A Roman boy began his school days at about the age of
seven. He learned to read, to write with a stylus on wax tablets, and to cipher
by means of the reckoning board, or abacus. He received a little instruction in
singing and memorized all sorts of proverbs and maxims, besides the laws of the
Twelve Tables. His studying went on under the watchful eyes of a harsh
schoolmaster, who did not hesitate to use the rod. After Rome began to come
into close contact with Greece, the curriculum was enlarged by the study of
literature. The Romans were the first people who made the learning of a foreign
tongue an essential part of education. Schools now arose in which the Greek
language and literature formed the chief subject of instruction. As Latin
literature came into being, its productions, especially the orations of Cicero
and the poems of Vergil and Horace, were also used as texts for study.
TRAVEL AND STUDY ABROAD
Persons of wealth or noble birth might follow their school
training by a university course at a Greek city, such as Athens, Alexandria, or
Rhodes. Here the Roman youth would listen to lectures on philosophy, delivered
by the deep thinkers whom Greece still produced, and would profit by the
treasures of art and science preserved in these ancient capitals. Many famous
Romans thus passed several years abroad in graduate study. During the imperial
age, as we have already seen, schools of grammar and rhetoric arose in the
West, particularly in Gaul and Spain, and attracted students from all parts of
the empire.
