Quiet! Class is about to Begin!

Greek influences in Roman Education

Latin is a giant among men as a language of influence in the western world. Even in the present
day, it remains used in science, literature, and law. Latin phrases like vice versa, E Pluribus Unum, or de
facto are still common in everyday life. Thomas Hobbes, Galileo, and Linnaeus all wrote and published
various works in Latin. How did Latin rise to the position of influence it rests upon today? The growth of
Latin was an unintentional by-product of the Roman system of education that changed dramatically
during the Punic wars and the founding of the empire. As Roman education expanded, so did Latin
usage. Roman education changed from a family-based, informal type of education to a systematic, formal
school setting in the centuries that followed the Punic wars.
The early ideals of Roman education predated the republic and was an extension of the mos
maiorum, or ancestral tradition. These ideals continued to exist through the republic and even during the
early empire. The early roman ideals of education revolved around family. (Gwynn p12) The education of
a child was left entirely to the paterfamilias or the "father of the household". The Roman father had
absolute power over his children in the eyes of the law, having the power to sell his children into slavery
or condemn to death.
A roman boy's education consisted largely of interacting with his parents and imitating the
conduct of his father. (Gwynn p14) According to tactitus, the roman boy's education started at birth. He
would be reared by his mother rather than a nurse, and would learn from her ways like the Gracchi from
Cornelia. After the boy had grown older, his mother would be replaced by the father. School-life barely
existed if at all and the father taught the son whatever book-learning the father desired. Pliny describes
this condition as "Every child had his father for a school teacher", and is well exemplified by the
education given to the Cato the Elder's sons. According to Plutarch, Cato refused to allow a slave teacher

to chastise his son or allow his son to owe his education to a slave. Instead, Cato took it upon himself to
educate his son from javelin tossing to history. (Gwynn p20)
A typical son would work with his father on the farm, ploughing and sowing the land. During
festivals, the boy would serve as his father's acolyte during the religious ceremonies. During visits to
family friends the son would accompany his father as a guest. He would serve the elders at the table, and
learn to sing the songs of early Rome. When there was a debate in the forum, he would sit in and listen. If
his father was a senator, the son would sit near the door to watch and listen. In the earliest times of Rome,
this education ended at sixteen or seventeen when he became a man and began his military service. Later,
this tradition was modified so that the father may take his boy to a distinguished citizen to learn oratory
and statecraft at thirteen or fourteen. If the boy was to become a soldier rather than a statesman, his
"apprenticeship" would be with a distinguished officer. (Gwynn p 16)
The early roman education was not focused on the boy's intellectual achievement, instead it
focused on forming the spirit of a young man. The goal was to form a young man who showed self
restraint and respect to his elders. From an intellectual point of view, the education the roman boy
received at this point was mostly practical. Not learning any more geometry than needed to measure land,
was a very real limitation to roman education at this stage.
The practical and family-centered, yet intellectually limited education of the Roman boys starkly
contrasted the Greek ideal of education. In Sparta, boys were taken around the age of seven from their
parents to join the units and companies of the Spartan military. In Athens the young attended schools with
state laws regulating the attendance and conduct of pupils as well as the hours of class. Schoolmasters
were a regular sight while the mother and father were mostly absent. In addition to the systematic aspect
of Greek schooling, students were also taught literature, philosophy, and rhetoric. These subjects were
virtually unknown before the arrival of the first Greek teachers in Rome.

Around the time of the Macedonian and Punic Wars, Greek teachers began to arrive in Rome.
Some teachers were from the Greek cities of Southern Italy like Tarentum, but others were brought
directly from the Greek Peninsula. Greek teachers were sought by Roman fathers to teach their sons
Greek rhetoric and by extension, oratory.
This influx began to influence roman thoughts on the ideal education. Cicero, in his book de
Oratore, wrote that an orator is ideally taught literature, philosophy, math, music, rhetoric, geometry and
astronomy. But he also agreed with older Roman tradition and believed that the parent was primarily
responsible for the education of his children. Oddly, he was not the primary educator for his own children.
His own children were taught lessons by a tutor and only supplemented his own lessons after they had
advanced in their early education. In addition, Cicero gave his lessons in Greek rather than Latin.
In Cicero's time, almost all Roman education existed in the form of rhetoric and literature
schools. In the schools of rhetoric, we can see the greatest changes to roman educational ideals. During
this period of change, Cicero tried to define the role of the various teachers. Cicero states it is the duty of
the Grammaticus to give the students "correct accent and delivery" and the duty of the rhetores, a
professor of literature, to teach rhetoric. By the time of the empire, Quintilian has the ideal background of
an orator planned out. Cicero did not plan out a child's education in detail, Quintilian does.
Quintilian was born after the end of the civil wars and during the reign of Tiberius. By this time
Cicero had been dead for about seventy years. Quintilian is much more Greek than his predecessors in his
ideas of what education a roman orator should have. Quintilian closely examines many aspects of a child's
education in detail. He even states that an infant should not be exposed to any language that the child may
have to unlearn later. Quintilian also insisted that the attendants of a young child be educated, that the
child should formally learn Greek before Latin. He even gave several teaching exercises that could be
used to teach a boy to write. (Smail p18)

Compared to the old ideals of home education by imitation of the father, the new ideals are
almost alien. In the new fashion after a boy was born, he would be attended by educated nurses. Around
the age of seven, his formal education begins. This first stage would be his elementary education. He
would go on to learn greek, latin and writing. Soon he would be taught to read aloud and improve his
penmanship. He would go on to a school that was not too large where students gather together to receive
lessons from a teacher. If his parents desired, they would find a suitable companion for the boy so that his
morals would not be corrupted by his school mates. At school he could be expected to give speeches in
front of the class, be publicly ranked based on ability, and take tests. According to Quintilian, this school
rivalry stimulates the mind of a young orator. (Smail p 19)
After the elementary education, the student would go on the middle stage or school of
Grammaticus. Here the student would focus on learning grammar, but also be suplamentted by classes on
music, geometry, essay writing, and more. Quintilian supports the less practical liberal arts of geometry
and music. He defends their value to an orator from a differing perspective than the old one. In the old
attitude, geometry is useful for measuring land and learning music is useful to a lyre player. But in the
new attitude, Quintilian defends that learning geometry and music both help to comprise the whole of a
perfect orator. He acknowledges even though many successful orators do not understand the other arts,
that being deficient in any of these arts would make an incomplete orator.
Despite the variety of topics, these lessons are still part of the boy's middle stage of education.
According to Quintilian, when he is "near grown-up" or has understood his earlier education fairly well,
the student is transferred to a formal teacher of rhetoric. This is the last stage in the education of an orator.
An ideal teacher must "have no vices and tolerate none in his pupils" as well as being "stern but not
melancholy, friendly but not familiar". Quintilian goes on to say that if this teacher has any serous vices,
the student's previously good education is lost. At this point, the student would also begin history lessons
to complement his oratory. If the young man becomes a successful orator, Quintilian mentions that he
should retire "before his powers begin to fail" (Smail p137) and devote his last years of living to teaching.

Quintilian's description of the education of an orator starkly contrasts the old attitude in several
ways. Previously, home-schooling was considered preferable to public schooling in order preserve the
morals and virtues of a young man. Quintilian opposes the private schooling of any individual, arguing
that the rivalry of the classroom stimulates the intellectual capacity of the mind. The old Roman ideals
state the father is the best teacher for the son. Quintilian avoids confrontation by saying the father should
be the most concerned for his son's education, but does not agree the students should be taught directly by
the father. Instead he finds it important for the father to choose a good teacher for his son. Even Cicero
did not consider the education of young children around seven to fourteen important enough plan in
detail. But Quintilian finds it vital to pay close attention to learning of a young student. He justifies his
opinion by stating that the mind is most easily molded at this age. Quintilian is also practical and
understands that often students may give up from frustration or lack the background to have a perfect
teacher. He states that his ideals cannot be met by many. Compared to Cato the Elder, Quintilian is radical
in his differing ideals.
This change in ideals did not happen suddenly or without opposition. From the time of the first
known Greek teachers in 272 BC to the publication of Institutio Oratoria in 95 AD by Quintillian, more
than 300 years have passed. This is comparable for Americans the time gap between George Washington
to George Bush. Many in Rome opposed the new ideals and sorely ached for the return of the simpler
virtues they had known in times past. In many sections of his book, Quintilian must debate the old
traditions that he assumes the reader supports. But the opposition all things Greek has existed long before
Quintilian.
One truly roman example is Gaius Marius, brought up in the same town as Cicero but joining the
army at the age when Cicero began his studies. He was said to be completely uneducated, never learned
any Greek, and mocked it as the language of slaves. There were even two separate laws in 161 and 92 BC
banishing all rhetoric and philosophy teachers from Rome. The second explained that the new teachers of
rhetoric and philosophy were "contrary to the mos maiorum", and that the lessons were undesirable to the

senate. At least one school was closed down but the exact number is unknown. The causes of this edict
may have been part of a larger political struggle but the attitude against Greek schooling was certainly
present. (Gwynn p64) Another example of opposition to the new Greek ideas was Cato the Younger. He
was much like Cato the Elder and looked back to old roman ideals, morals, and conduct. He despised the
decadent, Hellenized ways of Sulla. Cato went so far as to dress in the old fashion, refuse to sit in the
tribunal with shoes or even wear a hat while campaigning in Africa. (Oman p205) In the end his battle
against Greek influence could not be won and by the time of Quintilian, the Greco-Roman culture was in
full swing.
Education in Rome reflected the changes in the aristocracy from the earliest days of the republic
to the later, more decadent times of the empire. At first roman education centered on learning respect for
one's elders, self restraint, and morals by imitating one's father. If an aristocrat was to be a statesman, his
education was to observe one. If he was to be a officer, he would follow and learn from an officer. As the
aristocracy grew wealthier at the conclusion of the African and Greek wars, the education leaned towards
attaining influence in the senate and public sphere by means of eloquent speaking, oratory. By this time
the education a young man may receive was greatly different than his ancestors. Despite the change,
yearning for the old ways never disappeared. Even in the time of Quintilian there were many who longed
for the old days of Rome. But by the time the empire was established, much of Roman aristocratic life
had permanently changed including the education of a young roman man.

Works Cited
Gwynn, Aubrey. Roman Education from Cicero to Quintilian. New York: Russell & Russell, 1964. Print.
Oman, Charles. Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Republic: The Gracchi. Sulla. Crassus. Cato. Pompey.
Csar. New York: Longmans, Green, 1902. Print.
Quintilian, and William M. Smail. Quintilian on Education. New York: Teachers College, 1966. Print.