Roman literature; but the points to be noticed here are the great personal interest of the father in the education of his son and the prevailing moral content of that education.

Almost two centuries later, when the corrupting influences that had entered into the cosmopolitan life of Rome were in full swing, in his satire (XIV) upon the vices of the Roman people, Juvenal formulates the ever memorable principle not only of Roman but of all education,-"The greatest reverence is due the child." This responsibility of the father for the education of his child, at least in the formation of his moral character, was not only of importance to the child but it also reacted upon the father. The stability and the perpetuation of these virtues, of a sturdy, rugged character among the ranks of the common people long after the majority of the families in the upper class, especially in the imperial court circles, had fallen into most vicious debauchery, was quite largely due to this restraining influence of the home and to the father's responsibility for the moral character of the boy. The continuation of the quotation from Juvenal indicates this: "If you are contemplating a disgraceful act, despise not your child's tender years, but let your infant son act as a check upon your purpose of sinning."

In a similar way the influence of the mother was greater, as the position of woman in general was higher, at Rome than that among any other ancient people. This greater scope to her influence was not through her participation in public life, hence there is little direct mention of it; but it was through this higher authority and freedom in the family. Even granting that the mention of specific instances are not numerous, no other ancient people furnish cases of influence of women comparable with that of the mother of Coriolanus, the mother of the Gracchi, and others of a similar type.

Biography as a Means.-The influence of the home was supplemented by that of concrete types of Roman manhood. No other people have so effectively used the personages of

importance in their own history in the formation of the character of the youth of each generation. Their earliest literature consisted of the legends and heroic tales of the early Romans. Their songs were but the glorification of these same deeds. Something similar to this occurred in Greece in the earlier period. The Grecian heroes, however, were demigods or were constantly protected by the interposition of the gods, and hence were beyond imitation by the wiser men of later generations; the Roman heroes, on the other hand, possessed virtues and performed deeds such as could be imitated by every Roman boy. As the Greeks sought to shape character by poetry, music, gymnastic, and dancing, so the Romans did by these two means, the influence of father and mother in the home, and that furnished by familiarity with the heroes of the past.

An indication of the importance of such material as the content of education is furnished by Plutarch's Lives, which to the Romans were lectures on education. Though written by a Greek, such was probably their use at the time of their formulation, and such no doubt was the character of the literature, if such it may be called in its rudimentary form, that formed the basis of the Roman education both in the home and in the school. The perennial interest aroused and the influence exerted by these writings are a slight indication of the value of this phase of Roman education. Mr. Lecky has called attention to the very potent influence of such personal ideals when embodied in personages near in time and place and nature; more potent, indeed, than those of the subsequent centuries wherein such ideals were furnished by saints, by those who possessed supernatural traits, or by Biblical characters living in remote centuries and possessed of racial characteristics of long ago.

Thus again is found a trait of the practical mind: its ideals are found in the real, not in the imaginary, — not in a single trait idealized and personified. Its ideals are not too remote

but are found in concrete personal forms of actual per sonages.

Imitation as the Method. - From what has been said it follows that the most important characteristic of the method of Roman education was imitation. While the Greeks emphasized the assimilative character of the soul and hence sought for educational results by creating an environment of cultural value through public works of art, religious ceremonials, dramatic presentations, and a free and open life in public places, the Romans emphasized the imitative character of the soul and sought for educational results by placing before the youth a concrete character to be followed. Though the pedagogue and the inspirer performed a somewhat similar service with the Greeks, yet the function of these was rather to control and direct; at least this was true of the pedagogue, who, because a slave, was not to be imitated. The Roman youth was to become pious, grave, reverential, courageous, manly, prudent, honest, by the direct imitation of his father and of old Romans of so heroic a character as to be embodied in their legends and histories, yet withal men who had actually walked the streets and had gathered in the Forum before him.

While this use of imitation by the Romans was of less free character than the similar use by the Greeks, it was not the servile imitation of the Oriental. To begin with, it was the imitation of a living model, not of a lifeless form or a specific custom relating to petty forms handed down from time imme morial and without meaning to the imitator. So far as the Roman was bound by such traditional ways of doing things, the most important of such accepted customs were formulations of principles, embodied into a code of laws, interpreted by each successive generation to fit the needs of a developing civilization and of a people ever widening their contact with others.

In one other important respect does the method of Roman education differ from that of the Greeks. With both peoples

education was primarily a process of doing as opposed to one of instruction. Certain activities were undertaken to form certain approved habits. Subsequent to this earlier phase of their educational development, the Greeks added a process of instruction to make such habits rational; this the Romans never developed as a component part of their education. Though in later periods they adopted the Greek custom, it was not a native process, neither did it form an essential part of their conception of education nor become of general use and significance until well on in the imperial period.

Then, too, there was a radical difference between the "doing process" of the Greeks and that of the Romans. In school the Greek boy was trained in gymnastics and dancing to produce a harmony and grace of physical development and of moral control: he learned to play the lyre and to repeat the Homeric poems with appropriate musical accompaniment, all for the purpose of developing a harmony of the soul. The Romans rejected as marks of effeminacy, such gymnastic training, dancing, music, literature; in brief, all such educational means as the Greeks employed. Through games, it is true, the Roman boy gained in physical development to a certain extent; but not through any organized and systematized use of them. There were no gymnasiums, but physical development was secured on the martial fields and in the camp, and through the actual exercise with weapons, supplemented by the actual training which he got on the farm. In every respect the training of boys was either through an apprenticeship to the soldier, the farmer, the statesman, or by actual participation in these activities that were later required of them as citizens. Thus in method is seen the characteristic of the practical education, the doing of the actual thing to be done -- with no appreciation whatever of the training and instruction in certain selected activities that possess cultural value because they plant in

the very nature of the child germs of a much fuller development in manhood, activities such as characterized the liberal education of the Greeks.

PERIODS OF ROMAN EDUCATION. - Roman education divides itself into two great periods: the one wherein its ideals and practices are purely Roman, the other in which Greek influence is prominent and education becomes of a composite or cosmopolitan character. This change bears some striking resemblances to the transition to the new Greek education at Athens; but owing to the much more stable character of the Romans, the change was a more gradual one than in Greece and affected the masses of the people much less radically. In some respects, particularly in religion and to a certain extent in their laws, the Greek influence was early exerted upon the Romans. It was a tradition that the decemvirs visited Greece previous to the formulation of the Laws of the Twelve Tables (450 B.C.). From Greece also at an earlier date they had drawn their alphabet. Yet no profound influence was exerted socially and little educationally until near the middle of the second century B.C. Subsequent to that time the Greek educational ideals may be said to dominate, so far as formal or institutional education is concerned. The somewhat radical conquest in this respect was due to the fact that Rome had no native system of educational institutions to be supplanted. Various events may be taken as indicative of this change. Professor Laurie accepts as the point of demarcation 148 B.C., the death of Cato, who for so long and so strenuously opposed the growth of Greek ideas and customs. The date of the conquest of Greece by the Romans, 146 B.C., might with equal propriety be taken, since immediately thereafter many Greek scholars, Greek literature, and even libraries were transferred to Rome by the conquerors. The year 161 possesses a similar significance, for at that time the senate