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CHAPTER III

THE EDUCATION OF THE ROMANS

Until Hel

lenized, Roman

ideals were

narrow.

OUTLINE

The contribution of the Romans to progress was largely due to their absorption of Greek culture, but their primitive training had an influence in itself. This was mostly civic and practical, and was given informally in the family and the forum.

Through amalgamation with the Greek, Roman education maintained three grades of schools: (1) the elementary school or ludus, (2) the 'grammar' school, and (3) the rhetorical school. Beyond the education of these schools, a young Roman might attend a university.

Schools were gradually subsidized by the emperors, but education eventually deteriorated into a formal qualification for senatorial rank. The practical Romans, however, created a universal empire and legal system, a universal religion, and other institutions for modern society.

Roman Education Amalgamated with Greek.-The name of Rome is still suggestive of power and organization. These characteristics seem to have been innate; but the significance of Roman development to the history of progress and education was largely due to the fact that, in her spread over the civilized world, the Eternal City amalgamated the Greek civilization with her own. Until then her ideals of life, while effective in conquest, had been narrow and little adapted to the development of individuality or of cosmopolitanism. Unconsciously realizing the need of broader ideals, she

absorbed those of Greece. But Rome could not be Hellenized without making some contributions to the result from her own genius, and for that reason it is important to learn something of Roman civilization and education, crude as they were, before they came into contact with Greek culture.

practical aim

Early Education in Rome.-In the early days Rome was animated by intense patriotism and love for military life, and felt that each citizen was bound to merge his identity in that of the state. In the surrender of in- Its civic and dividuality they were, to be sure, not unlike the Spartans, although they believed that this subordination should be brought about voluntarily rather than by compulsion of law and state organization. But, with such a love as theirs for mere material achievement, the Athenian ideal of a full and harmonious development of one's whole nature could scarcely be expected to make any appeal. They looked not for harmony, proportion, or grace, but for stern utility. They were sedate, grave, and serious, and their education was practical, prosaic, and utilitarian.

Until the Greek institutions began to be adopted, schools did not exist in Rome, except possibly the ludus or elementary school. During this pristine period education consisted in a practical training in Roman ideals and everyday living conducted largely through the family. In childhood the boys and girls alike were given a physical Informal trainand moral training by their mother, but, as the boy family and in grew older, he went more in the company of his father, and learned efficiency in life informally through his example and that of the older men, while the girl was taught at home by her mother. If the boy belonged to

ing in the

public.

Practical and occupational character.

a patrician family, he might acquire much knowledge concerning Roman custom and law by hearing his father advise and aid the family clients, or 'dependents,' and by attending banquets with him. He might also receive an apprenticeship training from his parent or some other older man in the profession of soldier, advocate, or statesman. In case he was born in a less exalted station, he might learn his father's occupation at the farm or shop. The girl, whatever her social status, was trained by her mother in the domestic arts, especially in spinning and weaving wool. Through their parents children probably learned to read and write; and they committed to memory stories of Roman heroes, ballads, martial and religious songs, and the Twelve Tables of national laws, after these had been codified (451 B. C.). Physical exercise was secured largely by games, which were mostly in imitation of future occupations, and gymnastics were employed simply as training for war. The usages of home and public religion also played an important part in the education of the young Romans, especially since almost every activity in life was presided over by some deity, whom it was necessary to propitiate when engaging in it.

Thus education in early Rome was practical, and, to some extent, occupational. It was intended to produce efficiency as fathers, citizens, and soldiers. It consisted in training the youths to be healthy and strong in mind and body, and sedate and simple in their habits; to reverence the gods, their parents, the laws, and institutions; and to be courageous in war, and familiar with the traditional agriculture, or the conduct of some busiIt did produce a nation of warriors and loyal

ness.

citizens, but it inevitably tended to make them calcu lating, selfish, overbearing, cruel, and rapacious. They never possessed either lofty ideals or enthusiasm. Their training was best adapted to a small state, and became unsatisfactory when they had spread over the entire Italian peninsula. The golden age of valor and stern virtue had then largely departed, and they began unconsciously to seek a more universal culture. While such a people regarded the Greeks as visionary, just as the Greeks looked upon them as barbarians, they felt instinctively that only by absorption of the Hellenic ideals could their cosmopolitan ambitions be carried out. On the other hand, it was through the organization which the Romans were able to furnish, that the great ideals formulated by the Greeks were destined to be rendered effective and to become a matter of value and concern to civilization ever since.

through

Roman con

The Absorption of Greek Culture.-There was a gradual infiltration of Greek culture into Rome from very early days. This received a great impulse through the conquests of Alexander (334-323 B. C.) and the Spread absorption of Macedon by Rome (168 B. C.), but it was Alexander and not until about half a century after Greece itself had quests. become a Roman province (146 B. C.), that the Greek educational ideals and institutions can be said to have been completely absorbed by Rome. This new type of education was thus well established early in the first century B. C. It may be said to have remained almost unmodified until toward the end of the second century A. D., when political conditions at Rome became most unstable and the period of degeneracy set in. During these three centuries of Hellenized Roman education,

The schools resulting.

methods.

three grades of schools resulted from the amalgamation. They were the (1) ludus or school of the litterator, as the lowest school was called; (2) the 'grammar' school, taught by a grammaticus or litteratus; and (3) the schools of rhetoric and oratory, which furnished a somewhat higher education.

The Ludus.--The ludus, or lowest school, may possibly have existed before the process of Hellenization even began, but if it did, it must have been intended simply to supplement the more informal training of the home.

Its content and Whenever originated, it probably taught at first only reading, writing, and rudimentary calculation, as in the family, through the medium of historical anecdotes, ballads, religious songs, and the Twelve Tables. But as the Greek influence crept in more and more, the literary content was somewhat extended. About the middle of the third century B. C., Livius Andronicus translated the Odyssey into Latin; and a number of epics, dramas, and epigrams were soon composed after Greek models. These works, in whole or part, were introduced into the curricula of the ludi, and by the beginning of the first century B. C., the Twelve Tables had been displaced by the Latinized Odyssey of Andronicus. The methods of instruction were memoriter and imitative. The names and alphabetic order of the letters were first taught without any indication of their significance or even shape, and all possible combinations of syllables were committed before any words were learned. Reading and writing were then taught by dictation, and, in tracing the letters onwax-tablets with the stylus (Fig. 5), the hand of the pupil was at first guided by the teacher. Calculation was learned by counting on the fingers, by means of

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