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 Copy 1 ^H^ THE 
 
 THEORY AND PRACTICE 
 
 OF 
 
 ANCIENT EDUCATION 
 
 BEING 
 
 Z\)e Cboncellor's €nglisl) Cssay 
 1885 
 
 BV 
 
 WALTER hOBHJUSE, B. A. 
 
 I i.LLOW O:- HKRTFOUi) COLLEGE 
 EORMhRLY SCHOLAR OF NKW COLLEGE 
 
 ANASTATIC REPRINT OF THE EDITION OXFORD 1885 
 
 NEW YORK, 1910 
 G. E. STECHERT & CO. 
 
Book rj 4D 
 
THE 
 
 THEORY AND PRACTICE 
 
 OF 
 
 ANCIENT EDUCATION 
 
 BEING 
 
 Z\)e Cf)Qncellor's €nglisl) essay 
 1885 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER HOBHOUSE, B. A. 
 
 FELLOW OF HERTFORD COLLEGE 
 FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF NEW COLLEGE 
 
 ANASTATIC REPRINT OF THE EDITION OXFORD 1885 
 
 NEW YORK, 1910 
 G. E. STECHERT & CO. 
 
v^'^; 
 
 ^" 
 
 11 
 
 I 1 & 'fVC? 
 
(0 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 If *a great book is a great evil/ a small book is, possibly, 
 a greater still ; nor can there be any excuse for the publication 
 of a prize Essay like the present, save an excessive deference 
 to custom.. I have thought it better to publish the present 
 pages in the original nakedness of their Essay form, rather 
 than to simulate the appearance of an exhaustive treatise on 
 Ancient Education. My aim has been to give a connected 
 account of the main features of Ancient Education with illus- 
 trations from original writers, and I have ventured to add 
 some remarks on Modem Education which I fancied, perhaps 
 wrongly, to be not altogether out of place. For the many 
 obvious inadequacies of the Essay I can only urge as a very 
 partial excuse the fact that it was written during some months 
 of foreign travel, with scanty opportunities for referring to 
 many authorities of whom I should have been glad to make 
 more use. 
 
 I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. J. L.Struckan Davidson, 
 of Balliol, for the references to Polybius on p. 15, and p. 31. 
 
 Oxford, July 1885. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 I. IN^TRODUCTORY 
 
 11. EDUCATION IN GREECE 
 § I. Its Divisions 
 
 ^ 2. (NFANCV AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 § 3. Instruction in yvfivaariKTi 
 
 § 4. Education in fxovaiKT], (a) ypafifiara 
 
 §5. „ „ O) Music and Drawing 
 
 §6. Education of Character and Manners. 
 
 § 7. Education in Greek States other than Athens 
 
 § 8. Female Education 
 
 § 9. Higher Education (a) Sophists and Rhetors 
 § 10, „ „ (3) Schools of Philosophy 
 
 § II. Greek theories about Education . 
 
 in. EDUCATION AT ROME 
 
 § I. Education before the Punic Wars 
 
 § 2. Rise of Greek Influence . . . • • 
 
 § 3. Education in time of Cicero, (a) Early Years 
 
 § 4.. Education in time of Cicero (cont.), (/3) Grammar and 
 
 Rhetoric • • 
 
 § 5. Education in time of Cicero {cont), (y) Young Manhood 
 § 6. Education in time of Cicero {cord,), (5) Physical Edu 
 
 cation . . 
 
 § 7. Education under the Empire .... 
 § 8. Quintilian . 
 
 rV. COMPARISON OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN SYSTEMS 
 V. EDUCATION. ANCIENT AND MODERN . • • ' 
 
 fACE 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 5 
 9 
 II 
 12 
 14 
 16 
 r6 
 20 
 22 
 
 29 
 
 29 
 
 32 
 34 
 
 36 
 38 
 
 40 
 41 
 44 
 
 49 
 
 51 
 
ANCIENT EDUCATION. 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ' What sculpture is to the block of marble, education is to the human 
 soul.' — Addison, 
 
 In attempting a discussion of the principles and the practice of 
 Ancient Education we are met at starting by the question, What 
 is Education? Where are we to draw the dividing line between 
 the process which prepares us for life, and the life for which we 
 are thus prepared ? Are we to reckon the training of moral and 
 physical qualities on an equal footing with the intellectual studies 
 which in modern times we are perhaps most prone, to associate 
 immediately with the word 'Education'? We are not indeed 
 called upon, at this stage at all events, to consider different 
 theories as to the true end of Education ; but we should be neg- 
 lecting an important side of the enquiry if we did not give a 
 liberal interpretation to the word. That such an interpretation 
 was given by the Greeks and Romans to their equivalent words, 
 '■naibfia' and ' institutio/ is evident, not from a few passages, but 
 from the whole tone and spirit of their writings and discussions 
 on the subject. We see it on the one hand in the prominence of 
 yvfivaartKt], on the other in the importance attached to edianos ^ as 
 a factor in shaping a good moral character. To understand ancient 
 education we must approach it from this point of view : and if we 
 do so, it at once becomes plain that education is inseparably 
 bound up with all that is deepest in national life, national charac- 
 ter, and national history. Education is both a cause and an 
 eftect: it is the index of the moral state of the family, of the 
 vitality or decay of religion, of the growth or arrest of culture: 
 it is at me same time shaping the coming generation, and with 
 it the whole destiny of a people. If there is any one lesson that 
 the history of Rome teaches us, it is that national prosperity 
 cannot coexist with moral decay, and in tracing the course of 
 Roman education we find this moral decay writ large, beyond 
 possibility of mistake. ' The Empire perished for want of men,' — 
 in other words, from the immorality of society ; immorality first 
 producing and then aggravated by faulty education. Similarly on 
 the intellectual side we perceive the connection between educa- 
 tion and literature ; in the earliest stages there is no culture, for 
 
 • Arist (Eth. x) reckons it with <piaK and 8«5ox^ as an element in morality. 
 
 B 
 
2 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 there is no literature to use as materiaJ for culture ; education and 
 literature rh^ pari passu, and are mutually dependent. 
 
 ' Education,' says Paley, ' in the most extensive sense of the 
 word may comprehend every preparation made in our youth for 
 the rest of our lives.' Such too is the best interpretation of the 
 word for the purposes of our enquiry. 
 
 To go further and attempt any definition of 'Ancient' maybe 
 thought dangerous, more especially in Oxford. Yet, for purposes 
 of classification and arrangement, divisions are necessary, even 
 though artificial and shallow. Education, like History, may be 
 one and indivisible, and yet have its turning-points, its epochs, 
 its ebb and flow. The most satisfactory line of division may 
 probably be found in the spread of Christianity over the Roman 
 Empire. For whilst there is a certain continuity both of practice 
 and of theoi-y, and though the study of classical authors continues 
 to form so large a part of the education of to-day, there was too 
 complete a change in the leading ideas and in the moral atmos- 
 phere of sociery, and more especially in. the aims of the chief 
 educating class, not to have a paramount effect on the educational 
 system. At the same time also the proportion of the educated 
 class to the whole population decreases, as the Northern invaders 
 settle in ever increasing numbers on the territories of Rome, till 
 by a gradual process learning becomes the monopoly of a class, and 
 culture is well-nigh totally extinguished, 
 
 'Ancient' being thus limited in point of time, it remains to 
 limit it in space. By the intrinsic value of their systems and 
 theories, as well as by the more abundant evidence as to their 
 nature, our attention is chiefly drawn to the two great countries 
 of Greece and Rome. Of the educational views and customs of 
 other nations of antiquity we have little knowledge, but our ignor- 
 ance need cause us no great regret. The Persians we know, on 
 the authority of Herodotus, were taugtit to ride, to shoot, and to 
 speak the truth; among the Jeivs non-professional education was 
 probably confined to studies connected with the Scriptures : in 
 Egypt, according to Plato, science was taught in the shape of 
 geometi7 and astronomy ; but the system was stereotyped and 
 unprogressive, if we may credit Plato's statement that the ' patterns 
 of music, dancing, and painting have been fixed there for 10,000 
 years, and no others are allowed '.' 
 
 Limiting our enquiry to the education of classical antiquity, it 
 will be best to exhibit, in some detail and with illustrations from 
 the original authorities sufiicient to render the picture fairly com- 
 plete, the systems of education which prevailed in the ancient 
 world, and the theories projected for their amendment. We shall 
 then be able to form a judgment of their strong and of their weak 
 points ; to compare the main features of Greek education with 
 that of Rome, and to contrast ancient education as a whole with 
 more modern views. It may be that in so doing amongst much 
 
 " Laws, 656. 
 
Education in Greece. 
 
 that IS adapted only to a small city state and to a stage of society 
 less complex than our own, amongst much that disgusts and repdi 
 we may hnd some customs of which we regret the disappearance 
 and some ideas that we might labour to restore. The old things 
 have passed away, but the monuments of ancient intellect and 
 character may repay investigation as well as the ruins of stone the 
 work of men's hands. ' 
 
 11. EDUCATION IN GREECE 
 § 1. Its Divisions. 
 
 Kilot roivw rilv ipxaiav vaiitluv dn 8U«e<ro,— Ar. Nui. 961 
 
 . Jr*" ^\l ^?r ^' Of succeeding generations the ' men who fought 
 \ru^u ^""'"^^^ ^" '"^^^^ ^^ ^'""'"^ ^"^ simplicity and bravery 
 
 which their own age, in its supposed degeneracy, could only imitate 
 at a distance. Aristophanes attributes the qualities which distin- 
 guished tbeMapa0<^v6fi.axm to the old system of education the 
 apxala nathda, which in his opinion was being fast supplanted by 
 the sophistic instruction fashionable in his time, to the niin of all 
 robustness both of intellect and character \ Of the extent of the 
 ordinary system, and of its aim and its principles, we have suffi- 
 cient m^ns of judging. Our authorities are referring generally to 
 Athens, but the same features apparently prevailed in other Greek 
 states with the exception of Sparta. 
 
 The ordinary education was usually classified under two heads 
 --A«^i/<rt/c7, and yuMra^ri^^2; the one directed to the improvement 
 of the mmd the other to that of the body. Mov<r^Ki^, however, had 
 a specialised as well as a general sense, and so in Aristotle we get 
 
 fat^er'h^^m f '''"' ^'^''«'^^-^' '^--'"^ ypd^^fu^ra^^ind ypa^.K^; fhe 
 latter, he remarks, was not universal 3. 
 
 Thus the ordinary education of an Athenian in the time of 
 
 J^ericles consisted in yv;/pa<m.i and the two divisions of uovciK^ 
 
 music and letters. We have evidence that education was held to 
 
 be of the greatest importance, and was widespread. In the Per- 
 
 «an Wars, when the refugees from Athens sought for shelter at 
 
 1 roezen. we hear of arrangements being immediately made for the 
 
 mstruction ot their children ^ and Mitylene once punished the 
 
 revolt of a colony by forbidding education ^ When prosperity 
 
 \ZT^ *« Greece after the Persian Wars more attention seems to 
 
 have been devoted to education, and new experiments were tried « 
 
 bome of these were short-lived, and no great change came over 
 
 education till the appearance of the Sophists. 
 
 « Ad V H ^il^'^P ""' :'-"^r'>''J''r yP<^<t>^>'^- * Plut. Themis, to. 
 
 Aust. Poj. V. (Via.) 6. II fpoytjt^ariaeivres wdar,, ijnroyro ^aOn-ico': 
 
 B 2 
 
4 Theory and Practice of A ncient Education. 
 
 Before proceeding to examine in detail the course of training 
 in gymnastic and music, it may be well to say something of the 
 early years of a Greek, and the management of children in the 
 family. 
 
 § 2. Infancy and Childhood. 
 
 Certainly custom Is most fjtrrfect when il beginnelh m young years ; this we" 
 call education, which is in effect but early custom.' — Bacon. 
 
 The management of children in the earlier stages of their exist- 
 ence naturally presents us with fewer contrasts to modern society. 
 To this, however, there is one striking exception — the recognised 
 power of the father to decide whether the ofispring should or should 
 not live. Infanticide and exposure were only the practical corollary 
 from the authority of the paterfamilias, whose property the child 
 was held to be : nor is there any rea.son to doubt that they were 
 largely practised, wnere considerations of poverty or convenience 
 suggested their advisability. Weakly infants were especially treated 
 in this manner, and the custom no doubt accounts partially for the 
 rarity of large families, which has been noticed as prevailing in 
 Greek society. Supposing the infant to have survived this danger 
 and to have been ' taken up by his or her father at the a/u0t8po'/u,ia 
 on the fifth day after birth, when the child was carried round the 
 hearth •, there was not. as far as we can judge, any lack of parental 
 affection in the Greek character : love of children is as prominent 
 as we should expect it to be, both in the Homeric poems and in 
 tragedy. Classical literature does not unfortunately throw much 
 light on the Greek nursery and the women's apartments, where the 
 first few years of the child's life were spent. In the upper classes 
 it apparently became unusual for mothers to suckle their own child- 
 ren, though the practice is recommended by Plutarch as natural and 
 beneficial ^, At Athens Spartan nurses seem to have been the 
 fashion ; apparently it was thought that they would make the child 
 harder ; foreign nurses were not in demand, since foreign languages 
 were not a part of education. On the StxtirTj presents were made 
 to the child, and the name was given ; sometimes the naming was 
 a matter of dispute between the parents '^ Of the apparatus of 
 babyhood we have some slight notices. Cradles [KKivlhia) are not 
 mentioned till Plutarch ; dandling in the arms was prevalent then 
 as now * ; lullabies ^ {&avKa\r\\iaTa) were used ; baubles (TrtptStpaia) 
 were hung round the neck, and used as yvooptaixaTa ^ and among 
 the earliest toys we find rattles (TrAarayat), the invention of Archy- 
 tas ; go-carts (aixd^iba) "^^ and dolls [Kopai) usually made of clay *, 
 such as have oeen discovered in the tombs of young children at 
 Corinth and elsewhere in Greece. 
 
 » Plat. Theaet. i6o. » Plut. de Ednc. Pocr. 5. 
 
 ' Ar. Nub. 61 trfpi ToivSftarot Sf) 'vrtvBtv i\.QtSopotifit$a. 
 
 * Plat. Legg- p. 790 iv roTy ifKaKait atl atiovaau. * Theocr. Id. xxiv. 6. 
 
 * Plut. Theseus 4. '' Nub. 864 Tohrov 'vptAfirjv ffot Ataaion afia^iSa. 
 
 * Plat. Theaet. 146 tttjKus KopoTtKaQaiv. 
 
Education in Greece. 
 
 Coming to the period of early childiiood, we have preserved to 
 us the names of a number of toys and games ^. Among these were 
 the hoop {Tpiixo<i), tops of various kinds {iSeixjBi^, (rrpofx^os), the toss- 
 ing of pebbles and shells [-nevraKidiCeiv, ocrrpaKivba), ' ducks and 
 drakes ' (eiroo-TpaKio-juo's), spinning coins (xaA(tin-ju.o's), flying beetles 
 {[xr]\oK6v9Ti), blindman's buff (xaA^r/ fxvla), and several different 
 games with balls. The street seems sometimes to have been the 
 scene of these sports ^. Sometimes we find a father playing with 
 his children to amuse them ^ Nursery tales then, as now, formed an 
 important feature in the young life (ypaQv (TirOoir) />it5f>oi); they were 
 chiefly mythological, and thus came in for Plato's censure as instil- 
 ling low views of the gods*. Various bugbears were invoked to 
 frighten naughty children, of which some naities are preserved^. Be- 
 sides this frightening, actual castigation appears to have been ap- 
 plied. Sometimes a slipper was used for the purposed Attention 
 was often paid to children's manners ; they were taught to bo seen 
 and not heard ', and to pay respect to their parents and elders .- nor, 
 we may believe, was thereverence due tochildren entirely neglected*. 
 Actual instruction during these years seldom went beyond what 
 was picked up from nursery tales and the conversation ot elders. 
 School life began young, as, owing to the existence of small city 
 communities, liaj scJiooling prevailed. Seven seems to have been 
 the age recommended by theorists for beginning school life, but we 
 may suppose that in actual practice the age varied with the for- 
 wardness of the pupil. Let us follow the pupil, ov ^a\i.fv waiSeueir. 
 to school and to his gymnastic exercises 
 
 § 3. Instruction in yv/xi^aa-TiK^. 
 
 ■ijv Taiira iroijjs ayu </»^dC« 
 
 Kai Ttpus TovToi<! irportix'.l'' '"'•' "ow, 
 
 ff*«s uf« orrjOoi Xmapdy 
 
 Xpoidv XivK^v, wfiovi fiiyaKov, 
 
 yXSiTTav liatav — Ar. Nuh 1009 a(| 
 
 Despite of numerous incidental allusions, our knowledge of 
 Greek education is so fragmentary that it is uncertain whether 
 gymnastic training went on at the same time that a boy was going 
 to school or not, and, if not, which was put first. Plato' advises 
 gymnastic training from six or seven till ten, followed- by instruc- 
 tion in ypdfjLuaTu, but he does not say whether or no he wished gym- 
 nastic to go on concurrently, nor what was the usual course 
 Piautus speaks of both as going on in the ^^ame day "\ but it is diffi- 
 cult to say how far his picture is true to Greek life Here, per 
 
 » Chiefly in Pollux. ' Plut. Alcib. i. * Pint. Af;esaaiis 25 
 
 * Plat. Rep. 7,77, Laws 887. ^ E.g. Akkw, fiopfidu, aK<f>ir6j, \afiia, turtovcfa 
 
 * Lacian. Philop. 28. * flat. Rep. atyai vfotrepiuv napa vptaliuripoiy 
 " Cf. Theocr. xv. 11 (Gorgo and Praxnioe) tw imhkSi vapiouros. 
 
 * Rep. Book iii. 
 
 '" Plaut. Bacchides iii 3. 23. Aristotle is apparently against carrying on both 
 together, Pol. v. (viii.) 4-. 
 
6 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 haps, it may be convenient to take the ' corpus sanum ' as the pre- 
 cedent condition of the ' mens sana,' and first to discuss the train- 
 ing of the gymnasium and palaestra, and the other sports which 
 went to make up the physical training of the Greek. 
 
 The exact relation of the palaestra to the gymnasium has been 
 disputed. According to Krause's theory, the former was intended 
 for boys, the latter for young men : the palaestra was the private 
 enterprise of the irat8oT^i/37js, the gymnasia were built by the State 
 for public use. Becker pointed out serious objections to this theory, 
 quoting passages to prove the presence of boys in the gymnasia ^ 
 If it was the case that boys practised in the gymnasia, we must 
 suppose that they used a separate part of the building or went there 
 only at certain hours of the day, as the law quoted by Aeschines * 
 shows that attempts were made to prevent the presence of boys and 
 men at the same time. Young boys would be accompanied to the 
 palaestra and gymnasium, as to the school, by a 7rai8aya»yo5— always 
 a slave, and often not one of the best character ^, whose duty it was 
 to prevent them from getting into mischief and from forming un- 
 desirable acquaintances. The palaestra, as its name shows us, was 
 a wrestling school ; the gymnasium included grounds for running, 
 archery, and javelin practice, and usually had baths attached to it. 
 Vitruvius gives a description of a gymnasium, probably of that of 
 Naples, which may have differed in some respects from the earlier 
 Greek type. It is difficult to follow the whole of his description, 
 but there was apparently a lafge open peristyle, 300 feet square, 
 used for exercises * ; opening out of this was a large Ephebeion ; 
 near this were cold and warm baths, and exedrae or saloons, with 
 seats for the rhetoricians and philosophers^. There was also a 
 stadium or race-course, where foot-races took place. The buildings 
 were often very ornate, and were adorned with statues of gods and 
 heroes, and altars where sacrifices took place on festivals. There 
 were three at Athens, the Lyceum, the Academy, and the Cynos- 
 arges ; these were placed under the care of ten yvfxviwlapxoi. The 
 office was one of the regular liturgies, and annual; the gymnasi- 
 archs superintended the buildings, and could remove from them 
 philosophers or teachei-s of whom they disapproved. They were 
 assisted by inferior officers (wTroKoo-fx/jTo?, etc.), and there was a staff 
 of instructors {-naihoTpi^ai and yvyivadTai). Probably the usual train- 
 ing of an Athenian youth would comprise the -neirradkov. leaping, 
 running, throwing the JiVkos, throwing the spear, and wrestling, in 
 which a contest was held at Olympia. Boxing and the nayKpanov 
 
 ' Ar. Aves 141 vain ifpaios a-no yvfivauiov, Aesch. Timarch. 35, Luc. Navig. 4, 
 Antiph. De Cacd. Herod. 661 (of a (tupaKiov^ ntXtjiuv fitrri rebv j^Xrvon- 6,K0vri^uv iwi 
 tw yvfivaaiqr {fitipaictov however, appears to have been ust'd of later boyhood ) 
 
 " Aesch. Timarch. p. 38 fit) t(iar<v rots imip riiv tmv itaibcov ^KiKiav oiaiy tiffitvai 
 ratv traibw tvdov 6vrwf. 
 
 * Plat, l.ysis 208, Plut. de Educ. Puer. 7 AvSpdnoSof olvoXrj-nrw «cai \lvyov. 
 
 * This is apparently the ai-Xi^ of Plato's Lysis (ol fxiv rroXAot iv -rrt avXri 4rai(ov 
 
 * Cf. Euthyd. 271, Lysis passim, Theaet i6q AaKtSoffjm'ioi Anitvai fi airoivtaOo. 
 KtXtvovatr. 
 
Ediuation in Gt^eece. 
 
 were, we are told, forbidden at Sparta, and were less generally 
 practised than the other exercises. Whether boys were trained on 
 any particular diet, like the professional athlete, we do not know ; 
 indeed we know little of the athlete's diet ; though from one or two 
 passages we may infer that a heavy meat diet met with some favour 
 among the athletes of that day \ as among those of the present. 
 -VThe exorcises of the gymnasia were thought to be best performed 
 ■without the hindrance of clotiung, and Greek sentiment, though 
 apparently at first opposed to this practice, soon becarne reconciled 
 to it*. According to Pausanias '^, married women were not allowed 
 to be spectators at Olympia, and it is doubtful whether such was 
 the custom in any Greek state with the exception of Sparta. Private 
 gymnasia appear to have been the fashion among rich men *, just 
 as afterwards at Rome gymnasia and palaestrae are found among 
 the luxurious adjuncts of a nobleman's villa. 
 
 We may now leave details to consider the effect of this, the 
 most prominent, side of Greek physical education. The training 
 of the gymnasium and palaestra and the great contests at the 
 public festivals of Greece, on which the aspirations of the successful 
 athlete were centred, were an insoluble problem to the barbarian, 
 and were seen by the Greek to form a distinctive feature in his 
 national life*. The Romans emphatically condemned them, and 
 their condemnation was anticipated by some few amongst Greek 
 thinkers. Aristotle notices that they were frequently carried too far, 
 interfering with the growth o{ the body, and making men brutal^. 
 Plato remarks that the voXvaapKia of the athlete interfered with 
 mental work^. Euripides^ in a well-known Fragment, complains 
 of the uselessne.ss of athleticism as well as of the exaggerated im- 
 portance attached to it*. Phtlapoemen translated his dislike of it 
 into deed^, and would have none of it. Others objected to it, 
 and not without ground, on the score of morality, from the peculiar 
 dangers which attended the Greek palaestra. 
 
 -f- Regarded as an instrument to produce bodily health '° and 
 physique this gymnastic training was undoubtedly efficient up to a 
 certain point. The body claimed its due share in education; 
 
 * Cf. Plat. Rep. i iii discussing the ' interest of the stronger,' 338 C, D. 
 
 ' Plat. Rep. 45J oh no\vs jipdvos dip' o5 i66icrt rots "FXKrjaiv alaxpoL t'lvai itai ytKoia 
 . . . yv/jwoiis dvdpai 6pS.(t0cu. 
 '" Pausan. v. 6. 8. 
 
 * Xen, de Rep. Ath. 2. Cu xai yvfivaata lea/ Xovrpd roh vKovaiois iariv '5ta tvioti. 
 
 ' See especially Lucian, Anacharsis 24 seq. Anacharsis is represented as discussing 
 with Solon the efficacy of this training in time of war. Solon defends it on this 
 gronnd, and also as part of a larger plan— the koivos a-ywv irtpi (vdaiftoyiai. 
 
 * .Arist. Pol. V. (viii.) 4 Aw/SdO/ttHK ra rt dirj Kal rfiv av^rjatv. 
 
 \ Rep- 462- , . , , 
 
 " Eur. Fragm. 84. Kaiciuv ydp ovran fo/piwv naO' EKKdSa | oiiSiy KaKi6v iariv &0Kr}Toiv 
 
 yifovs .... irortpa naxovvTai noKffuoiciv iv X'P"'*' i BioKovi ex**'"''** ^ 5i' damiiuv x*/** 
 
 OeivovTtf iK^aXovai itoKffiiovi irdrpai ; 
 
 * Plat. Philop. 3 naaaj' ABKijaiy t(f0aXtv us rd xprfdifiwrara tSk aufi&Twy tt tows 
 Afaynatovt dySn/ct ixprjcra itoiovaav. 
 
 "" The gymnasia were dedicated to Apollo, the God of Healing, Plut. Symp. viii. 
 4- 5- 
 
8 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 constant and regular exercise was the rule, and was viewed as 
 serious work, not as mere relaxation. So far it was superior to 
 any system which neglected physical education as a trifling matter, 
 but probably inferior to the system of out-door games prevalent in 
 the England of to-day, both in the general effect on health, and in 
 the fostering of habits of discipline and self-reliance."^ As a direct 
 training for warfare gymnastic was no doubt inadequate ; but this 
 was not its purpose, and in every state it was supplemented by drill 
 and military exercise. In developing symmetry of form and that 
 refined perception of beautiful form which raises Greek sculpture 
 above the plastic art of any other nation, there is no doubt that the 
 gymnasia were largely operative; unfortunately there is equally little 
 doubt that they favoured the growth of tlie vice which leaves so 
 black a stain on the Greek character^ An attempt was made to 
 deal with the evil by a stringent law regulating the presence of 
 men in the gymnasia^, but this appears to have become a dead 
 letter, for there was little public opinion to back it up. Theo- 
 phrastus^ represents the babbler of his day using them as a lounge, 
 and interrupting the boys at their lessons. Short of this graver 
 vice, they were productive both of idleness and of quarrels^; here 
 and there a Socrates might fmd in them his opportunity to con- 
 vince the young Athenian world of ignorance or of sin ; generally, 
 however, they must have contributed to that ' corruption of youth ' 
 which was so groundlessly laid to Socrates' charge. 
 
 The gymnasia and the palaestrae are so prominent in Greek life, 
 that we hear comparatively little of other games. Hunting was a pas- 
 time appreciated in some parts of Greece, especially in Sparta, where 
 the surrounding country favoured it, and apparently in other parts 
 of the Peloponnese, but it was impossible in a town like Athens •*, 
 situated in a region like Attica. Rowing, which might have been 
 practised there, at least on the sea, would have been thought quite be- 
 neath the KakoKOLya.d6<i. Swimming was apparently a common ac- 
 complishment, if we may judge from the proverbial expression for 
 ignorance and incapability''; and Herodotus remarks on the inability 
 of the barbarians to swim, as if it were the exception in Greece. 
 There are some traces of games of ball having been played in the gym- 
 nasia ; but out-door games of this kind, if known at all, certainly 
 did not form any large part of an Athenian exercise. In a people 
 which lived more out of doors than is possible in a northern climate 
 the physical loss was not great; but, if with Plato", we regard 
 
 ^ Cf. Ar. Nub. 978 seq., Plut. Quaest. Rom. 3c Tfi yvftvanta Kai rds iraKaitrrpa^ 
 nS^vv d\vv Kai (txo^^v ii/rtKovaas leai KtiKoaxoi^ioiV ical to iroKStpaartTv. Cf. also Plat 
 Lysis ao4 seq. 
 
 - Aesch. Timarch. 38 lav 8i vapcL ravr' 'Iffiy Oavirqi ^rjfuovffOai. 
 
 ' Theophr xix. (7) is xas naKaiarpas daiaiv Kai\vtiv roiii naiSas /Mv$iv*iv. 
 
 * Cf. id ibid. 
 
 ' Xenophon, who wrote on Hunting, derived his experience from the Peloponnese. 
 Plato discusses hunting in the Laws, but only approves of certain kinds, which 
 demand skill and endurance (834). 
 
 ' ftr}di vfiy /xt]d( ypofifima. ' Rcp. 410 C. 
 
Education in Greece. 
 
 gymnastic as aiming at the good, not only of the body, but of the 
 mind, we may regret theabsenceof games which, whilst developing 
 the muscles, develope also a boyish discipline and esprit de corps, 
 and increase both independence of character and strength of 
 limb. 
 
 § 4. Education in fiovatKrj — (a) ypdfifiara. 
 
 ^^XV /3''M0i' ovdiv ((/iiiovov lA&Orjfta, — Plato, 
 
 Greek parents, like those of our own day, often sent their 
 children to school at an early age to keep them out of mischief at 
 home\ though, as boarding-schools were unknown, this could not 
 be done so completely as with ourselves ; for the same reason, how- 
 ever, school life could begin earlier. "'The age for beginning school 
 life and its duration, depended largely on the incomes of the 
 parents =^. Seven appears to have been a common age for be- 
 ginning 3, and fifteen or sixteen for leaving school. 
 
 Schools in which this elementary education in 'letters' was 
 given apparently existed in every Greek town. In Mycalessus 
 there seem to have been more than one*. Some of them were of 
 considerable size: we hear of one at Chios with 120 boys^, and 
 sixty boys were killed by an accident in a school at Astypalaea •*. 
 It thus appears that there were regular buildings, with a certain 
 amount of furniture and apparatus for teaching"' ; doubtless there 
 were also poorer schools where the teachers availed themselves of 
 a hedge or a colonnade ^. 
 
 i School hours began early in the morning^, but it is uncertain 
 how long they continued ; holidays were given on festivals, which, 
 like Christian saints' days, sometimes occurred in quick succession, 
 so that Theophrastus tells us ^" that an economizing parent did 
 not send his children to school at all during the month of 
 Anthesterion, as it contamed so many holidays that he did not 
 think it worth while to pay the fees. These fees, we gather from 
 this and other passages, were paid every month ; their amount is 
 unknown, but was evidently small in the case of the ordinary 
 school ; nevertheless, payment not unfrequently fell into arrears or 
 was evaded ^1. 
 ^ The elementary schoolmasters (ypafiiMaTiaraL) were ill-paid and 
 
 ' Lucian, Hermotimus 82. * Plal. Protag. 326 
 
 ' Pseudo-Plato, Axiochus 366 E onurav h (Trraeriav a<piKfiTO.i, k.t.A. 
 ' Thuc. vii. 29. ' Herod, vi. 27. * Pausanias. 
 
 '' School benches were in use. Cp. Dem. de Cor. where he taunts Aeschines with 
 sponging the 0a9poi. 
 
 * Such teachers were called xo/'a*5«5«<'^«a^o', S<Jioliasl on Arist. Eccl. 804. 
 
 * Thuc. vi. 29 &fj.u TJ7 -qfiipa. 
 
 '" Theopur. 26 the al(rxpoKtpf>T)i. Apparently these festival holidays were considered 
 insufficient : we find Anaxagoras leaving a bequest to the toWn of Clazomenae on 
 condition that the anniversary of his death shall be kept as a holiday in the schools. 
 
 " Demosth, in Aphob. i. 828, Theophr. Char. 22 «aJ to iraidia Sfiv6s (o dyfKfv- 
 0tpos).ftrf nffi\f/ai ii diSacrxaKov orav rj to dnoSiBovat, dWd (prjirai icaKus <x*"' '•"* ^^ 
 tw/i;8d,\/lo)i'Ta(. 
 
lO Theory and Practice of Ancient Educaiion. 
 
 little respected. Demosthenes taunts Aeschines with having been 
 a teacher of letters ^ Lucian classes this branch of the educational 
 profession with begging and selling fish". Apparently there was 
 no test of a mans qualifications : he set up on his own account, 
 and had to rely on the merits of his teaching for his success. The 
 watSoVofiot, or Council of Education, who in some Greek cities^ 
 had the general supervision of the young, examined moral rather 
 than intellectual qualifications in the teachers ; but at Athens 
 there was a laxity, which Plato deplores, about the contrpl of in- 
 struction *, nor were there any public institutions provided at the 
 general expense*. Of punishments and the maintenance of disci- 
 pline in Greek hihacinakila we hear little; corporal punishment 
 certainly existed, but we do not find any objections raised to it by 
 Greek writers similar to those which are so strongly expressed by 
 Quintilian^, though Plutarch considers that it might be dispensed 
 with. 
 
 ' Instruction commenced with the alphabet and learning to read, 
 children being first taught to recognise separate letters, and then 
 proceeding to their combinations in syllables^. From the phonetic 
 character of their spelling the task of a Greek child was easier than 
 that imposed on English children. Something appears to have 
 been done to make the study more interesting by means of a met- 
 rical alphabet ^, and by the grammatical tragedy composed later on 
 by Callias. Writing was done on tablets covered with wax with a 
 pointed stylus, and was taught by means of copies ; great quickness 
 in writing does not seem to have been generally aimed at. as copying 
 work was performed by slaves. When the pupil had attained a 
 very moderate proficiency in reading and writing he was introduced 
 to the works of the great poets of his country, and was taught the 
 •praises of famous men**,' and especially of the Homeric heroes. 
 Homer was read aloud both by the teacher and the pupil, and 
 great stress was laid upon good reading ; large portions of the 
 poems were committed to memory, and we hear of instances of 
 men knowing them by heart all through i**. Homer was in fact 
 regarded as a moral teacher •^ ; his wisdom was thought to be due to 
 inspiration ; a quotation from Homer on any subject had all the 
 force of a serious argument. The lyric and elegiac poets werealso 
 used in this way, and some scholars have thought that our text of 
 
 ' Demosth. de Cor. ad fip. (&'Sa'7«(; fp&fiftara, iyw 8' i<(>oirw. 
 
 * Lucian, Necyomant. 17, Plut. Ale. 7. 
 
 * E.g. Sparta, Xen. Lac. 3. 3. Cf. Arist. Pol. vii. 17. 5. 
 
 * Plat. Ale. \. p. 122 T^v 8* ff^j ytv*oiojt, Si 'AXxt/SMlSt;, mi2 rpo<^ «o« wati*lai (j 
 dXAov drovovv rilri' A0>;vaiW ovSfvi (liKti. 
 
 * Aesch. Timarch. p. 35. Plat. I^gg. 804, where the pnblic payment of teachers is 
 hifi own suggestion. 
 
 * Quint. Inst. Or. i. 3. 15, Plut. Ed. Pner. xL 
 
 ^ Plato. Cratylus. * Athenaeus x. 453. * Plat. Protag. 326 scq. 
 
 " Xen. Sympos. iii. 5. Njceratns learnt the whole of Homer, to become an itr^p 
 iYuB6\, and could still repeat it. Cf. Isocr. Paneg. 95. 
 
 " Plat. Rep. X. 599-601, where the condemnation passed on Homer shows the 
 ordinary Greek feeling towards him as the 'educator of Greece.' 
 
Education in Greece. ii 
 
 the poems of Theognis is only a school selection from his works*. 
 The study of poetry was not only made to exercise the voice and 
 the memory, but since the poems chiefly dealt with the old my- 
 thology, they taught what was to the Greek of early times at once 
 religion, philosophy, and history. 
 
 Turning from the literary '^ to the scientific side we do not find 
 much to record. Counting was taught either by the fingers, or on 
 the abacus, by means of pebbles*. The unit of notation on the 
 abacus was 5, derived from the fingers, and the whole system was 
 far more complicated than ours, from the absence of the symbol o. 
 The four simple rules seem to have been the limit of ordinary 
 study in this direction. Geometry was esteemed as an * exact ' 
 branch of knowledge, but not ordinarily taught ; in this respect 
 Plato considered that the Greeks might imitate the Egyptians, 
 amongst whom it was commonly learnt *. 
 
 Such was the intellectual training of the young Greek. [The 
 range of study was not wide; it could not be so. Science did 
 not exist ; the acquisition of languages was not desired ; history 
 and geography were the history and geography of his own land. 
 Written books were scarce, most of the teaching was done orally, 
 and more reliance was placed on the memory,^ If Plato was right 
 in emphasizing the advantage of the spoken over the written 
 word 6, Greek education was in one respect superior to more 
 modem systems. 
 
 § 5 Education in ^oi/o-ociy. (/S) Music and Drawing. 
 
 5p' ovv, ^v 8' 170;, Si VKavKOv^ roiirtav h>(ica Kvpiwriri} ij Iv ftovffiKji iptxp'^, on 
 ftaXiara Karaivtrai is ro ivroi t^s <^x^* ^ rt ^vBftos Hai if ctpfioyia. — PLAT. Rep.^o\ D. 
 
 'Solemn and divine harmonies recreale and compose our travailed spirits, and, if 
 wise men and prophets be not extremely out, have a great power over dispositions 
 and manners, to make them gentle from rustic harshness and distempered passions.' — 
 Milton. 
 
 If we are inclined to wonder at the prominence of gymnastic 
 in Greek education, the extraordinary importance attached to 
 music strikes us as still more astonishing. We shall see after- 
 wards the influence on character ascribed to it by Plato ; and this 
 view is not peculiar to him, but was shared largely by the Greek 
 public. Music was not an 'extra subject;' both singing and 
 instrumental music were part, and a large part, of an ordinary 
 education. Instruction in music went on either during the same 
 years * that the boy was going to the StSatrKoAetoy or later. The 
 
 * Vide Mahaffy. Old Greek Education, ch. v. I ought to acknowledge the use I 
 have made, in this and other places, of Professor Mahaffy's book 
 
 * As to grammar in out sense of the word it could not have been taught, for it 
 hardly existed before the time of Aristotle; vide Arist, de Interpretatione. Ar, Nub. 
 66a, etc. 
 
 * Ar. Vesp. 656 mentions both kinde : Xe7/ffoJ ^vXcuv /ti) ^<poti d\K' dvo x«<f t'S 
 
 * Plat. Laws 817. » Plat. Phaedrus. 
 
 * Plat. Laws 8oq F need not be referring to the actual practice about learning 
 music. 
 
I 2 Theory and Practice of A ncient Edtccation. 
 
 lyre was the instrument most commonly learnt, and KiOapiarrfs is 
 the general term used for a music master ^ The flute ^ was 
 fasiiionable at one time, but, according to the story, Alcibiades 
 thought that flute playing was not becoming to his appearance, 
 and his example sent it out of fashion. Plato enumerates six 
 modes of Greek music — Avdifrri, fii^oXvbia-TC, (TvifToi>o\vbi<rTL, 'laori, 
 't>pvyi.crTL, /^u>pi<TTL. The Lydian and Ionian he condenms as soft 
 (/liaXanai), the other kinds of Lydian as mournful (dprjvoibels), whilst 
 the Dorian and Phrygian are manly. Aristotle in criticising this 
 decision says that the Phrygian mode was too exciting, and should 
 have been proscribed ^. Of these modes we may say, with Plato, 
 ravra h Adfxwva ava^f^Xriada). ICven to those who are well ac- 
 quainted with modern music the subject of Greek music is 
 extremely obscure, but we know that it differed widely from ours 
 and would not be appreciated by a modern ear. 
 
 Of the songs which were taught we have not many notices : the 
 usual subject seems to have been some incident in the national 
 mythology, or the celebration of the praises of a goddess or a 
 hero '^ ; in the Dorian mode, which was held, by the old school at 
 all events, to be the true national music of Greece^. 
 
 ypa(f)iK'q, or drawing and painting, is spoken of by Aristotle as 
 not being universally taught, and probably was rare in the fifth 
 century B.C. ; as to the method of teaching we have no information. 
 From the fact that the word (oaypat^Ca is extended to painting in 
 general we see that figure paintihg was the first to come into 
 vogue, and this was chiefly confined to painting on vases : it is 
 quite possible that only geometrical drawing was taught, except to 
 those who intended to devote themselves to art. 
 
 ^6. (i) Education of Character and Manners 
 Indirect Education. 
 
 What is the education of the generality of the world ? Reading a parcel of books? 
 No. Restraint of discipline, emulation, examples of virtue and justice.' — Burke. 
 
 'Afterwards parents send their children to teachers, and bid 
 them Took after their manners more carefully than after their 
 letters and their music''.' This education of manners was carried 
 on both at home and at school, and a certain quietness of behaviour 
 .ind respect to elders (evKorr^ta atSw?) were looked for from Greek 
 children. They were to be ' seen and not heard"',' to walk quietly 
 
 * Plat. Protag. 327, Ar. Nub 964 tlra 0aSt((iv iv rouaiv &Zoi% tvraKToK is KtOapiarou. 
 " The Greek ai.\<5? was not identical with our 'flute' (7r\a7ioi;\oyi. 
 
 ' Arist. Pol. viii. (v.) 5. 
 
 * Ar. Nub. 966 (IT av vpopaOtiv ifffi' iSidacKtv . ■ ■ \ fj IlaAXoSo ntpCfiroXty Scircb' ^ 
 TrjXfnopSf t( PoafM. 
 
 ' Ibid. T^v dpnoricu' ^Ji* ol virtptt vapiBwicav. Cf. Plat. Laches i88 D 'EWijyiicii 
 ipfxovia. 
 
 * Plat. Protag. 336. 
 
 ^ Ar. Nub. 963 irprvTov niv iStt watt'is ^f^r ypviowTos fttjSiv' aKOvotu. 
 
Education in Greece. 13 
 
 in the streets \ to stand up in the presence of elders 2, not to 
 contradict their parents, or to call their father ' lapetus ' (Old 
 Father Time)^. Then there were rules prescribed for eating^, 
 what dishes to eat, and which hand to use in eating. When they 
 had reached the stage of early manhood they were not to consider 
 themselves the equals of their elders : in Sparta men under thirty 
 did not enter the agora, and at Athens there prevailed a feeling 
 against their making themselves conspicuous in the agora or the 
 law courts \ 
 
 Good parents no doubt were anxious for the morality of their 
 children, but we hear little of the influence of the mother, and 
 this is the natural consequence of the position of women in Greece. 
 There were dangers, as we have seen, in the gymnasium and the 
 palaestra, with which the law attempted to deal, but apparently in 
 vain. Care had to be taken in the ch9ice of a ypafXMaTKrrr;?, and 
 even more in selecting a TraiSayioyo'?, with whom the boy was 
 naturally brought into close contact®. In some cases the law 
 stepped in to aid morality: in the prohibition of loiterers in the 
 gymnasia, in certain regulations about the hours of opening and 
 closing schools, and the age and minimum number of pupils', 
 and in disqualifying from public life those who had been guilty of 
 immoral practices*. Plato compares the state to a writing-master 
 tracing out the laws for the guidance of the young ^ ; but we have 
 unfortunately only too much evidence to show that in the direction 
 of morality the sanction of law was inadequate, whilst the sanction 
 of religion did not operate at all. 
 
 In the general formation of character we can see the etfect of 
 several Greek institutions. The theatre was a powerful moral 
 agent '^^^ uniting in a way the power of the pulpit and of the stage ; 
 the influence of politics came more home to a greater proportion 
 of Greeks than is possible in a large state : a young man could 
 hardly avoid contact with the ecclesia and dikasteries of a 
 democratically governed city. On the aesthetic side there were 
 numerous festivals, splendid temples and an art developed under 
 their shadow, such as contributed to make Athens the ' school of 
 Greece i^' 
 
 ' Ar. Nub. 964, quoted above, p. la, note i. Cf. Plut. Ed. Puer. 
 
 ' Ibid. 990 Kux rSiv 9&.kojv ro%s vptafivTipoK vitaviaraaBat vpoffiovatv. 
 
 ■* Ibid. 99S /iijy itrTtinttv ry irarpi firftiv, /iiJS' 'l&rtiTOv uaXiaavra \ iivq<7iKaKTjaai 
 
 * Plut. Ed. Puer. 7, Ar. Nub. 981-3. 
 
 * Plut. Lycurg. 8, Isocr. Areopag. 202 compiaios of a change in this. 
 
 ' Plut. Ed. Puer. 7, Tereut. AJadr. i. i. 24, Plaut. Bacch. iii. i. and passim. 
 
 * Aesch. Timarch. §§ 34, 35 vparrov kvofMOirijaav wtpl t^s aoxppoaiprfs twv iraiScM^ 
 roTr btSaaici\ois airiOTluv <paivtTCu 6 vonoOirrji. 
 
 * Ibid. § 48 id,v tratp^uTp ■^ trtiropvfviiivos jj. 
 
 * Prot. 326. 
 
 " Lucian, Anach. 22 Koi h ri 9iarpov cvvAyovrts airrovs itifioffitf iratStvopify. 
 ** Thuc. ii. 41 (vytKiiv rt Xiyu ri^v waaav ir6\ty 'EKKaSos iraiSfvaiv fTyai. Cf. Isocr. 
 Antidosis 395 aarv t^s '£\X<£5os. « 
 
14 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 § 7. Education in Greek states other than Athens. 
 
 Our attention is so nnuch fixed on Athens and Athenian life 
 that we are apt to forget the existence of other Greek states: this 
 arises partly from the superiority of Athens in art and culture, in 
 statesmanship and oratory, partly from the paucity of materials 
 which survive to throw light on the condition of other parts of 
 Greece. Yet, though Athens gives us the best type, because it 
 gives us the highest development^ of Greek education, we must 
 remember that the Athenians were but a small proportion of the 
 population of Greece, and that though there was a certain simi- 
 larity ^ between the systems of education prevailing in Greece, 
 there were also considerable differences, and even startling con- 
 trasts. The most startling contrast to Athens in this as in other 
 points was presented by Sparta. Sparta complied with Aristotle's 
 axiom that the educational system of a state must be relative to 
 its polity ', and the aim of the Spartan polity was excellence in 
 war*; the leisure (o-xoAtj) which others might employ in culture 
 or philosophy was to the Spartan only an interval between two 
 campaigns. At Athens there was indeed some military training, 
 because Athenian armies, in common with those of every Greek 
 state, were citizen armies ; but it was the boast of Pericles that 
 the burden was a light one, not interfering seriously with the 
 genera] trainmg or ordinary pursuits of a young citizen <', whilst as 
 the result the Athenian soldier was no less brave than his Pelopon- 
 nesian adversary. An Athenian youth (f0»;^os) served for a short 
 time, after reaching the age of sixteen or thereabouts, in the frontier 
 guard (•jrepiTioAoi) •, which occupied the fortresses in the North of 
 Attica, but did not engage in actual battle. They were subject to 
 drill and discipline, but there was no very exacting system of 
 training; the (xf)Tj^oi as a class do not appear till after the Pelo- 
 ponnesian War, and then they soon change their military charac- 
 ter. But to return to Sparta: we saw that efficiency in war was 
 the great aim, and we soon perceive that to secure this no inter- 
 ference with individual liberties or tastes was thought too harsh. 
 It was this thorough supervision by the state that won the admir- 
 ation of Plato and Aristotle'^. At the head of the educational 
 system was the 7rai5oi>o/Ao; ', whose powers were extremely wide: 
 
 ' oTof iicaaroy iffrt tt/s ftv^fftwt rtXtaOticrrji, roiavriji' (ftafity *7va< rtfy <plfftv (Ar. PoL 
 12). ' Theophr. Char, prooem. vavruv Sfioias nfnaiSfv^iiyan' raiv 'EAAj^wf. 
 
 ' Ar. Pol. viii. (v.) 1 6fTnp6s t^ ■troXiTtkii' ircudtvtffOat. 
 
 * Ibid. ii. 'fotyapovy fa^ovro ftiy noXtfiovyrts, inwXoyro Si flpriytvoyrtt, SiA t6 ftfi 
 SvyacrOai axoXi(fty. Miiller (DoriaDfi) claims that rd tCttnafAnv generally was their aim. 
 
 ' Thuc. ii. 39 Kai iv tois naiitiats ol /ii» tirfrr6v^ 6a>trja(i tv9vs vioi ovrti rd Avifttiov 
 fxtripxoyrai, ^/icTt hi aytififvwi hiatraiixttoi ovBiv fjaaov itrl robv t<roira\fts hivSvvovs 
 •jfoipovfity. * Dcmosth. in Conon. gives a picture of the life among the w*p[noKoi. 
 
 * See esp. Ar. Eth. x. lo. 13 : except in Sparta a man lives &k ffovXtrai KvxKamiHws 
 StfUOTtiicJV TraiSojy fjS' a\6)(wy, 
 
 * Xen. de Rep. Lac. ii. 6 Si AuKovpyoi ih'Tt mv nii- (lila JxacTor waibayarfoin SorVous 
 (iptOTapnt ai'bpa intaTrjat Kparttv ovTufv . . . 0% hi) Kni ■nathovofj.as itaXuraf rovroy di 
 mvpioy ivoiTjat Kai dffpoi^uy roi/s miidai xcu irtiaKovoivra «» rii paOiuvpyoit) itoKi^nv 
 
Education in Greece. 15 
 
 and he was provided with a staff of assistants called cnn^povKnal 
 and nnaTiy6(j)opoi. The life of the new-born infant was decided, 
 we are told, not by the father, as elsewhere- in Greece, but by a 
 council of elders* ; at the age of seven the child was taken from 
 its parents and put under regular public education (aytayrj) ; boys 
 were distributed into ay4hai or bands, and played and lived and 
 were trained together. Letters were taught as a concession Uvexa 
 xpcios), but the rest of the education consisted in strict discipline 
 and physical training. At the age of twelve this discipline became 
 stricter *, and so they entered on regular military service. Lycur- 
 gus, says Xenophon^, saw the value of the spirit of rivalry among 
 the young ; so the Ephors appointed three imiaypeTai, and each of 
 these chose out one hundred e^ij^oi as an honour, arid those who 
 were not chosen could challenge those who had been, and if suc- 
 cessful could take their places. The Spartans did not neglect 
 gymnastics, though they did not permit boxing and the pancra- 
 tium; and they supplemented it by hunting, which was easily 
 indulged in among the coverts of Taygetus. Music .seems to have 
 been cultivated at Sparta, especially the Dorian mode, to which, 
 we may believe with Milton*, they marched into battle. Of 
 education elsewhere in Greece we know next to nothing. We have 
 already seen evidence for the existence of schools at Chios, My- 
 calessus and Astypalaea, and there is no doubt that they existed 
 all over Greece, except perhaps in Aetolia and Acarnania. 
 Naturally the extent of education varied with the character of the 
 country and the life of the people ; in a state like Elis, where 
 country life prevailed, we should look for less culture than at Cor- 
 inth or Aegina. Thebes had a reputation for stupidity and igno- 
 rance^, and Aeschines tells us of some Thebans who sent their 
 sons to Athens, not being satisfied with their own schools. 
 
 The Arcadians, if we may trust Polybius, distinguished them- 
 selves by a singular zeal for music, due in that historian's opinion 
 to the necessity of finding some cultivated pursuit which would 
 counteract the rudeness and barbarity arising from the nature of 
 their country and the inclemency of their climated Accordingly 
 with them ignorance of music was made a subject of censure, 
 though ignorance of anything else was easily pardoned'.' And 
 Polybius adds that the Cynaethi, who were Arcadians by race, 
 differed from them in having more barbarous manners, and he 
 attributes this difference to their n^lect of musical studies. 
 
 * Plut. Lycurg. i6 rS/y tpvXtrwv ol irptcfivraroi. 
 • * lb. SttriXow iftv j^tTwvos. 
 
 ' Xen. de Rep. Lac. iv. 
 
 * Par. Lost, ' In solemn phalanx to the Dorian mood of flutes and soft recordere.* 
 ' Plut. de Herod. Malign. 31 {dypoiicia Kai ixi<ro\oyia). 
 
 * Hist. iv. xxi. l' $tcjpoWTti rify rSiv ^Owv avarqpiav ijris avrois irapiirerai Stcl riif 
 Tov irtpUxovros tfivxpirrjra xal arinfvorijra r^v Kara to -nXtiorov iv toi% roTtOiS bvdp~ 
 Xovtrav, ^ (wfiofiotovcr9ai irf<f>vKaiitv n&vrts Av0pairroi nar' dvayKjjv, 
 
 ' Ibid. iv. XX. II K€u rSiv fiiv aWoiv ixa6TfftdTaiv dpvT^Ofivai rii piij -yivwaiHiv ovSiv 
 alaxP^" ^yovyrar t^v yt (triv ^S^v oir dpvridT^vai Zvvavrai, bid TO Har dpayitqv itdvras 
 
 tMV0dv(lV 
 
1 6 Theory and Practice of Ancient. Education. 
 § 8. Female Education. 
 
 •Nunqnam aliud natura aliud sapientia dicit.'— Juvenal 
 
 One of the most striking differences between the Greece of 
 Homer and the Greece of Euripides is in the position of women. 
 In the place of Andromache we have some nameless and unnoticed 
 housewife \ or — at once a consequence and a contrast — a brilliant 
 Aspasia. In general, girls must have received what instruction 
 they got from their nurses and their mothers ; for them to go to 
 school out of the house would have been thougiit indecorous. The 
 Hetaerae enjoyed greater freedom, and in some cases obtained a 
 * higher education ' by conversations with philosophers or poets, as 
 probably did Aspasia by her intercourse with Anaxagoras and 
 Pericles. 
 
 We hear of no gymnastic training for Athenian women ; but 
 the participation of maidens, if not of married women, in the 
 Spartan palaestra was a remarkable feature in their system. They 
 exercised in the presence of young men 2, and in a state of yv;>ii;oV?7s-, 
 though what is denoted by that is a matter of dispute ^. They 
 practised not only running, but wrestling, and, according to Pau- 
 sanias, there existed at Olympia a representation of a Spartan 
 woman (Cynisca) competing in a chariot race. To this training 
 was partly due the large stature and good physique of Spartan 
 women *. 
 
 Other instances of women taking part in gymnastic are found at 
 Eiis and Chios ; and the maidens of Corcyra imitated Nausicaa in 
 playing at ball ^. 
 
 § 9. Higher Education : (o) the Sophists and Rhetors. 
 
 %vtvQov Ktii KaTT}y6povv i^tov oiiHv AXtjGh, ws iari t«s 'SaiKparrjs ffo<j>is iv^p. ri re 
 fitTfupa (f>povTi(XTr)s, koI ra irrrd fiji vavra av(^r}rr]K<x>s Hoi rov ^rrw \6yoy KpuTTcu Trotwv. 
 — Plato, Apologia, 18 B. 
 
 Powerful satire may sometimes be mistaken for history, and 
 the mistake is more easily made when the satire is evidently 
 earnest, and there is little else to guide us. Few satires have ever 
 been written, none perhaps have ever been put on the stage, which 
 excel in brilliancy and bitterness the Clouds of Aristophanes. 
 The aim of the play is to ridicule and attack Socrates and the 
 Sophists, or rather the Sophists as personified by Socrates. In 
 the eyes of Aristophanes and the conservatives of the day, Socrates 
 
 ' Thuc. ii. 45 TTyi Tt 7<J/i inapxovarjs ipvaioK fiij x*'V""''' ycveaOcu ncy&Xrj vfitv i) 
 Sofa, Kol ^s iy iv' iKaxiff^ov apfrfji nipi ^ yoyov ty rot's dpaiai KAios r;. 
 
 ^ Plut. Lye. 14 ovhiv ^vov tifc\(T€ tSls yujxvds t( irofiirfveiv Kal 6,- \ila6ai ttal ^Stiy rwv 
 wioiv irap6vTaiv. 
 
 ' Plat. Rep. viii. seems to have understood it as nakedness. Roman writers translate 
 it by 'nodus.' Cf. Prop. ill. 14. 3 'inter luctantes nuda puella viros.' 
 
 * Cf. Lampito, Arist. Lysistrata. 
 
 * Athenaeus. 
 
Education in Greece. 17 
 
 v/as the most prominent exponent of the new critical and indi- 
 vidualistic school of thought ; a school which was unsatisfied with 
 the national mythology and accepted tradition, and which, whilst 
 aiming at success in practical life, was reckless of morality and 
 truth, if indeed it allowed their existence. That Aristophanes 
 identified Socrates with the Sophists need not surprise us ; they 
 had much in common, and their points of difference were for the 
 most part the least obvious and superficial ; to the average Athe- 
 nian Socrates was probably the most remarkable and eccentric of 
 the Sophists; just as to the average Jew a greater than Socrates 
 was but one of the Scribes and Pharisees ', though the few could 
 discern that he taught ' with authority.' We, however, know in 
 what way Socrates differed from the Sophists, and how unjust to 
 him it was that he should be caricatured as taking fees from his 
 pupils^, and devoting himself to physical science^, or as 'cor- 
 rupting youth ' by mculcating Atheism *. and by teaching them to 
 sacrifice truth to success'. And our certainty that Aristo- 
 phanes was wrong in identifying Socrates with the Sophists might 
 lead us to suspect his picture of the sophistic teaching, even were 
 we to acquit him of wilful exaggeration. 
 
 We need not here enter into the controversy which has raged 
 round the words Sophist and (to^kttlkt^ : we have only to trace the 
 effect of the Sophists on Greek education. They undertook to give 
 more advanced instruction than the ypaixfj-arKnai offered ; they 
 taught for money '^', and sometimes their fees were very high, and 
 could only be afforded by the rich '^. Many of them were strict 
 about their fees, and insisted upon their being paid in advance ; 
 thus Isocrates is able to laugh at them for mistrusting their own 
 teaching- of virtue, since they would not trust for their fees the 
 pupils whom they had undertaken to teach virtue *. Protagoras 
 followed a different practice, allowing his pupils to pay whatever 
 they thought his instruction was worth®. The comparison now 
 frequently drawn between the Sophists and the crammers of our 
 own day is in many respects a just one ; with the development of 
 political and social life at Athens, public speaking in the courts 
 and the Assembly became of great impoilance, and the old educa- 
 tion was felt to be inadequate. The Sophists came forward to 
 fill the gap*, they taught rhetoric for the manner of the speeches, 
 and ordinary subjects to supply the matter. New theories were in 
 the air : the Sophists could put a man in possession of the very 
 newest ideas. Generally they travelled about Greece, staying for 
 
 * This point is well brought out by the author of 'Ecce Homo.' 
 
 * Nub. 97 ovroi SiSaoKovn', d/i-yiipiui' f/v Tis 5iSa), Xffopra viKav. 
 ' Ibid. 225 Atpo^aTU) icai ntpt<ppuvw rov'MXiov. 
 
 ' Ibid. 367 iroios Ztvs ; ov n-q XTjfj-fiadV ovk trm 7.(iii : 247 0fo} \ fj^uv vifxia/i' ovK iar't. 
 Ibid. 316 ovpAviai iif(pfKai, {xfyaXat Otai dvopoaiv Apyois j ai'wfp yvufirjv kij SiaK*(ty 
 ftai vovv iJ^M' wapixovfTiv j Knl rtpaTtiav Kai n(pi\ttiv koI Kpovaw Hal Kara,KT]\f/iv 
 ' Plat. Rep. i. Thrasymachus is made to say aWd, lbs dpyvpiov. 
 
 * Pint, de Ed. Puer. 7. 
 
 * Isocrates, Karoi Xotptaruv § 7. » Plat. Protag. 328. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 short periods at different places ; sometimes they got their pupils 
 to follow them about. They were a profession with many ideas 
 and tendencies in common, but not in any sense a school : on the 
 metaphysical side different sophists held widely divergent views, 
 though their general tendency was sceptical. In morals they main- 
 tained the * conventional ' theory : ' fire burns both here and in 
 Persia,' but morality is the creation of ro>os. In spite of this they 
 were practically sound, as we see in Prodicus' moral woiit — the 
 Choice of Hercules. The name ao^i<jrr\s was not generally one of 
 contempt : long afterwards it was revived to designate the chief 
 educational post at Athens. If they did not pander to public 
 opinion, they did not rise above it: in this way they have been 
 well compared to a modern newspaper, which, while wishing to 
 improve the public mind, has to consider its circulation. Plato 
 confesses that society is the great sophist : the o-o0kttt;s suits his 
 opinions to society : his ao^io. is a knowledge of the varying 
 moods of that ' great Leviathan,' the people ^. The objection to 
 them felt by Plato and Socrates was partly the taking of money : 
 partly their method of cramming 2 as opposed to sound and rational 
 education. Isocrates, himself a philosophic rhetorician, gives us 
 his views in his speech ' Against the Sophists,' where he attacks 
 three classes of them 2, — (i) The Eristic sophists (06 irppt tos Ip'Cba-i 
 biarpifiovTfi), who promise more than they can perform, professing 
 to impart absolute knowledge (^7ri(rr>;/iT;) to their pupils. (2) The 
 teachers of political discourse(ol rovs iroXtTtKovs Ao'yous vmaxvovufvoi), 
 who train men for public life. They do not aim at truth, but profess to 
 impart an ^titm^fxrj \6yuiv and make men rhetors without taking ac- 
 count either of natural gifts (<f>v<ns) or experience (fixiteipia). In 
 reality a speech is a work of creation (7Toij?nKoi/ vpaYfia) demanding 
 imagination and originality — not merely mechanical (reToy/x^rr; 
 re'xi'??) give a man all the rules in the world, he may not be able 
 to apply them to the particular case. (3) The writers of regular 
 treatises on rhetoric, like Korax and Tisius in Sicily (ol ras rexvay 
 ypayfravTcs) : such men teach litigiousness and greed {itoKvnpayfioffvvrj 
 and v\€ov€^(a), not justice : for there is no system (T^xvrj) which 
 can make the bad man just. 
 
 The early Sophists were teachers of things in general : they 
 taught with the object of enabling their pupils to attain success in 
 life, and success at this period was usually obtained by effective 
 speaking. Thus rhetoric became the most important feature of 
 their teaching: it was to this branch that Gorgias specially de- 
 voted himself, whilst Protagoras was more a political, and Prodicus 
 an ethical teacher. Both Protagoras and Gorgias treated meta- 
 physical questions, and we have preserved to us their dicta on the 
 impossibility of knowledge in general and of the knowledge of the 
 
 ' Plat. Rep. 492 C. 
 
 ^ Ibid. 518 C <(>aal irov oiiic ivev<Ttft iv rp ^XV i*tof^f*ft o^tts ivriOfvat — whereas 
 education is a -ntpiayaryrf. 
 
 • Isocrates, Kara tSiv ^oipiaruv §§ 1-17. 
 
 I 
 
Education in Greece, 19 
 
 existence of gods in particular ^ In pursuing these problems they 
 paid attention to logic, then in its infancy, and at the mercy of 
 every verba) quibble. 
 
 After the first generation of Sophists we get a division of labour 
 among the professors of higher education : on the one hand we 
 have the school of rlietoric with a master like Isocrates ; on the 
 other, the school of philosophy under a Plato or a Speusippus. 
 We will see what Isocrates tells us of his own theoiy of culture 
 {<f,i.\o(To<pia) in one of his 30-called ' speeches ^.* 
 
 He starts from the same point at which he left off in his speech 
 against the Sophists : no art can make good men out of the KOKm 
 7if0wic6T€y, but still men may improve themselves if they are ambi- 
 tious and wish to speak well and persuade an audience, for they 
 will choose noble themes, and will themselves be influenced by 
 them: in short 'the professor of persuasion will cultivate virtue 
 because virtue is persuasive ^i' his elKora and nKfir^pia are only 
 good for a single occasion, but a good reputation is always valu- 
 able, (Isocrates forgets, we may remark, to notice that it is the 
 reputation for virtue, not the virtue itself, which would be of use 
 in this way.) Some men, he continues (§ 285), think philosophy 
 useless, meaning by it the TeporoAoyia of the early philosophers 
 {ao^iaTai), and forgetting its practical and political side : ' and 
 you ' (turning to the Athenian public) 'keep your sons away from 
 the best education, and so they spend their time in drinking bouts 
 and useless amusements and the excitement of gambling-hells 
 (<TKtpa(^tra), or even in the training-schools of the auA^r/)i8cy, and 
 thus they lose all self-restraint, whereas a man must govern him- 
 self before he can govern his own household or his fellow-citizens.' 
 ' Men, too, are inconsistent (291) in admiring those who are good 
 speakers by nature, and condemning those who make them- 
 selves good speakers by study. The latter are really the most 
 praiseworthy ; it is this itaibda which most distinguishes Hellenes 
 from barbarians : more especially is Athens the school of the orator, 
 giving the greatest prizes and affording the best opportunities*. 
 The language of Athens is most widespread ; among its citizens 
 there is more versatility {ivrpaitiKia) and culture {^iXoKoyia) : for 
 you to condemn education would be as absurd as for the Spartans 
 to condemn war: it would be treason to the national idea — to 
 that idea which by the results it has brought forth causes men to 
 say that Athens is the only city in Greece ; other aggregates of 
 men are but villages.' 
 
 The salient feature of the system proposed by Isocrates is that, 
 though by no means a narrow one, it subordinates everything to 
 proficiency in speaking*. He would wish his pupils to be both 
 
 * E. g. "Ttpl 6foi)i oiiic i\o) tlhivtu ftrt ficriv, ttrt fjcff, and ' Nothing can be known : 
 if it were known it could not be communicated.' 
 
 " srepi avTiSoffitos §§ 270-303 (written in 353 B.C.). 
 ' Jebb, Selections from Attic Orators, p. 256. 
 
 * iT<4i'Ta)v rSn> Swa/tt'nw kiyfiv ^ iratStvtiv i) rtoXis ^ftwv Sotrff ytytv^fffiai SihaotcaXos 
 ' Cf. Quintilian, post. 
 
 c a 
 
20 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 virtuous and well informed, but the virtue is to add weight to his 
 words, and the information is to supply material for his speeches, 
 and to prevent him from falling into mistakes in them. Isocrates' 
 scheip.e of education would have tended to produce orators like 
 himself and Isocrates, we can see from his numerous remaining 
 works, reached the height of diffuseness and artificiality in rhe- 
 toric. By the smoothness and symmetry of his clauses, by the 
 studied combination of sounds and avoidance of hiatus, by the 
 arrangement of his transitions, Isocrates elaborated a style more 
 artificial than any of his predecessors in Greece and more forcibly 
 opposed to the greater naturalness and simplicity of modern 
 eloquence. Isocrates aimed at political, not at juristic, eloquence ; 
 bui it is only as a rhetorician, not as a politician or an orator, 
 that he survives. 
 
 Isocrates appears to have given a regular course of teaching, and 
 to have attracted pupils from all parts of Greece ; in fact he formed 
 a school somewhat analogous to the schools of philosophy which 
 became so prominent at Athens in the fourth century before 
 Christ. 
 
 § lo. HiGHf:R Education : (/3) the Schools of 
 Philosophy. 
 
 ' Within the walls then view 
 The schools of ancient sages: his who bred 
 Great Alexander to .subdue the world, 
 Lyceum there and painted Stoa next.' — MiLTON, Parad. Reg. iv. 
 
 Before the time of Plato the teaching of philosophy was frag- 
 mentiu-y and irregular : one or other of the Sophists might indeed 
 devote a whole course of lectures to philosophy, but they taught 
 many subjects besides, and they wandered about Greece from city 
 to city. Socrates confined his teaching to Athens, but not to any 
 one spot : he preferred to avail himself, as opportunity offered, of 
 the gym.nasium ^ the banquet ^, the casual meeting in the street ^, 
 for the exercise of his 'maieutic ' art. And, in a sense, his teach- 
 ing was unsystematic : or rather the system lay in the method, not 
 in the subject, of his teaching. Socrates received no fees, partook 
 of no endowment, was under no state regulation except that vague 
 prohibition, which ultimately caused his ruin, against preaching a 
 new religion and corrupting youth. From this • voluntary system ' 
 we can trace a gradual approach to a regular course of study in 
 established schools. 
 
 The first step was the choice of a locality. Plato made the 
 xVcademy, one of the three gymnasia of Athens, his haunt ; Antis- 
 thenes taught first in the Cynosarges, then in the Stoa ; Aristotle 
 settled upon the Lyceum. Next came the formation of an endow- 
 ment. Plato's successors apparently forsook the doctrine of their 
 master — that teaching for money was < simony,' and the fees of 
 pupils formed a regular source of income. These were supple- 
 
 ' .\s in the Lysis. ' Plato, Symposium, * Repubhc. 
 
Education in Greece. 21 
 
 mented by gifts and bequests from pupils or patrons of the schools, 
 and with the growth of the endowment the school naturally secured 
 a greater prospect of permanence. Plato is said to have nominated 
 Speusippus as his successor (£td8oxos) and to have left to him the 
 land which he had secui-ed close to the Academy. The heads of 
 this and of the other schools were called Schoiarchs; in some cases 
 they seem to have been nominated by their predecessors, in others 
 to have been elected by the pupils, or at least by some of their 
 number: in later times they were even nominated by the Areo- 
 pagus. Each school maintained its own doctrines, or rather the 
 doctrines of its founder, with very slight development, if indeed 
 they altered them at all : Antisthenes and Aristotle, both of them 
 pupils of the great master of the Academy, establish schools of 
 their own when they find their doctrines in divergence from his. ^ 
 
 It was from these philosophical schools that there developed 
 under Roman rule an endowed and State-regulated professoriate, 
 which has been named by some writers the * University of Athens.' 
 There were several different chairs established and endowed by the 
 Emperors, and the highest post of all was that of the • Sophist,' the 
 name thus vindicating itself from the aspersions of Plato ^ To 
 this seat of learning pupils came in great numbers from Rome, as 
 they were already doing in the days of Cicero and Horace 2. Some- 
 thing is known, chiefly from Libanius, of the life of the students : 
 they had their lectures and their gowns, their clubs and their literary 
 discussions =*, their rivalries and riots, their contempt for 'freshmen,' 
 The subjects most generally taught were rhetoric and philosophy : 
 arid and barren comrhentaries on old philosophers, diffuse and use- 
 less rhetoric : for the age of Athenian inspiration was gone, and 
 amidst the temples and groves of Athens a generation that was 
 'too superstitious' was perpetually seeking in vain to hear 'some 
 new thing*'. 
 
 Amongst other centres of learning Alexandria was pre-eminent. 
 Splendidly equipped with libraries, situated in the meeting place 
 of nations, it was cosmopolitan to a greater extent than Athens ; 
 it became the home of research and of minute criticism •, it de- 
 veloped a school to which we can trace much that is harsh and 
 obscure and pedantic in Roman poetry. To Alexandria we owe 
 
 • I found in April, 1885, the following inscription in the recently excavated temple 
 at Eleusis — it is cut on a roimd altar : — 
 
 NIKArOPAS 
 
 O TON lEPnN KHPTS KAl EHI THS KA0EAPA2 20*I5THS 
 
 nAOYTAPXOT KAl 2EHTOT ♦lA020*nN 
 
 EKrONOS. 
 
 ' Hor. Epp li. 2. 43 • adiecere bonae paullo plus artis Athenae.' 
 
 ' Aulus Gellins (xviii. 1) gives us an account of a supper among students at Athens 
 
 at which many points of useless erudition were discussed ; e.g. the meaning of 'frustrari' 
 
 in Ennius, what poet uses ' verant,' the tense of ' scripserim,' ' veneriin.' The title of 
 
 Gelliuss work is Noctes Atticae, i.e. literary work done by Athenian 'midnight oil.' 
 
 • • For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothmg 
 else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.'— .^f/.* xvii. ^^. For a fuller 
 account of Athenian University life and an ingenious comparison with modern Univer- 
 sities, I may refer to Mr. Capes' work, entitled University Life in Ancient Athens. 
 
22 Theory attd Practice of Ancient Edncatiori. 
 
 the classification of studies into the Trivium (grammar, rhetoric, 
 dialectic) and the Quadrivium (aiithmetic, music, astronomy, 
 geometry^. 
 
 After Alexandria, Rhodes was perhaps the most frequented of 
 eastern centres of education. Tiberius in his retirement availed 
 himself of the rhetorical instruction for which it was especially 
 celebrated. In the West, Massilia kept alive its Greek traditions 
 and Greek culture, in the midst of a non-Hellenic population, and 
 we hear of young men of family being sent thither from Rome in 
 the time of Cicero. 
 
 From this inadequate sketch of later education in Greece let us 
 turn to examine the views of the great educational theorists of 
 Greece. 
 
 § II. Greek Theories about Education 
 
 Ha\Snr iit^Ttpcoi' Svrve yvaxriut Kai iXt)8fla$ dXXo xdWiov In roironf ^oi^tfvat 
 opdw iiiriau. — Plaio, Rep. 508 E. 
 
 For theories about education, as for theories in politics or meta- 
 physics, we naturally turn to the master minds of Greece, to Plato 
 and to Aristotle. Earlier thinkers had left isolated utterances, 
 like Heraclitus^, or gathered round them followers, like Pythagoras, 
 with a TpoTfo^ (3iov to be followed by those that came after •, indeed 
 the Pythagorean brotherhoods were more than a dream ; they be- 
 came real institutions in the Greek cities of Southern Italy, 
 societies in which asceticism was mingled with aristocratic ex- 
 dusiveness, societies for 'plain living and high thinking,' not 
 untinged with mysticism. Others too after Aristotle's day wrote 
 upon education, Plutarch's work on the subject has come down 
 to us, and is characterized by good sense and moral earnestness. 
 His aim is practical ; he does not take flight to the regions of 
 Platonic theory, but he lays due stress on many important truths: 
 on the influence of habit**, the care needed in choosing companions 
 and TTaibaywyol ^ on the true end of education *, the effect of praise 
 and blame in discipline \ the duty of parents to their children '^j 
 on the caution needed in dealing with young men at the critical 
 period of life', on the training of the memory *, and the possibility 
 of overdoing gymnastic exercises*. In all this Plutarch shows 
 great insight into the practical principle» and difticulties of edu- 
 cation ; but for some more ideal creation for the education of the 
 State which, if not feasible here on earth, has nevertheless its 
 
 • S0pu> xpfl ofityy^fiv fiSkXov 17 fiv(mitr)v. roKrftaOlq vdov oi Si6a<Tfrtt. 
 
 ' De Educ. iii. ris ^9tKd« <i^<TcL< iOiicds Sy tis kiya>y ovic 6v nKtff/fttKuy rt li6(»ttr. 
 
 * Ibid V. he quotes the proveti) in X'"'^v vafQuafeip t/voftH^itw tiadi^aji. 
 
 * I e. &pfyif (ch. vii.), which is independent of (orlone. wiktfioi oi \a(pvpayt^tl 
 ipfrfiv (Stilpo). 
 
 ' Ibid cb. Jti. 
 
 ^ Ibid xii. Parents shoald be avronvai k<U ain\ica(H pkuffriutuy, as far as 
 possible. "> Ibid, xiv 
 
 • Ch. XU- liffifit} natbdas rafxittov. 
 
 ' Ch. X, frnvot Kou Kovol naOifftaat noXifioiv. 
 
Education in Greece. 23 
 
 Trafyabtiyiia laid up in heaven, we must turn to the pages of the 
 Republic. 
 
 There we find two schemes of education, a lower and a higher, one 
 ordinary, the otlier philosophic- The former is a development of 
 the common Greek education in yvfj.va<mKT^ and fiovaiK-^^: the latter 
 is Plato's own creation, depending on and interwoven with his 
 own philosophic ideas. We may first notice that Plato insists, 
 not in one place but in fifty places, on the vast importance of edu- 
 cation 2, especially in the young ^, and its undue neglect at Athens*, 
 where people rush oiif to a rro^torr/s to get themselves or their sons 
 educated, not knowing what manner of man he maybe; and 
 neither the sophist nor the pupil knows which of his educational 
 wares is good, and which is bad. For this there is one remedy — 
 education must be made a state question ; the educators must be 
 duly qualified and selected, the studies prescribed, the ciiildren 
 regarded as belonging to the State rather than to their parents *. 
 Education in Plato's view should begin, so to speak, before birth; 
 the guardian must not only train up the children that are born, he 
 must regulate marriage with a view to the production of the best 
 possible offspring ^ and deformed or unhealthy children must be 
 destroyed. In the latter recommendation Plato did not go beyond 
 the practice of Greek states, but the regulation of marriages and 
 community of children, with the ibaprjs <pi,\Ca resulting from uni- 
 versal relationship, was alien to a country where the bonds of fanxily 
 had been strongly cemented by religious sentiment and obser- 
 vance^. Yet, though we see that Plato was here misled by the 
 analogy of animals, from which he also starts in dealing with 
 women *, we feel that he has grasped a truth which is not always 
 realised in modern times, though now it is again receiving em- 
 phasis from the doctrine of heredity — the truth that it is a crime 
 willingly by reckless marriages to perpetuate misery, and disease, 
 and vice. 
 
 In pursuance of the plan of community there must be public 
 nurses^ and a public creche. Early nurture is to last to the age of 
 six or thereabouts, and this time is one of infinite importance, 
 trivial as it seems in. detail 1^. It was in the nursery, according to 
 Plato, that the minds of Greek children were coiTupted by the 
 tales told them by their nurses, and by the stories out of Homer 
 and the old poets about Gods and heroes, about death and the 
 
 ' Rep. 376 Tit oSf ^ irai$c(a ; ^ )(a)^t7sov tvpfiv 0«\ria> r^ imo rov froAAov XP^*"*" 
 (ipijfjievris. 
 
 ' Ibid. 519. It may change the B*iv6rrii of the dpifiv \f/vxaptov into fpovrjais, Laws 
 766, On it depends whether a man is dypnurarov or Ouurarof. Cf. Tim. 87, Alcib. 
 i. 123, Euthyd. 306, etc. 
 
 ' Rep. 377 (i&Mara ydp 817 rort ■itXarrfTat nal ivovtrai 6 rviros fiv dv rtt 0ovXtitu 
 ivarjurjvaaOai. Cf. Laws 804, 808. 
 
 * Protag. 313 * Laws 804. * Rep. 456-462. 
 
 ^ Cp. the belief in inherited family onraes, and the horror at the dying out of a 
 family, due to the worship of ancestors by their rea) or supposed descendants. 
 
 * Rep. 451. * Ibid. 461-a. 
 
 "* Laws i. 643. Right training in the nursery is the mosi Important part of education. 
 
24 Theory and Practice of Ancient Ediioation. 
 
 world beyond. All this must be changed : (-nKTrarr^T^ov toU ixvdo- 
 ■noioii^. The nursery tales of the future must instil courage and 
 self-control ; they must speak no falsehood about the nature of God, 
 and the criterion of truth will not be historical accuracy, but con- 
 sistency or inconsistency with the Divine attributes of truthfulness 
 and perfection'^. The picture of the future life must be repainted, 
 or how can they help fearing death? the oista apiepoaAe' ^hfrnivra — 
 the KuiKVToi Kttl crTvya Kat ii'fpoi Koi aKifiavT^'i must disappear^. 
 We cannot allow Homer to represent Priam and Achilles as giving 
 way to excessive grief*. 
 
 During this period (if we may read some of the instructions 
 given in the Laws into the system of the Republic) exercise should 
 not be neglected; at first children should be carried about by 
 their nurses^ ; then from three to six there should be sports held in 
 common for both sexes ". 
 
 From the age of six or seven to that of ten gymnastics must be 
 practised. But it is a mistake to think that gymnastic is only 
 for the body ; it is for the soul as well'. Those who do not go 
 beyond gymnastic become rough and harsh, those who neglect it 
 become effeminate ; gymnastic is wanted to develope properly the 
 spirited part of the soul (ro Ovpunbii). Plato does not lay down 
 minute regulations alxjut gymnastic, for -the soul can look after the 
 body ^.' The regimen of the professional athlete must be avoided 
 as tending too much to sleep and idleness, but luxury and excessive 
 indulgence of any kind must be avoided too ; in this way • invali- 
 dism' (voaorpoitiia) and the medical profession will be got rid of. 
 The care of the body can easily be exaggerated, and a headache is 
 often made an excuse for shelving a lesson in philosophy^. Gym- 
 nastic exercises must be supplemented by dancing, hunting, and 
 contests ^'', regulated on the same principles and with the same 
 view, and, if possible, the young should witness a military engage- 
 ment, and receive their ' baptism of blood ' at an early age '^ 
 
 After this training has been undergone for two or three years '^, 
 there will begin a course of study in reading and writing, poetry 
 and music, lasting about six years. All the regulations about 
 nursery tales apply equally to the poetry which is to be studied 
 later ; with all possible reverence for Homer we cannot allow his 
 poems in the State which we are founding. Epic poetry, however, 
 consists only partially in imitation ; tragedy and comedy are ex- 
 clusively imitative, and imitation has a subtle influence on char- 
 acter ^". No youth must be allowed to imitate a woman, or a man 
 
 ' Rep. 377 B u yap vioi ov\ ofyt rt Kpivnv S T( {ntuvoia Kni o ri fxif, 
 
 ' Hence the three vvfxoi natSdai. Rep. 397-383. (a) God is the author of good 
 only, (fi) The Gods, being perfect, never change their forms. (7) Being h-u^, they do 
 not deceive us. 
 
 » Rep. 386 7. • Ibid, 388. » Laws 790 « Ibid. 793. 
 
 * Rep. 430 C. * Ibid. 404. * Ibid 407. 
 
 " Rep. 4I2 B xopt'iai, $ripai. Hvvrfftalai, yvixv,itoi aywyet " Ibid. 467 
 
 " Apparently gymnastic training is not to cease at ten, but to continue conterapo 
 raneously with other studies. 
 
 " Rep. 395 D ai (MfiTjutit tis (0T} T« KOI ^vffiv tcafiiarayrcu. 
 
Education in Greece. 25 
 
 in anger or trouble, or a slave ; tragedy must be placed under the 
 strictest surveillance. So much for style (Ae'^is) ; rhythms and har- 
 monies, or modes, must also be suited to a state in which a man 
 acts one part, not many ^, and they must be consistent with the 
 subject matter. Only two modes will be allowed to remain, the 
 Dorian and the Phrygian. 
 
 Simplicity is to be the aim of this side of education ; on it 
 depend grace, and harmony, and good rhythm 2. The education is 
 not complete till the pupil can recognise, wherever they may meet 
 him, the forms of the great virtues : of self-control, and courage, 
 and generosity 3. The proper balance of the soul will have been 
 attained : the appetite will be under the control of reason, and the 
 spirit will be enlisted on the side of the higher faculty. The object 
 of this education is plainly a training of character ; little is heard 
 of the development of the intellect in the early years of life. 
 
 This education is not to be confined to one sex. The analogy 
 of dogs suggests to us the fact that women have the same uses 
 as man, and must therefore share the same education *. This 
 principle must be applied even to gymnastics; we must not shrink 
 from seeing women in the gymnasia — ' honi soit qui mal y pense.' 
 The difference between men and women is one not of kind but of 
 degree ; whatevc- a man can do a woman can do, though less 
 effectively ^. 
 
 If in his primary education Plato emphasizes the training of 
 character, his scheme of philosophic study is not only intellectual, 
 but of the most abstract kind. When the conclusion has been 
 arrived at that philosophers must be kings in the ideal state, the 
 question arises, Who is the philosopher, and what training must 
 the philosophic nature undergo ? The answer given by the Platonic 
 philosopher is that the philosopher is a lover of knowledge, es- 
 pecially of true existence (ro 6v), a man who can recognise the Ihia. 
 in its manifestations, who is unsatisfied with the particulars and 
 seeks for unity in the world of realities ; especially does he yearn 
 for the i8e'a rov ayaBov. which is to the world of knowledge what 
 the sun is to the physical world. Such a character is both easily 
 corrupted and hard to produce, and can only be formed by a course 
 of study which draws the soul up to the world of reality *'. Music 
 and gymnastic will no longer avail ; they arc of the earth, earthy. 
 
 The simplest study which stimulates reason {jGiv irpos voria-tv 
 iiyovTOiv) is the science of number ; then follows geometry. Plain 
 geometry is in turn followed by geometry of three dimensions, as- 
 tronomy, and harmonics. These are the -npooifxia, the preliminary 
 
 * Rep. 397 K itrtib^ titaffros tv trpnTTti — ov SiirXovs ovSi iroKXatrXovs. 
 ' Ibid. 400 D €11X07/0 Hoi tvax^fJ^offvvt] Koi tvapfxoaria Kal tvpuBn'ia. 
 
 ^ Ibid. 402 C ovTois ovhl fiovaiKol ic6ftt6a ttplv hv to t^s aaxppoavvrjs tih] ttai dt'Spuas 
 ical (Kfv6fpt6rr]Tos itai fityaKonptituai Hal Saa tovtcjv a,dtK<(>i itayTaxov vtpi(p«p6jJ.eyo 
 yvwpiCwfitv. * Rep. 451. 
 
 * Ibid. 456 D -navrwy lAtrixH yvv'h, kinrtjitvit&TW Kwrii tpvoiv, nivTtn> ii av^p, irrl 
 trdffi $1 daOftffartpov yw^. 
 
 * Ibid. 521 D iXiti r^s ^vxv^ awi rov ytyyo/iiyov lirt ri iv. 
 
26 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 training ; these studies must not be taken up, as they usually are, 
 in an utilitarian spirit, or superficially and empirically ; our labour 
 will be spent in vain if we learn arithmetic in the spirit of a shop- 
 keeper (KanijAtKoiy), or think that we are astronomers when we gaze 
 at the stars ^ or if we ' use our ears instead of our reason ' in 
 studying harmonics'^. When these sciences have been mastered 
 we may proceed to the crowning science of dialectic, which 
 Plato describes, with a wealth of metaphor, as a release from bon- 
 dage, a turning away from shadows — a study without which a man 
 is still in a dream ^ Dialectic goes to the first principle of things, 
 doing away with all hypotheses ; and the dialectician, and he alone, 
 can give an account of the essence of every kind of being *. 
 
 Care must be taken in selecting those who are to receive this 
 education ; they must be young when they begin the course, and 
 sound in body and mind *, freedom must be allowed in education, 
 for no study will bear fruit if it is pursued against the grain ^. 
 Nor is the study of dialectic without its dangers — young men just 
 fresh from their first lesson in it behave like puppies and show 
 their new teeth by biting each other'. The complete coui"se of 
 education will then be this . 'npoTtat.hda till seventeen, then three 
 years of gymnastic ; following this comes ten years' study of the 
 sciences, in order that their correlation may be grasped '. Those 
 who succeed in this are to study dialectic for five years, and then 
 must join in the practical work of life for fifteen years ; after the 
 age of fifty they may resume their contemplations, striving to pene- 
 trate still further into that world of reality where alone they can 
 find light to guide them through this world of blurred images and 
 indistinct shadows. 
 
 Plato's second scheme is thus bound up with his philosophical 
 views; the true philosopher is the man who excels in abstract 
 thought by which alone the lb4ai can be grasped ; therefore edu- 
 cation must be abstract. In the Laws his discussion of the 
 subject becomes again more general -, it will suffice to notice 
 the features which he emphasizes. Education must be public 
 and compulsory ; the minister of education will be one of the 
 most important officers of the state "• * Special ' education is 
 unworthy of the name; real education is a training in virtue from 
 youth upwards ^^ qualifying a man to be a good ruler and a 
 good subject. We must begin with quite young children, and 
 must utilise their perceptions of pleasure and pain, the two 
 
 ' Rep. 559. The stars most only be used as rpoffKiifiarti and napaStiy/iara : the 
 real object of study is to Sf raxos koI f/ 6v<ra /3p«5wT?;s. 
 
 ' Ibid. 531 Td wTti TDV yoO vpodTTjaafuvot. The real problem is to discover rlvt% 
 (ufMfMjjvoi dpiOfiol «a( tiyfs oi, Kal £«i rl tKarfpoi, * Ibid. 533 
 
 • Ibid. 534 i T<iv Koyoy tKAarov Xaft0dvwv rijs ovaias. 
 
 • Ibid. 535 <t>iX6voyoc, fit)itoyts — dpr'Kppova Koi apTifuK»it. * Ibid. 537. 
 Ibid. 539 aiiroi dW^Xovs i\iyxovin X'wpo*'''^" Stairtfi anvKdnta ^tp i\Ktu> rt iful 
 
 avupdrTuv r^i Koy^t rovj nk(faioi> dfl. 
 
 • .Ibid. 537 C 6 yap awoirruch SuiXfKTtKoi, 6 bi ftfl oi». • Laws 766. 
 «> Ibid, 645. 
 
Education in Greece. 27 
 
 ' counsellors ' of man ; pleasure must be associated with virtue 
 and pain with vice^ Music and dancing are of great import- 
 ance, but nowhere except in Sparta and Crete is proper super- 
 vision exercised »ver them 2, or over poetry^. Innovation must 
 not be allowed in music and dancing, or in sports ; want of 
 permanence in sports will lead to want of permanence in legis- 
 lation * ; a reverence for antiquity must be implanted ; we must 
 fix the types of songs and dances by consecrating them, as the 
 Egyptians do. Gymnastic should include dancing and wrestling, 
 which conduce to grace and health, and should be shared, at 
 least partially, by women ^, Horsemanship and military exer- 
 cises should not be neglected ; of hunting, some kinds are good, 
 but others should be avoided. Every free man ought to rise 
 early, before his slaves *, and have his day mapped out ; boys 
 should go to school at daybreak, and should be kept to work 
 by strict discipline, for they are the most unruly kind of animal, 
 possessing reason, but ill regulated. Everyone should read and 
 write, and learn by heart selected poems (or, as an alternative, 
 some discourse like the * Laws ') ; they should practise the lyre 
 for some years, and ought to know something of arithmetic, 
 geometry, and astronomy, studies usually neglected in Greece, 
 but commonly pursued in Egypt '. There is an objection some- 
 times raised to astronomy, that it is impious to enquire into 
 the causes of things ; according to the truer view the exact reverse 
 is the case ^. 
 
 In comparing the Plato of the Laws with the Plato of the 
 Republic, we find that in many of the main points they agree , 
 in both we get state supervision and compulsion by the state, 
 a censorship of poetry, and physical education of women. The 
 tone of the Laws is, however, more religious in dealing with 
 education, as on other points ; greater stress is laid on training 
 during infancy, and nothing is said of dialectic or after-edu- 
 cation, whereas in the Republic Plato complains that only a 
 few men ever continue their education at all, and they do it 
 in the intervals left by money-making and the care of a family ; 
 and at last the lamp of their knowledge goes out, and, unlike 
 the sun of Heraclitus, is never rekindled ^. 
 
 Plato's education, like his state, is partly Hellenic, partly 
 ideal *®, suggested in some points by Sparta, in others deduced 
 from his own philosophical tenets. If we wonder at the abjjtract 
 studies of his higher education, and contrast them with the 
 importance he previously assigned to training of character, we 
 must remember that ' evil arises chiefly from ignorance,* and so 
 this intellectual training is a moral training also. Whilst we 
 can see that he does not realise so deeply or enumerate so 
 
 ' Laws 653. * Ibid. 655. * Ibid. 801. • Ibid. 797. 
 
 5 Ibid. 794-5, 804, « Ibid. 807. ' Ibid. 819. » Ibid. 821. 
 
 * Rep. 498 A vBiyvwrai iroKii ^ui\Kov roO 'HpaKKtirtlov ^Kiov iffoy i^$s obn ifait 
 
28 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 clearly as Aristotle the influence of habit^ and aims at too great 
 uniformity of system, he has grasped other truths. Gymnastic is 
 not for the body only, but for the mind ; education is not only 
 for youth, but for age ; knowledge must be dieted from within, 
 not thrust in from without. Even if we were to judge his theories 
 to be destitute of constructive value, his earnest eloquence would 
 still remain to bear witness against all that is slothful or haphazard 
 in education. 
 
 Aristotle's discussion of education in the Politics is unfor- 
 tunately only a fragment, but it is sufficient to give us an outline 
 of his views. His aim is a practical one (ou yroio-ts ahXa Trpa^is, as 
 in the Ethics), and his system is not bound up so closely wi'h his 
 philosophy. Education, he begins by saying, is a state question ; 
 each polity involves a corresponding tone or character (?](^os) in 
 its citizens, and to the development of this y\Qo<i education must 
 be directed ; therefore the education must be relative to the 
 polity'. A man, too, does not belong entirely to himself; he is 
 a part of the state, and should be made to realise it -. Thirdly, 
 without state regulation we get negligence such as prevails all 
 through Greece, except in Sparta^. Every man educates his 
 children as seems best iu his own eyes. Though based on 
 general principles, instruction need not necessarily be uniform 
 in all its details, and methods ; indeed it is evident that different 
 individuals require varying treatment ^ for no art admits of 
 perfectly rigid rules. Aristotle now asks what is the aim of 
 ordinary Greek education : that education consists of ypQ\i.\La.ra^ 
 yvfivcuTTiKi], fiovcriKri, and ypac^iKrj, Of these the first and last are 
 taught for utility, the second aims at producing courage. The 
 question of the aim of music is more obscure ; possibly most 
 people would say that pleasure was its object; this is not so: 
 in reality it is for the rational enjoyment of leisure (17 tv <Tx^^n 
 hiay<ayi]). Whilst we must not omit to teach certain subjects 
 which are useful or rather necessary, our ideal of education 
 must not be mere utility; such a training would cramp the mind, 
 and unfit men for virtue. A certain order should be observed 
 in education; habits can be formed before the reason is ready 
 for much exercise, and the training of the body should precede 
 that of the soul ^. Gymnastics are frequently carried too far, 
 injuring the body and brutalising the mind ; just as the Spartan 
 training tends to make men brutal and not courageous. Up to 
 puberty only light exercises should be allowed ; ordinarily they are 
 too violent, and hence few Olympic victors are successful both as 
 
 ' Pol. V. (viii ) I TO 7)601 rrji voXireia? iKaffrtjs <pv\&TTUV uvBf r^^ TroKirtiav itai 
 xaO'ifTrrjaiv i( ipxv^- 
 
 ' Ibid, fiopiov (xaaro^ rfjs iroXtoti — Stt Si rwi koivSjv Koivfiv woitiaS-u nai rtiv afftcr/otv. 
 
 ' Eth. X. 10 13 ^v n6vr} Trj ruv AaKkSatnoviaiv voKti iKoyrjy noiovvrai. ivifxtXtiav, K.r\. 
 
 • Ibid. 15 *Ti tia(pipovaiv nl na6' tKaaroy naituai riv KotvSiv waw€p iv't larpi- 
 trjs 
 
 ' Pol. V. (viii.) 3. 13 itp6r(pov roii i$*aiv J) ry Xiy^ ital wtpi rd awita vportpov ^ n»»» 
 
Education at Rome. 29 
 
 boys and as men. There should be an interval of three years for 
 study, and then a course of heavier exercises; but regular training 
 in both should not go on at the same time ^. 
 
 Music has several effects: it is an amusement, and men are apt 
 to make their amusement into an end in itself^ , it is a cultured 
 employment of leisure, and it has a profound moral influence, 
 entering into and altering the vi'hole character ^ ; as we sympathise 
 wiih the different states of mind which it can represent. Of the 
 different modes the Lydian is melancholy, the Dorian sedate, the 
 Phrygian enthusiastic. Socrates was wrong in leaving the 
 Phrygian in his ideal state. Music must be learnt by actual 
 practice, but neither the pieces learnt nor the instruments should 
 be prolessional (re)(i'tKo<,-). 
 
 Of higher education Aristotle does not treat in the Politics. 
 In his philosophy he never quite reconciles the conflicting claims 
 of the life of contemplation and the life of active citizenship, nor 
 does he quite decide how far education is to lead up to one or to 
 both. Yet in a way they are reconciled ; the true politician is the 
 philosophic politician, and he will need both depth of moral 
 nature and a complete training in dialectic. Training in dialectic 
 is the only kind of special education which is at the same time a 
 'liberal' education, the individual cukivated through dialectic as 
 an end to himself alone becomes in this way the m.ost effective in- 
 strument towards some ulterior end '. 
 
 ITT. EDUCATION AT ROME. 
 § I. Education before the Punic Wars. 
 
 Hoc patrium est potius consxiefacere filium 
 Sua sponte recte facere quatn alieno raetu 
 Ut praesens absensque idem sit.'— Ter. Adelph. \. \. 47. 
 
 ' Non his iuventus orra parentibus 
 Infecit aequor sanguine Punico.' — HoR. Carm. iii. 6. 33. 
 
 We have listened to Aristophanes lamenting the growing cor- 
 ruption of education and character in his own day ; when we 
 turn to Rome we hear complaints that are both louder and 
 better founded. For the degeneracy of Greek education, if de- 
 generacy there was, did not come from any foreign source; it 
 was of native growth and origin ; the change at Rome was 
 
 ' Pol. V. (viii.) 4 a/io 7^^ rfj Tf hiavoit^ koX rS> awfiari hiaitovuv ov 5tT. 
 
 * Ibid. 5 avfi^(07]Ke Si ran avOpuirofs wotfiffOai ras naiSias Tt'Xos, 
 
 ' Ibid. 5. § 16 rroiiii rifft ra. rjOrj yiyvufitOa 5«' ai/r^s. The same is the case in a less 
 degree, he remarks, with sculpture. 
 
 * Sir W. Hamilton. 'A liberal education is that in which the individual is 
 cultivated, not as an instrument towards some ulterior end, but as an end to himself 
 alone.' 
 
30 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 worked by external influences, by Eastern luxury and by Greek 
 refinement. * Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes in- 
 tulit agresti Latio;' these words sum up the history of Roman 
 education as well as of Roman literature. Every age gives 
 expression to the feeling that 'it is no better than its fathers/ 
 and were there no other proof than Horace's repeated assertions * 
 of the depravity of his time we might ascribe the supposed 
 falling off to his fancy or to his rhetoric. Unhappily by the 
 evidence of crimes and laws^ by the pages of history as well 
 as by the voice of rhetoric, we are assured of the reality of this 
 decay. Of the life of later times we have ample descriptions in 
 the pages of Cicero and Horace, of Juvenal and Martial ; of the 
 older days the general features indeed are clear, but the details 
 have to be gathered up and pieced together from fragments of con- 
 temporary writers, or discovered amidst an almost continuous 
 record of triumphs and prodigies, of foreign wars and internal 
 seditions. Yet, if we can draw some picture of the old life, we 
 shall not have to go much further for an account of the old edu- 
 cation; for it consisted not in systematic instruction or literary 
 culture, but in the discipline of life. 
 
 The old education centred in the family ; and at Rome the 
 family bond was a stronger one than in Greece. Marriage was 
 not yet looked upon as the necessary evil which Metelius Numi- 
 dicus * pronounced it to be ; the penalties for adultery were severe 
 and divorce was unknown*. The position of the mother was 
 more dignified and less secluded than in Greece, and she had 
 more influence in the bringing up of her children ^ The power 
 of the paterfamilias over his family was absolute • in early times, 
 though subsequently limited by law '^. In Rome, as in Greece, 
 abortion and exposure of children were practised, and there was 
 the same custom of the father ' taking up ' ('suscipere,' 'tollere ') his 
 child as a formal recognition ; in later times this was supplemented 
 by a 'professio/ or public announcement in the journals and 
 registers'. At the nundinae the name was given, and presents 
 ('crcpundia ')' were made by relatives; then too the bulla or amulet 
 of gold was hung round the neck, to be worn till the toga prae- 
 texta was laid aside ^^, Presiding over the Nundinae there was a 
 
 ' Hoi. Od. iii. 6 ' Aetas parentnm peior avis tulit | nos nequiores mox dataros | pro- 
 geniem vitiosiorem.' 
 
 • Tacitus' statement (Ann. iii.) ' comiptissima republica plurimae leges' is at any 
 (ate true of Rome. 
 
 • Censor 103 B.C. * Till the time of Sp. Carvilius, circa 234 B.C. 
 
 ' Tac. Dial, de Or. 38 'Filius in gremio ac sinu maths educabatur, cuius praecipua 
 laus erat tneri domum et inservire liberis ... at ntmc natus infans delegatur Grae- 
 culae ancillae.' 
 
 • Gaius. Inst. i. 13/, a, Dionys. Halicam. Rom. Antiq. ii. 26, 27. 
 '' Justinian, Digest j8. 2. ii, Codex.ix. 15. 
 
 ' juv. ix. 84 ' Tollis enim ef libris actoram spargere gaudes | argumenta viri.' Cf. 
 ii. 136, Digest, xxii. 3. 29. ' Plaut. Epid. v. i. 33. 
 
 '*" Prop. iv. 1. 131 'Mox nbi bnlla mdi demissa est aurea collo | matris et ante 
 deos libera sompta toga.' Juvenal's phrase ('aarum Etruscum') points to its supposed 
 origin. Macrobius has a long discussion about it, Saturn, i. 6. 
 
Education at Rome. 31 
 
 special deity (Nundina), and it is characteristic of the Roman 
 religion that there were several shadowy and abstract divinities 
 corresponding to the first wants and events of childhood ^ 
 Nursing was iw early times done by the mother, but afterwards 
 nurses * became common, especially in the higher classes, where all 
 family cares and responsibilities were unfashionable ^. The first 
 years of life would be spent under the mother's care ; a Roman 
 matron of the old type would look after the health and morals of 
 her children, and would train them to speak correctly*; the rev- 
 erence due to children, which Juvenal pleaded for in vain, was 
 duly maintained in the days of Cato*. As the boy grew he 
 became his father's companion, in his business and his recreation, 
 in the forum or about the country estate ; we hear of boys accom- 
 panying their fathers to dinner at the houses of friends'. Some- 
 times they seem to have waited at private banquets, and to have 
 sung during the feast lays celebrating the praises of their ancestors''. 
 It is said that sons of senators were allowed to be present at 
 the debates in the senate *, and even to be with their parents on a 
 campaign. In this way the young Roman got an early insight 
 into the affairs in which he would one day have to take part, and 
 could watch and profit by the example of his elders ^. It was an 
 education in action, designed to produce readiness and judgment 
 in action, and it succeeded ; this was the training of the Roman 
 senators at the time of the senate's greatest glory. Towards his 
 father the young Roman was taught to maintain an attitude of 
 respect ('modestia,' 'pudor'); the father's word was to be law, both in 
 small things and in great. Reverence and obedience were also 
 demanded from him to the laws of the state, and to the gods of 
 state ; those great powers whom the city worshipped with ever in- 
 creasing ceremonial, deities whom he might fear, if he could not 
 love ; nor had the religions of the East as yet begun to corrupt 
 morality by degrading worships and obscene practices ^". As for 
 actual intellectual training by book learning there was little or 
 none; Rome had no literature of her own, and of Greek literature 
 she was still ignorant. Elementary schools existed apparently 
 
 ' Such as Ltvana, Edusa ct Potina, Cumina, Vagitantis (penes qnem vocis mitiaV 
 
 • The nurse was sometimes called 'mater.' Plaut. Men. Pro!. 19 'mater quae 
 niammam dabat.' 
 
 • Tac. Dial a8, Aul. Gell. xii. 2. 
 
 • Cic. Brut. 74, De Oral. iii. 13. » Plut. Cato Mai. ch. 20, 
 
 • Ibid. Quaest. Rom. 33 &d W rh imXi^ ohn iSttirvow «£a> x**/*'* ■'^*' t'^**' ; 
 ' Varro apud Nonius, s. v. puerae and <tssa voce. 
 
 • Macrobius (Sat. i. 6), gives an amusing anecdote of the young Papiriiis who baffled 
 his mother's cariosity as to the proceedings in the Senate : on the other hand Polybius 
 scornfully deuies the custom (Hist. iii. 20. 3), and his opinion is, of course, more to be 
 relied on. 
 
 • Pliny, Ep. 8. 14, 4 'Erat autem antlquitus usitatum ut a maiorlbus non aurihtu 
 modo verum etiam oculis diseeremus quae facienda mox ipsi . . . kaberevuis : adole- 
 scentuli statim castrensibus stipendiariis imbneantur : inde honores petituri curiae 
 assistebant foribus : et consilii pnblici spectatores antequam consortes erant.' 
 
 ** The worship of Cybclc was introduced in 204, that of Bacchus bad taken firm 
 root by 186 B.C., the date of the S. C. de Bacchanalibus. 
 
32 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 from early times both at Rome ' and elsewhere ■■^, but the instruc- 
 tion given in them must have been neaifly confined to reading and 
 writing; possibly the pupils may have learnt by heart the * rude 
 Saturnian verses ' of early Rome, and the little m<.)re prosaic 
 Twelve Tables, the ' nccessarium carmen ' of Cicero's education ^ 
 As for physical training the Romans were at this period unac- 
 quainted with the Greek gymnasia, and even when they became 
 acquainted v/ith them they never showed any readiness to adopt 
 them*. Their exercises aimed at hardiness and vigour of frame, 
 not at gracefulness of limb, and no doubt Cato was not alone in 
 actually labouring in the fields, and trying to raise a crop from the 
 rocky Sabine hill sides ^' Less utilitarian was the exercise 
 obtained by riding and swimming ^^ both of which date from early 
 times. 
 
 Such was the apxata 77at8cta of Rome, the training which pro- 
 duced the old Roman character with all its excellences and all 
 its defects. It aimed not at culture or erudition, but at steadiness 
 of character and readiness in action ; it sought to preserve habits 
 of obedience, of simplicity, and frugality, to exalt reverence for 
 law and devotion to the State, whilst making the family the unit 
 of social life. For it was above all things a home training, carried 
 on by the parents, and especially by the father : ' suus cuique parens 
 pro magistro.' Plautus was expressing the feeling of Rome rather 
 than of Greece, when he said' : — 
 
 ' At ilia laus est magno in genere et divitiis maximis 
 Liberos hominem educare generi raonumentum et sibi ! ' 
 
 But this was not to last ; the very triumphs which were secured 
 by this training proved fatal to it, and the uncultured military 
 power sank beneath the spell of Oriental luxury and Greek litera- 
 ture and art. 
 
 § 2. Rise of Greek Influence. 
 
 * Odi homines opera ignava et philosopha sententia.' — Pacuvius. 
 
 ' Cfammattcus rhetor geotnetrcs pictor aliptes 
 Auijar schoenobates medicns magus ; omnia novit 
 Graeculus esuriens.' — Juvenal. 
 
 The Roman had not to cross the Adriatic in order to come 
 into contact with Greek influence ; Cumae, and Tarentum, and 
 Syracuse brought Greek language and thought close to him. 
 From early times there must have been commercial intercourse 
 
 * Livy iii. 44 'Virgini venienti in forum (namque ibi in tabernis literarum Indi 
 erant).' Cf. Dionys. x. 28. 
 
 ' Ibid. V. 27— -of Falisci — 'plures pneri unius cnrae demandabantur.* 
 ' Cic. Leg. ii. 23 'discebamus enim pneri xii tabulas, ut carmen necessarimn.' 
 Pint. Quaest. Rom. 30 rh fop (rjpaXoKptiv v<pts>}puivTo 'Pwixaioi (Kpohpi Kci roh 
 
 Bi\Kr}ai ^rjSh' otovTCu ovrois airioy Sovkdas ytyovivai jcal fiakaaias «s rd fv/jwdata nal 
 
 •rdi iraXaiffTpas. k.t.K. 
 
 * Cato, ap. Fest p. 281 *agro colendo Sabinis silicibus repastinandis.' 
 
 * Hor. Sat. ii. I. 8 ' ter nncti | transnanto Tiberim somno quibus est opus alto.' 
 ' Miles Gloriosus iii. i. 1 10. 
 
Education at Rome. 33 
 
 between Rome and Magna Graecia, resulting in the partial 
 adoption of Greek words and Greek myths. 
 
 With the completion of the conquest of Italy, Tarentum and 
 the Greek cities of the South fell before Rome, after invoking 
 Pyrrhus in vain (28a E. c). Sicily became a province after the 
 First Punic War. It is not, however, till the Macedonian wars 
 that we find a Philhellenic tendency ; the ' liberation of Greece ' 
 by Flamininus in 196, though the liberty was but a shadow, yet 
 shows the growth of Roman respect for the past of Greece. For 
 some years before this Greek culture had appeared at Rome ; 
 Spurius Carviiius, a freedman, was, we are told, the first to open a 
 school in v/hich Greek was taught ^, and it was ominous that he too 
 was the first Roman who was divorced. Livius Andronicus, who 
 had been brought from Tarentum as a slave, was a schoolmaster, 
 and translated the Odyssey chiefly as a school book. Latin 
 literature thus originated in the school and under Greek influence. 
 The plays of Piautus are not only Greek in their origin and in the 
 life they describe, but they teem with Greek words with which the 
 audience was supposed to be familiar^, and of the earliest annalists 
 of Rome, two— Q. Fabius Pictor and C. Acilius — wrote in Greek, 
 We need not multiply exam.ples ; it is plain that it was Greek 
 influence which developed Latin literature, and without a literature 
 education cannot advance beyond the elementary stage. We may 
 notice, however, the attempts to resist the tide ; we see them most 
 plainly in the outspoken denunciations of Cato the Censor •■^, the 
 typical Roman. Cato foretold that corruption would be the result 
 of the new movement ^^ but he so far yielded to the movement 
 himself as to read Demosthenes and Thucydides, and we hear of 
 his having a slave who was a good grammarian. Nor did Cato 
 stand alone ; in j6j B.C. the majority of the Senate decreed the 
 expulsion of rhetoricians and philosophers?, but the decree was 
 never carried out, and the number of literary slaves and freedmen 
 increases all through the second century before Christ. The 
 higher culture was patronized by many of the greatest men at Rome, 
 by Aemiiius Pauilus, the conqueror of Macedonia, and then by the 
 Scipionic circle. By the time of Cicero no education — still less 
 the education of a future orator — was complete without the study 
 of Greek *' ; and besides the actual study of the language, the 
 whole scheme of instruction was no longer Roman, but Greek. 
 Let us now trace its outlines. 
 
 ' This must be the meaning of Plutarch's statement (Q. R. 59) rr()u)Tos dvca/^f Hibna- 
 KaKtiov : elementary achools, as we have seen, existed before. 
 ^ E.g. 'machaera,' ' trapezita,' ' logus,' ' techna,' ' schema.' 
 
 ^ 234-149 ^^^■ 
 
 * Pliny, N. H. xxix, 7 ' Quandoquc ista gens suas literas dabit omnia corrumpet. 
 
 * Suet, de Clar. Rhet. i. 
 
 * Ibid. 2 (Cicero explains why he did not go to Latin rhetores") ' Continebar doctis- 
 simorum hominum euctoritale, qui existimabaut Graecis excrcitationibus ali melius 
 ingenia posse.' 
 
 D 
 
34 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 § 3. Education in the time of Cicero. 
 (o) Early years and Elementary Schools. 
 
 * Educit obstetrix, educat nutrix, instttuit paedagogiis, docet magister.' 
 
 ' Prima cratera litteratoris ruditatem eximit : secunda grammatici doctrina instruit 
 tertia ihetoris eloquentia aimat/ — Apul. Flor. 20. 
 
 The good influence of the parents on the early life of the 
 child gradually waned as simplicity of life became more rare. 
 Tt is noticeable that Cicero never alludes to his mother in the 
 whole of his writings, and rarely to his father. Yet there were 
 not wanting in the later Republic instances of careful early 
 training. Horace tells us frankly of the debt that he owed to 
 his father^, and Tacitus contrasts the mothers of those days 
 with the fashionable ladies of his own time 2. But we hear 
 more of boys being entrusted to the care of slaves, who are 
 variously designated as * custodes,' ' comites,' * monitores,' « pedi- 
 sequi,' and 'paedagogi.' It was the special function of the 
 latter to accompany young boys to school, and in some cases 
 they stayed and availed themselves of the lesson. The fashion 
 was a Greek one, and the slaves were very often Greeks, from 
 whom the language could be learnt; often too, at least in the 
 time of Tacitus and Quintilian, they were worthless, and exercised 
 a bad influence on their charges ^ 
 
 The course of instruction had by this time become more defined 
 and systematised ; the ♦ litterator,' the 'grammaticus/ and the 
 ' rhetor ' successively undertook the training of the youth who as- 
 pired to a good education. Sometimes, however, when the parents 
 were wealthy, all, or at any rate the earlier, of these stages wpre 
 supplied by a tutor, generally a Greek slave or freedman * who 
 taught the ordinary subjects of the ' ludus literarius,' or of the gram- 
 marian s ' curriculum,' as well as the Greek language, the knowledge 
 of which was now common, but not universal*. 
 
 Though schools existed in country towns, we find boys being 
 brought up fro\n the country to Rome for the sake of education. 
 Horace's father was not satisfied with the instruction or the com- 
 pany at the .school in Venusium, and brought his son to Rome*; 
 Cicero's father migrated from Arpinum to the capital for the same 
 
 ' Hor Sal. i 6. 81 'Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimns onuies J circa doctores aderat. 
 quid multa ? pudicani | qui primus virtutis honos servavit et omai | non solora facto 
 verum opprobrio qaoqar turpi.' 
 
 * Dial, de Or. 28 'Sic Cotneliam Gracchorum, sic Aureliam Caesaris, «ic lliam 
 Augusti matrem praefuisse edncationibus et prodaxisse principes liberos accepimus.' 
 
 » Quint, i. 1. 8, Tacit. Dial, de Orat. i. 39. 
 
 * Pliny, Epp. iii. ' Praeceptores domi habuit ; iam studia extra limen proferenda.' 
 Ibid. N. H. .^5. 14 L. Paullus asked the Athenians 'nt qaam probatissimum philo- 
 sophum mitterent ad emdiendos liberos' Cf. Cicero's Tyrannio Ep. ad Q. F. iv. 
 4. 2. 
 
 * The praetors in the provinces in Cicero's time had their interpreters. 
 
 * Hor. Sat.i. 6. 72 ' Noluit in Flavi ludum me mittere, magni j quo pueri magnis e 
 centurionibus orti I ibant octonis referentes Idibtis acta.' 
 
Education at Rome, 35 
 
 reason*. Seven seems to have been an ordinary age for going to 
 the * ludus iiterarius,' where instruction was given in ' reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic.' In reading, sometimes the names of the 
 letters and their order were learnt first ; sometimes their form — the 
 method preferred by Quintilian ^ : writing was taught by having 
 letters marked out on wax tablets ^ ; arithmetic by counting on the 
 fingers *, or by the abacus ; the study of the latter was not carried 
 very far, but accuracy and quickness in ordinary calculation were 
 valued by the practical or the commercial parent ^. It was in the 
 elementary school that boys began to learn poetry by heart — first 
 hearing it dictated ", and the rod was called into requisition to 
 stimulate the memory. The masters were known as ' litteratores/ 
 but were often far from being ' literati ',' and their position was 
 neither respected nor envied. Orbilius, who probably belonged to 
 this class, wrote a book on the so^^rows of a schoolmaster, entitled 
 the ne/)/aA.>7/s, and we maybe sure that they were no better off than 
 the rhetors of Juvenal 's day. They seem to have had assistants in the- 
 shape of ' hypodidascali ^' ami 'calculatores' or arithmetic masters. 
 We hear of their holding oui allurements to induce their pupils to' 
 learn ^, but fear was the lever roost commonly in use, and 'clamosi' 
 or *plagosi ' are the epithets most usually applied to the feachers; 
 the name of the instrument of torture was ' femla '".* The school 
 hours were in the morning, beginning early ^^ ; holidays were usual 
 at the Saturnalia ^2, in December, and the Quinquatria ^^, in March. 
 From a well-known passage in Horace **, it has been supposed by 
 Hermann and others that all Roman boys had a ' long vacation ' of 
 four months in the summer , but Horace is referring to a school at 
 Venusium, and is contrasting it in some respects, and possibly in 
 this, with schools in the city. Hermann'.s theory, however, receives 
 some support from Martial 1^, and it must remain uncertain in what 
 class of schools these long holidays were the custom The school 
 
 ' Cic. de Oral, ij. i. ' Inst. Orat i. i. 24-6. '' Ibid. 1. a8. 
 
 * Cic. ad Att. v. 20 *Si tuos digitos novi cerfe Imbes subductum;' Ovid, Epp. ex 
 Ponto it. 3. 18 'Suppositis suppxitat articulis.' 
 
 (* Hor, A. P. 335 'Roinpni pueri longis ratiombus assem j discunt in ceutum partes 
 deducere: dicat | fi'iius Albini,' etc. Cf. Qumt. Inst. Or. i. 10. 35. 
 
 * Hor. Epp. ii. 1. 69 -"Non equidem insector delendave caraain.a Livi | esse reor 
 memini quae plagosum mibi parvo j Orbiliuni dictare.'' 
 
 ^ Surtonir..s, ' Illam quidem absolute, hunc mediochter doctuin,' de Giamm. § 4. 
 
 * Cic.ad Fam. ix. 18 ' Sella tibi erit in liido tanquam hypodidascalo proxima.' 
 
 ^ Hot. Sat. i I. 75 'Ui paeris olirc dant cra&tula blandi | doctores elementa velint 
 at discere prima ' 
 
 ** Juv. i. 15 ' M^xamsi ferulae subdnximus ;' Mart, xiu 57 'JNegant vitam ludi magistri 
 mane, nocte pistores ; v. 84^NacibQS puei relictis clamoso revocatur a magistro." 
 Cp. ix. 68 ; Plant. Bacch. iii. 3. 38 ('ferula'.=>Gk. i'a/>0i}^, which a scholiast derives 
 from vfapoiii O'^tty). 
 
 " Mart. xii. 57-ix. 30 'Matutinns noagister;' ix. 68. 
 
 •* Pliny viii. 7. 
 
 " Hor, Ep. ii. 2. 197 'Puer ut festis qninquatribna oiiro exiguo gratoque fruaris 
 tempore raptim.' 
 
 '* Hor. Sat. i. 6. 75 'Ibant ocionis referentes Idibus aera.' 
 
 " Mart.x. 62 ' Ferulaeque tristes sceptra paedagogoinirn | cessent et idus dornniant 
 in Octobres : j aestate pueri si valent satis discunt ' 
 
36 Theory and P^'actice of Ancient Education. 
 
 fees in the elementary school were trifling ; on entering a fee was 
 required (Minerva!)^; the ordinary fees were either paid monthly, 
 as the passage from Horace would lead us to believe, or once a year, 
 as seems to have been customary later, in March 2. 
 
 If the parent could afford it, the boy, after going through the 
 'ludus literarius,' would begin his higher education under a gram- 
 marian ('grammaticus'). 
 
 § 4. Education in the time ok Cicero {continued) 
 (/3-) Grammar and Rhetoric. 
 
 ' Mihi inter virtutes grammatici habebitnr aliqua nescire.' — Quintilian. 
 
 The Romans became in later times a ' nation of grammarians, 
 but the study of grammar was nevertheless an importation. In 
 early days, Suetonius telis us, the science was unknown 3, and when 
 the 'scholae grammaticorum ' were first introduced from Greece " 
 the provinces of the grammarian and the rhetor had not yet been 
 separated ". The early teachers, like Crates of Mallus, who was said 
 to have been the first to come to Rome *^, gave instruction in both 
 grammar and rhetoric. Soon, however, there came greater special- 
 isation, and the pupil underwent a course of training, first from the 
 grammarian and afterwards from the professor of rhetoric. 
 
 It was the task of the grammarian to read with his pupils the 
 works of poets and historians, and to comment on the substance, 
 but more especially on the form, of the writings, explaining, emend- 
 ing, and criticising "^ ; he must be familiar with history and mytho- 
 logy, as well as with the forms of language, and the best models of 
 expression. The object of the study was that the learner should 
 acquire correctness of expression, in speaking, reading aloud, and 
 writing, by familiarity with the best authors of Greece and Rome, 
 besides gaining a store of knowledge on the subjects of which these 
 authors treated ^. Horace is probably referring to the ' schola gram- 
 matica ' when he tells us how he learnt of the wrath of Achilles in- 
 juring the Greeks^, and Horace's works became in turn a favourite 
 
 ' Juv. X. 116 ' Quisquis adhuc nno partam colit asse Minervair' refers to this 
 
 * Macr. i. 12 ' Hoc mense mercedes exsolvebant inagistris.' 
 
 ' Saetonins, de Illustr. Gramm. i. ' Grainmatica Komae ne in nsu qiiidem olim oednrn 
 in honore uUo erat . . . antiquissimi doctorum . . . poetae et semigraeci . . . nihil arn])lius 
 quam Gracca interpretabantur aut, si quid ipsi Latine composuissent, praclegebant.' 
 
 * Cic. 'I'usc. Disp. ii. lo 'Eruditio liberalis et 'liscipliiia a Graecis.' 
 
 * Suet. Rhet. iv. ' Vcteres grammatici et rhetoricam docebant.' 
 
 * ' I'limns igitu'r quantum opinamur stadium grammaticae in urbem intulit Crates 
 Mallotcs Aristarchi aequalis ' (Suet. Gramm. 2). 
 
 ' Cic. Orat. i. 42. 187 'Historiae cognitio . . . verbonim iuterprctatio et pronuntiandi.' 
 Vwro divides his task into four, 'lectio narratio, emendatio iutlicium.' 
 
 ' Quint. Inst Or. i. 4 makes two divisions, ' Rccte loquendi scieritia et poetarum 
 enarratio . . . plus ha bet in recessu quam fronte promittat. nam et scribendi ratio 
 coniuncta cum loquendo est, et enarrationem praecedit emendata lectio, et mi.\t«Tn his 
 omnibus indicium.' 
 
 * Ep. ii. 2. 42 ' Romae notriri mihi contigit atque doceri | iratas Graiis quantum 
 nocuisset Achilles.' 
 
Education at Rome. 37 
 
 text-book for the young pupil ^, though never so universal as Homer 
 and Vergil 2. 
 
 Of rhetorical teachers there were in Cicero's day two kinds, the 
 ' rhetores Graeci ' and the ' rhetores Latini.' We are told that the 
 first Latin rhetor was L. Plotius Gallus, a frcedman, and that when 
 Cicero wished to study under him his friends objected, saying that 
 a training in Greek would be more valuable to the future orator'. 
 The conservatives of the period objected less to declamation in 
 Greek than to having their own language reduced to rule and 
 brought under the laws of rhetoric, and the censors of 92 B.C., 
 Crassus and Domitius, issued an edict closing these ' schools of 
 insolence *.' Suetonius gives us the words of this remarkable 
 edict ^, in which the schools of the Latin rhetors are condemned as 
 a 'new kind of training"^,' 'opposed to the customs of our ancestors,' 
 ' places where young men idled away the whole day.' The rhetors 
 were in fact regarded with much the same feelings as the Sophists 
 had been by the partisans of Aristophanes, and it is remarkable 
 that Crassus, one of the authors of this edict, was among the fore- 
 most orators of his day. Yet the rhetoric of Cicero's time had not 
 reached the pitch of insipidity and artificiality which was attained 
 under the Empire: the debates of the senate and the political 
 importance of great trials made really effective speaking of more 
 value than florid declamation, and consequently affected the pro- 
 cesses of early training''". Cicero went for some time to the 
 ' Graecae exercitationes ' which his friends prescribed for him, and 
 attained, as we .see from his letters and philosophical works, a 
 thorough knowledge of the Greek language and literature: before 
 he was out of his 'teens he began composing poetry on Greek 
 models : among his tutors were Archias the poet ' and Phacdrus 
 the Epicurean. The grammarians and rhetoricians of his time, as 
 at an earlier and a later date, wore generally freedmen or slaves. 
 Of their schools, their methods of instruction, and their status as a 
 class, we have to wait for full information till the time of Juvenal 
 and Ouintilian. 
 
 ' Juv. vii. 226 ' Cum totus decolor esset [ Flaccus et haereret nigro'fuligo M.aroni.' 
 
 * Quint, i. 8. § 55 'Optinie institutuin ut ab Homero et Vergilio lectio inciperet; 
 utiles Iragoediae ; aluiit et lyrici, si in his non auctores modo sed etiam partes operis 
 elegeris.' Cicero's speeches were also read by boys; vide fjc. ad Q. F. iii. i. 4. 
 
 ^ ('ic.apud Suet. Rhet. 2 ' Continebar aulem doctissimoruin hominum opinione, qui 
 existimabant Graecis exercitationibus ali melius ingenia posse.' 
 
 * Tac. Dial. xx.kv. 'L. Crasso et Domitio censoribus eludere, ut ait Cicero, luduin 
 impudentiae iussi sunt.' ' Rhetor, i. 
 
 * Seneca, Contr. i. Pr. §12' Declamabat autem Cicero non (juales nunc controversias 
 dicimus.' 
 
 ' Cic. Brutus, Ivi. 205, Pro Archia. 
 
38 Theory and Practice of Ancie^it Education. 
 
 % 5. Education in the time of Cicero [continued), 
 
 (y) Young Manhood: Completion of Eatication. 
 
 ' Sive quod es liber vestis qooque libera per te 
 
 Sumitur et vitae liberioris iter.' — Ovid, Trzjt. v. 777. 
 
 The study of rhetoric would ordinarily continue till about ' the 
 sixteenth year, when the toga virilis or libera was assumed, and 
 the bulla laid aside. In some cases this meant the end of. educa- 
 tion, in some the commencement of apprenticeship to political 
 life or military training: to the future orator it was the beginning 
 of c new period of education, under conditions of greater freedom. 
 Cicerc at this age does not diminish but rather increases the 
 severity of his studies*. Following a common practice', he was 
 now put under the care of the orator Scaevola, whom he accom- 
 panied to the forum and the courts, listening to his speeches, and 
 to his ' responsa,' or ' opinions/ This was known as the • tiroci- 
 nium fori,' which in some cases was begun by an entrance into the 
 forum with an escort, and a sacrifice on the Capitol. During this 
 year, besides acquiring knowledge of law and of oratory, the young 
 man has to learn how to bear himself, and to accustom himself to 
 the ways of the forum*. Though allowed to begin speaking from 
 this time, it was not thought consistent with modesty to do so at 
 once. Hortensius began at the age of nineteen, and that was 
 considered young ^. But this training by experience was not ail : 
 during these years Cicero was continuing his study of rhetoric, and 
 was practising declamation. Above all, he was prosecuting with 
 zeal the study of philosophy, and that not with a view to writing 
 the Academica or the Tusculan Disputations, but as an important 
 and necessary part of the training of an orator*. The circum- 
 stances of the time made oratory of paramount importance: oratory 
 became the final end of the highest education : and in Cicero's 
 time, as in Quintilian's, the ideal standard of good oratory was put 
 very high. Cicero did not mean by a good orator a man of 
 natural gifts and fluency developed by suflicient practice in speak- 
 ing, but a man of the widest culture and knowledge, well read in 
 history and poetry, a dialectician and a philosopher : he must have 
 
 * The exact age was probably not fixed. Cicero and Persins (Pers. v. 30) assumed 
 
 it at the bepinning of their 1 6th year : Nero at 14, unusually early (Tac. Ann. xii. 41). 
 
 ' Brutus xc. ' Noctes et dies in omnium doctrinanun meditatione versabar.' 
 
 ' Tac. Dial, xxxiv. 'Deducebatur a patrc vel a propinquis ad eum oratorem qui prinr 
 
 cipem locum in civitate obtinebat. Hunc sectari hunc prosequi huius omnibus die- 
 
 tionibus interesse assuescebat sive in iudiciis sive. in contionibus.' Cf. Cic. de Amic. i. 
 
 " Cic. Pro Caeiio v. 'Nobis quidem olim annus erat ad cohibendiun bracchium toga 
 
 ronstitatus.' 
 
 ■• Cic. Brut. ixiv. • Cum admodum adolescens orsus esset in foro dicere.' 
 " Cic. Or. iii. ; Tac. Dial, xxxii. ' Cicero quidquid in eloqiientia effecerif non 
 fhetorum Scholis sed Academiae spatiis se esse consecutum dixit ;' ibid, xxxix. ' E multa 
 eruditione et plurimis artibus et onine renim scientia exoudat et exuberat ilia admira- 
 bilis eloquentia.' 
 
Edtfcation al Rome, 39 
 
 strength of character also, an honourable ambition, and a control 
 over his passions. 
 
 To return to the study of philosophy, in which Cicero and many 
 of his contemporaries spent some time, instruction might be pro- 
 cured from stray philosophers who resorted to Rome, like Philo, 
 into whose hands Cicero put himself \ and we find in Cicero's 
 letters notices of philosophers residing in the houses of wealthy 
 Romans — cTO(^oi -napa ttKovo-Ioov Ovpals. But it was not uncommon 
 for young men to go abroad to Athens or Rhodes or Massilia to 
 6nish their course of rhetoric and to learn philosophy. In this way 
 Horace resided for some time at Athens 2, and Cicero in an inter- 
 val of quasi-leisure enforced by ill health went to Athens, and then 
 travelled through Asia, availing himself everywhere of the best 
 masters 3. Travelling, especially in Greece and Asia, was also 
 undertaken for amusement or general information, without any 
 special object. 
 
 If the youth was destined for a military career, and oratory was 
 only a secondaiy consideration, it was usual for him to gain ex- 
 perience by going on a campaign, and if his family had sufficient 
 position and influence, he would be attached to the general and 
 put under his charge *. 
 
 Such was the general outline of education during the latter 
 years of the Republic ^. We have the three steps of education 
 more or less clearly defined — the teaching of the litterator, the 
 grammaticus, and the rhetoi* ; and to this was sometimes added 
 the higher education in advanced rhetoric and philosophy; the aim 
 of the whole being oratorical proficiency. Cato the elder had 
 reckoned as elements of non-professional culture a knowledge of 
 oratory, agriculture, law^, war, and medicine: a comparison with 
 this of Varro's list is instructive *. We find that he enumerates 
 grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and 
 music: military science, jurisprudence, and agriculture are no 
 longer general, but professional studies^ 
 
 We have seen in what manner most of the studies mentioned 
 by Varro were taught: we may now briefly notice the others — 
 music, geometry, and astronomy, their place in Roman education 
 being rather obscure. Music occupied a much less prominent 
 position than -in Greek education, and we may doubt whether 
 instruction in singing was universal, though we find both boys and 
 
 * 'Totum ei me tiadidi' (Brut. Ixxxix.). 
 
 * Hot. Epp. iL 2, 43 ' Adiecere bonae paullo plus artis Athenae | scilicet ut vellem 
 curvo dignoscere rectum | atque inter silvas Academi qnaerere veruiti.' 
 
 * Tae. Dial. xxx. 'Neque his doctoribus contentum quorum ei copia in urbe contigerat 
 Achaiam qnoqne atque Asiam peragrasse, ut omnem artium varjetatcni complec- 
 teretnr.' 
 
 * Cic. Pro Caelio xxx. ' Cum autem paullum roboris accessisset aetati in Africam 
 profectus est, Q. Pompeio proconsuli contubemalis.' 
 
 * Some of the references given have been taicen for purposes of illustration (roni 
 authors of later date, where there is no reason to bupccse any dififcrence from the 
 practice of Cicero's time. 
 
 ' Made hy Mommsen, R, H. vol. Jv. 
 
4© Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 girls trained in it for the purposes of religious ceremonies *. Danc- 
 ing was considered degrading 2, and was left to professional per- 
 formers. Geometry is one of the subjects enumerated by Varro, 
 and Quintilian held that it was necessary for an orator, but says 
 nothing about teaching either geometry or astronomy. Geography 
 came to be more necessary as Roman conquest extended, and wars 
 with the Cantabrian or the Parthian stimulated enquiry about the 
 neighbours of Rome •*. 
 
 Most of the notices of the education of women come from later 
 writers, and may be best discussed in connection with imperial 
 times. 
 
 § 6. Education in the time of Cicero [continued). 
 
 (6) Physical Ediication. 
 
 We need not be delayed long by the discussion of physical 
 training at Rome, for, though physical vigour was not undervalued, 
 physical education was never systematised. Horace gives us so 
 good a picture of the sports and exercises from which a lovesick 
 youth was absenting himself* that it is perhaps worth quoting at 
 length : — 
 
 ' Cur apricum 
 Oderit campum patiens pulveris atque solis ? 
 Cui neque militaris 
 
 Inter aequales equitat, Gallica nee lupatis 
 Temperat ora frenis? 
 
 Cur timet tiavum Tiberim tangere? cur olivum 
 Sanguine viperino 
 
 Cautius vitat neque iam livida gestat armis 
 Bracchia, saepe disco, 
 
 Saepe trans finem iaculo nobilis expedite ?' 
 
 Here we have swimming, wrestling, riding, and throwing the 
 iaculum and the discus, and we have frequent mention of hunting^: 
 all these were thought valuable for the development of the body, 
 and to be a good athlete was evidently considered honourable ; but 
 at the same time these exercises were not organized as a definite 
 part of education v/ith regular instructors like the Greek -naihojpi^ai. 
 Gymnasia were not common till some time after the establishment 
 of the Empire, when they took their place among the adjuncts of 
 the great baths ^ ; and they were always regarded by moralists as 
 fostering idleness and immorality, whilst failing to develope 
 
 ' Hor. On. iv. 6. 31 ' Virginum primae puerique claris | patribus orti . . . Lesbiam 
 servate pedem meique | poUicis ictum.' 
 
 * Cio. Pro Mur. vi. 13 • Neino fere saltat sobrius nisi forte insanit.' Cf. Senec. Con- 
 Irov. Praef. § 1. 
 
 * Prop. iv. 3. 35 * Et disco qua parte fluat vinccndus Araxes.' 
 ' Hor. Od. i. 8. 8 seq. 
 
 * Ibid. Ep. i. 18. 49 ' Komanis solemne vires opus utile famae \ vitaeque et membris 
 pvaesertim quuin valearet | vel cursu superarC canem vel viribus aprum | pessis.' CA. 
 Od. i. I. 36. 
 
 * In the baths of Caracalla the site of the gymnasia can be tolerabiy accurately 
 determined. 
 
Education at Rome. 41 
 
 physique in any great degree' : and in place of the games of the 
 great Greek festivals the Roman was well content with the more 
 brutal sport afforded by trained gladiators. 
 
 § 7. Education under the Empire. 
 
 ' Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus, 
 Res Italas armis luteris, moribus cmes, 
 Legibus emendes.' — HoR. Ep. to Augustus. 
 
 With the establishment of the Empire we find in education, as 
 in other things, greater elaboration and system: a process of as- 
 similation and reduction to rule begins : imperial patronage is 
 extended to education and educators : endowments multiply and 
 schools spring up in the provinces, amidst the newer civilization of 
 Gaul and Spain, as well as in the older province of Africa 2, which 
 earned the title of 'the nurse, of pleaders,' whilst St, Augustine, 
 with pardonable patriotism, compares Carthage to Rome as a seat 
 of learning". Before the time of Suetonius grammar had become 
 a common study in the provinces, and many of the best teachers 
 taught there, especially in Gaul ^. We have an interesting 
 account in Pliny's letters^ of the condition of education in Nor- 
 thern Italy, Piiny mentions that when at Comum he found the 
 son of a municeps going to school at Mediolanum, and on asking 
 his father why he sent him so far away, he received the answer that 
 there was no good school nearer. Pliny takes the opportunity ot 
 haranguing him and other parents on the advantages of having 
 their sons educated nearer home ", and offers to contribute one- 
 third of what they could raise: he would give more did he not 
 think it better that the parents should contribute the greater part 
 themselves, and thus be able to exercise more control over the 
 teachers : ' for,' he says, ^ where masters are paid out of public 
 funds, which is the case in many places^ inefficiency is generally 
 the result '^. This shows the prevalence of endowments or public 
 pay of some kind, and Vespasian, we are told, spent an annual 
 sum out of the fiscus on the payment of rhetors ^, whilst 
 
 * Juv. iii. 115 Transi | gymnasia atque audi facinus maioris abollae;' Pliny, H. N, 
 xxix. 8 ' Ilia perdidere imperii mores ;' xxxv. 47 ' Quibus exercendo inventus nostra 
 corporis vires perdidit animomm.' Cf. Petron. Ixxxv. and Seneca passim, 
 
 ' Juv. vii. 147 'Accipiat te ] Gallia vel potius nutricula causidicorum j Africa.' Cf. 
 XV. 3 ' De conducerido loquitur iam rhetore Thule.' 
 
 * Ep. xi. 8, 9 ' Duae tantae urbes Latinarum litteraram artifices, Roma atque Car- 
 thago.' Cf. Salvian. de Gnbem. Dei vii. 'lllic artium liberalium scholae, illic philoso- 
 phorum officinae.' 
 
 *■ Suet, de Gramm. iii. ' Nam in provincias quoque gramraatsca pervenerat ac non- 
 nulli de notissimis doctoribus peregre docuernnt, maxime in Gallia Coraala.' 
 
 * Pliny, Epp. iv. 13. 
 
 * Loc. cit. ' Ubi enim ant iucundius morarentur quam in patria aut pudicius contine 
 rentur quam sub oculis parentum aut minora sumptu quam domi ? ' 
 
 ^ Ibid. ' Ne quandoque ambitu corrumperetur ut multis in locis accidere video in 
 quibus praeceptores publice coaducuntur.' 
 ' Suet. Vesp. xviii. 
 
42 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 Quintilian received a salary from the public funds. In spite 
 of this the lot of the ordinary teacher of grammar or rhetoric was 
 an unenviable one, and they were notoriously ill-paid. The age 
 of Juvenal was an age of luxury, but nothing, he tells us, cost a 
 father less than his son's education ^ For this small reward the 
 master had to submit to the constant monotony of the same 
 lessons 2, and to the reproaches of parents if their children failed 
 to come up to the expectations which their relations had formed of 
 thcm^ Sometimes apparently they had to defend themselves 
 against actual assault from their pupils *. Moreover they were 
 expected to be omniscient : to have an answer ready for every 
 question, even down to the name of the nurse of Anchises, or the 
 age of Acestes 5. They still came principally from the ' lower 
 classes' — slaves and freedmen — even the most successful, like 
 Staberius Eros, Caecilius Epirota, Verrius Flaccus, Julius Hyginus, 
 and Q. Remmius Palaemon. The latter was one of the most 
 successful teachers of his day, although a man of infamous character : 
 how infamous may be best estimated from the fact that both Tibe- 
 rius and Claudius declared him to be totally unfit to have boys 
 entrusted to his care^. Indeed the morality of the masters was 
 often veiy doubtful, and made the choice of a school a serious 
 question "^ : we find Juvenal, Pliny, and Quintilian all insisting 
 on the caution necessary in this respect if a father wished his son 
 to escape corruption ^. This was, however, only part of the general 
 decay of morality, which the best of the emperors in vain endea- 
 voured to arrest ^ But the sanctity of family life could not be 
 restored by bribes or penalties : purity and frugality were out of 
 fashion ^°, and the family had become a centre of corruption and 
 evil examples instead of the source of every wholesome influence '^. 
 In his own home and from his own parents the Roman youth 
 learnt extravagance and selfishness, dissolute conversation, even 
 gross immorality : nor were matters mended if, as was not un- 
 common at this time, the parents saw little of their own children, 
 and left them to the care of a Greek maid-servant, or a slave peda- 
 
 * Juv. vii. 187 'Res nulla minoris constabit patri qiiam filius.' Cf. ibid. 174 'Sum- 
 mula ne pereat qua vilis tessera venit Irumenti.' (.jramniarians were woi'se off thau 
 rhetors; ibid. 217 'Minus est aulem quani rhetoris aera.' 
 
 ^ Ibid. 154 ' C)ccidit miseros crambe repetita maj^istros.' 
 
 ' Ibid. 158 'Culpa docentis | scilicet arguitur si lasva in parte mamillac | nil salit 
 Arcadico iuveni.' 
 
 * Ibid. 213. Cf. Plaut. Bacch. 441. * Juv. vii. 233. 
 
 '' Suet. Gramm. xxiii. ' Principem locum inter grannniaticos lenuit, quanquam infamis 
 omnibus vitiis palamque et Tiberio et (]!laudio praedicantibus neinini a»uius institutio- 
 nem iaveuum commit tendam." 
 
 ' Juv. X. 224 • Hamillus.' Auson, Epigr. 123, 124, Eunus. 
 
 * Juv. X, aa8 'Exigite uf sic et pater ipsics coetus ne turpia ludant,' Pliny iii. 3, 4 
 1am circumspiciendus rhetor Latinus cuius scholae severitas podor inprimis castitas 
 
 constat.' Cf. (^nint ii. 2.,§ 4 
 
 " Augustus, Mon. Ancyr. ' Exempla maionim exolescentia revocavi;' Hor. Od. iv. 
 
 5. 22 ' Mos et lex matcnlosum edomuit nefas ' 
 
 '" Tac. Germania xix. ' Corrumpere et conumpi seculum vocatur.' 
 
 " Quint, i. 2. 6, Juv. xiv. 32 'Corrumpunt viiiorum exempla domestica maguis | cum 
 
 subeunt animos auctoribus;' ibid. 52 'Morum filius;' Seneca passim, Tacit. Dial, xxix. 
 
Education at Rome. 
 
 gogue\ often chosen from among the most worthless of the 
 household, by whose stories and examples the young mind could 
 not but be influenced for evil. At school again, besides the danger 
 of 'sending a boy to an unscrupulous master, there was the danger 
 from his companions 2, which led some more careful parents to 
 prefer a home education ^. The times were out of joint, and it 
 was beyond the power of the Emperors to set them right. The 
 most powerful lever was wanting : religious ceremonies had multi- 
 plied, but religion was dead : it never had exercised any great moral 
 influence, but now at the shrines of Bacchus, Isis, and Cybele. 
 immorality was actually worshipped. 
 
 In the subjects taught in the schools, and in the general aim of 
 education during this period, we do not encounter any great 
 changes. We have the three stages under the litterator, the gram- 
 maticus, and the rhetor, though better defined ; the aim of the 
 system is still to produce the perfect orator, though liberty, the 
 most essential condition of successful oratory, had vanished, and 
 the empire had ' pacified ' eloquence, as it had pacified all else *. It 
 is a remarkable, almost a melancholy fact to notice, that at the very 
 time when eloquence could do nothing to benefit the State, and 
 very little to advance the fortunes of the individual, it was made 
 more than ever the chief object of years of training. The natural 
 consequence was that the style of speaking became unreal and 
 vapid ^, and the training unpractical ''. But of this we shall see more 
 when we come to examine the system elaborated by Quintilian. 
 
 We get indications at the same time of a growth of minute 
 erudition, both amongst those who were engaged in teaching and 
 among amateurs. The most minute points in mythology '^ were 
 discussed in connection with Homer and the tragedians, and much 
 ingenuity was expended in evolving the pedantic obscurities of 
 L,ycophron and Callimachus, whilst Vergil's poems came in for a 
 large share of attention, both as to substance and language^, 
 Gellius * gives us a number of questions discussed by a party of 
 
 ^ Tacit. Dial. 28 'At nunc natus infans delegatur Graeculae alicui ancillae cui adiun- 
 gitiir unus aut alter ex omnibus servis fkrumque vilissimus nee cuiquam aerio minis- 
 terio accommodatus. Horuni fabalis et erroribus teneii statim el rudes animi imbuun- 
 tur. Quint, i. 2. 6 'Pudenda dictu spectantnr, fit ex his consuetudo, inde natnra.' 
 
 '*■ Quint, ii. 2. §§ 14, 15 • Pueros adolcscentibus sedere pertnixtos nou placet: infir- 
 mitas a robustioribus separanda est, et carendum aon solum crimine lurpitudine sed 
 etiam suspicione.' 
 
 ^ Ibid. i. 2. 4 'Corrumpi mores in scholis putant: nam et commpuntnr interim, 
 sed domi qaoque : et multa eius rei exempla.' 
 
 * ' Eloquentiam sicut omnia pacaverat,' Tacitus. 
 
 * Tac. Or. xxxix. 'Est aliquis oratonim campus perquem nisi liberi et solnti fcruntur 
 debilitatur et frangitureloquentia.' 
 
 * Mart. vi. 19 ' Tu Cannas Mithridaticumque bellum, et periuria Punici furoris | 
 magna voce sonas mannque tota : [ iam die, Postume, de tribns capellis;' Tac. Dial. 
 XXXV. On the 'suasoriae' and ' controversiae ' see Juv. i. t6; vii. 102. 
 
 ^ Suet. Tib. Ixx. ' Grammaticos appetebat eiusmodi fere quaestiones experiebatur , . . 
 quae mater Hecubae, quod Achilli nomen inter virgines.* 
 
 ' Juv. vii. 234 'Dicat quot Acestes vixerit annis | quot Siculus Phrygibus vini dona 
 verit ttrnas.* 
 
 •' Aulus Gellius xviii. z. 
 
44 Theory and Practice of Aficieni Education. 
 
 students at Athens, out of which the most important was, What was 
 meant by Plato's community of women ? amongst the other ques- 
 tions proposed were, What tense are 'scripserim ' and ' venerim ■* ? 
 What poet uses * verant ' ? What is the meaninn;' of ' asphodel,' and 
 ■nXiov T]ixi(Tv -navros in Hesiod ? The same authftr tells us^ that a 
 learned friend lent him his note-book to make u?e of in writing his 
 ' Noctes Atticae,' but he found it quite useless, as it was full of dis- 
 cussions about the names of the comrades of Ulysses, and why 
 Telemachus aroused Peisistratus witli his foot and not with his hand. 
 Erudition on such subjects, which, as Quintilian remarked, should 
 be unlearnt if once acquired ^, now passed for culture, and the early 
 emperors were purists in orthography and grammar •'. 
 
 Of the education of women we get some notices in this period : 
 in pre-imperial times they are rare. Virginia, according to the 
 accounts given by Livy and Dionysius, was at her lessons in a 
 ludus literarius in ihetabernae, near the Forum, when she was seen 
 by Appius Claudius *, and though the story may be mythical, it 
 points to some kind of education having been given to girls beyond 
 the home circle. The .' discipulae ' mentioned by Horace are pro- 
 bably the pupils in a musical school ^ ; but in Martial we get evi- 
 dence of their frequenting elementary schools*'', and perhaps they 
 may have gone to the grammatici also. From Pliny' and Seneca* 
 we find that they had paedagogi, and a system of home education. 
 Sometimes ladies pursued their studies iar, and affected erudition 
 and literary criticism, even in their conversation at banquets 3, like 
 the bluestockings, of whose importunities Juvenal complains; but 
 there is no evidence, and less probability, that these ' antiquariae ' 
 formed any considerable proportion of the flippant and dissolute 
 society of the time, 
 
 § 8. Quintilian's Theory of Education. 
 
 ' Mea quidem sententia nemo esse potest omni lande cumulatus orator, nisi erit 
 omnium rerum magnarum atque artium scientiam consecutus.' — Cic. afud Quint, ii. 
 21. 14. 
 
 There could scarcely be a better instance of the difference 
 between the Greek and the Roman than the comparison of the 
 theorists about education in the two countries. Quintilian sees no 
 Platonic visions, and aims at no ideal end. He takes education 
 
 ' Aulas GelUus xiv. 6 'Dat mihi librum grandi volumine "doctrinis omnigenia" ut 
 ipse dicebat " praescatentem " quera sibi elaboratum esse ait ex multis et variis et re- 
 motis lectionibus, ut ex eo sumerem quantum liberet rerum memoria digiiarum . . . 
 recondo me penitus ut sine arbitris legam. At quae ibi scripta erant, pro Juppiter ! 
 mera rairacnla ! ' 
 
 * ' Quae erant dediscenda si scires.' 
 
 ' Augustus wrote ' maxumus.' Claudius introduced reforms into the alphabet. 
 Tiberius discussed mythological questions. 
 
 * Livyiii. 44; Dionys. xi. 28. 
 
 * Sat. i. lo. 90 'Demetri teque Tigelli discipularum inter iubeo plorare cathedras." 
 
 * Mart. ix. 68 'Ludi scelerate magister invisum pueris virginibusque caput.' 
 
 ^ Pliny, Epp. v. 16. » Sen. Epp. xvii. 4. 
 
 * Juv. vi. 434 ' Ilia tamen gravior quae quum discumbere coepit laudat Vergilium.' 
 
Education at Rome, 45 
 
 as he finds it, and in the light of his years of experience as the fore- 
 most man in the teaching profession at Rome ^ he criticises the 
 methods which were in vogue, and suggests alterations. He lived 
 in an age of words, not of action, when to speak fluently on any sub- 
 ject at a moment's notice was the accomplishment most envied by 
 men of culture^. There was little practical sphere for eloquence, and, 
 if there had been, this training in ' suasoriae ' and ' controversiae * 
 would not have been likely to develope its practical side. Quin- 
 tilian defends this race for eloquence by saying that we must seek 
 eloquence for its own sake, and ' learn to love it ere to us it will 
 seem worthy of our love 2.' At the same time, by making it in- 
 clude almost every human excellence of mind and character, he 
 renders it more easy for us to acknowledge it as an adequate aim *. 
 It is the discussion of the means to this end that occupies the rest 
 of his work, which is so characterized by earnestness and practical 
 good sense, that it will repay us to follow him through his directions 
 for the early training of the young orator. 
 
 The first necessity is that parents should be hopeful about their 
 children, and sanguine of the results of education, for even those 
 who are not brilliant gain something from study '" ; next, they must 
 be careful in selecting nurses and paedagogi to look after their 
 children ; the nurses, besides, being respectable women, ought to 
 speak correctly ^, whilst the paedagogi ought to be either really well 
 informed, or else conscious of their own ignorance, for with them 
 ' a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'^.' The parents, too, them- 
 selves ought to be cultured, mothers as well as fathers : a learned 
 mother may, like Cornelia, contribute largely to her son's future 
 success". A mistake that is commonly made is to let children ' lie 
 fallow ' till the age of seven ; but this is a waste of time" ; educa- 
 tion should begin early, and the earliest studies should consist 
 chiefly in the exercise of memory, which is then most tenacious ; 
 they must, moreover, be made as agreeable as possible : 'the child 
 cannot yet love them, but he should not hate them ^V It is pre- 
 ferable to begin by learning Greek, not Latin ; Latin will be to a 
 large extent spontaneously acquired, though some teaching will be 
 
 ' Mart. ii. 90 ' Quintiliane vagae moderator summe iuventae j gloria Romanae 
 Qnintiliane togae.' 
 
 * Gellins ix. 15 describes a yonng man speaking extempore, 'iiicipit st.itim mira 
 celeritate.' 
 
 ^ Quint. Inst. Or. i. 12 18 'Illam . . . reginam rerum orationem ponet ante oculos 
 frocturaque non ex stipe advocatorum sed ex animo suo et contemjilatione el scientia 
 petet perpetuum ilium nee fortunae subiectum.' 
 
 ' Pref. § 9 ' Oratorem instituimus ilium perfectura qui esse nisi vir bonus non potest 
 ideoque . . . omnes atitmi virtutes exigimus.' 
 
 ^ i. 1. 3 ' Nemo reperitur qui sit studio nihil consecutus.' 
 
 • i. 1. 4 ' Et morum quidem in his baud dubie prior ratio est, recte tamen loquantur.' 
 ' i. 1 . 8 ' De paedagogis hoc araplius ut aut sint eruditi plene ; aut se non esse 
 
 eniditos sciant.' 
 
 • i. I. 6 'Nee de patribus tantum loquor : nam Gracchorum eloquentiae multum 
 contulisse accepimus Corneliam matrem.' 
 
 * i. 1. 19 'Quantum in infantia presumptnm est temporis, adulescentiae adquiritur.' 
 •• i. I. 3o 'Id jp prirais cavere oportebit, ne qui studia nond'im amare potest oderit,' 
 
46 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 necessary to ensure correctness of speech ^ Reading must be 
 taught systematically: first t)^c forms of the separate letters must 
 be learned and then all their combinations into syllables ^ Writ- 
 ing should be taught by having letters cut on a board, for the child 
 to trace out with his stylus , good and rapid writing is too seldom 
 acquired. And Quintilian adds the somewhat curious remark, that 
 slow writing interrupts thought •^. The sentences in the copy-books 
 should be made use of to convey good lessons, not mere empty 
 phrases *. Learning by heart of passages from poets should also be 
 encouraged, and careful pronunciation insisted on ^. 
 
 So far the child's education may take place at home, but sooner 
 or later parents must force the question whether they will keep their 
 son at home or send him to a school. On the whole, public opinion 
 is in favour of the latter course, but two weighty objections against 
 it must be examined. Firstly, schools are fatal to morals ; secondly, 
 greater individual attention is possible with private tutors. The 
 first objection is the most important : morals are corrupted at 
 school, but then we must remember that they are corrupted at home 
 also by bad example, and contact with luxury and immorality, and 
 the vices of schools are brought there from home^. As to the 
 second objection, one teacher can take care of several boys as well 
 as he can of one, and the best teachers will be found in the schools''. 
 You should always. select your school carefully, and you need not 
 choose one of the largest ^. Then in other respects a school offers 
 many advantages ; there is the publicity which is so essential to 
 the future orator^; the opportunity of gauging his powers, and 
 being stimulated to rivalry ; the acquisition of lifelong friend- 
 ships ^^; the development of common sense and tact ; the greater 
 keenness and enthusiasm of the teacher, which cannot fail to react 
 on the pupil ". 
 
 The wise parent will thus prefer to send his son to school, but 
 he must look out for a good school and a good teacher. The good 
 
 ' Inst. Or. i. i. 13-14. 
 
 ' i. 1. 34-6 : 30 'Syllabis nnllam compendinm est: perdiscendae omnes.' 
 
 ' i. I. 30 ' Tardior stilus cogitationem moratur.' 
 
 * i. I. 31 ' li quoque versus qui ad imitationem proponuntar non otiosas velim sen- 
 tentias habeanl sed honestum aiiquid monentes.' 
 
 ' i. I. 37 ' Non alitaium foerit exigere ab his aetatibus, quo sit absolutiiis os el 
 expressior sermo.' 
 
 * i. 2, 4-8 ' Corrumpi mores in scholis pntant ; nam et cbrrampantur interim, sed 
 rfomi quoqae . . . utinam mores liberoram non ipsi perderemns, . . . pudenda dicta 
 spectantur: fit ex bis consuetudo inde natura, discunt haec miseri anteqnam sciant 
 vitia esse : inde soluti et floentes non accipiunt ex scholis mala ista, sed in scholas 
 offemnt.' 
 
 ' i. 2. 9 ' Optimus quisqne praeceptor frequentia gaudet et maiore se theatre dignum 
 putat.' 
 
 * i. 2. >6. 
 
 * i. 2. 17 'Ante omnia fiituriis orator adsuescat iam a teoero non reformidare homines 
 neque ilia solitaria et velut umbratili vita pallescere.' 
 
 '• i. 2. 20 ' Mitto amicitias quae ad seuectutem usque firmissime durant religiosa 
 qnadam necessitudine imbutae ' 
 
 " i. 2.'39 'Adicio praeceptores non idem mentis ac spiritus in dicendo posse con- 
 cipere singulis tanlum praesentibns . . . maxima enim pars eloquentiae constat animo.' 
 
 1 
 
Education at Rome 47 
 
 teacher, besides being a man whose morality is above suspicion, 
 must be possessed of judgment and discrimination. He will first 
 of all ascertain the disposition and the abilities of his pupil, and 
 will see what kind of stimulus it will be best 10 apply ^ , he will 
 encourage play as well as work, for it is natural to youth, and reveals 
 character 2 ; though of course there is danger of its being overdone. 
 Further, the judicious master will be moderate in the infliction of 
 punishment • he will not have to cover his own negligence by a 
 promiscuous use of the rod, which is both degrading and useless, 
 since boys become hardened to it ^. 
 
 The earlier part.of the course of study will be pursued under a 
 grammaticus, the later under a rhetor. The province of the former 
 includes correct speaking and the study of the poets ^ it is wider 
 than at first sight it might seem to be, for with correctness of speech 
 goes correct writing, and poetry embraces emendation and criti- 
 cism * ; whilst for the explanation of its subject-matter a know- 
 ledge of philosophy and science will be required . nor can the text 
 be properly treated Without some grasp of the principles of sounds 
 and sound-changes ^. For a good style of speech there are three 
 principal requirements, (i) correctness, (2) clearness, (3). proper 
 ornament: barbarisms and soloecisms must be avoided, metaphors 
 should be used carefully and sparingly, and unnecessary archaisms 
 should not be affected ^. Orthography is largely a matter of use, 
 but otherwise it ought to be phonetic "^ ; and though coitectness in 
 such matters may be thought useless pedantry, it is not really so, 
 unless it prevents time being given to other matters *. Reading 
 aloud is important ; exact rules cannot be laid down for it, but it 
 should be manly, expressive, and well modulated ». The passages 
 read should be moral ; Homer and Vergil are especially suited for 
 such reading, and selections may be made from other poets i". 
 
 Other studies besides these will be wanted to complete the 
 * orbis doctrinae ' before the boy is ready to be handed on to the 
 
 * Inst. Or. 1. 3. 4-6 ' Iliad praecox genus non temere unqnam pervenit ad fnigem 
 . . . sunt quidam nisi institsris remissi, qnidam imperia dedignantur.* 
 
 * i. 3. lo ' Nee me offendet lu'sus in pueris neque ilium tristem semperque demissum 
 sperare possim erectae circa studia mentis fore;' ibid. 12 'Mores quoque se inter 
 ludendum simplicins delegnnt.' 
 
 ^ i. 3. 15 ' Nunc fere neglegentia paedagorum sic emendari videtur nt pneri non 
 facere quae recta sunt cogantur, sed cur non fecerint puniantur.' 
 
 * i. 4. 3 ' Uaec professio cum brevissimc in duas partes dividatur recte loqnendi 
 scientiam et poetarum enarrationem plus habet in recessn quam fronte promittit, nam 
 et scribend; ratio coniuncta cum .loquendo, el enarrationem praecedit emendata lectio, 
 et mixtum his omnibu3 indicium.' ' i. 4. 8. 
 
 * i. 6. 43 'Fuerit paene ridiculum malle sermonem quo locuti sint homines quam quo 
 loquantur.' 
 
 i. 7. 30 'Ego nisi qaod conscetudo optinuerit sic scribendnm quoque iudico quo- 
 modo sonat.' * i- 7- 35• 
 
 '' i 8. i ' Sciat abi suspendere spiritum debeai, quo loco versum distingnere, ubi 
 claudatur sensus, undo incipiat, quando attoUenda vel submittenda sit vox.' 
 
 '*• i. 8. 5 'Quae bonesta sunt discant, ideoque optime institutum ut ab Homero atque 
 Vergilio lectio mciperet . . . utiles iragoediae, alunt et lyrici, si in his non auctores 
 modo sed etiam partes operis elegiris : elegeia vero et hendecasyllabi amoveantur.' 
 
48 Theory and Praciice of A ncient Education. 
 
 rhetorician. Some acquaintance with music is necessary \ but 
 the music must not be of the lascivious and effeminate sort now in 
 vogue. Geometry too is a useful study, not only as a mental dis- 
 cipline, but in itself 2j whilst the cogent proof demanded by it is 
 good logical practice for a speaker^. A brief training in elocu- 
 tion and gesture under a comocdus will not be a bad thing, and 
 the exercises of the palaestra would teach the young to carry them- 
 selves with grace ^. 
 
 The objection will doubtless be made that boys cannot bear the 
 strain of so many studies all going on simultaneously. The truth, 
 however, is that the mind can attend to several things at once, as 
 we see in the citharoedus, whose voice and memory, hands and 
 feet are all em.ployed together: it is variety which increases our 
 power of learning ^, and learning is easier in childhood when the 
 mind is still plastic and unformed. 
 
 The time will come when the pupil must be transferred to the 
 care of a rhetor : the age cannot be laid down exactly for all, but 
 must vary with the forwardness of the boy *^ : but the custom has 
 recently been gaining ground of boys staying too long with the 
 grammatici, who begin to think it their business to teach declama- 
 tion"^. The rhetor ought to be like a parent to his pupils^, and 
 must therefore be above suspicion : he should try to prevent any 
 temptations being thrown in the way of his pupils, and should not 
 allow young men and boys to sit together^. Many parents make 
 the mistake of sending their boys to an inferior rhetor first : but 
 this only involves additional trouble in eradicating acquired 
 faults : there is a story of the rhetor Timotheus to the effect that 
 he used to demand double fees from those who had previously 
 studied under another rhetor ^^. 
 
 The rhetor ought to begin where the grammarian leaves off, 
 possibly going over some of his work again. Of the opposite 
 faults of style — baldness and exuberance — -he will prefer the latter : 
 it is less unpleasing and can be more easily cured '^ ; it is natural 
 to youth and will work itself out. Boys want a great deal of 
 encouragement, and become dispirited under excessive severity ^^. 
 It is a good plan for the teacher (such has been Quintilian's own 
 experience) to give out his own ' fair copies ' of exercises ^^, to be 
 
 ' Inst. Or. i. 10. 15 ' Non fruslra Plato clvili viro quem iro\iriH6v vocant necessariam 
 musicen credidit.' - i. 10. 34. 
 
 ' i. 10. 37 'Ex prioriJius geometria probat inseqnentia : nonne id in dicendo facimus.' 
 
 * i. II. 12-15. * i. 12. 7 ' Ifacilius est multa facere quara din.' • ii. i. 7. 
 ' ii. 1.3 ' Itaque, qnod maxime ridiculum, non ante ad declamandi magistrum 
 
 mitteudus videtur puer quam declamarc sciat.' 
 
 * ii. 2. 4 ' Sumat igitur parentis erga discipuios suos animam . . . ipse neque babeat 
 vitia nee ferat.' Cf Juv; vii. 237. 
 
 * ii. 2. 14 ' Infirmitas a robustioribus separanda et carendnm non solum criraine 
 verum etiam snspicione.' '" ii. 3. 3. 
 
 " ii. 4. 7 ' Materiam esse primum volo vel abnndantioreni atque ultroquam oporteat 
 fusum . . . multurn liitle decoquent anni, muUum ratio iim.ibit . . . volo enim se efferai 
 in adulescente fecunditas. " ii. 4. 10 'Dum omnia timent nihil conartar' 
 
 " ii. 4. 13 ' Expertus sum prodesse qnoties e&ndem materiein rursus a ine Sraclatan^ 
 scribere de integro iuberem.' 
 
Comparison of the Greek and Roman Systems, 49 
 
 taken down and compared with their own attempts : whilst in 
 marking the pupil's productions as satisfactory, or the reverse, 
 allowance should be made for each one's age and ability and wil- 
 lingness to learn. Indeed a good teacher will note carefully the 
 differences of intellect and character, and will see for what line of 
 study each is best fitted \ One may have a turn for law, another 
 may be best suited for history, a third for poetry : and education 
 ought to follow nature — at least up to a certain point : for though 
 we must not fight against nature, we must endeavour to supple- 
 ment natural deficiencies. We need not enter with Ouintilian 
 into the details of a rhetorical education, though his remarks as to 
 the methods of teaching and the style to be aimed at are sound 
 and discriminating. Of the three kinds of narratio — fabula, 
 argumentum, historia — the rhetor should begin with the last- 
 when the stage of declamation has been reached it should assume 
 a more practical character than the ordinary 'suasoriae' and 'con- 
 troversiae:' if it is not a preparation for the forum it is either 
 madness or ostentation 2. The best style to acquire is one which 
 is free both from the harshness of Cato and the Gracchi and from 
 the modern 'flosculi lasciviae.' Throughout his teaching the 
 rhetor should stimulate attention by frequent questions '^ and 
 should read aloud and declaim himself, remembering that example 
 is better than precept ^. 
 
 IV. COMPARISON OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN 
 
 SYSTEMS. 
 
 In the educational systems and ideas which grew up on different 
 sides of the Adriatic we may find both common features and points 
 of contrast. Both in Greece and at Rome the old order gives place to 
 new in spite of regrets, denunciations, and vain attempts at reaction 
 only, as we have seen in the one case, the development was the re- 
 sult of a developed national life, in the other of the revelation of 
 a full-grown literature and a ripe culture to a people who had not 
 matured any literature or culture of their own. And possibly for 
 this reason the change at Rome was greater ; the moral downfall 
 was more complete, and whilst both systems ended in a ' sea of 
 words,' as the importance attached to rhetoric became greater, even 
 the epideictic displays of the pupils of Isocrates scarcely sank to so 
 Iowa pitch as the 'suasoriae' and ' controversiae ' of Juvenal's 
 
 ' Inst. Or. ii. 8. i ' Notare discrimina ingeniorum et quo quemque natura maxime 
 fcrat scire.' 
 
 ■^ ii. lo. R 'Si foro non praeparet (ista exercitatio) aut scaenic^e ostentationi simillimum 
 est ant furiosae vocifcrationi." 
 
 ' ii 5. 13 ' Debebit praeceptor frequenter interrogare el iudicium diseipuloruai ex 
 poriri ... sic audientibus securitas liberit.'. 
 
 * ii 5- 15 ' In omnibus fere minus vaient praecepta.' 
 
 E 
 
50 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 time ; whilst philosophy never occupied the same place at Rome 
 that it secured in Greece : at Rome the only rival to rhetoric was 
 etymological study and the minute criticism and interpretation of 
 great writers, such as survive in tlie works of Aulus Gellius, 
 Servius, and Festus. This was due in part to the influence of 
 Alexandria, partly perhaps to the fact that the Romans were led 
 to pay more attention to grammar by learning a foreign language. 
 
 At Rome, in contrast to the principles laid down by Greek 
 theorists and to the actual practice of some Greek states, the law 
 never interfered much in educational matters ^ . in early times the 
 unity of the family was too strong, and the power of the pater- 
 familias too decided : but even when the Emperors began to 
 patronise and endow education we do not find any legislative 
 regulations imposed on it, nor was it made compulsory. 
 
 In the subject-matter of education we find striking contrasts in 
 the place given to gymnastic and music. The Romans did not 
 neglect physical education, but they preferred to secure the end 
 they had in view by indulgence in games and field sports, supple- 
 mented in due time by military drill and training: the palaestra 
 was always mistrusted, and even where introduced was never 
 thoroughly naturalised. 
 
 Music again was not entirely neglected at Rome: it formed 
 part of the worship of the Gods : its place in a complete education 
 is acknowledged by Quintilian ; but no one ever assigned to it the 
 same influence over character as Plato ascribed to it, or the same 
 importance in the right employment of leisure that we find at- 
 tributed to it in the Politics. 
 
 Lastly, in the theorists on education we find a great difference: 
 Plato's theories are concerned with the whole place and aim of 
 education in life, and with the life for which education is to pre- 
 pare men ; he puts forward a system diffeting v/idely from any that 
 had been realised before, or has been since. Aristotle discusses 
 the best subjects for education, and views it in its political bear- 
 ings. At Rome there is nothing of this. Juvenal was as dis- 
 satisfied with the education of his day as Plato had been, but he 
 only laughs at the fashionable rhetoric, or attacks with burning 
 satire the corruption of the young by examples of immorality ; 
 whilst Quintilian's theories are but the expression of the experience 
 of a teacher as to the best method of giving instruction in that 
 subject which he, in accordance with the fashion of his day, re- 
 garded as the highest end of education. 
 
 ' Cic. <fe Rep. 4. 3, says, speaking of old times, ' Disciplinam pnerilem (de qua 
 Graeci multum frnstra laboravenint et in qua una Polybius noster hospes nostrorum 
 institutonim neglegentiam accusal) nnllam certam aat destinatam legibus aut publice 
 expositam aut unam oiiuiibus esse volaenint.' 
 
Education — Ancient' and Modern. 51 
 
 V EDUCATION— ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 * I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, 
 skilfully, and magnanimoasly all offices both private and public' — MiLTON. 
 ?rpA.l';^atf«JJ v6ov tiv SiS&tTKti, — Heraclitus. 
 
 'Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers.' — Tennyson. 
 
 It would be difficult, or rather impossible, to pass a single sweep- 
 ing judgment on Ancient Educa,tion, and to pronounce it good or 
 bad,' adequate or inadequate; we must adopt the less summary 
 method of comparing the old and the new in some of their more 
 important features. 
 
 As to the dififusion of education, it is, as Mommsen ' remarks, 
 a mistaken opinion that antiquity was greatly inferior to modern 
 times, at least so far as elementary attainments are concerned , an 
 enormous proportion oi the population consisted of slaves, but the 
 masters found it to their advantage that the slaves should be able 
 to read, write, and count, whilst at Rome, as we have seen, Greek 
 slaved were often employed as teachers of grammar. Nor can the 
 ancients be accused of underrating the importance of education, 
 whilst they did not fall into the delusion, unfortunately too common 
 amongst the public speakers and legislators of our own day, that the 
 universal diffusion of the three R's will of itself elevate the morality 
 of the coming generation. They saw that character must be moulded 
 by personal influence, and independence of action stimulated by ex- 
 perience in action ; in the early systems both of Greece and Rome 
 we see this personal influence active, and its decay is due to the 
 degradation of individual character, the paralysis of political free- 
 dom, which overtook both countries. Tney saw — both Greek and 
 Roman — ^thougji they acted differently upon the conviction — that 
 physical training was essential to the development of a healthy 
 mind, and was not without its >direct effect upon character, on 
 this belief the Greek founded that training in g/mnastiq which 
 formed so singular and prominent a feature in his system. 
 
 Yet such a training was,perhaps less necessary then than at the 
 present time , for there was less danger of excessive mental pres- 
 sure. True that then, as now, the way of knowledge was narrow 
 and rough and steep ; yet in those days it was not long, and a great 
 undiscovered country lay behind it. The world was young, and 
 what history it had was not preserved : there was little intercourse 
 between nations, and but slight need of learning a foreign language; 
 the knowledge of nature, which has given later generations of men 
 so marvellous a mastery over her resources, had not as yet been 
 attained, was not yet dreamed of. Thus there was less hurry in 
 « education ; it might finish earlier than ours, and still involve less 
 pressure ; nor was it then thought necessary to test the pupil's pro- 
 Raman History, vol. iii. 
 E 2 
 
52 Theory and Practice of Ancient Education. 
 
 ficiency in his work, or his qualifications for some post or office, by 
 constant examination. The declamation of empty rhetoric before 
 an audience of parents and friends ^ was perhaps not more valuable 
 as a gauge of future success in the forum, but at least it involved 
 no dangerous strain. ' Aestate pueri si valent satis discunt ' might 
 be said by Martial ; to-day it would scarcely be taken as a serious 
 opinion even from the champion of our greatest public schools. 
 Yet, though this stimulus was lacking, we have no reason to sup- 
 pose that the formation of habits of industry was rare. In many 
 cases, especially at Rome, we find evidences of prodigious literary 
 energy kept up through life ; we find it in advocates and public 
 men like Cicero, and in polymaths such as Varro and the elder 
 Pliny. Perhaps nothing is more remarkable than the great general 
 ability of Roman men of affairs : philosophers are sent to com- 
 mand armies, and provincial governors return home to spend their 
 declining years in literary studies. 
 
 Ancient methods of instnjction differed of necessity from ours ; 
 we have school editions and hand-books where they depended 
 chiefly on oral instruction ; more was left to the master's power of 
 imparting knowledge, but if he was capable, the result would be 
 more satisfactoiy than where the information has been chiefly 
 acquired from a book ; the knowledge is less artificial, is more 
 easily retained by the memory, more readily brought into useful 
 relation with other knowledge. Of all ancient writers on educa- 
 tion, Ouintilian is the one who has most knowledge of methods of 
 instruction, and the quickest insight into the connection between 
 character and learning, without which educators are but groping in 
 the dark ; it is one of the most cheering signs of modern educa- 
 tion that the sympiathy between pupil and master, on which he so 
 strongly insists, is in this century again recognised as essential, 
 after having been so markedly absent during the previous centuries 
 from the majority of ^jchools. 
 
 We have remarked on the fate which overtook both Roman and 
 Greek education ; they became more barren as they became more 
 elaborate. In the one case philosophy and rhetoric, in the other 
 rhetoric with grammatical and textual studies, monopolised talent 
 and energy which might have been devoted to some more practical 
 end. In modern education we may discern a two-fold danger; 
 we may be allured by a wide but shallow culture, or fall into the 
 opposite extreme of exaggerated specialisation. 
 
 The fate of education in Rome and Greece shows us how imme- 
 diately it depends on the conditions of the society in which it pre- 
 pares us to take a part : freedom perishes ; men of ambition and 
 ability are cut off from practical pursuits and from political success; 
 they take refuge in erudition or speculation, or even in the display 
 of those qualities which the loss of political life has now rendered 
 useless. 
 
 ' Persius iii. 45 'Morituri verba Catonis | discere, non sano multnm landanda 
 magistro ] quae pater adduclis budans audiret amicis.' 
 
Education — Anciefit and Modern. 53 
 
 The differences which we find existing between ancient and 
 modern education are due partly to change of religion, partly to 
 change in the structure of society, partly to the theories of educa- 
 tional reformers. Rhetoric did not at once disappear with the 
 rise of Christianity, and in the fourth century we find traces of a 
 Christian rhetoric which in pompous exuberance did not fall far 
 short of its heathen predecessors '. Gradually, however, the eccle- 
 siastical spirit prevailed, and for centuries monasteries — more espe- 
 cially those of the Benedictine order — became the great educational 
 centres of Europe. Education became less general, and more 
 subordinated to religion ; only those who were intended for a 
 religious career would study the Trivium and Quadrivium of the 
 arts and sciences ; the youthful knight or squire had his own more 
 athletic course of pursuits. To this period succeeded the Renais- 
 sance and the Revival of Greek learning, bringing with it the rise 
 of a purely humanistic education, an education in words and lan- 
 guage and style, of which such ample traces survive in the systems 
 of to-day. This side of education was elaborated in the Jesuit 
 schools of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it is to the 
 Jesuits that we owe its more exaggerated features, such as the pro- 
 minence of Latin themes and verses, as well as the machinery ot 
 forms and examinations. 
 
 Meanwhile opposing influences did not leave themselves with- 
 out witness : ever and anon there have arisen from different 
 quarters assailants of the established order of things — practical 
 teachers like Comenius and Pestalozzi, philosophers like Locke 
 and Milton, theorists like Rousseau, who have pointed out the 
 flaws in existing systems — the perverted methods, the; waste of 
 labour, the fighting against nature, the neglect in developing 
 latent faculties, the loss of all sense of proportion by which they 
 saw the education of their day disfigured. In few cases;, if any, 
 has the voice of criticism been raised entirely in vain : much that 
 was grotesque and irrational has disappeared from the curriculum 
 and from the methods of instruction. There is more recognition 
 of the necessity of sympathy in education and the impossibility of 
 a merely mechanical instruction: some, though not sufhciant, 
 weight has been attached to the training of the senses and power 
 oi observation. ^Still we are in an educational chaos, and the 
 reason is not far fo seek : there is an absence of definite purpose 
 and aim : of those who are educating and being educated the 
 greater part scarcely know why tliey are gathered together. Know- 
 ledge has been increased : in science, literature, history, and art 
 the subject-matter of instruction has multiplitjd and is multiplying 
 with fearful rapidity. The polymathy of a Varro or a Pliny is no 
 
 ' The follcwing epitaph of a Christian rhetor of the 4th ceiitury is preserved on 
 a sarcopliagus in the Capitol Mxiseum at Koine : — 
 
 ' Fi. Magnus IS. C. (?) nrbis aetemae, ciii tantum oh meritum siuim detulit senatus 
 amplissimus iit sat itloneam iudicarct a qno lex dignitatis inciperet. Fraeceptor 
 fraudis ignaru's et intra breve tempus universae patriciae soholi lectus magisier ; 
 eloqaentiae ita inimitabilis saeculo suo ut tantum vetcribns possit aequari.' 
 
54 Theory and Practice of Aruient Educatio7i. 
 
 longer possible : a choice must be made, but what is to guide us in 
 our choice? Almost every subject has some value, both in itself 
 and as a mental discipline. Some voices are still lifted in defence 
 of a classical education, which, if in its origin an accident, is 
 nevertheless, it is urged, invaluable in disciplining the mind and 
 forming a cultured taste, while it furnishes the key to European 
 history and literature and thought. Study science is the cry of 
 another party : the hopes of mankind lie in the increase of that 
 knowledge of nature which alone is power. And a third voice, is 
 heard — the voice of poverty, suggesting that zt will be best to study 
 whatever subject is most marketable, — for life has become more 
 complex and the struggle is harder, and the struggiers more nume- 
 rous : It is more difficult to ascertain what society wants, and the 
 penalties of mistake have not been diminished. 
 
 Then, too, we have .^et up our examination idol, and are still 
 worshipping it : the decree has gone forth that ail the world is to 
 be examined. We find it convenient to have a spur to exertion : 
 it is convenient also to have a test and graduated measure of 
 qualifications. Yet in the light of any true view of education 
 who can doubt that the system is in many ways mischievous ? 
 More should be done to make studies interesting and attractive, 
 to awaken a love of knowledge for its own sake and not for the 
 sake of its marks, its honours, and its emoluments. Can anyone 
 who has had constant experience of examinations, whose mental 
 horizon has probably been bounded by the one immediately before 
 him, doubt lor one moment that a true love of knowledge has been 
 stunted in him, a taie method of enquiry hidden from him, the 
 formation of clear and definite ideas hindered, and that if, like 
 Shakspcare's knight, he has 'a mint of phrases in his brain,' he 
 is unfortunately less their master than their slave? 
 
 Agciin — is our education of character satisfactory .' It is perhaps 
 worth noticing that a recent series of books on education bears on 
 the cover a view of the interior of a library : our generation as- 
 sociates education with books—with books about books, or abstracts 
 of books about books : the latter, in Platonic phrase, being fully 
 three times removed from the truth. Education of character has a 
 double aspect : there is the necessity of guarding against im- 
 morality, and there is the development of personality, of inde- 
 pendence, of self-confidence An Englishman may be justified in 
 thinking that the double problem has been better solved by the 
 public schools of his country than by any other method : and yet 
 after all they are not flexible enough to suit individual character, 
 and too often save the strong at the expense of the weak. 
 
 Something might be said of the inadequacy of our early training: 
 with the altered position of women amongst us the mother can do 
 more than the Roman, far more than the Greek, mother : but with 
 us the father is more occupied, and even if the moral training of 
 the child is attended to, it is too often thought that no training of 
 the faculties of observation is necessary, and the victim of this 
 
Education— A Tuient mid Modern. 55 
 
 finds himself later on in life with some sense stunted and un- 
 developed, and * wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.' Nor 
 are matters mended if education begins too early, and instead of 
 the senses being trained the memory is burdened and the under, 
 standing taxed, so that even though the physique may remain un- 
 injured, the mind will never bear its due fruit. Against this 
 sacrifice of observation to book-learning many voices have been 
 raised, notably those of Rabelais and Rousseau, but they, like 
 other theorists and satirists, found it easier to pull down than to 
 build up. It was easy for Rabelais to draw an amusing picture of 
 Gargantua's education under Tubal Hoiofemes and Jobelin Brid6, 
 but we may doubt whether Rousseau's Emile, after having arrived 
 at the age of twelve years * without knowing what a book was, 
 v/ould not have preferred to remain in ignorance for a longer 
 period ; probably he would have fulfilled only too literally the 
 philosopher's paradox that the great end of education is not to 
 gain but to waste time 2. 
 
 We have said that education is still chaotic : we do not mean 
 that it should be level and uniform, but that it should be definite, 
 and relative to a definite end ; yjp^ xiKo^ opav. There is a diversity 
 of gifts and functions : *non omnia possumus omnes :* each must 
 be contentefJ with a twig or a bough of the tree of knowledge. 
 The work of education is to develope to the utmost the possibili- 
 ties of each individual man, ' that nothing be lost,' not to pass a 
 number of units through a certain process, in the hope that they 
 may retain a superficial polish which will last througn life. The 
 friction of the world soon lays bare the baser metal. 
 
 * 'A peine i dou?c ans Emile saura-t-il ce que c'est un Hvre.' 
 ^ ' Le grand bat de totite I'^Mucatioo ce n'est pas de gagner da temps. C'est d'en 
 pe.dre.* 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 Arnold, W. T. The Roman system of provincial administiation. 
 
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 Beesly, E. S. Catilina, Clodius and Tiberius. Anastatic 
 
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 Bradley, F. H. Principles of Logic. Anastatic Reprint 1905. 
 
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 Cunliffe, J. VV. The influence of Seneca on Elizabethan tra- 
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