SCHOOLS IN ANCIENT ROME

20120227-Cicero young _Reading.jpg
Young Cicero reading As a rule schools as we know them today didn't exist in the Roman era and there was no free public education. Education for the most part was in the hands of scholarly people, known as "pedagogues" or "litterator" who set themselves up as schoolmasters in private houses and enrolled pupil boarders. In most cases a "school" consisted of a single teacher who taught all the subjects. Boys of wealthy parents were tutored in mythology, Greek language, literature and rhetoric. Girls generally did not receive a formal education, and when they did it was by private tutors who came to their homes. At Greek gymnasiums students studied the "seven liberal arts" (arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy, grammar, dialectic (logic) and rhetoric). Romans adopted a similar curriculum.

Municipalities did not show the large and elaborate school buildings conspicuous in our towns now, nor were there likely to be school taxes. Until a very late period education remained generally a private matter. There were occasional endowments from the wealthy for educational purposes, as, more often, for other charitable foundations. Elementary schools must have been established in the Italian towns and throughout the provinces generally with the spread of Roman influence. The more advanced schools would naturally be found only in the larger towns and cities. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

Though these were not “public” schools in our sense of the word, that is, though they were not supported or supervised by the State, and, though attendance was not compulsory, it is nevertheless true that the elements at least of education, a knowledge of the three R’s, were more generally diffused among the Romans than among any other people of the ancient world. The schools were distinctly democratic in this, that they were open to all classes, that the fees were little more than nominal, that, so far as concerned discipline and the treatment of the pupils, no distinction was made between the children of the humblest and those of the most lordly families.

Websites on Ancient Rome: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; Lacus Curtius penelope.uchicago.edu; The Internet Classics Archive classics.mit.edu ; Bryn Mawr Classical Review bmcr.brynmawr.edu; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org; Ancient Rome resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library web.archive.org ; History of ancient Rome OpenCourseWare from the University of Notre Dame web.archive.org ; United Nations of Roma Victrix (UNRV) History unrv.com

School Day and Holidays in Ancient Rome

The school day began before sunrise, as did all work at Rome, on account of the heat in the middle of the day. The pupils brought candles by which to study until it became light, and the roof was soon black with the grime and smoke. The session lasted until time for the noonday luncheon and siesta. School was resumed in the afternoon. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

We do not know definitely that there was any fixed length for the school year. Classes were continued every day of the year with exasperating monotony, broken only by the eighth-day pause (nundinae), the Quinquatrus, and the summer holidays. We know that it regularly began on the twenty-fourth of March and that there were numerous holidays, notably the Saturnalia in December and the Quinquatria (from the nineteenth to the twenty-third of March). The great religious festivals, too, especially those celebrated with games, would naturally be observed by the schools, and apparently the market days (nundinae) were also holidays.

It was formerly supposed that there was no school from the last of June until the first of November, but this view rested upon an incorrect interpretation of certain passages of Horace and Martial. It is certain, however, that the children of wealthy parents would be absent from Rome during the hot season, and this would at least cut down the attendance in some of the schools and might perhaps close them altogether.” |+|

School Life in Ancient Rome

Roman schools were rarely in an individual building. They were often in an extension to a shop, separated from the outside world by a curtain. The school was often in a pergula, a gallery attached to a public building, or open room like a shop, roofed against the sun and rain, but open at the sides. The children were exposed, therefore, to all the distractions of the busy town life around them, and the people living near were in turn annoyed by the noisy recitations and even noisier punishments. |+|

School was at least sometimes held under the awning outside some shop, and invaded by all the noises of the street from which only a screen of tent cloth separated it. Its scanty furniture consisted of a chair for the master and benches or stools for the pupils, a blackboard, some tablets, and some calculating boards (abaci). [Source: “Daily Life in Ancient Rome: the People and the City at the Height the Empire” by Jerome Carcopino, Director of the Ecole Franchise De Rome Member of the Institute of France, Routledge 1936]

For elite families, things were different. Boys of wealthy parents were tutored in mythology, Greek language, literature and rhetoric. Girls generally did not receive a formal education, and when they did it was by private tutors who came to their homes. Sometimes students wrote on the walls of buildings as if they were giant exercise books. One inscription that appears to be a language art drills was found. It had the first letters of the Roman alphabet mixed with the finals ones — AX BV CT.

In another inscription parents marveled at the skills of their 11-year-old prodigy, Sulpicius Maxima. The boy took his place they noted “among 52 Greek poets in the third lustrumof the contest, [and] by his talent bought to admiration the sympathy that he had roused because of his tender age, and he came away with honor." The message was written on his epitaph. He had presented a composition in a well-known mythological theme: a speech of Jupiter, telling off the sun god for having loaned his chariot to the reckless youth Phaethon.

Writing, Pens and Ink in Ancient Rome

For writing the Romans used different materials: first, the tablet (tabula), or a thin piece of board covered with wax, which was written upon with a sharp iron pencil (stylus); next, a kind of paper (charta) made from the plant called papyrus; and, finally, parchment (membrana) made from the skins of animals. The paper and parchment were written upon with a pen made of reed sharpened with a penknife, and ink made of a mixture of lampblack. When a book (liber) was written, the different pieces of paper or parchment were pasted together in a long sheet and rolled upon a round stick. When collected in a library (bibliotheca), the rolls were arranged upon shelves or in boxes. [Source: “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901)]

Usually only the upper surface of the sheet—formed by the horizontal layer of strips—was used for writing. These strips, which showed even after the process of manufacture, served to guide the pen of the writer. In the case of books where it was important to keep the number of lines constant to the page, lines were ruled with a circular piece of lead. The pen (calamus) was made of a reed brought to a point and cleft in the manner of a quill pen. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

“For the black ink (atramentum) was occasionally substituted the liquid of the cuttlefish. Red ink was much used for headings, ornaments, and the like, and in pictures the inkstand is generally represented with two compartments, presumably one for black ink, one for red ink. The ink was more like paint than modern ink, and, when fresh, could be wiped off with a damp sponge. It could be washed off even when it had become dry and hard. To wash sheets in order to use them a second time was a mark of poverty or niggardliness, but the reverse side of schedae that had served their purpose was often used for scratch paper, especially in the schools.” |+|

Ancient Roman Students and Their Parents

Burrhus, Nero;s tutor, prostrating himself before Nero

One young man whose father had not paid his tuition wrote: "Look here, this is my fifth letter to you, and you haven't written to me except just once...and you haven't come here. After assuring me, 'I'm coming,' you didn't come to find out whether my teacher was paying attention to me or not...Do you best to come to me quickly, so he'll teach me as he's eager to do. Another young man wrote his father: "I can kiss your hand because you gave me a good education and because of it I hope to get a quick promotion."

Quintilian (b.30/35-A.D. c.100) wrote in “The Institutes,” Book 1: 1-26 (c. 90 A.D.): “In parents I should wish that there should be as much learning as possible. Nor do I speak, indeed, merely of fathers; for we have heard that Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi (whose very learned writing in her letters has come down to posterity), contributed greatly to their eloquence; the daughter of Laelius is said to have exhibited her father's elegance in her conversation; and the oration of the daughter of Quintus Hortensius, delivered before the Triumviri, is read not merely as an honor to her sex. [Source: Quintilian (b.30/35-A.D. c.100), The Ideal Education, “The Institutes,” Book 1: 1-26 (c. 90 A.D.), Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., “The Library of Original Sources” (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. III: The Roman World, pp. 370-391]

“Nor let those parents, who have not had the fortune to get learning themselves, bestow the less care on the instruction of their children, but let them, on this very account, be more solicitous as to other particulars. Of the boys, among whom he who is destined to this prospect is to be educated, the same may be said as concerning nurses.

School Slaves in Ancient Rome

The boy of good family was always attended by a trustworthy slave (paedagogus), who accompanied him to school, remained with him during the sessions, and saw him safely home again when school was out. If the boy had wealthy parents, he might have, besides, one or more slaves (pedisequi) to carry his satchel and tablets. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

The paedagogus was usually an elderly man, selected for his good character; he was expected to keep the boy out of all harm, moral as well as physical. He was not a teacher, despite the meaning of the English word “pedagogue,” except that, after the learning of Greek became general, a Greek slave was usually selected for the position in order that the boy might not forget what Greek he had learned from his nurse.

The scope of the duties of the paedagogus is clearly shown by the Latin words used sometimes instead of paedagogus: comes, custos, monitor, and rector. He was addressed by the boy as dominus, and seems to have had the right to compel obedience by mild punishments. His duties ceased when the boy assumed the toga of manhood, but the same warm affection often continued between the young man and the paedagogus as between a woman and her nurse.

Pliny on Trying to Set Up a School in His Hometown

At the beginning of the second century of our era Pliny the Younger tells of contributing largely to a fund to open a school in his native town of Comum, that the boys might not have to go to Mediolanum (Milan). The arguments he uses for the education of the boys at home are very much like those used for the establishment of junior colleges in many of our towns at present. Some boys were sent to Rome for the sake of better schools and more famous teachers than the country and provincial towns afforded. Agricola found the establishment of schools in Britain a useful aid in strengthening the Roman hold on the conquered territory."

William Stearns Davis wrote: “The following letter by Pliny to the famous historian Tacitus is witness to the interest taken in education under the Empire. The school here mentioned was, of course, not a mere primary school - that existed surely already at Comum - but one of the higher learning. Pliny's munificence was by no means unique. Probably in no other age was so much money donated by wealthy men for education - especially in their home towns - until recently in America. [Source: William Stearns Davis, ed., “Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources,” 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II: Rome and the West, pp. 227-230]

Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61-113) wrote in Letters, IV.13: “This letter contains a request: let me tell you why I ask it. When I was last in my native district [Comum, North Italy] a son of a fellow townsman of mine, a youth under age, came to pay his respects to me. I said to him, "Do you keep up your studies?" Yes," he answered. "Where?” I asked. "At Milan," was the reply. "But why not here?" I pressed. Then the lad's father, who was with him, said, "ecause we have no teachers here. " "How is that?" I asked. "It is a matter of urgent importance to you who are fathers," and it so chanced that luckily quite a number of fathers were listening to me, "that your children should get their education here at home."

“For where can they pass their time so pleasantly as in their native town, where can they be brought up so virtuously as under their parent's eyes; or so inexpensively as at home? If you put your money together, you could hire teachers at a trifling cost, and you could add to their stipends the sum you now spend on your son's lodgings and travel money---no small sum. I have no children of my own, still, in the interests of the community---which I may consider as my child or my parent---I am ready to contribute a third part of what you may decide to club together upon. I would even promise the whole sum if I did not fear that if I did so, my generosity might be corrupted to serve private interests, as I see is the case in many places where teachers are employed at the public charge. There is only one way of preventing the evil, and that is by leaving the right of employing the teachers to the parents alone, who will be careful to make a right choice if they are obliged to find part of the money. You cannot make your children a better present than this, nor can you do your place a better turn."

“And now, my friend Tacitus, since this is a serious matter, I beg you to look out for some teachers among the throng of learned men who gather around you, whom we can sound on the matter, but not in such a way as to pledge ourselves to employ any of them. For I wish to give the parents a perfectly free hand. They must judge and choose for themselves: I have only a sympathetic interest and a share in the cost. So if you find any one who thinks himself capable, let him go to Comum, but on the express understanding that he builds upon no certainty beyond his confidence in himself. Farewell.”

Grammar Schools in Ancient Rome

Between nine and twelve years of age, boys from affluent families studied with a grammaticus, who focused on his students' writing and speaking skills, versed them in the art of poetic analysis, and taught them Greek if they did not yet know it. There were also grammar schools that covered the same material.

Among the results of contact with other peoples that followed the Punic Wars was the extension of education at Rome beyond elementary and strictly utilitarian subjects. The Greek language came to be generally learned, and Greek ideas of education were in some degree adopted. Schools were established in which the central task was the study of the Greek poets; these schools we may call Grammar Schools because the chief study pursued in them was called grammatica (a term which included not merely grammar proper but also literature and literary criticism, the latter in simple form). The teacher of such a school was called grammaticus. Homer was long the universal textbook, and students were not only taught the language, but were also instructed in the matters of geography, mythology, antiquities, history, and ethics suggested by the portions of the text which they read. The range of instruction and its value depended largely upon the teacher, as does such instruction today, but it was at best fragmentary and disconnected. There was no systematic study of any of these subjects, not even of history, despite its interest and practical value to a world-ranging people like the Romans. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

“The Latin language was soon made the subject of similar study, at first in separate schools. The lack of Latin poetry to work upon (prose writings were not yet used as textbooks) led to the translation by a Greek slave, Livius Andronicus (third century B.C.), of the Odyssey of Homer into Latin Saturnian verses. From this translation, rude as the surviving fragments show it to have been, dates the beginning of Latin literature. It was not until this literature was graced by poets like Terence, Vergil, and Horace that the rough Saturnians of Livius Andronicus disappeared from the schools. |+|

“In the Grammar Schools, both Greek and Latin, great stress seems to have been laid upon elocution, a fact not surprising when we consider the importance of oratory under the Republic. The teacher had the pupils pronounce after him first the words, then the clauses, and finally the complete sentences. The elements of rhetoric were taught in some of these schools, but technical instruction in the subject was not given until the establishment, early in the first century B.C, of special Schools of Rhetoric. In the Grammar Schools were also taught music and geometry, and these made complete the ordinary education of boyhood. |+|

The famous orator Quintilian (b.30/35-A.D. c.100) wrote in “The Institutes,” Book 1: 1-26 (c. 90 A.D.): “I prefer that a boy should begin with the Greek language, because he will acquire Latin, which is in general use, even though we tried to prevent him, and because, at the same time, he ought first to be instructed in Greek learning, from which ours is derived. [Source: Quintilian (b.30/35-A.D. c.100), The Ideal Education, “The Institutes,” Book 1: 1-26 (c. 90 A.D.), Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., “The Library of Original Sources” (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. III: The Roman World, pp. 370-391]

“Yet I should not wish this rule to be so superstitiously observed that he should for a long time speak or learn only Greek, as is the custom with most people; for hence arise many faults of pronunciation, which is viciously adapted to foreign sounds, and also of language, in which when Greek idioms have become inherent by constant usage, they keep their place most pertinaciously even when we speak a different tongue. The study of Latin ought therefore to follow at no long interval, and soon after to keep pace with the Greek; and thus it will happen, that, when we have begun to attend to both tongues with equal care, neither will impede the other.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons and "The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated November 2024