 
 the cuttle-fish sometimes served for 
 ink. As papyrus and parchment were 
 expensive it was customary to use in 
 schools only the backs of worthless 
 manuscripts. MartiaP mentions this 
 as the probable fate of an unsuccessful 
 book. Quintilian^ recommends the 
 use of tablets in preference to parch- 
 ment, because the former lent them- 
 selves more readily to erasures, and 
 
 1 Ep. IV. 86. II. In versa pueris arande charta. 
 
 2 Instit. Orat. X. 3. 31. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 85 
 
 the course of thought was not inter- 
 rupted by the need of dipping the pen 
 in the ink; only in the case of weak 
 sight was parchment to be preferred. 
 
 The study of arithmetic held a con- 
 spicuous position in Roman schools, 
 and was begun at an early age. The 
 vast commercial and financial interests 
 which the Romans had formed through- 
 out the civilized world after the con- 
 quest of the East, of Africa, and of 
 Western Europe, and the consequent 
 establishment of a large moneyed class 
 in the city itself, gave rise, as we have 
 already said, to an ambition of wealth 
 which invaded every class of the com- 
 munity, and consequently added to 
 the importance of the branch of edu- 
 cation most conducive to the attain- 
 
S6 EDUCATION OF 
 
 merit of this ambition. Sallust^ says 
 that two of the most glaring vices of 
 the late period of the Republic were 
 those "pessuma ac divorsa inter se 
 mala," luxury and avarice, and we 
 have seen how Horace and Juvenal 
 satirized the prevalent worship of 
 money. But besides this, the Romans 
 were very methodical in their house- 
 hold affairs and kept a careful account 
 of receipts and expenditures, so that 
 a knowledge of arithmetic was neces- 
 sary to every head of a household. 
 And a careful training was especially 
 demanded by the cumbrous system of 
 numerical signs which the Romans 
 used. 
 
 Their notation was on the decimal 
 1 Cat. 5. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 87 
 
 system, but in fractions they generally 
 employed a duodecimal denomination, 
 derived from the division of the as 
 into twelve uncice. Horace ^ presents 
 a scene in a school in which a boy is 
 being taught addition and subtraction 
 of fractions. "'Let the son of 
 Albinus, ' asks the teacher, 'tell me 
 what is left if one-twelfth is taken 
 from five-twelfths. You used to know. ' 
 'A third.' 'Right; you will be able 
 to take care of your money. If one- 
 twelfth is added what results?' 'A 
 half.'" Even where the quantity to 
 be divided had no reference to money 
 the terms used for fractional parts were 
 usually the divisions of the as. Thus 
 deunx meant eleven-twelfths, quincunx 
 
 1 Ars Poet. 326. 
 
88 ' EDUCATION OF 
 
 five-twelfths, and so on. "Heres ex 
 asse " meant "heir to the whole es- 
 tate," "heres ex dodrante," "heir to 
 three-fourths." When the numerator 
 of a fraction was unity the fraction 
 could be readily expressed by means 
 of the ordinal numeral, e.g. one-tenth 
 would be decima (sc. pars), one- 
 seventh septima, etc. 
 
 The Roman numerical signs are 
 familiar to everybody. To facilitate 
 calculations an abacus or reckoning 
 board was used. It was rectangular, 
 but usually longer one way than the 
 other, and was marked with parallel 
 grooves, in which the pebbles (calculi) 
 that denoted the numbers were moved. 
 According to one system the pebbles 
 on the lowest row denoted units, those 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 89 
 
 on the next tens, and so on, the sev- 
 enth groove from the bottom denoting 
 millions. These seven grooves were 
 each divided into two unequal parts, 
 a pebble in the shorter section of each 
 groove denoting five times as much as 
 one in the longer. For example, one 
 pebble in the longer section of the 
 second groove (that of the tens) would 
 denote ten, but one in the shorter 
 section fifty, and if there were one in 
 each section they would together 
 denote sixty. To express on the 
 board the number 3748 there would 
 be in the lowest groove one pebble in 
 the shorter section and three in the 
 longer (8) ; in the second groove from 
 the bottom, four pebbles in the longer 
 section (4 tens); the third groove 
 
90 EDUCATION OF 
 
 would have one pebble in the shorter 
 and two in the longer section (7 hun- 
 dreds); and the fourth groove three 
 in the longer section (3 thousands). 
 There were also some grooves which 
 were used in the calculation of frac- 
 tions.-^ 
 
 The Romans had an elaborate 
 conventional method of expressing 
 numbers by means of the fingers 
 (digitis computare). By the fingers 
 of the left hand could be expressed 
 all the numbers from i to 100, by 
 those on the right all the hundreds 
 and thousands as far as 10,000, so 
 that by using both hands together any 
 
 1 A good account of the Roman abacus (with 
 plate) is to be found in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 9 1 
 
 number up to 10,000 could be de- 
 noted. It must have required long 
 practice to be able to express or 
 understand at once any number with 
 a notation of this kind, but it was a 
 necessary piece of knowledge, Quin- 
 tilian says,^ "not only for the orator 
 but for everybody who pretended to 
 the slightest education. In pleading 
 causes it comes very frequently into 
 use; and if the pleader is flurried in 
 expressing his totals, or even if by an 
 uncertain or ungraceful motion of the 
 fingers he indicates the wrong number, 
 he is set down as uneducated." 
 
 The operations of addition, subtrac- 
 tion, multiplication, and division were 
 probably all performed with the aid 
 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. 10. 35. 
 
92 EDUCATION OF 
 
 of the abacus (as some of the Latin 
 terms for these operations show — e.g. 
 subtraction = deducere calculos), at 
 least until the results of the more 
 simple operations were memorized, 
 and then the abacus would be used 
 only for the more elaborate calcula- 
 tions. The great defects in the Roman 
 numerical notation were the absence 
 of a sign for zero, and the fact that 
 the digits were not each expressed by 
 a single numeral, but most of them 
 {e.g. III., VII.) by a combination of 
 numerals. These defects stood in the 
 way of the discovery of the simple 
 methods for the elementary arithmeti- 
 cal operations which our more perfect 
 notation (derived from the Hindoos) 
 makes possible for us. Consequently 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 93 
 
 the Study of arithmetic in Roman 
 schools was tedious, and we are not 
 surprised that if any readiness in cal- 
 culation was to be obtained at all 
 with the clumsy notation then in use, 
 the careful drilling in arithmetic de- 
 scribed by Horace was quite necessary. 
 
94 EDUCATION OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
 
 In the secondary schools, presided 
 over by the grammaticus or litteratus, 
 studies were directed towards the 
 attainment of one main object — 
 mastery of language. It has already 
 been observed how highly the Romans 
 prized a ready and correct command 
 of their mother-tongue, and how their 
 peculiar institutions and mode of life 
 made it a matter of much importance 
 for them to be able to speak well. 
 Consequently we find that in the school 
 of the grammaticus attention was given 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 95 
 
 to every study that was likely to be of 
 value in forming a correct style of 
 speaking and writing. The poets and 
 other authors were studied, both for 
 the material and moral instruction to 
 be found in them, and in no less 
 degree for the sake of their style. 
 And to appreciate the poets properly, 
 especially the lyric poets, some know- 
 ledge of music was thought useful. 
 The numerous allusions to the heav- 
 enly bodies in the poets called for 
 some acquaintance with the facts of 
 astronomy, but this was probably 
 imparted only incidentally and not as 
 a special study. A training in geom- 
 etry was beneficial in sharpening the 
 intellect and enabling it to detect 
 fallacies, as well as for the practical 
 
g6 EDUCATION OF 
 
 information conveyed by it. The 
 greatest share of attention, however, 
 was devoted to orthography, grammar, 
 pronunciation, and literary style. 
 
 After the conquest of the East by 
 Rome the Greek language gradu^ly 
 forced its way into the educated 
 classes of Roman society, so that as 
 early as the time of Marius it was 
 something unusual when a man of 
 distinction was unfamiliar with it. 
 Marius ^ indeed feigned to consider it 
 a merit on his part that he was igno- 
 rant of the literature of a conquered 
 people, but it is not difficult to see 
 that he felt he was boasting of a thing 
 which most men of his time would 
 have regarded as a misfortune. There 
 1 Sallust Jugurth. 85. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 97 
 
 were at Rome Greek as well as Roman 
 grammatici, who gave instruction in 
 their own language similar to that 
 imparted in the Latin schools. It 
 was usual for the Greek instruction to 
 begin earlier than the Latin. Quin- 
 tilian -^ even recommends that a child 
 should learn to speak Greek before 
 Latin, because he must learn Latin in 
 the natural course of things without 
 effort, but he does not approve of 
 maintaining very long the habit of 
 speaking Greek only, lest the purity 
 of the child's Latin be spoiled. He 
 tells us "^ that his own eldest son at the 
 age of ten could speak Greek as if it 
 were his mother-tongue. Homer and 
 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. i, 12, 13. 
 
 2 Instit. Orat. VI., Prooem. 11. 
 
98 EDUCATION OF 
 
 Menander were two of the Greek 
 authors whose works were favourites 
 as text-books. 
 
 In teaching orthography care was 
 taken to explain the phonetic values 
 of the different letters. Vowels were 
 distinguished from consonants, and 
 these again were divided into mutes 
 and semivowels. The variation in 
 the sound of certain letters according 
 to their position in words and the 
 influence of neighbouring sounds was 
 pointed out, as for example^ the 
 difference between vocalic and con- 
 sonantal / and u, that between the 
 sounds of i in opinius and optimus, 
 and the ambiguous sound of the final 
 e in bene. The history of the letters 
 
 1 Quintilian I. 4. 8 sq. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 99 
 
 was also touched upon, with remarks 
 on redundant or adventitious charac- 
 ters, as K, H, Q, and Z. There were 
 explanations of the peculiarities, com- 
 mon qualities, and mutual relation- 
 ships of different sounds; why from 
 scamnum scabillum was formed, and 
 bipennis from pinna. Attention was 
 called to the changes which the vowels 
 in simple verbs underwent in compo- 
 sition with prepositions, as in excidere 
 from cadere; to the variations of the 
 vowel sounds in different tenses, as in 
 lotus from lavo ; to the substitution of 
 r for s in Valesii, afbos, etc., while in 
 other words s had supplanted /; to the 
 transliteration of Greek words into 
 Latin; to ancient forms like duellum, 
 stlites, etc. 
 
lOO EDUCATION OF 
 
 The regularly phonetic character of 
 Latin rendered correct spelling a much 
 easier acquirement than it is in our 
 language. After the careful training 
 in syllable-spelling that was required 
 before the pupil was allowed to begin 
 to read, there was no need for the 
 grammaticus to trouble himself with 
 instruction in the spelling of ordinary 
 words; it was only in cases of varying 
 usage that his help was needed. Such 
 doubtful words were (in Quintilian's 
 time) exspecto or expecto, ad or at. 
 When a difference of spelling could 
 be used (as in these two cases) to in- 
 dicate a difference of meaning, it was 
 thought well to take advantage of it. 
 The question of the division of words 
 into syllables was also treated, espe- 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 01 
 
 cially in words which presented diffi- 
 culty, as absfeinius, haruspex. Notice 
 was taken of differences between an- 
 cient and modern orthography; as, 
 for example, of the ancient custom of 
 doubling long vowels, and s after a 
 long vowel; of writing ic instead of i 
 in optumiis, maxuitms, etc. Quin- 
 tilian^ lays down the sensible rule 
 that unless where custom has definitely 
 established the orthography, words 
 ought to be written as they are pro- 
 nounced. "For this is the use of 
 written characters: to preserve the 
 spoken sound as a trust confided to 
 them and give it up to the reader; 
 they ought, therefore, to indicate the 
 sound which is to be uttered." 
 1 1. 7. 30. 
 
I02 EDUCATION OF 
 
 The study of grammar began with 
 the parts of speech, the number of 
 which was differently given by differ- 
 ent authorities. Varro in one place ^ 
 mentions only three kinds of words, 
 — those which have case, those which 
 have tense, and those which have 
 neither; but farther on^ he adds a 
 fourth kind, those which have both, 
 i.e. the participles. Palsemon distin- 
 guished eight parts of speech ^ — noun, 
 pronoun, verb, adverb, participle, 
 preposition, conjunction, and inter- 
 jection. Other authorities increased 
 the number by distinguishing nouns 
 into two or three different kinds and 
 
 1 De Lingua Latina, VIII. ii. 
 2 /^z^. VIII. 44. 
 
 3 See Ludwig Jeep's Geschichte der Lehre von 
 den Redetheilen, Introd, p. x. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME IO3 
 
 giving special names to certain classes 
 of adverbs or conjunctions. Strangely 
 enough, it was not until the time 
 of Priscian (about 450 a.d.) that the 
 adjective was regarded as a distinct 
 part of speech and received a special 
 name; until that time it was classed 
 with the nouns. 
 
 As inflection played so important a 
 part in Latin it was natural that much 
 time should be spent in the schools 
 on the declensions and conjugations. 
 A classification of declensions, how- 
 ever, corresponding to that which we 
 find in our Latin grammars, was not 
 made until the fourth or fifth century 
 A.D. When a question arose as to the 
 declension of a noun an appeal was 
 made to authorities; where these dis- 
 
I04 EDUCATION OF 
 
 agreed a solution was sought in the 
 analogy of other words. The several 
 cases were derived from the nomina- 
 tive rather than from the genitive, 
 and this naturally caused difficulties 
 when nouns terminated alike in the 
 nominative, as lepus and lupus, but 
 were differently declined. For these 
 seeming irregularities explanations 
 were offered which were more or less 
 wide of the mark owing to the funda- 
 mental mistake of deriving the oblique 
 cases from the nominative. Pedantry 
 was a not uncommon fault of Roman 
 scholars. There were some of them 
 who were unwilling to recognize the 
 principle laid down by Quintilian,^ 
 "consuetude certissima loquendi 
 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. 6. 3. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME IO5 
 
 magistra," and where the popular 
 usage seemed contrary to analogy 
 they sought to correct the custom by 
 insisting on forms to which no objec- 
 tion from analogy could be made. 
 Thus they used emicavit for efnicuitj 
 conire for coire, and wrote ebor and 
 robor instead of ebuj" and robur. 
 
 Grammar was a study for which the 
 Roman mind had a peculiar bent, just 
 as it had for law; it had also a fondness 
 for philological studies, and in schools 
 the derivation of a word was often 
 appealed to in order to settle a ques- 
 tion of orthography or pronunciation. 
 The study was still in its infancy and 
 often a matter of random guesswork, 
 which produced such extravagances 
 as pituita from petere vitani, and of 
 
I06 EDUCATION OF 
 
 me7'ula from ine7'a zwlare ; but even 
 teachers of sane judgment made use 
 of it in a moderate degree to excite 
 in their pupils an interest in language, 
 and sometimes to throw a light on his- 
 tory and ancient institutions. 
 
 There does not seem to have been 
 much systematic examination of syn- 
 tactical constructions, such as we have 
 in our schools. Grammar was not yet 
 formulated or brought into system 
 with definite classifications and stated 
 rules. There is no appearance of 
 exercises in parsing or analysis of 
 sentences. Faults in construction 
 or in the forms of words were cor- 
 rected when they occurred; the pupil, 
 however, was probably not provided 
 with rules ready made for his guidance, 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME IO7 
 
 but allowed to form his own induc- 
 tions from experience. 
 
 Extensive intercourse with foreign 
 nations, and especially the presence 
 in the city of so many Greeks and 
 other foreigners, rendered it necessary 
 to exercise great diligence in order to 
 keep the language free from foreign 
 contamination. Accordingly we find ^ 
 that much attention was given in 
 schools to a studied correctness of dic- 
 tion, and pupils were warned against 
 using foreign, obsolete, or wrongly 
 formed words. There were some 
 speakers and writers who affected 
 Greek and other foreign words even 
 where there were good Latin equiva- 
 lents, and this was a habit which the 
 
 ^ Quintilian I. 5. 6 sq. 
 
I08 EDUCATION OF 
 
 best teachers condemned. Others 
 were fond of obsolete expressions — a 
 fault which had especial temptation 
 for Roman orators, as a high value 
 was set on dignified and stately dic- 
 tion, which seemed to be attained by 
 using words that bore the stamp of 
 antiquity. The appeal in all ques- 
 tions of doubt with regard to choice 
 of words was to be decided by custom, 
 and, as Quintilian^ says, custom in 
 language is the consensus of the learned, 
 as in morals it is the consensus of the 
 
 Correct pronunciation was also dili- 
 gently cultivated. One of the faults 
 of most frequent occurrence and 
 requiring to be most carefully guarded 
 11.6. 45. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME IO9 
 
 against was the misuse of the aspirate. 
 There was considerable variation in 
 its use from time to time, so that in 
 some words (e.g. herus, triumphus) it 
 was sometimes employed and some- 
 times omitted. Catullus ^ ridiculed a 
 certain Arrius who aspirated all his 
 initial vowels and consonants. An- 
 other common fault, especially among 
 the lower classes, was that of pro- 
 nouncing the diphthong au as o. 
 
 For exercises in reading, to which 
 much time and attention were given, 
 the works of the poets were first used. 
 The authors were chosen with a view 
 both to cultivating the taste and to 
 inculcating moral principles. It was 
 recognized that the old Latin writers, 
 
 1 Catullus LXXXIV. 
 
no EDUCATION OF 
 
 Ennius, Accius, Pacuvius, etc., were 
 not to be taken as models of style, 
 though their genius was appreciated; 
 their style was heavy and sometimes 
 inflated; but their high moral tone 
 and manly spirit were regarded as 
 valuable correctives of the moral laxity 
 and meretriciousness of the writings of 
 a late period.^ Of later authors Ver- 
 gil was the greatest favourite, and the 
 ^neid was generally the first reading- 
 book used in the school of the gram- 
 maticus. Heroic poetry was thought 
 to be the best food for the young 
 mind; the noble theme inspired lofty 
 thoughts and filled the youthful heart 
 with aspirations after what was brave 
 and honourable, while reading of this 
 
 1 Quintilian I. 8. 9. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME III 
 
 kind caused an early familiarity with 
 correct and elevated diction. Horace 
 was also a common school text-book, 
 and the comic writers Plautiis and 
 Terence were sometimes read ; the 
 latter especially for the sake of his 
 style. Elegiac and hendecasyllabic 
 poetry was, owing to its usual erotic 
 character, unsuited for use in schools. 
 Lucretius was probably read only by 
 advanced pupils. Portions of these 
 authors were also selected to be com- 
 mitted to memory. 
 
 In reading, the pupil was taught to 
 mark by a pause and by the modula- 
 tion of his voice the conclusion of 
 sentences and the divisions of verses, 
 to raise and lower his voice at the 
 proper places, and to regulate his 
 
112 EDUCATION OF 
 
 speed and expression according to 
 the characters of the subject. The 
 chief excellences sought after in read- 
 ing were a manly style of elocution/ 
 an earnestness without harshness, and 
 the observance of a just mean between 
 reading the poetry as if it were prose 
 and the contrary fault of a sing-song 
 rendering into which young pupils 
 are so apt to fall. In rendering the 
 speeches or dialogues in a poem, a 
 theatrical manner was avoided, but 
 there was a certain modulation of the 
 voice by which such passages were 
 distinguished from those in which the 
 poet spoke in his own person. 
 
 Before the pupil read his lesson the 
 teacher probably first read it over for 
 
 1 Quintilian I. 8. 2. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME II3 
 
 him (praelegere), in order to show him 
 how he wished it to be done. Then 
 he made the sense of the passage clear, 
 knowing that the first requisite of 
 good reading is a thorough under- 
 standing. Difficult words and histor- 
 ical and mythological allusions were 
 explained, and attention was called 
 to poetical licenses, foreign words, 
 figures of speech, unusual turns of 
 expression, and the varying senses of 
 words according to their context. 
 Occasion was taken to impress on 
 the pupil's mind the importance of 
 orderly arrangement, and of the suit- 
 able treatment of different subjects 
 and characters, to point out beauties 
 of sentiment and diction, and to 
 explain how in one place diffuseness, 
 
114 EDUCATION OF 
 
 in another brevity, is desirable. To 
 insure his perfect understanding of a 
 passage the pupil was required to give 
 a prose paraphrase of it, and to explain 
 its metrical construction. Moral les- 
 sons were drawn from the words of the 
 poet, and it was explained how the 
 poet's fancy might make use of ficti- 
 tious situations and characters to 
 present valuable truths. 
 
 Thus the reading lessons from the 
 poets were made the means of instruc- 
 tion in many different subjects — prac- 
 tical ethics, grammar, composition, 
 elocution, geography, mythology, and 
 history. History was, moreover, made 
 the subject of a separate lesson, in 
 which the works of great historians 
 were read. This study seems to have 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME II5 
 
 been pushed to" an unreasonable length 
 by some teachers, who included in it 
 the most trivial and insignificant de- 
 tails and ransacked obscure works for 
 old-wives' fables.^ Among Latin his- 
 torians the favourites were Sallust and 
 Livy. The former was commended 
 for his sententious brevity, in which 
 he was compared with Thucydides, 
 though this merit was gained at the 
 cost of perspicuity; the latter for his 
 eloquence, clearness, and dramatic 
 power. 
 
 The fables of ^sop were used for 
 
 1 Quintilian I. 8. 19. No distinction seems to 
 have been made between mythology and history, 
 so that some teachers thought it of importance to 
 know the name of Anchises' nurse, or how many 
 casks of wine Acestes gave the Trojans (Juv. 
 VII. 229). 
 
Il6 EDUCATION OF 
 
 lessons in composition. The pupils 
 were required to relate a fable in their 
 own words and in the simplest lan- 
 guage, without attempting any orna- 
 mentation; then they were asked to 
 write it out in the same simple style. 
 When they had acquired sufficient 
 skill in this kind of exercise they 
 were allowed to introduce embellish- 
 ments of their own, to curtail some 
 parts and expand others, only preserv- 
 ing the general sense of the original. 
 Narratives from the poets were also 
 treated in this manner. Other exer- 
 cises in composition were those called 
 sententiae, chriae, and ethologise. 
 Sententise were moral sentiments or 
 proverbs which the pupils took as 
 subjects for essays. Chrise were 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME II7 
 
 accounts of something said or done 
 on a specific occasion. Ethologiae 
 were probably speeches in character, 
 such as the assertion of the tyrant 
 Eteocles that wrong-doing was excus- 
 able when its object was sovereign 
 power. 
 
 Great importance was attached to 
 exercises of the memory, and espe- 
 cially to learning by heart passages of 
 poetry. The poetical works used in 
 the reading-lesson served this purpose 
 also, and part of every day's school- 
 work was the recitation of memorized 
 pieces. Pupils also learned by heart 
 their own compositions and recited 
 them before the assembled school.* 
 
 1 Krause (Geschichte der Erziehung bei den 
 Griechen, Etruskern und Romerri, p. 317) errone- 
 
Il8 EDUCATION OF 
 
 Much attention was given to correct 
 pronunciation and appropriate ges- 
 tures, the actors in comedies being 
 taken as models. A theatrical man- 
 ner, however, was avoided; what was 
 aimed at was an expressive but quiet 
 and dignified delivery, with a distinct 
 enunciation and avoidance of affecta- 
 tion. Faults to be avoided were a 
 lisping s, the softening of r to /, of c 
 to /, and of g to d. Care was taken 
 that the expression of the face should 
 correspond with the words and ges- 
 ture, and that no extravagant or 
 
 ously states that Quintilian (II. 7. i) thought 
 that children were obliged to memorize too 
 much. What Quintilian blamed was the practice 
 of making children learn by heart a/l that they 
 wrote themselves, when their time might be better 
 employed in learning passages from good authors. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME II9 
 
 unseemly contortions of the features 
 or motions of the head were made. 
 Lessons were taken from a palaestricus 
 or instructor in calisthenics^ for the 
 purpose of acquiring an easy and 
 graceful carriage of the body and 
 getting rid of awkwardness in the 
 movements of the hands and feet. 
 
 Pliny ^ speaks highly of the practice, 
 which he says had many advocates, of 
 translating from Greek into Latin or 
 from Latin into Greek; aptness and 
 brilliancy of language, command of 
 expression, and forceful statement 
 were acquired by it, and the habit of 
 
 1 Quintilian I. 11. 16. 
 
 2 Ep. VII. 9. 2. quo genere exercitationis 
 proprietas splendorque verborum, copia figura- 
 rum, vis expHcandi, prseterea imitatione opti- 
 morum similia inveniendi facultas paratur. 
 
I20 EDUCATION OF 
 
 copying the best models produced an 
 ability to write like them. So that it 
 is not unlikely that exercises in trans- 
 lation from and into Greek formed 
 part of the tasks in the school of the 
 grammaticus. 
 
 Although the Romans were by no 
 means a musical people, they were not 
 without capacity for enjoying certain 
 kinds of music, and they did not fail 
 to observe what a powerful influence 
 it was capable of exerting on the 
 mind. Music, however, never ob- 
 tained among them the honourable 
 position it occupied among the 
 Greeks. They enjoyed at a banquet 
 the songs of the female minstrels with 
 their accompaniments on the lyre, and 
 at dramatic performances the choruses 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 121 
 
 of boys and the strains of the tibia or 
 clarionet, and they believed that the 
 inspiriting notes of the trumpet did 
 much towards winning their battles; 
 but the profession of music was in 
 low repute at Rome. In order to 
 show the advantages of a musical 
 education Quintilian^ feels it neces- 
 sary to argue at considerable length, 
 pointing out how in former times no 
 man, whether poet, philosopher, or 
 orator, was regarded as properly edu- 
 cated without it. Plato, he urges, 
 required it of the citizens of his 
 model republic; Lycurgus approved 
 of musical training for the Spartan 
 youth. For the orator it had special 
 advantages; for music consists of 
 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. lo. 
 
122 EDUCATION OF 
 
 rhythm and melody, and what are the 
 modulations and tones of the speaking 
 voice but a sort of melody? The 
 orator must adapt the modulation of 
 his voice to the subject-matter, just as 
 in music different subjects require 
 different melodies. The effeminate 
 and immodest music of the stage, 
 however, Quintilian does not com- 
 mend; the useful kind is that in 
 which the praises of brave men are 
 sung. What the orator needs is a 
 knowledge of the principles of music, 
 which is so powerful an agent in 
 stirring or calming the emotions. 
 From this we can gather that it was 
 the theory rather than the practice of 
 music that was taught in the schools. 
 The position of geometry in school 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 23 
 
 education at Rome was not a promi- 
 nent one. It was recognized that it 
 furnished a valuable intellectual train- 
 ing, but as it was only the elementary 
 part which seemed to have much 
 practical value, the study was not car- 
 ried very far. "Among the Greeks," 
 says Cicero,^ "geometry was in the 
 highest honour, but we have set the 
 limits of this science at its practical 
 applicability in measuring and calcu- 
 lating." Quintilian ^ was disposed to 
 give it a higher importance than was 
 generally accorded to it in his time. 
 He thought that it afforded excellent 
 examples of syllogistic reasoning and 
 was of assistance in exposing fallacies. 
 It had a philosophical and theological 
 
 1 Tusc. Disp. I. 2. 5. 2 instit. Orat. I. 10. o^'j sq. 
 
124 EDUCATION OF 
 
 value also, for when applied to the 
 system of the universe it showed the 
 fixed and ordered courses of the stars 
 and furnished a proof that nothing is 
 fortuitous or unordained. From the 
 space which Quintilian finds it neces- 
 sary to devote to the proof of the 
 elementary fact that the area of a 
 square is greater than that of another 
 rectangle of equal perimeter, we must 
 conclude that geometry was not very 
 carefully studied, and that the twelve 
 books of Euclid did not form part of 
 the school curriculum. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME I 25 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PEDAGOGICAL IDEAS OF THE ROMANS 
 
 We find in Roman writers frequent 
 expressions of the opinion that of the 
 two factors which contribute to the 
 character of a man — nature and edu- 
 cation — the former is much the more 
 important. In the speech for the poet 
 Archias,^ where it is Cicero's object 
 to glorify culture, he is still con- 
 strained to admit that many men have 
 attained high distinction for moral 
 and intellectual qualities without edu- 
 cation, and he can only claim that the 
 1 c. 7. 
 
126 EDUCATION OF 
 
 best results are obtained when to 
 unusual natural talents has been added 
 a systematic cultivation of them. In 
 more than one passage in his philo- 
 sophical works he dwells on the " in- 
 credibilis vis naturse," and although 
 he also points out that education may 
 do much towards correcting natural 
 defects or improving natural gifts, he 
 is plainly of the opinion that without 
 natural talent to work upon education 
 is useless. Similarly Horace declares ^ 
 that a rich vein of talent is essential 
 to success, and that though we may 
 pitchfork nature out ^ she will always 
 find her way back again. Juvenal 
 says that nature is fixed and unchange- 
 able^ and more influential than the 
 1 Ars Poet. 409. 2 Epp. I. 10. 24. s xill. 240. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 127 
 
 diligence of any guardian.^ Accord- 
 ing to Seneca^ nature is importunate 
 (contumax), cannot be overcome, 
 demands her own. Quintilian warns 
 his readers in the preface to his 
 Institutio that his book is as little 
 intended for persons devoid of natural 
 talents as a treatise on agriculture is 
 for a barren waste; and in another 
 place ^ he says that where education 
 and natural talent are present in only 
 a small degree the latter is the more 
 important. He adds that consum- 
 mate orators owe more to education 
 than to nature, just as in a fertile 
 land cultivation will produce more 
 than the mere excellence of the soil 
 itself can ; but that an entirely barren 
 1 X. 302. 2 Ep. 119. 3 n. 19. 
 
125 EDUCATION OF 
 
 soil will yield nothing under the most 
 skilful cultivation. 
 
 These writers, however, were by no 
 means disposed to undervalue the 
 benefits of education when there was 
 a good soil in which to sow the seed. 
 In particular they urged the advantage 
 of beginning the formative process in 
 early childhood, when the mind is 
 still tender and plastic. We have 
 seen how Quintilian strongly advised 
 the greatest diligence on the part of 
 parents from the very first, and how 
 he insisted on the influence which a 
 child's environment had upon his 
 moral and intellectual development. 
 
 When so much stress was laid on 
 the importance of natural endowments, 
 it was only consistent that teachers 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME I 29 
 
 should be expected to consider care- 
 fully the different characters and 
 classes of mind with which they had 
 to deal. "Plurima sunt juvenum 
 discrimina," says Juvenal;^ the para- 
 dox that everybody is born with equal 
 natural gifts and that differences of 
 character are all produced by differ- 
 ences of training found no supporters 
 among the Romans. There were 
 among them, as among us, boys on 
 whom nature seemed to have lavished 
 every intellectual gift, while others 
 showed scarcely a sign of mental 
 ability. The Roman schoolmaster 
 knew what it was to be blamed by 
 parents for the natural stupidity of 
 their son — ^ 
 
 1 Sat. X. 196. 2 Ibid. VII. 158. 
 
 K 
 
130 EDUCATION OF 
 
 Culpa docentis 
 Scilicet arguitur quod lasva in parte mamillae 
 Nil salit Arcadio juveni. 
 
 But his lot was lightened by the fact 
 that there were some youths who 
 seemed to be made of better clay,^ 
 
 quibus arte benigna 
 Et meliore luto finxit prsecordia Titan. 
 
 Cicero frequently urges the teacher to 
 consider the individual dispositions 
 of his pupils. " It is the duty of an 
 intelligent teacher," he remarks in the 
 Brutus,'-^ "to observe in what direction 
 each pupil's mind is naturally borne, 
 and to use his natural bent as a guide 
 in instructing him." It is naturally 
 in Quintilian that we find this ques- 
 
 . 1 Sat. XIV. 33. 2 Brutus LVI. 204. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME I3I 
 
 tion treated with greatest fullness and 
 most strongly emphasized. He says, 
 indeed,^ "that a father ought from the 
 first to form the best hopes of his 
 son; that intelligence and readiness of 
 thought and speech are as natural to 
 man as flying is to birds, so that stupid 
 and unteachable persons are mere 
 monsters." But he adds that there 
 are degrees of ability, and in another 
 place ^ he dwells on the duty of dis- 
 tinguishing between them, and men- 
 tions certain indications by which 
 talent may be discerned in the young. 
 The surest sign of ability, he says, is 
 memory, which is of two kinds, ready 
 apprehension and faithful retention. 
 Next is power of imitation, but imita- 
 1 Instit. Orat. I. 1. 1. 2 md, I. 3. ad init. 
 
132 EDUCATION OF 
 
 tion of what is learnt, not of gait, 
 dress, etc. The boy who excites laugh- 
 ter by mimicry gives little promise of 
 good ability. The really promising 
 boy is one who receives instruction 
 readily, asks for information, and 
 follows rather than tries to lead. The 
 precocious child seldom reaches a 
 productive maturity. He does small 
 things easily, is self-confident, and 
 displays at once all his powers. He 
 can do only that which is nearest to 
 hand, string words together and utter 
 them with unabashed countenance. 
 He accomplishes not much but quickly. 
 He has no true power springing from 
 deep roots; like seed which, sown on 
 the surface of the soil, springs up 
 rapidly and yields a worthless crop of 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 33 
 
 empty ears before the true harvest- 
 time. His precocity is admired at 
 first when compared with his years; 
 afterwards his progress is arrested and 
 he excites wonder no more. 
 
 The next step, Quintilian con- 
 tinues/ is to consider how the differ- 
 ent temperaments are to be treated. 
 Some need to be urged, others are 
 impatient of control; some are re- 
 strained by fear, others only weak- 
 ened; some are best moulded by 
 persistent diligence, in others more 
 is accomplished by impulse. The 
 best boy is he who is aroused by 
 praise, delights in glory, and weeps 
 when defeated. In such an one indo- 
 lence will never be found. Quintilian 
 1 Ibid. I. 3. 6, 7. 
 
134 EDUCATION OF 
 
 does not think ^ that education should 
 be directed solely to the cultivation 
 of the special talents of each pupil, 
 neglecting those studies for which 
 little or no ability is shown, but that 
 a knowledge of the tastes and capaci- 
 ties of a pupil is a useful guide to his 
 teacher. One mind is more adapted 
 to historical studies, another to poe- 
 try, another to law, while some should 
 be directed to rural pursuits. But 
 where nature is deficient, education 
 should endeavour to supply the want. 
 Vices should be checked, the barren 
 soil enriched, and even the good 
 qualities ought to be improved. One 
 pupil may need the spur, another the 
 bit. Very slender abilities should, 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 35 
 
 indeed, be treated indulgently and 
 only guided in the direction in which 
 nature beckons, so that they may the 
 better practise their sole talent. But 
 where the material to work upon is 
 more generously supplied, no kind of 
 excellence must be neglected. The 
 fact that a pupil has one extraordinary 
 talent will not prevent him from culti- 
 vating other talents also. Two things 
 are to be most carefully avoided : first, 
 attempting more than can be accom- 
 plished, and second, diverting a pupil 
 from what he does best to something 
 else for which he is not so well 
 adapted. 
 
 The amount of study required of 
 children at Rome seems to have been 
 at least equal to that demanded in our 
 
136 EDUCATION OF 
 
 own schools. The ancients were thor- 
 oughly convinced of the fact that 
 nothing that is valuable is obtained 
 without labour : 
 
 Nil sine magno 
 Vita labore dedit mortalibus.^ 
 
 But wise teachers were aware of the 
 danger of making children dislike 
 study by overloading them with it, 
 and considered it essential that they 
 should be interested in what they had 
 to learn. Every means was used to 
 induce pupils to devote themselves 
 heartily to their studies. We have 
 mentioned some of the means em-, 
 ployed to interest little children in 
 learning the alphabet.^ With older 
 pupils the chief incentives to study 
 
 1 Horace Sat. I. 9. 59. 2 Supra, p. 47. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME I37 
 
 were those of praise and blame and 
 mutual rivalry. It was customary ^ to 
 arrange pupils in classes, in order of 
 merit, so that those who stood highest 
 recited first. This caused a warm com- 
 petition, and it was thought a great 
 honour to lead the class. At the end 
 of every month there was a new dis- 
 tribution of places according to the 
 merit shown during the month, so that 
 those in the higher places could not 
 afford to relax their diligence, and 
 the others were incited to industry 
 with the hope of removing their 
 disgrace. 
 
 In awarding praise and blame it 
 was recognized that care ought to be 
 taken not to cause undue elation or 
 1 Qjiintilian I. 2. 23. 
 
138 EDUCATION OF 
 
 self-conceit on the one hand, or 
 dejection on the other. ^ It was the 
 teacher's duty to be kindly in correct- 
 ing faults; ^ to praise some points, and 
 pass over others, sometimes making 
 alterations and giving reasons for 
 them, and throwing a light on the 
 subject by inserting something of his 
 own. Different ages required differ- 
 ent treatment in correcting faults. 
 Quintilian used to say to boys who 
 displayed too much boldness and 
 exuberance in their compositions, 
 "I approve of this for the present, but 
 later on I shail not sanction it." Thus, 
 he says, they were pleased with their 
 success, while their judgment was not 
 
 1 Plutarch, De Lib. Educ. XII. 
 
 2 Quintilian II. 4. 12. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 39 
 
 misled. "In correcting mistakes," 
 he remarks elsewhere/ "a. teacher 
 must not be harsh, and never insult- 
 ing ; for many pupils are deterred 
 from their intention of studying by 
 the fact that teachers sometimes scold 
 as if from hatred." 
 
 Another means of enforcing indus- 
 try and preserving good order was the 
 use of corporal punishment, which was 
 generally employed in Roman schools, 
 though the most enlightened educators, 
 as Quintilian and Plutarch, entered 
 an emphatic protest against it. The 
 teacher was entrusted with a parent's 
 authority over the pupils under his 
 charge, and to judge from various 
 scattered references in literature, he 
 1 II. 2. 7. 
 
I40 EDUCATION OF 
 
 made a frequent and liberal use of the 
 parent's privilege of chastising his 
 children. The instrument ordinarily 
 used was a thin rod (ferula, virga), 
 which was . generally applied to the 
 hands. JuvenaP says that he knew 
 what it was to wince as he held out 
 his hand to receive the stroke of the 
 rod, and Martial ^ speaks of the 
 
 " Ferulae tristes, sceptra psedagogorum." 
 
 For more severe punishment it seems 
 to have been applied to a different 
 part of the body. A fresco discovered 
 at Herculaneum shows how the pun- 
 ishment was administered.^ A boy is 
 represented as naked, except that a 
 
 1 I. 15. 2 X. 62. 10. 
 
 3 O. Jahn, quoted by Grasberger, Erziehung 
 und Unterricht, Vol. II., p. loi. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME I4I 
 
 sort of apron is thrown around his 
 waist. He is mounted on the back of 
 another boy, who keeps fast hold of 
 both of his arms, while a third boy, 
 kneeling down, grasps him by the legs 
 so that he is unable to stir. A young 
 man stands by and administers a flog- 
 ging with a switch. " That this young 
 man is in earnest about it is shown 
 by the expression with which he 
 swings the rod (lifting his right leg 
 a little at the same time) and by the 
 cries which the boy who is being 
 punished raises. Further in the back- 
 ground a rather indistinct figure ap- 
 proaches, bringing with him, as it 
 seems, fresh switches." 
 
 Other instruments of punishment 
 were the thongs (scutica, lorum) and 
 
142 EDUCATION OF 
 
 the whip (flagellum) . The former 
 was the less severe and used for 
 smaller offences;^ indeed the flagel- 
 lum was probably not used in schools, 
 but only for punishing slaves. Orbil- 
 ius, Horace's schoolmaster, was noted 
 as a man of harsh temper who used 
 the rod and thong unsparingly. This 
 reputation apparently did not prevent 
 his school from being largely attended, 
 for though he died a poor man, Sue- 
 tonius^ says that he enjoyed consider- 
 able celebrity as a teacher. He had 
 been a soldier in early life, and car- 
 ried the discipline of the camp into 
 the school. 
 
 It is hardly a matter for wonder that 
 
 1 Horace, Sat. I. 3. 119. 2 De Gram. IX. 
 docuit maiore fama quam emolumento. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 43 
 
 the Romans had to wait for men like 
 Quintilian and Plutarch to raise a 
 voice against corporal punishment in 
 the education of children, when we 
 consider the undoubted fact that the 
 rod has some advantages over every 
 other means of maintaining order and 
 enforcing diligence. It is always 
 ready to hand, so that the punish- 
 ment can follow immediately on the 
 offence; the punishment is soon over, 
 but is, nevertheless, of a kind which 
 the pupil is extremely anxious to avoid 
 for the future; it is certainly, in judi- 
 cious hands, a very effective means of 
 discipline; it dispenses with much 
 talking and somehow often carries to 
 the delinquent's mind a more pene- 
 trating conviction that he has done 
 
144 EDUCATION OF 
 
 wrong than many words will produce; 
 it is an argument quite unanswerable 
 by the party to whom it is addressed; 
 and (what has always been one of its 
 strongest, though unspoken, recom- 
 mendations) it affords an immediate 
 and satisfactory alleviation to the in- 
 jured feelings of the teacher. These 
 considerations will account for its 
 long and undisputed sway in the 
 schools of Greece and Rome, and its 
 no less honoured position, until recent 
 times, in the schools of Western 
 Europe and America. It would in- 
 deed seem as if there must have been 
 less necessity for its use in Roman 
 schools than in our own. Roman 
 children, whose early training was not 
 neglected, had impressed on them 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 45 
 
 from their infancy as one of their 
 most imperative duties the obligation 
 of respect for their elders and rever- 
 ence for authority. The child was 
 taught to look on his father and 
 teachers as examples to be imitated, 
 and to seek and profit by their coun- 
 sel. Modesty in speech and action 
 and unquestioning obedience were 
 regarded as a child's chief virtues. 
 Under such circumstances as these 
 one might suppose that the teacher's 
 influence over his pupils, and their 
 awe for him, would have been so great 
 as to dispense with the necessity for 
 the rod. We shall presently see how 
 strongly Plutarch and Quintilian were 
 opposed to it. No doubt corporal 
 punishment was often carried to excess 
 
146 EDUCATION OF 
 
 in their time. We know that it was 
 very extensively employed and that 
 pupils approached their teacher in 
 fear and trembling, so that the oppo- 
 sition of the two authors mentioned 
 may, perhaps, be rather to its preva- 
 lent excessive use than to a judicious 
 and moderate use. Quintilian, also, 
 directs his arguments mainly against 
 corporal punishment used as a means 
 of promoting attention to study and 
 not so much against its use for enforc- 
 ing obedience and discipline. 
 
 The objections of Quintilian and 
 Plutarch are founded on nearly the 
 same considerations. "We ought," 
 says the latter,^ "to lead children to 
 good actions by reason and exhorta- 
 
 1 De Lib. Educ. XII. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 47 
 
 tions, and assuredly not by blows and 
 torture. The latter method befits 
 slaves rather than freemen; those 
 punished become torpid and have a 
 shuddering dislike for exertion, partly 
 on account of the pain of the blows, 
 partly on account of the insult. 
 Praise and blame are better for free- 
 men than any infliction of physical 
 pain." Similarly Quintilian:^ "I am 
 quite opposed to the flogging of pupils, 
 although it is a received custom, of 
 which Chrysippus does not disap- 
 prove. In the first place, because it 
 is unsightly and fit only for slaves, and 
 would be admitted to be an outrage at 
 a different age; in the second place, 
 because if any one is of so ignoble a 
 1 1- 3- 13. 
 
148 EDUCATION OF 
 
 nature as not to be corrected by reproof 
 he will only become hardened by 
 blows, like the most worthless slaves; 
 and further, because there would be 
 no need for this chastisement if there 
 were somebody constantly by the 
 pupil's side to insist on attention to 
 studies. But now the negligence of 
 pedagogues seems to be rectified, not 
 by compelling the boys to do what is 
 right, but by punishing them for not 
 doing it. Besides, if you compel a 
 child by means of the lash, what are 
 you to do with the young man, in 
 whose case intimidation of this kind 
 cannot be employed, and who has 
 harder tasks to learn?" He goes on 
 to mention the risks to morality in- 
 curred by the practice in Roman 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 49 
 
 schools, and concludes with the remark 
 that nobody ought to be entrusted 
 with too much power over an age that 
 is weak and exposed to injury. 
 
 There is little reason to doubt that 
 girls as well as boys attended at least 
 the elementary schools. It can also 
 hardly be doubted that boys and girls 
 attended the same schools together. 
 On this latter point the monument to 
 a schoolmaster in Capua, in which 
 there is carved the figure of an old 
 man sitting on a high throne with a 
 boy on his right and a girl on his left, 
 would seem to be conclusive. The 
 story of Virginia^ shows that at a very 
 early period it was customary for girls 
 to go to school, and there are several 
 
 1 Livy III. 44. 
 
150 EDUCATION OF 
 
 references in literature to the practice, 
 which show that it was kept up in later 
 times. Martial ^ addresses the school- 
 master who woke him up in the early 
 morning as "invisum pueris virgini- 
 busque caput." Girls must have con- 
 tinued attending schools until nearly 
 the age of womanhood, for Virginia 
 was evidently a young woman at the 
 time that she attracted the notice of 
 Appius Claudius, and Martial speaks ^ 
 of a poet's works forming the school- 
 lesson of a "grandis virgo bonusque 
 puer." The instruction of girls in the 
 higher branches of learning was often 
 
 IIX. 68. 2. 2VIII. 3: — 
 
 An iuvat ad tragicos soccum transferre cothurnos 
 
 Aspera vel paribus bella tonare modis ? 
 Prselegat ut tumidus rauca te voce magister, 
 
 Oderit et grandis virgo bonusque puer. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME I51 
 
 conducted after marriage by their hus- 
 bands. The domestic accomplish- 
 ments of weaving and spinning were 
 taught even to the daughters of noble 
 houses. Augustus wore on ordinary 
 occasions no clothes but those which 
 had been made by his sister, wife, 
 daughter, or granddaughters.^ In 
 schools probably girls learned only 
 reading, writing, and arithmetic. But 
 they read at home Greek and Roman 
 literature, so that there were some 
 ladies who wrote poetry and had a 
 reputation for learning. The Gracchi 
 owed much to the cultured mind of 
 their mother Cornelia, and there were 
 other Roman matrons who would not 
 permit household cares to prevent 
 
 1 Suetonius, Aug. 73. 
 
152 EDUCATION OF 
 
 their engaging in artistic and literary 
 studies. Juvenal ^ gives a lively sketch 
 of the learned woman dining out. 
 She makes herself unbearable by talk- 
 ing on nothing but literary topics, 
 comparing Homer and Vergil, recall- 
 ing old verses that nobody else ever 
 heard of, never making mistakes her- 
 self but always correcting the most 
 trivial errors of her friends, and seem- 
 ing to know every book that was ever 
 written. All the other guests, even 
 the schoolmaster and rhetorician, are 
 silenced. An important part of a 
 lady's education was music, both vocal 
 and instrumental, and to this in later 
 times was added dancing. Sempronia, 
 who was in league with the Catilina- 
 
 1 Sat. VI. 434 sq. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 
 
 53 
 
 rian conspirators, was a bel esprit, 
 learned in Roman and Greek litera- 
 ture. She could play the lyre, Sallust ^ 
 says, and had learned to dance almost 
 too attractively. 
 
 1 Cat. 25. 
 
54 EDUCATION OF 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 STATUS OF TEACHERS 
 
 The position of teachers at Rome 
 was not one to excite much envy. 
 Thoughtful men recognized the dig- 
 nity and profound importance of the 
 profession on which so much of the 
 future welfare of the state depended, 
 but it did not enjoy a high estimation 
 in general public opinion. Its ranks 
 were not recruited from the higher 
 classes of society; too often men who 
 found it impossible to earn a living in 
 any other way took to teaching as a 
 last resource. There were, it is true, 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 155 
 
 conspicuous exceptions, when school- 
 masters attained a high reputation and 
 position, but it is noticeable that such 
 cases were spoken of as instances of 
 unusual good fortune. It was possible 
 under the first emperors for school- 
 masters to amass a considerable fort- 
 une, but it sometimes also happened 
 that a well-known teacher like Orbilius 
 spent his last days in a garret. This 
 Orbilius wrote a book under the title 
 of HeptaXy-^?, in which he complained 
 of the wrongs which the members of 
 his profession suffered from the neglect 
 and unreasoning ambition of parents. 
 Juvenal^ describes the various vexa- 
 tions that attended the life of the 
 teacher of rhetoric or grammar. It 
 
 1 Sat. VII. 150 sq. 
 
156 EDUCATION OF 
 
 was the teacher's hard lot to listen to 
 a class declaiming over and over again 
 on the same hackneyed subjects, to 
 endure the reluctance of parents to 
 pay their sons' fees, and their fault- 
 finding when their stupid boy was not 
 converted into a brilliant orator. At 
 the same time the schoolmaster was 
 expected to be a faultless speaker, to 
 know history and all literature as well 
 as the nails of his fingers, to have the 
 most trivial and obscure mythological 
 details on the tip of his tongue, and 
 in addition to watch over his pupils 
 like a father and mould their morals 
 as one might a waxen face. Then at 
 the end of the year he might expect 
 as his reward a fee no larger than that 
 given to a successful gladiator. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 157 
 
 It was usual for teachers to have a 
 stated fee for their services, but in 
 some cases they preferred to depend 
 on the gratitude of their pupils. In 
 republican Rome it was considered 
 rather disreputable to make the treas- 
 ures of the mind a matter of merchan- 
 dise. Spurius Carvilius, a freedraan 
 who lived in the middle of the third 
 century B.C., is said to have been the 
 first to demand and receive pay for 
 -instruction. Suetonius^ mentions a 
 certain Staberius Eros, a friend of 
 Cicero, who was said to have taught 
 gratis the children of persons pro- 
 scribed by Sulla. Juvenal's account 
 of the poor emoluments of teachers 
 is probably overdrawn. He himself 
 
 1 De Gram. 13. 
 
158 EDUCATION OF 
 
 refers^ to the almost princely wealth 
 of Quintilian, and only half a century 
 earlier, M. Verrius Flaccus received 
 a salary of one hundred thousand ses- 
 terces (about ^4500) from Augustus 
 for educating his grandchildren.^ Q. 
 Remmius Palsemon, who lived under 
 Tiberius and Claudius, had an in- 
 come equal to ^18,000 from his school. 
 Vespasian paid an annual salary of 
 ^4500 from the exchequer to Greek 
 and Latin rhetors. The high and 
 universally respected character of a 
 teacher like Quintilian, whom a 
 popular poet^ could without flattery 
 address as 
 
 Quintiliane vagae moderator summe iuventse, 
 Gloria Romanse, Quintiliane, togse, 
 
 1 Sat. VII. 188. 2 Suet. De Gram. 17. 
 
 3 Martial II. 90. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 59 
 
 must have done much to elevate in 
 popular estimation the profession to 
 which he belonged. 
 
 The Emperor Diocletian made an 
 attempt to relieve distress in his time 
 by fixing the maximum price which 
 might be demanded for commodities, 
 and the maximum remuneration which 
 the members of different professions 
 and callings might ask for their ser- 
 vices. The following is the scale of 
 fees which he arranged for teachers : ^ 
 
 Denarii 
 per month. 
 Pedagogues (who conducted children 
 
 to school) 50 
 
 Reading-masters 50 
 
 Arithmetic masters 75 
 
 Grammatici and teachers of geometry . 200 
 Rhetoricians 250 
 
 1 Taken from Grasberger, Erziehung und 
 Unterricht, Vol. II., p. 586. 
 
l6o EDUCATION OF 
 
 These were the fees paid by each 
 pupil. According to Grasberger, the 
 denarius had at this time scarcely one- 
 eighth of its original value, so that fifty 
 denarii would mean at most ^1.20, 
 and at this rate even the rhetorician 
 could receive only about ^6.00 per 
 month for each pupil. If this esti- 
 mate is correct, it would be impossible 
 for a teacher, even of a large school, 
 to realize nearly as large an income as 
 some teachers enjoyed under the early 
 emperors. But it must be remem- 
 bered that the figures fixed by Diocle- 
 tian were "hard-times prices." 
 
 As has already been mentioned, 
 the moral qualifications of a teacher 
 received from the Romans no less 
 careful attention than his intellectual 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME l6l 
 
 gifts. The first consideration for 
 parents in selecting a school for their 
 children was the moral character of 
 the teacher, and the " severitas, pudor 
 at castitas " ^ of his school. There 
 seems to have been no lack of school- 
 masters with sufficient mental acquire- 
 ments, but it was more difficult to find 
 one perfectly satisfactory in moral 
 character. Palaemon, whom we have 
 already mentioned, was a man of 
 notoriously bad character^ whom 
 Tiberius thought utterly unfit to have 
 charge of the education of boys and 
 young men, but his vigorous mental 
 qualities attracted a large attendance 
 of pupils. His strong points were 
 a remarkable memory and a ready 
 
 1 Pliny, Ep. III. 3. 2 Suetonius, De Gram. 23. 
 
1 62 EDUCATION OF 
 
 tongue. He indulged in such luxuri- 
 ous habits (he is said to have bathed 
 many times a day) that he outran his 
 income, although he had a property 
 that yielded him nearly as much as 
 his school. 
 
 "The teacher," says Quintilian,^ 
 "ought before all to assume the feel- 
 ings of a parent towards his pupils, 
 and regard himself as succeeding to 
 the position of those whose children 
 are confided to his care. He must 
 neither have nor permit vices. He 
 must be strict but not gloomy, courte- 
 ous but not lax, lest in the one case 
 he produce hatred, or in the other 
 contempt. He ought often to speak 
 of what is honourable and good; for 
 
 III. 2. 4. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 63 
 
 the oftener he admonishes, the more 
 rarely will he have to punish. He 
 must be anything but hasty-tempered, 
 and yet not conceal faults which need 
 correction; he must teach with sim- 
 plicity, must be patient of labour, and 
 diligent rather than immoderate in his 
 demands. He should readily answer 
 questions, and question silent pupils. 
 ... He ought every day to say 
 something, or rather many things, 
 which his hearers may carry away with 
 them. Though examples for imita- 
 tion are amply supplied by the reading 
 lessons, yet the viva vox gives more 
 substantial nourishment, especially 
 when it is the voice of a teacher 
 whom rightly trained pupils both love 
 and reverence. It can hardly be 
 
164 EDUCATION OF 
 
 described how much more readily we 
 imitate those whom we like." 
 
 It was the opinion of some that the 
 elementary branches could be taught 
 by instructors of second-rate standing 
 as effectively as by teachers of the first 
 rank, or with even better results; first, 
 because pupils found it easier to imitate 
 and understand the inferior teacher, 
 and secondly, because a teacher of 
 this kind was less likely to regard the 
 drudgery of elementary instruction as 
 beneath him. Quintilian^ holds a 
 contrary view. It is important, he 
 says, to have what is best instilled 
 into the mind from the beginning, 
 and it is difficult to get rid of errors 
 that have once taken root. It would 
 
 1 II. 3. 2 sq. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 1 65 
 
 not matter so much if inferior teachers 
 gave only deficient and not erroneous 
 instruction. Moreover, the man who 
 disdains elementary instruction does 
 not deserve the name of teacher, and 
 he who is eminent in the higher 
 branches must also be superior in 
 those elementary studies which were 
 the necessary preparation for his pres- 
 ent high distinction. Nobody would 
 say that another sculptor could have 
 executed the ornamental details of the 
 Zeus of Phidias better than Phidias 
 himself, or that an eminent physician 
 could not cure slight ailments. 
 
 One qualification for teaching, on 
 which great emphasis was laid, was 
 the ability to speak good Latin. For 
 the Roman who intended practising 
 
l66 EDUCATION OF 
 
 at the bar or taking part in public life 
 it was essential to success that he 
 should be able to speak correctly and 
 well. Hence the attention paid, as 
 we have seen, to the language used by 
 the nurses and early associates of 
 children. Towards the close of the 
 Republic there were two kinds of Latin 
 spoken at Rome, that of cultivated 
 society and that of common life.^ 
 Caesar came forward as the champion 
 of pure Latinity and the foe of every 
 foreign word; and Cicero, who re- 
 called the style of his day from its 
 Asiatic tendencies to a form more in 
 accordance with the genius of the 
 language, left in his published works 
 a literary treasure-house in which 
 1 Mommsen, Roman History, Vol. IV. p. 675. 
 
CHILDREN AT ROME 167 
 
 Latin writers and speakers long con- 
 tinued to find their models. The 
 distinguished Roman teachers were 
 also often distinguished authors. 
 Their most frequent fault was not 
 ignorance but pedantry, which is 
 often charged against them by their 
 own contemporaries. Against Quin- 
 tilian, indeed, the most eminent of 
 them all, this charge could never 
 justly be brought.^ His admirable 
 work on the training of the orator is 
 a monument of sound sense and broad 
 
 1 Stein (Bildungswesen der alten Welt, p. 318) 
 says that Quintilian had no opinions of his own, 
 and that his value for us lies in the very fact that 
 he confined himself to recording the opinions of 
 his predecessors in pedagogy. To perceive the 
 injustice of this criticism, nothing more is needed 
 than to read the first three chapters of the first 
 book of the Institutio. 
 
1 68 CHILDREN AT ROME 
 
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 was written, a strikingly humane and 
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