(a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 5.-School materials from wall paintings: (a) Wax tablet and capsa, containing rolls, or books. (6) Three stili, capsa, and roll leaning against it. (c) Wax tablet, with stilus tied to it.

pebbles, or upon the abacus, and eventually sums were worked upon the tablets.

teachers.

Methods so devoid of interest were naturally accompanied by severe discipline. The rod, lash, and whip Discipline and seem to have been in frequent use, and the names ordinarily applied to schoolmasters in Latin literature are suggestive of harshness and brutality. Moreover, a fresco found at Herculaneum depicts a boy held over the shoulders of another, with the master beating the victim upon the bare back (Fig. 6). Under these circumstances, no real qualifications were required of the teacher, and his social standing was low. The Greek custom of having the boy accompanied to and from school by a slave that was otherwise incapacitated by Slaves to age or physical disability soon came to be imitated by pupils." the Romans. When a special building was employed Buildings. for the school, it was usually a mere booth or veranda, and the pupils sat on the floor or upon stones.

accompar.v

Grammar Schools.-The 'grammar' school grew out of the increasing literary work of the ludus. But, while offering a more advanced course, it would seem to belong in part at least to the elementary stage of education, especially as its work was never sharply divided from that of the ludus. The young Roman might attend both a Greek and a Latin grammar school, but, in case he did, usually went first to the former. The curriculum in each consisted, according to Quintilian, of 'the art of speaking Curriculum correctly' and 'the interpretation of the poets,' or, in other words, of a training in grammar and literature. 'Grammar' may, however, have included some knowledge of philology and derivations, as well as drill on the parts of speech, inflections, syntax, and prosody, and

liscipline.

practice in composition and paragraphing. The literary training was obtained by writing paraphrases of the best authors, textual and literary criticism, commentaries, and exercises in diction and verse-writing. Some other studies, like arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, geography, and music may also have been added in time, from the suggestions of Plato, but the Romans naturally gave them a practical bearing. Some gymnastics, mostly for Methods and military training, were often in the course. The methods in the grammar schools were somewhat better than those of the ludus, but the commentary of the teacher on the text was usually taken down verbatim by the pupil. The discipline, in consequence, was not much in advance of that of the lower schools. But the accommodations for these secondary schools were decidedly superior, and the buildings not only possessed suitable seats for the pupils and teacher, but were even adorned with paintings and sculpture.

Buildings.

Professional, but broad training.

Rhetorical Schools.-The 'rhetorical' schools were a development of work in debate that had gradually grown up in the grammar schools. The earliest of these institutions at Rome were Greek, but by the first century B. C., there had arisen a number in which Latin was used. While they afforded a legal and forensic training, and seem more professional in spirit than the grammar schools, they were by no means narrow. The orator was for the Roman the typical man of culture and education, and he was supposed not only to have been trained in eloquence and law and history, but to possess wide learning, grace, culture, and knowledge of human emotions, sound judgment, and good memory. Besides a training in oratory, these schools furnished a linguistic and liter

ary education of some breadth. They may be considered as belonging partly to the secondary and partly to the higher stage of education. The youths were exercised first in declamation on ethical and political subjects, which would bring in fine distinctions in Roman law and ethics, and later they were given practice in three types of speeches,—deliberative, judicial, and panegyric. Attention was given to all the various factors in making a successful oration: the matter, arrangement, style, memorizing, and delivery.

Spread

Universities.-When the young Roman had completed his course at a rhetorical school, he might, if he were ambitious, go to the university at Athens, Alexandria, or Rhodes for a higher training. Later, a university throughout the also sprang up at Rome, and before long these institu- empire. tions spread throughout the empire. The Greek influence caused a large number of these institutions to be established in the East, but some were also located in the West. The latter gave more emphasis to practical subjects. In several instances the universities found their nucleus in one of the many libraries that were started with books brought from the sacking of Greece and Asia Minor.

Subsidization of Education. Thus, through the adoption of the institutions of the Greeks, Roman education became thoroughly Hellenized. Although all the types of schools spread everywhere in the empire, there was, of course, no such thing as a real school system, except as the government gradually came to subsidize all schools. This the different emperors accomplished in various ways, by contributing to school support, pay- Imperial coning a salary to certain teachers, or granting them exemp→

trol of schools