Education in Ancient Rome: From the Elder Cato to the Younger Pliny

by Stanley F. Bonner

Overview

Education in Ancient Rome explores the Roman approach to education, highlighting its lasting relevance beyond antiquity. Roman education focused not just on academic knowledge but also on character and behavior, as the Latin term educatio referred to raising a child physically and morally rather than intellectually. The Romans, although heavily influenced by Greek educational methods, crafted a cohesive curriculum that blended Greek and Latin literature, with figures like Virgil and Cicero studied alongside Homer and Demosthenes. Over time, the curriculum became more focused on grammar, literature, and rhetoric, which later formed the core of the medieval Trivium and influenced education for centuries, including during the Elizabethan era. Based primarily on Quintilian and other Roman sources, this work offers both a synthesis of known material and new contributions to the understanding of Roman education, contributing to the scholarly exploration of ancient educational practices.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520373655
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	09/23/2022
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Part 1. The Historical Background  1. Early Roman Upbringing  2. Education Within the Family: Parents and Relatives  3. Education Within the Family: Private Tutors from Distant Lands  4. Primary Schools and ‘Pedagogues’  5. Schools of Grammar and Literature  6. The Rhetoric Schools and their Critics  7. Cicero and the Ideal of Oratorical Education  8. The Roman Student Abroad  9. Education in a Decadent Society  Part 2. Conditions of Teaching  10. The Problem of Accommodation  11. Equipment Organization; Discipline  12. The Hazards of a Fee-Paying System; Municipal and State Appointments  Part 3. The Standard Teaching Programme  13. Primary Education: Reading, Writing and Reckoning  14. The Grammatical Syllabus: The Elements of Metre and the Parts of Speech  15. The Grammatical Syllabus: Correctness in Speech and Writing  16. Study of the Poets: Reading Aloud and Reciting  17. Study of the Poets: From Reading to Commentary  18. Progress into Rhetoric: Preliminary Exercises  19. Declamations on Historical Themes  20. Learning the Art of the Advocate  21. Declamation as a Preparation for the Lawcourts