Roman life in the days of Cicero | Page 4

who was a few years younger
than Cato, had as a tutor a Greek of some distinction. While preparing
the procession of his triumph he had sent to Athens for a scene-painter,
as we should call him, who might make pictures of conquered towns
wherewith to illustrate his victories. He added to the commission a
stipulation that the artist should also be qualified to take the place of
tutor. By good fortune the Athenians happened to have in stock, so to
speak, exactly the man he wanted, one Metrodorus. Cicero had a Greek
teacher in his own family, not for his son indeed, who was not born till
later, but for his own benefit. This was one Diodotus, a Stoic
philosopher. Cicero had been his pupil in his boyhood, and gave him a
home till the day of his death, "I learned many things from him, logic
especially." In old age he lost his sight. "Yet," says his pupil, "he
devoted himself to study even more diligently than before; he had
books read to him night and day. These were studies which he could

pursue without his eyes; but he also, and this seems almost incredible,
taught geometry without them, instructing his learners whence and
whither the line was to be drawn, and of what kind it was to be." It is
interesting to know that when the old man died he left his benefactor
about nine thousand pounds.
Of course only wealthy Romans could command for their sons the
services of such teachers as Diodotus; but any well-to-do-household
contained a slave who had more or less acquaintance with Greek. In
Cicero's time a century and more of conquests on the part of Rome over
Greek and Greek-speaking communities had brought into Italian
families a vast number of slaves who knew the Greek language, and
something, often a good deal, of Greek literature. One of these would
probably be set apart as the boy's attendant; from him he would learn to
speak and read a language, a knowledge of which was at least as
common at Rome as is a knowledge of French among English
gentlemen.
If the Roman boy of whom we are speaking belonged to a very wealthy
and distinguished family, he would probably receive his education at
home. Commonly he would go to school. There were schools, girls'
schools as well as boys' schools, at Rome in the days of the wicked
Appius Claudius. The schoolmaster appears among the Etruscans in the
story of Camillus, when the traitor, who offers to hand over to the
Roman general the sons of the chief citizen of Falerii, is at his
command scourged back into the town by his scholars. We find him
again in the same story in the Latin town of Tusculum, where it is
mentioned as one of the signs of a time of profound peace (Camillus
had hurriedly marched against the town on a false report of its having
revolted), that the hum of scholars at their lessons was heard in the
market-place. At Rome, as time went on, and the Forum became more
and more busy and noisy, the schools were removed to more suitable
localities. Their appliances for teaching were improved and increased.
Possibly maps were added, certainly reading books. Homer was read,
and, as we have seen, the old Latin play-writers, and, afterwards, Virgil.
Horace threatens the book which willfully insists on going out into the
world with this fate, that old age will find it in a far-off suburb teaching

boys their letters. Some hundred years afterwards the prophecy was
fulfilled. Juvenal tells us how the schoolboys stood each with a lamp in
one hand and a well-thumbed Horace or sooty Virgil in the other.
Quintilian, writing about the same time, goes into detail, as becomes an
old schoolmaster. "It is an admirable practice that the boy's reading
should begin with Homer and Virgil. The tragic writers also are useful;
and there is much benefit to be got from the lyric poets also. But here
you must make a selection not of authors only, but a part of authors." It
is curious to find him banishing altogether a book that is, or certainly
was, more extensively used in our schools than any other classic, the
Heroides of Ovid.
These, and such as these, then, are the books which our Roman boy
would have to read. Composition would not be forgotten. "Let him
take," says the author just quoted, "the fables of Aesop and tell them in
simple language, never rising above the ordinary level. Then let him
pass on to a style less plain; then, again, to bolder paraphrases,
sometimes shortening, sometimes amplifying the original, but always
following his sense." He also suggests the writing of themes and
characters. One example he gives is