[17] There was much complaint that parents were slow with their fees, and at times forgot them entirely if the boy did not turn out well. Finally, in the reign of Diocletian (284-305 A.D.), in an effort to relieve the distress of schoolmasters, prices were legally fixed at approximately the equivalent of $1.20 per month per pupil for teaching reading and $1.80 for arithmetic, measured in money values of a decade ago. These were regarded as "hard times prices."
[18] "Reading aloud, with careful attention to pronunciation, accent, quantity, and expression, formed an important part of the training in literature of a Latin youth. Correct reading of Latin was a much more difficult art, as practiced, than is the reading of English, as all of us well know who learned properly to intone our
"Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit."
The lack of use of small letters and spacing between the words (R. 21), as well as poor punctuation, also added to the difficulty.
[19] A nonsensical minuteness was followed here, and many trivialities were emphasized. Juvenal tells us, in his Seventh Satire, written about 130 A.D., that "a teacher was expected to read all histories and know all authors as well as his finger ends. That, if questioned, he should be able to tell the name of Anchises' nurse, and the name and native land of the stepmother of Anchemotus—tell how many years Acestes lived—how many flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians." This reminds us of some of the dissected study of English and Latin until recently given in our colleges and high schools.
[20] Quintilian well states the aim of this higher education when he says that "the man who can duly sustain his character as a citizen, who is qualified for the management of public and private affairs, and who can govern communities by his counsels, settle them by means of laws, and improve them by judicial enactments, can certainly be nothing else but an orator."
[21] In his Lives of Eminent Grammarians and Rhetoricians, chap. I. Suetonius lived from 75 to 160 A.D., and was an advocate at Rome and private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian.
[22] There was a general dread of Greek higher learning on the part of the older Romans, and this found expression in many ways. Among these was an edict of the Senate, in 161 B.C., directing the Praetor to see that "no philosophers or rhetoricians be suffered at Rome" (R. 20), a decree which could not be enforced, and the edict of the Censors, in 92 B.C. (R. 20), expressing their disapproval of the Latin schools of rhetoric.
[23] These seven studies became the famous studies of the church schools of the Middle Ages, with Grammar as the greatest and most important study (see chap. VII; R. 74). The curriculum of the Middle Ages was a direct inheritance from Rome.
[24] See Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, book I, chap. X, 22, 37, and 46. This chapter is devoted largely to a description of the use of these studies.