In ancient Athens, school attendance was voluntary, and though it was not mandated by the government, almost everyone went up to the age of 14. Indeed, if an education wasn't provided by a father to his son, his son did not have to support him in old age (Wheelock 4). Prior to the primary education phase, parents and nurses instilled manners, morality and respect for the gods into young children. Plato remarks that "education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life" (Protagoras 325.C), which goes to show that the Athenians believed in an early start to education. The importance of these virtues did not disappear when school started, as parents sent a paedagogus, or child leader, to school with the child, who would act as a guardian to the child and take responsibility for his manners and morals (Wheelock 5).
Around the age of six or seven, parents sent their sons off to school. It should be noted that, from all accounts, girls did not receive a formal education, since they were only to be concerned with domestic duties (World of Athens 172). The Greeks based most of their educational ideals on the works of Homer, the Odyssey and the Iliad, which describes Achilles being involved in oratory and musical literature. These examples, with the addition of the accounts of athletic competitions often read by schoolchildren, form the basis of the typical Athenian curriculum of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. The Athenians divided this curriculum, which trained both mind and body, into two categories: mousike, which included not only music but language and literature as well (i.e. arts or skills presided over by the Muses), and gymnastike, which included physical training and athletics, which was needed in war as well as in the numerous competitions in Greece (Wheelock 5).
The first and most important subjects learned were reading, writing, and arithmetic. The children first learned the letters of the written Greek alphabet, a fully phonetic script which was a Greek invention (World of Athens 172). They learned to form the letters, and eventually how to form sentences from dictation (Dobson 36). Included in all of this was memorization and recitation of numerous passages from poets such as Homer, in whose writing a boy "finds plenty of good advice, and many stories and much praise. . . which encourage him to admire. . . and to model himself on them" (Plato Protagoras 326.A). Simple arithmetic was also learned, with the assistance of an abacus and pebbles. The children learned to play the lyre, which helped them to better understand the lyric poets, and which served as an important part of Athenian society in general. As Plato says, "the life of man in every part has need of harmony and rhythm" (Protagoras 326.B), which are learned early in life. Musical knowledge came in handy at festivals as well, where music and poetry competitions were held. The paidotribes instructed the children in physical exercise at the palaestrae, gyms for children, where they taught running, jumping, wrestling, and swimming, among other skills. Dancing was also an important part of physical education, as it played a large role in religion (Dobson 37). Though in Plato's ideal republic children are trained physically so that "they may not be compelled through bodily weakness to play the coward in war or on any other occasion" (Protagoras 326.C), it seems the training was in actuality much more useful in the numerous athletic competitions held primarily at religious festivals, including the great Panhellenic festivals (World of Athens 174). The winners at these festivals brought tremendous glory to themselves and to their countries.
Young men who were well-off and didn't need to work for a living occupied themselves with a sort of secondary school from 14 until they were 18, when they would begin their two years of military service. In this school they learned more advanced literature, language, and mathematics, though the individual courses of study depended on the interests of the parents (Dobson 39). Geometry and astronomy may have been included, and Plato says that the interpretation and appreciation of poetry, no longer just memorization, was considered important (Protagoras 325-26). Aristotle says that even drawing is an acceptable subject for study, because it "is supposed to be useful in enabling us to judge the work of craftsmen better" (Politics VIII.3). When a young man turned 18, he became a member of the Ephebi, in which he went through military training and served garrison duty for two years. As the fourth century came to a close, however, service in this group became less compulsory and more voluntary (Dobson 46). When a man finished his two years of service, he was considered a full citizen of Athens, and if he had the means, could go on to higher education.
A young Athenian who desired a higher education usually became a student of one or more of the Sophists, who were educators who had come to Athens from all over Greece, Asia Minor, and Magna Graecia. Sophists, the Greek term for "wise men", were often looked down upon as "immoral know-it-alls" (Wheelock 7), though they helped introduce the critical study of language, rhetoric, oratory, and even the idea of higher education in the first place (Wheelock 7). The Sophists claimed to teach Arete, or Virtue, meaning something that would help a man succeed in life, as opposed to the typical moral sense of the word, and taught that true knowledge is beyond the grasp of humans (Dobson 52). This utilitarian view was a primary reason they were criticized as amoral, and even immoral, by men such as Plato. Later, the philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) set up schools in Athens like modern universities, which were more formal learning centers than those used for private study by the Sophists. Plato set up his Academy, which was an educational establishment, but at which all of the members were also close friends (Marrou 67). Aristotle also had his Lyceum, and Isocrates established a well-known school of rhetoric. These institutions all served to systemize and disseminate knowledge and theory to their students, making Athens the intellectual center of the world (Wheelock 8).
The Athenian philosophers who set up schools all wrote a good deal about their views on education. These deserve to be examined as vital instruments in the intellectual growth of Athens. Socrates, often considered the father of the philosophical schools of Athens, was, like the Sophists, interested in 'Virtue', but of a different variety. Socrates taught that Virtue was a quality which leads to the correct way of doing things, rather than the successful way (Dobson 52). His aim was to lead men to clear thinking, and he accomplished this through his dialectical method of teaching, in which he did not just disseminate information in lecture, but asked questions of the pupils in order to bring them to the correct conclusions. Socrates was similar to the Sophists in that he considered perfect knowledge unattainable, but since he felt inspired as an educator, he felt it his duty to lead men to clear thinking (Dobson 53). This clear thinking leads to an understanding of the limits of man's wisdom, which leads to man being able to live a good life, one of Socrates' primary goals. Socrates also realized that to live without a questioning spirit is not to really live, because even though man cannot truly grasp knowledge, it should be a goal (Barrow 9).
One must keep in mind that much of what the modern scholar knows about Socrates is through his dialogue in Plato's Republic. However, Plato was a pupil of Socrates, and held some of the same educational beliefs, even though there were obvious differences as well. Most of Plato's views on education are laid out in the Republic, a work describing an ideal State in which people sacrifice for the community, and in the Laws. Plato believed the metaphysical theory that knowledge, which is virtue and the goal of education, is "innate in the soul," and that education consists simply of "turning the eye of the soul in the right direction" (Barrow 36). This is why Socrates, a character in Plato's Meno, uses words such as recollecting instead of learning as he teaches a slave by means of questioning: "Socrates: Note that I am teaching him nothing, Meno, only asking. He thinks that he knows how long the side of an eight foot square must be, but does he? Meno: Of course not. Socrates: Now watch how he recollects things in order, as it should be done." . . (82.B ff). For Plato, one cannot grasp any knowledge until he realizes how little he knows. In the end, Plato considered the purpose of having knowledge (primarily a political purpose in his perfect State) to be so that one may be fit to rule, as opposed to Socrates' idea that it was in order to live a good life; knowledge gives right opinion and ability to judge and teach (Barrow 45).
Aristotle, much as Plato was a pupil of Socrates, was a pupil of Plato, and so had similar thoughts on education. Like Plato, Aristotle thought that 'Virtue' was to be gotten only from education, and like Plato, thought the political good of the State to be the eventual goal of education (Dobson 78). However, Aristotle thought that the reason it would benefit the State is because a man's education helps him learn the best way to pass leisure time, and the best way to live life, that is, "in the exercise of the highest functions of the intellect" (Aristotle Nic. Eth. X.7). Aristotle agrees with Socrates that the capability to have knowledge and virtue is innate, but not knowledge and virtue themselves. For instance, he gives the example that “a stone can never learn to move upwards of itself, however often you try to teach it the habit by throwing it into the air” (Nic. Eth. II.1), because it isn't capable. Humans are capable of having knowledge and virtue, but they must be learned through habituation. In effect, though, Aristotle's thoughts are quite similar to those of his predecessors, Socrates and Plato.
Finally, there is Isocrates, whose writing includes extreme criticism of the Sophists. He claimed that all they were out to do was make money off the youth. Isocrates believed that practical thought was much more important than philosophical thought, saying that "it is much better to be able to form a reasonable judgement about practical affairs than to have any amount of precise but useless knowledge" (Helen 10.5). Isocrates primarily taught rhetoric at his school in Athens, and emphasized useful thought over inapplicable knowledge.
Like the Athenians, the Romans had a set course of education, and in fact, the Athenian system influenced the Roman system. Until the age of six or seven, a Roman boy would receive basic education in Latin and Greek from his parents and nurse. Refuting a common idea that children shouldn't learn language so early, Quintilian asks "why should the age which is suitable for learning moral principles not be suitable for learning to speak correctly" (Institutio Oratoria 1.1.15-17). At the appropriate age, as in Athens, a paedogogus, who performed the same duties as in Athens and helped improve the boy's conversational Greek, accompanied the boy as he went off to school (Wheelock 10). Apparently, in Rome, many girls seemed to have had a primary education, but it was probably not as formal as the boys', and it went no further than the primary level (Wheelock 11).
The primary school was ironically called the ludus, which means 'play' in Latin, and a Roman boy would learn under the ludi magister, or 'schoolmaster.' The day started early and lasted well into the evening, with a break for a midday meal (Dobson 166). The boys worked on reading and writing, and they had to memorize large numbers of moral stories and heroic passages. They would practice their writing by copying the maxims, such as this one found in Egypt, many times on their wax tablets: "From a wise man seek advice. Do not blindly trust all your friends" (Shelton 110). The boys would also learn basic arithmetic, including weights, and monies and measures, using an abacus. Flogging was common in Roman schools, although Quintilian denounces it as "disgraceful and. . . suitable only for slaves" (Institutio Oratoria 1.3.13-14).
At around the age of 12, those boys whose families had enough wealth moved on to learn under the grammaticus, who taught language and literature, as well as music and philosophy, but only to the extent that they helped with the understanding of literature (Shelton 113). Quintilian says in his Institutio Oratoria that music gives meter and rhythm, astronomy gives knowledge of the constellations oft mentioned in poetry, philosophy gives background for natural science, and skill in speaking gives the ability to speak well on all that one has learned (I.4.1-5). Recitation and composition were also frequently studied. Another word for this secondary school was schola, which is Greek for leisure, giving a good example of the Greek influence on Roman education, as well as a reminder that school was primarily an institution for the leisure classes in Rome. The majority of the teachers at these schools were Greeks, who were generally considered the best culturally educated, and they were obviously better teachers of Greek language and literature, which was stressed much more than Latin in the scholae (Dobson 111). These teachers had to be well-versed in the fields they taught, and ready to answer questions from their students. Much like modern America, part of the curriculum of the secondary school leaked over into that of the rhetorical schools, the Roman form of higher education.
A young Roman began his education under a rhetor, a teacher of rhetoric as well as other subjects composing a typical liberal arts education, at around the age of 16. He would first refine his phrase, sentence, and paragraph composition, learning proper word choice, and effective form and rhythm. Once he became efficient in these skills he would compose speeches, called declamations, of two categories: suasoriae and controversia. The first were persuasive speeches, designed to persuade one toward a certain course of action, and prepared one for exhorting public assemblies. Topics included whether Agamemnon should sacrifice his daughter (Dobson 119). The latter were arguments for one side of the law, and prepared one to argue in court. These were generally defenses or prosecutions of the actions of people in accordance with the law, as when a son helps his uncle when forbidden by his father (Shelton 116). Juvenal writes humorously of the teachers who must listen to these speeches: "The man who teaches declamation must be made of iron, to listen to each boy in a large class denounce the cruel tyrants. Each boy stands up and recites at great length what he has just finished writing. Each boy says the same thing in the same sing-song fashion. These stale rehashings could kill a poor teacher!" (Satires 7.150-154). However, the topics discussed, such as pirates and family feuds, became less and less relevant to real life, as the young men simply made their style of speech flashier. Both Tacitus and Quintilian complain of the emphasis that was placed on brilliance rather than meaning and content.
Some young Romans would finish off their education with a year of study in some foreign intellectual center, such as Athens, Rhodes, or Alexandria, conducting advanced study under the scholarly masters of the time. Cicero's son did this in Athens, but, like modern college students, got easily distracted by the abundance of wine and women available. In a letter to his father, he tries to allay Cicero's displeasure at his grades, employing much flattery and describing what he likes about school (Shelton 120).
Cicero and Quintilian provide much of the information about Roman education, and specifically the nature of the ideal orator. Both men take as the basis for their ideas Cato's famous definition of an orator, as given in Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria: "a good man skilled in speaking" (XII.i.1). Cicero taught that oratory is higher than mere rhetoric, and says that "no one can hope to be an orator in the true sense of the word unless he has acquired knowledge of all the sciences and all the great problems of life" (De oratore I.20). He adds that "the orator must have traversed the whole field of knowledge" (I.48). The primary subjects studied on this journey are necessarily practical and include history, philosophy, and wisdom in the law. Cicero describes two laws of history in De oratore: "The first law of history is not to dare to say anything that is false; the second, not to dare to suppress anything that is true" (II.62-64). Interestingly, the Romans paid much more attention to Greek history than their own; history, mythology and romance of the Greeks made up many of the declamatory subjects (Dobson 132). Finally, he says that the true orator should have the outlook of a philosopher, with the skill of a rhetorician (Dobson 132).
Quintilian, probably the most famous writer on Roman oratory, agrees with Cicero on the definition of who the orator is and on what he must study. He believed that the goals of character and rhetoric, which make up the 'perfect orator', could be reached by means of a broad, liberal education (Wheelock 16). Quintilian says of the perfect orator: "The first essential for such an [orator] is that he should be a good man, consequently we demand of him not merely the possession of exceptional gifts of speech, but of all the excellences of character as well. . . . The man who can really play his part as a citizen and is capable of meeting the demands both of public and of private business, the man who can guide a state by his counsels, give it a firm basis by his legislation and purge its vices by his decisions as a judge, is assuredly no other than the orator of our quest" (I.Pref. 9-10). Hence the ideal orator must be a good citizen, worthy in all affairs, and claiming to the name of philosopher. He must be eloquent and of excellent character (Dobson 136). The picture of an ideal orator is painted quite clearly by Quintilian in Institutio Oratoria.
The Athenians and the Romans obviously shared many similarities in their educational systems, owing much to the fact that the Romans borrowed many of their ideas from the Athenians. Both societies had an educational ladder of sorts, leading from primary to secondary, and finally to higher education. The emphasis in both societies was on a liberal arts education that sharpened the mind, though the Athenians also placed heavy emphasis on physical education. Finally, both the Athenians and the Romans had men of great minds who laid out their ideas for all to see, thanks to whom modern scholars have most of their information about education in ancient Athens and Rome. The Athenians and Romans had very similar educational systems, and the ideas behind them continue to influence American education today.
WORKS CITED Aristotle. Nicomachian Ethics. Trans. John Burnet. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1980. Aristotle. Politics. Trans. John Burnet. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1980. Barrow, Robin. Plato and Education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976. Cicero. De oratore. Trans. Jo-Ann Shelton. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1988. Dobson, J. F. Ancient Education and its Meaning to Us. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1932. Isocrates. Helen. Trans. George Norlin. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1980. Joint Association of Classical Teachers. The World of Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984. Juvenal. Satires. Trans. Jo-Ann Shelton. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1988. Marrou, H. I. A History of Education in Antiquity. Trans. George Lamb. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956. Plato. Meno. Trans. Robin Barrow. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976. Plato. Protagoras. Trans. W.R.M. Lamb. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1967. Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Trans. William Smail. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938. Shelton, Jo-Ann. As the Romans Did. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1988. Wheelock, Frederick M. Quintilian as Educator. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1974.