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tistic development or on the enjoyment of the refinements of life, it was no wonder that education was valued only as it contributed to the practical and useful sides of life; and such a training one could best acquire by actual contact with the practical affairs of life; hence a Roman boy learned the art of war by actual experience in the field. His knowledge of the laws and history of his country he acquired at home from his father, or attached himself to some cele brated advocate, whom he followed to the courts of law, to the rostra, in his saunterings through the forum, taking notes of his conversation and lectures, and committing his sayings and maxims to memory. It was the actual contact with the business of daily life, the lively interest in political affairs, that gave the Roman boy an insight into public business, a patient aptitude for work, and a readiness of speech, which nothing but such daily familiarity with the arts of war and peace could have bestowed. No credit is to be given to the silly stories of the Roman annalists, reported by Plutarch, to the effect that boys in early times were permitted to go with their fathers or patrons into the senate-house, and listen to the debates and routine. of business in that grandest assembly of the ancient world, and that this practice had to be stopped because the mothers teased the boys so much to tell them what was going on there.

Then, again, it was but a small proportion of the inhabitants,-the patrician class, who could take any share in administering the government. All others were in early times legally, and in later times practically, beyond the pale of such political and civil privileges. In early times the government could prescribe no system of education for the children of noble families, because any interference here on the part of the State would have come into conflict with the paternal authority, which, in all matters pertaining to the internal arrangements of the family, was considered supreme. Hence the Romans, as Cicero' says, thought "that education ought not to be fixed, nor regulated by laws, nor given publicly nor uniformly to all classes of society." The training of the children was left to the care of the family, to the judgment of the father, and particularly to the management of the mother, so that in gremio matris educari long remained a maxim with the Roman people. The father taught his sons, when old enough, as Cato did, from the well-stored treasures of his own experience, or trained them to an insight into public affairs by actual contact with the business of the State. The wealthy who could not themselves instruct their children might place them in one of the private schools, or at a later time give them over to the care of

1 De Rep. iv. 3, 3.

a Greek literary slave or freedman, to be instructed in Greek and Latin learning. So valuable were the services of a Greek literary slave, like Andronicus, Silinator, or Chilo, whom their masters could let out to give instruction, that ten thousand, even thirty thousand, dollars were paid for one of the first class at a time when an ordinary slave was worth not more than five dollars. When Greek learning became thoroughly domesticated at Rome, Greek schoolmasters came in crowds, offering their wisdom for sale. During all this time, during the whole period of Roman history, no free public schools were ever established for the people. Nearly all the work of instruction was in the hands of slaves or freedmen, or irresponsible persons who flocked to Rome from all parts of Greece, and, like every other work at Rome performed for hire, was held in little. esteem. The philosophers, the rhetoricians, the grammarians of note, found ready admittance into the noble families as private teachers; but the large mass of Greek schoolmasters were held in little esteem, and were compelled to eke out a scanty subsistence from such work as they could get. Under such circumstances it is not strange that the work of educating the young was held in little esteem, and that the services of the schoolmasters were very poorly remunerated. The purpose of this paper, however, is not to trace the history of Roman education in detail, but rather to study certain features of it, -the social standing of the teacher, and the remuneration he received for his services.

How early private elementary schools were established at Rome, we have no means of knowing. The first notice of such a school is from Livy, in relating the story of Virginia, who, in the year B. C. 449, was on her way to one of these schools in the forum, when scized by the client of Appius Claudius. In the time of Camillus we know that there were elementary schools at Falerii and at Tusculum.3 The number of such schools at Rome increased during the time of the republic, particularly after Greek learning become domesticated at Rome, and Greek schoolmasters crowded in swarms to the capital. Such schools were also to be found in the various parts of Italy and in the provinces in the time of the empire. We are utterly ignorant of the character of these schools, further than that the course of instruction could not have advanced beyond the ele

2 Servi literati: an exquisite cook, cost $5,000; Horace's slave, Davus, cost about $85; Juvenal tells us that Crispinus paid about $240 for a fish, more than the fisher himself would have brought.

Livy, iii. 44. Livy, v. 27. Liny, vi. 25.

Plin. N H. ix. 8, 25. Suet. Calig. c. 45.

mentary stage, as well as of the subjects taught and the amount of fees received for tuition. Plutarch informs us that Spurius Carvilius was the first to open a private school at Rome, and to charge tuitionfees. If Plutarch is not altogether mistaken, we must understand that Carvilius was the first to charge fixed rates of tuition, or that this was the case in the higher schools, which were introduced into Rome about this time. We cannot believe that teachers had hitherto taught gratuitously. In early times it seems to have been the custom for the teacher to demand no regular sum for tuition, but to depend for his remuneration on such presents as the pupils saw fit to bring him. We know that it was customary for boys on entering school, and the practice continued in the time of the empire, to bring the teacher a present as an entrance-fee, the value of which depended, of course, upon the wealth and liberality of the family from which he came. No writer during the republican period mentions the amount of these fees. Later writers, although it is not until the time of Hieronymus 10 that we have definite information in regard to these presents, give us some information, particularly Varro," who tells us that pupils at the Quinquatria, the festival of Minerva, the time when the school-year began, promised the teacher a present,—the minerval, or minervale munus,— which was regarded as a reward for instruction. Suetonius 12 mentions the fact of "Laberius Hiera, a freedman, giving gratuitous instruction to the children of those who had been prescribed in the time of Sulla," as an act of great generosity and disinterestedness. There must, then, have been regular fees of some amount paid by the pupil to the teacher for instruction, and these fees, as we learn from Horace,13 Juvenal," and others, were paid either at the beginning of the school-year in March at the Quinquatria, or at the Ides of each month. How much these fees were we have no means of knowing until the time of Horace," who informs us in one of his Satires that each pupil paid for tuition on the Ides of each

• When Livy (viii. 36) states that boys were instructed in Etruscan learning, as they afterwards were in Grecian literature, he evidently means Etruscan sacred ceremonials. Quaest. Rom. c. 59.

Hulsebos, De Educ. et Inst. apud Rom., thinks that ypaμμarodídaσxaediov (see Plut. I. c.), may mean schola quaedam superior; but the expression will hardly bear this interpreta tion. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans used exoλń for school. It was not until late in the time of the Emperor that the word obtained this signification.

9 Suet. Ill. Gr. c. 7. The passage refers particularly to the grammarians, but it is also true of the elementary teacher.

10 Hier. Comm. in Ep. and Ephes. c. 6. He lived from A.D. 340 to 420.

11 Varro, R.R. iii. 2, 18; Juv. x. 131: Quisquis adhuc uno parcam colit asse Minervam ;

the expression uno asse refers to the minervale munus.

12 Ill. Gr. c. 13. 18 Ep. ii. 1, 197. 14 Sat. x. 161 f. 15 Sat. i. 6, 75.

-the

month 16 eight asses, which equals in our money very nearly eight cents. This sum was paid for the eight months that the schools were actually in session, and did not include the long vacation," which extended from June 24 to October 15. The schoolmaster's income then must have been extremely small. If we reckon fifty pupils, and we know of many a poor schoolmaster who had less than that number, and Martial 18 mentions one who had only two pupils, yearly income of the teacher would be but little over thirty dollars. No wonder that the schoolmaster, as Lucian 19 tells us, was not always able to pay the tailor, the physician, or the shoemaker. A few facts will enable us to estimate the value of this sum more accurately. According to Polybius, food and lodging cost, in his time, at an inn in Northern Italy, not more than one-half an as, or about one-half a cent, per day. A bushel of wheat at this time cost in the same locality, which was the great corn-producing district in Italy, about six asses; the price at Rome was much higher, averaging thirty or forty asses, although wheat was distributed in the time of the Gracchi to the people at Rome at six and one-half asses per bushel, and by later demagogues the price was reduced to about three asses. In the time of Cæsar a laborer earned about threefourths of a denarius per day, which equals twelve uncial asses, or nearly twelve cents. If we reckon three hundred working-days, he

20

16 The statement of Macrobius (I. 12, 7), hoc mense (Martio) mercedes exsolvebant magistris quas completus annus deberi fecit, does not conflict with the statement in the text, because Macrobius must have had the minerval in mind. Then again, magister was a teacher of literature, and not an elementary teacher.

17 According to the Cod. Just. iii. 12, 2, the legal holidays of the courts of justice extended from June 24 to Aug. 1, and then again from Aug. 23 to Oct. 15. Martial, Epigr. x. 62:

Ludimagister parce simplici turbae,

Albae leone flammeo calent luces,

Tostamque fervens Julius coquit messem,
Fernlaeque tristes sceptra paedagogorum,
Cessent et Idus dormiant in Octobres.

Aestate pueri si valent, satis discunt.

It appears from this epigram that in July the school holidays must have already com. menced, for the constellation of the Lion was visible in July (v. Nauck's note on Hor. Carm., iii. 29, 19, and Krüger's note on Hor. Ep. i. 10, 16), and that they continued to Oct. 15. Now the term of the courts of justice ended June 24, and it is fair to suppose that the school vacation also began then, and continued, as Martial says, to Oct. 15. There were also many holidays during the year, at the Saturnalia, the Quinquatria, Caristia, Septimontium, and the Calendae Januariae (v. Plin. Ep. viii. 7,1; Hor. Ep. ii. 197; Tertull. de Idol. 10). Every eighth day was a holiday (Varro in Nonius v. lusus).

18 X. 60. 19 De Merc. Cond. c. 58.

10 This is Mommsen's estimate based on a conjectural emendation of Livy (Ep., 60). Peter: Gesch. Roms. vol. ii. p. 32, note, shows that the price cannot be fixed with any certainty.

earned about thirty-six dollars per year. Cæsar fixed the annual pay of a soldier at 225 denarii, or very nearly forty dollars. In view of these facts, the schoolmaster's salary is not so insignificant as it at first appears. The schoolmaster had also an opportunity of eking out his small income by making out deeds, wills," mortgages, and other papers for his neighbors.

These facts show how little the Romans valued the work of the teacher; and it is not surprising, under the circumstances, that we hear of Orbilius, Horace's master, writing, under the title of "The Man Acquainted with Grief," a doleful autobiography on account of the miseries and degrading poverty to which he was doomed. Still, we must not accept too doleful a view of the condition and poverty of the Roman schoolmaster; our information concerning him comes chiefly from the Roman satirists, who were inclined to exaggerate his miseries to give point to their satire. It does not seem probable that the Roman schoolmaster was harsher, or his social standing lower, than were the schoolmasters described by Carleton, Goldsmith, Cowper, Scott, and others, who picture him as arbitrary, tyrannical, and cruel. Scott's Dominie Sampson has passed into history as one ungainly in person and slovenly in dress. Even Shakespeare gives us a glimpse of the repulsive aspect of educational means, in his time, when he speaks of the child as "creeping like a snail, unwillingly to school." The fact is, that not only among the Romans, but even in modern times, the main current of social desires and energies, the laws, the literature, the wealth, the talent, and the character-forming influences of the world, have flowed in other channels, and left this one void of fertilizing power. While education has done much toward enlightening the individual and improving the social well-being of communities, it has never reached its high ideal, for the simple reason that it has never been cherished as other causes have been, and hence has never had, until recent times, an adequate opportunity to make known its beneficent power in elevating, transforming, and redeeming men. The histories of all other subjects, art, literature, architecture, music, have been written; but of all the literature of antiquity only a meager and insignificant part has reference to education. How completely and intensely the Romans were engrossed in other pursuits is shown by the remuneration and honors that were bestowed upon all other classes of professional and political aspirants at Rome. The income of a celebrated actor, for instance, like Aesopus or Roscius, was about $10,000 per year. Physicians 22 were generally well paid. The body-physician

21 Nissen: Hermes I. p. 149: Idemque testamenta scripsit edum fide.

22 Plin. N. H. xxix. 7.

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