Education in Ancient Rome: From the Elder Cato to the Younger Pliny

419 Pages·2012·6.61 MB·English

by  Stanley Bonner

EDUCATION IN
ANCIENT ROME
From the elder Cato to the younger Pliny
Stanley F. Bonner
ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
EDUCATION
ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
EDUCATION
EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ROME
EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ROME
From the elder Cato to the younger Pliny
STANLEY F. BONNER
Volume 91
Routledge
Taylor &. Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published in 1977
This edition first published in 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1977 Stanley F. Bonner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-61517-4 (Set)
eISBN 13: 978-0-203-81617-2 (Set)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-68979-3 (Volume 91)
eISBN 13: 978-0-203-18132-4 (Volume 91)
Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would
welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
Fig. 1 A Roman boy, with papyrus roll and book box.
EDUCATION IN
ANCIENT ROME
From the elder Cato to the
younger Pliny
STANLEY F. BONNER
Methuen & Co Ltd
First published in 1977 by Methuen & Co Ltd
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
© 1977 Stanley F. Bonner
Photoset in English Times by Red Lion Setters, Holborn, London
Printed in Great Britain at the
University Printing House, Cambridge
ISBN (hardback) 0 416 79710 5
ISBN (paperback) 0 416 85710 8
This title is available in both hardbound and
paperback editions. The paperback edition is
sold subject to the condition that it shall
not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
resold, hired out or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior consent in any
form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar
condition including this condition being
imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
Part One The Historical Background 1
I Early Roman upbringing 3
II Education within the family 10
(I) Parents and relatives
III Education within the family (continued) 20
(II) Private tutors from distant lands
IV Primary schools and 'pedagogues' 34
V Schools of Grammar and Literature 47
VI The rhetoric schools and their critics 65
VII Cicero and the ideal of oratorical education 76
VIII The Roman student abroad 90
IX Education in a decadent society 97
Part Two Conditions of Teaching 113
X The problem of accommodation 115
XI Equipment organization; discipline 126
XII The hazards of a fee-paying system;
municipal and State appointments 146
Part Three The Standard Teaching Programme 163
XIII Primary education: reading, writing and reckoning 165
XIV The Grammatical syllabus 189
(I) The elements of metre and the parts of speech
XV The Grammatical syllabus (continued) 198
(II) Correctness in speech and writing
XVI Study of the poets 212
(I) Reading aloud and reciting
XVII Study of the poets (continued) 227
(II) From reading to commentary
XVIII Progress into rhetoric: preliminary exercises 250
XIX Declamations on historical themes 277
XX Learning the art of the advocate 288
XXI Declamation as a preparation for the lawcourts 309
Conclusion: a few lessons from the past 328
List of abbreviations 334
Notes 336
Bibliography 380
Index 393
List of illustrations
1 A Roman boy, with papyrus roll and book box (Petworth Collection)
frontispiece
2 Scenes from childhood (Roman sarcophagus, Musée du Louvre) 13
3 Paedagogus with lamp, carrying child (Greek terracotta) 24
4 Paedagogus accompanying child (Greek terracotta, Cairo Museum)
25
5 Paedagogus teaching (a) writing, (b) reading (Greek terracottas,
British Museum Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities) 26
6 Private tutor at Herculaneum (engraving by E. Roux Ainé of a Roman
wall painting no longer extant) 29
7 Philocalus, primary schoolmaster of Capua (Roman funerary monu-
ment, Naples Museum) 43
8 Epaphroditus, Greek grammaticus at Rome (Roman portrait-statue,
Palazzo Altieri, Rome) 50
9 Schoolroom scene at Trier (late Roman relief, Rheinisches Landes-
museum, Trier) 56
10 Schoolboy's lines (Greek school tablet of whitened wood, Berlin
Staatsmuseen) 61
11 School in the Forum at Pompeii (engraving of a Roman wall-
painting, Naples Museum) 118
12 Schoolboy's drawing, with caption (Roman graffito, from a paeda-
gogium on the Palatine) 123
13 Caricature of a school class (Greek terracotta, Musee du Louvre) 124
14 Roman stili and pens (British Museum Department of Greek and
Roman Antiquities) 128
15 Roman inkpots (British Museum Department of Greek and Roman
Antiquities) 132
16 Waxed writing-tablets, strung together (Berlin Staatsmuseen) 134
17 Numbers symbolized by the fingers (from the Regensburg MS of
Bede) 167
18 Section of teaching manual, showing syllables (third-century B.C.
papyrus, MS 65445, Cairo Museum) 170
19 Section of teaching manual, showing syllabic word-division (third-
century B.C. papyrus, MS 65445, Cairo Museum) 171