or cosmopolitan character. Owing to the much more stable character of the Romans, this change was more gradual than the corresponding one in Greece and affected the masses of the people much less radically.

The introduction of cational ideas and

Greek edu

practices formed the great divi

sion line in

1

Roman edɩ

cation

man education largely moral and

'social

The dominance of Greek educational practices and institutions did not become complete until near the fall of the Republic (31 B.C.). In 55 B.C. Cicero (106-43 B.C.) published his work On Oratory, which was the first Roman exposition of the Greek educational ideal. As Cicero was the first Roman to rise to power through oratory, that is by means of the Greek education, this date may well be taken as the dividing point between the two eras. Each of these general divisions falls into two sub-periods. PERIOD OF EARLY ROMAN EDUCATION (753 to about Early Ro250 B.C.). During this period the features previously given concerning Roman education dominated completely. The rearing of the child was in the hands of the mother, the training of the boy in the hands of the father. The home was practically the only school, though the boy early became the companion of his father in business, public and private, on the street, in the forum, and in the camp. Education was largely moral; discipline was severe; ideals were rigorous. The slight literary element entering into their education was that connected with the religious and choral service, and with the Laws of the Twelve Tables. These fundamental laws of the republic, adopted Importance 451 and 450 B.C., remained the basis of Roman society for of the Law: almost a thousand years. In the function they performed, these laws resembled those of Lycurgus; though they dealt not with Tables education, but with the power of the father, property rights, religious services, political and military obligations, and similar subjects. In the broadest sense, they constituted the frame- Constituted work of Roman society and hence embodied the ideals of life valuable that gave to education its concrete ends. The relation of the laws to education in the narrower sense consisted, first, in the definite embodiment of the power of the father over the child

of the

Twelve

intellectual

training of

a practical

kind

and his duty concerning his training; second, in the custom followed for many generations of requiring every boy to learn the tables as they were posted in the Forum and to become perfectly familiar with their meaning. This in itself offered no insignificant intellectual training. Its practical character, however, made such training very different from that which the Greek boy acquired from a similar familiarity with Homer.

During the latter part of this period, elementary schools furnished the rudiments of the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Such elementary schools were known as ludi (ludus, -play, sport, or a turning aside), a name which indicates that their function was only supplementary and that they were not essential to the real education of the Roman youth. These schools were of a purely private character, and were held in some home or in an unfrequented nook or porch of a temple or other public building. Even in the matter of training in the arts of reading and calculating, these schools evidently represented a "diversion" from the ordinary custom of training in the home.

250

PERIOD OF INTRODUCTION OF GREEK SCHOOLS. The time from the middle of the third century to the middle of the first century constituted a period of transition, during which Greek customs and ideas were introduced. This period coincided substantially with the period of national expansion throughout the peninsula of Italy. Previous to this time Rome was only a local community; after this period Rome became an empire which had, necessarily, to acquire a cosmopolitan culture. By the time of the opening of this transitional period, the elementary schools (schools of the literators, they were also called) were quite numerous and they soon came to be known as schools of the grammatists as well. This of itself indicates that a transition was going on. About the opening of this period Livius Andronicus (284-204 B.C.) translated the Odyssey into Latin.

1 A somewhat similar idea is contained in the Greek word for school, ~ scholé, leisure.

tion of the

these schools

The book was soon introduced into these schools, giving them a more literary content than they had hitherto possessed. The translation of other Greek works followed rapdily; and Latin Introducliterature took its rise at the same time. This growth of literary literary material soon produced a radical advance in education, namely, element into the introduction of the Greek grammar school, distinct from the ludus in form and superior to it./ The exact time of introduction is difficult to determine. The Greek Andronicus, pre- The Greek vicusly mentioned, was (in 272 B.C.) brought as a slave to Rome grammar or literary from his home in southern Italy, and after securing his freedom schools is said to have become a teacher of the Greek and Latin languages. Other teachers, of Greek origin, followed; though it is probable that these early teachers did little more than give some slight knowledge of the language and literature, chiefly in translation, to a chosen few. Certain it is that by the time of the decree of expulsion of philosophers and rhetoricians issued by the Senate in 161 B.C. a higher type of Greek teachers had appeared. Thus the Greek grammatical and rhetorical schools were both established.

The Greek

rhetorical

schools

mar and

The subsequent introduction of the Latin rhetorical school not Latin gram only supplemented the work of the Greek rhetorical schools, rhetorical but gave a much wider scope to this formal or rhetorical schools education, since it affected a much larger portion of the population. In 92 B.C. the censors issued the following decree:

Decree of the Senate

teachers of

grammar

"It is reported to us that certain persons have instituted a new kind of 92 B.C. discipline; that our youth resort to their schools; that they have assumed expelling the title of Latin Rhetoricians; and that young men waste their time there for whole days together. Our ancestors have ordained what instruction it is fitting their children should receive, and what schools they should attend. These novelties, contrary to the customs and instructions of our ancestors, we neither approve, nor do they appear to us good. Wherefore it appears to be our duty that we should notify our judgment both to those who keep such schools, and those who are in the practice of frequenting them, that they meet our disapprobation."

That the reception given to these schools had not been a hearty one and that their influence was not general until the

Support of literary

ischools not

general Cat first

The general appropria

education

imperial period, is evidenced by the fact that the instances of the few notable men who underwent a rhetorical training and profited practically by it, such as Cicero, Pompey, Cæsar, Mark Antony, and even Augustus, are cited by Suetonius as unusual. He states that by slow degrees, rhetoric made itself manifest as a useful and honorable study, and that many persons devoted themselves to it, both as a means of defense of personal rights and as a means of acquiring reputation. The custom of sending the youth to Greece to receive this rhetorical training, as in the case of Cicero, became established during this period. THIRD OR IMPERIAL PERIOD. THE HELLENIZED

tion of Greek ROMAN EDUCATION. - During this period, including about learning and a half century B.C. and two centuries A.D., the Romans attempted to introduce the new wine of Greek culture and intellectual activity and individualism into the old bottles of Roman institutional life. Never before, perhaps never at any time, has one people attempted to appropriate so thoroughly the intellectual life of another. The native vigor of the Roman character made it possible to do this without a complete surrender of their own characteristics, and consequently rendered some modification of the Greek intellectual and educational characteristics necessary. The Romans never acquired the intellectuality, the versatility, or the originality of the Greeks. At best, they perfected the form of literature; at worst, their education became one of pure form possessing little real value. This was true in the later centuries of the empire and is revealed in their intellectual life and literature.

Work of the elementary school more literary in character

The general means by which the Romans appropriated the Greek culture was by the adoption of the Greek educational institutions.

The School of the Literator (or Ludimagister). Even during this period this elementary school never attempted to give more than the merest rudiments of the arts of reading, writing, and calculation. Since reading was taken up in the grammatical school as a fine art, it is probable that, when the boy had mas

LABORA ASE LIE QVOMODO EGOLA
FIPRODERIITIBI

DOEGOLABORAVİ

A ROMAN BOY'S OPINION OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL

AS "A GRIND"

A graffito from the walls of the Palace of the Cæsars. (The legend reads: "Labor on, little ass, just as I have labored, and may it be of profit to you.")