Care, too, was taken lest those public schools, established for the advancement of virtue and morals, should themselves be converted into nurseries of vice. They were by law[[568]] forbidden to be opened before sunrise, and were closed at sunset; nor during the day could any other men be introduced besides the teachers,[[569]] though it appears from some of Plato’s dialogues that this enactment was not very strictly observed.[[570]] To prevent habits of brawling, boys were forbidden to assemble in crowds in the streets on their way to school. Nor were these laws deemed sufficient; but still further to protect their morals ten annual magistrates called Sophronistæ, one from each tribe, were elected by show of hands,[[571]] whose sole business it was to watch over the manners of youth. This magistracy, dated as far back as the age of Solon,[[572]] and continued in force to the latest time.[time.] The Gymnasiarch, another magistrate,[[573]] was intrusted with the superintendence of the Gymnasia, which, like the public games and festivals, appeared to require peculiar care; and, if we can receive the testimony of Plautus[[574]] for the classical ages of the commonwealth, transgressors received severe chastisement.
It has sometimes been imagined that in Greece separate edifices were not erected as with us expressly for school-houses, but that both the didaskalos and the philosopher taught their pupils in fields, gardens or shady groves.[[575]] But this was not the common practice, though many schoolmasters appear to have had no other place wherein to assemble their pupils than the portico of a temple[[576]] or some sheltered corner in the street, where in spite of the din of business and the throng of passengers the worship of learning was publicly performed. Here, too, the music-masters frequently gave their lessons, whether in singing or on the lyre, which practice explains the anecdote of the musician, who, hearing the crowd applaud one of his scholars, gave him a box on the ear, observing, “Had you played well these blockheads would not have praised you.” A custom very similar prevails in the East, where, in recesses open to the street, we often see the turbaned schoolmaster with a crowd of little Moslems about him, tracing letters on their large wooden tablets or engaged in recitations of the Koran.
But these were the schools of the humbler classes. For the children of the noble and the opulent spacious structures were raised, and furnished with tables, desks,—for that peculiar species of grammateion[[577]] which resembled the plate cupboard, can have been nothing but a desk,—forms, and whatsoever else their studies required. Mention is made of a school at Chios[[578]] which contained one hundred and twenty boys, all of whom save one were killed by the falling in of the roof. From another tragical story we learn that in Astypalæa,[[579]] one of the Cyclades, there was a school which contained sixty boys. The incidents connected with their death are narrated in the romantic style of the ancients. Cleomedes, a native of this island, having in boxing slain Iccos the Epidaurian, was accused of unfairness and refused the prize, upon which he became mad and returned to his own country. There, entering into the public school, he approached the pillar that supported the roof, and like another Sampson seized it in an access of frenzy, and wresting it from its basis brought down the whole building upon the children. He himself however escaped, but, being pursued with stones by the inhabitants, took sanctuary in the temple of Athena, where he concealed himself in the sacred chest. The people paying no respect to the holy place still pursued him and attempted to force open the lid, which he held down with gigantic strength. At length when the coffer was broken in pieces Cleomedes was nowhere to be found, dead or alive. Terrified at this prodigy they sent to consult the oracle of Delphi, by which they were commanded to pay divine honours to the athlete as the last of the heroes.[[580]]
In the interior of the school there was commonly an oratory[[581]] adorned with statues of the Muses, where, probably in a kind of font, was kept a supply of pure water for the boys. Pretending often, when they were not, to be thirsty, they would steal in knots to this oratory, and there amuse themselves by splashing the water over each other; on which account the legislator ordained that strict watch should be kept over it. Every morning the forms were spunged,[[582]] the schoolroom was cleanly swept, the ink ground ready for use, and all things were put in order for the business of the day.
The apparatus[[583]] of an ancient school was somewhat complicated: there were mathematical instruments, globes, maps, and charts of the heavens, together with boards whereon to trace geometrical figures, tablets, large and small, of box-wood, fir, or ivory[[584]] triangular in form, some folding with two, and others with many leaves; books too and paper, skins of parchment, wax for covering the tablets, which, if we may believe Aristophanes,[[585]] people sometimes ate when they were hungry.[[586]]
To the above were added rulers, reed-pens,[[587]] pen-cases, pen-knives, pencils, and last, though not least, the rod which kept them to the steady use of all these things.
At Athens these schools were not provided by the state. They were private speculations, and each master was regulated in his charges by the reputation he had acquired and the fortunes of his pupils. Some appear to have been extremely moderate in their demands.[[588]]
There was for example a school-master named Hippomachos, upon entering whose establishment boys were required to pay down a mina, after which they might remain as long and benefit by his instructions as much as they pleased. Didaskaloi were not however held in sufficient respect, though as their scholars were sometimes very numerous,[[589]] as many for example as a hundred and twenty, it must often have happened that they became wealthy. From the life of Homer, attributed to Herodotus,[[590]] we glean some few particulars respecting the condition of a schoolmaster in remoter ages.
Phemios it is there related kept a school at Smyrna, where he taught boys their letters and all those other parts of education then comprehended under the term music. His slave Chritheis, the mother of the poet, spun and wove the wool which Phemios received in payment from his scholars. She likewise introduced into his house great elegance and frugality, which so pleased the school-master that it induced him to marry her. Under this man, according to the tradition received in Greece, Homer studied, and made so great a proficiency in knowledge that he was soon enabled to commence instructor himself. He therefore proceeded to Chios,[[591]] and opened a school where he initiated the youth in the beauties of epic poetry, and, performing his duties with great wisdom, obtained many admirers among the Chians, became wealthy, and took a wife, by whom he had two sons.
The earliest task to be performed at school was to gain a knowledge of the Greek characters, large and small, to spell next, next to read. Herodes the Sophist experienced much vexation from the stupidity exhibited in achieving this enterprise by his son Atticus, whose memory was so sluggish that he could not even recollect the Christ-cross-row. To overcome this extraordinary dulness he educated along with him twenty-four little slaves of his own age, upon whom he bestowed the names of the letters, so that young Atticus might be compelled to learn his alphabet as he played with his companions, now calling out for Omicron now for Psi.[[592]] In teaching the art of writing their practice nearly resembled our own; the master traced with what we must call a pencil (γραφὶς), a number of characters on a tablet, and the pupil following with the pen the guidance of the faint lines[[593]] before him, accustomed his fingers to perform the requisite movements with adroitness.[[594]] These things were necessarily the first step in the first class of studies, which were denominated music,[[595]] and comprehended everything connected with the developement of the mind; and they were carried to a certain extent before the second division called gymnastics was commenced. They reversed the plan commonly adopted among ourselves, for with them poetry[[596]] preceded prose, a practice which coöperating with their susceptible temperament, impressed upon the national mind that imaginative character for which it was preëminently distinguished. And the poets in whose works they were first initiated were of all the most poetical, the authors of lyrical and dithyrambic pieces, selections from whose verses they committed to memory, thus acquiring early a rich store of sentences and imagery ready to be adduced in argument or illustration, to furnish familiar allusions or to be woven into the texture of their style.[[597]]