instruction in declamation and disputation, as is evidenced in the comments of Suetonius given in the previous chapter and in some of the selections here given.

During this period the higher or rhetorical education is definitely systematized. Despite the action of the Senate during the period of the Republic, and a similar action of the Emperor Domitian, 95 A.D., banishing philosophers and the higher teachers in Rome, this type of education flourished, and the schools of the rhetors represented the dominant education. Philosophical schools existed, but were never popular. The schools of the rhetors prepared the great majority for Roman life. While to some extent this rhetorical education was also given by tutors, as is indicated by the third Epistle of the third Book of Pliny; the school was the dominant type, as is demonstrated by the facts of the life of Quintilian and Suetonius' Lives of Eminent Rhetoricians, as well as by such descriptions as those of the seventh Satire of Juvenal and of Epistle viii., Book I., and Epistle xiii., Book IV., of Pliny.

To Vespasian, the father of Domitian, who took the hostile attitude just indicated, is due the first public support of education, a fact shown in the account of his life by Suetonius. Moreover, the letters of Pliny indicate that higher education in the provincial cities was still private; and his acts, that, in some cases at least, private munificence came to the assistance of such local schools and that there existed schools supported in part by the civic community. The imperial support of higher education begun by Vespasian was continued by Hadrian (117–138 A.D.) and by the Antonines (138-180 A.D.). To Antoninus Pius is due the conferment of privileges upon the teaching profession, which were afterward granted to the Christian

clergy. These privileges were extended to a limited number of grammarians, rhetoricians, and physicians in every civic community, a custom equivalent to the imperial indorsement of education throughout the Empire. The later emperors, especially Gratian, made this system of support more definite.

An additional feature of education during this period should be borne in mind. This is the custom, then prevalent, of sending Roman youths to Athens and other Eastern educational centres to complete their schooling, and of As sending provincial youths to Rome for like reason. mentioned in the selections, such was the case with Cicero, Pliny, and perhaps Juvenal, on the one hand; and with Horace and Quintilian, on the other. During this period, Athens and the Grecian East are still looked upon as the intellectual and educational centre, the Roman culture being, after all, but an imitation.

The Method of Education during this period is also indicated in these selections. The dominant principle of Roman education during all periods was simple; since education was dominantly moral and practical, the method Hence the great was chiefly that of direct imitation.

importance of the influence of the parent in the moral training of the child and the great use of biography in his instruction. This principle of method was carried over into his literary education, and as the higher types of schools were introduced, it brought about material modifications in Grecian methods. The Roman attitude toward method is expressed in the very brief quotation from the Epistles of Seneca and in the quotations from Horace, Juvenal, and Pliny. The methods of instruction in the rhetorical schools are indicated in the seventh Satire of

Juvenal, and also described in the ninth Epistle, Book VII., of Pliny. This subject is treated in great detail in the selections from Quintilian given later.

The Education of Women is treated in the selections from Musonius, which, however, must be taken as an abstract discussion rather than a statement of practical conditions. But the education of women at Rome was on a higher plane than at Athens, for in this, as in other respects, they were more nearly upon an equality with men. The iufluence of cultured women upon the education of their children is seen in the references to the mother of the Gracchi and the mother of Agricola, as well as in the Epistle of Pliny to Correllia Hispulla. While much greater freedom was allowed to married women in Rome than in Greece, and while they were more nearly on an equality with their husbands, their education was essentially a home training. There are evidences that it was nothing uncommon for girls to attend the ludus; but if they aspired to the literary or higher education as was possible without loss of reputation and of influence of the home as in Greece, they obtained it through the employment of tutors. There is no definite place for the education of women in the higher education of the times.

The Decadence of Roman Education is a question of relativity. Tacitus and Juvenal discuss its decline, the former on the intellectual side, the latter especially on the moral. By the close of the first Christian century there is, to be sure, decline in some respects, but certainly there are advances in others. Both decline and advance are indicated briefly in these sources. Oratory has lost its great inspiration with the change to the Empire, and hence has become much more formal and artificial; the literature of the period is

great on account of its form, not on account of its originality or its power of inspiration; and in a similar way, education becomes formal and in time artificial. There is also a marked change in the character of Roman society. While the change in moral standards, together with luxury and debauchery in the higher classes, has become permanent, the fatal weaknesses of Roman society do not appear until later. This decline from the high intellectual and moral status of the earlier period occurs at the time of an extension of the privileges of education and an increased interest in the support of education on the part of the government and public-spirited citizens. This is probably but another evidence of the general decline in virility and morality, for it is in order to combat these tendencies that education is encouraged. There is not only a multiplication of schools and the development of the educational system, but also a similar development in the method and workings of the schools. This again is taken by some to be but a further evidence of the artificiality of the times. At the same time it cannot be doubted that, with the loss of opportunities for intellectual activities in connection with the affairs of state, there was an increase of interest in purely intellectual pursuits along more scholastic lines. Hence it was that the decline in the character, motive, and moral results of education was coincident with a development of educational institutions, the multiplication of libraries, and an increased attendance upon the higher schools. Now the pursuit of the intellectual life, or the scholastic ideals, became a type of life distinct in itself, resembling more the Greek school of the philosophic period than any approved Roman customs. The decline in morality and spirit and purpose, marked by Juvenal and Tacitus, was followed in

Education

the father.

time by a decline in every other respect. With the Christianization of the Empire and the invasion of the barbarians, education, which had previously become wholly formal and artificial, ceased to arouse any enthusiasm and finally to command any support. This final stage of Roman education is not represented in these selections.

If my language is ever too free, too playful, such an by example, amount of liberty you will grant me in your courtesy: for through the influence of to this my good father trained me, to avoid each vice by setting a mark on it by examples. Whenever he would exhort me to live a thrifty, frugal life, contented with what he had saved for me, he would say, "Do you not see how hard it is for the son of Albius to live, and how needy Barrus is, a signal warning, to prevent any one from wasting his inheritance." If he would deter me from dishonourable love, he would say, "Do not be like Sectanus:" to save me from an adulterous passion, when I might enjoy an unforbidden love, he used say, "Trebonius' exposure was not creditable. Alosopher will give you the right reasons for shunning choosing things; I am contented, if I can maintain the custom handed down from our ancestors, and, so long as you need a guardian, preserve your life and character from ruin; when mature age has strengthened ur body and soul, then you will swim without a cork." Thus he moulded my boyhood by these words, and if he advised me to any course of conduct, he would say, "You have an authority for so acting, and put before me one of the select judges; 2 or if he would

1 The poet's father was of mean rank, and hence not acquainted with philosophical teachings. He was content to bring up his son according to the ideas of the earlier days.

2 These judges were selected from the most distinguished men of the senatorial or equestrian rank, in the city by the prætors, in the province by the governors.