γυμνασιαρχεῖσθαι εὐ ταῖς λαμπάσιν.—Xen. Revenues, 4. 52.
λάμπάδι νικήσας γυμνασιαρχῶν.—Böckh, 257.
[491] Dem. ag. Lakritos, 940; Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. 57.
[492] Böckh, 243.
[493] Aesch. Tim. 12.
[494] Isaios, Menekles, § 42. See Wyse’s edition on the passage.
CHAPTER V
SECONDARY EDUCATION: I. THE SOPHISTS
At fourteen or soon after, it was usual for the ordinary course of letters and lyre-playing to terminate: the gymnastic lessons might be carried on till old age interrupted them. During the first three-quarters of the fifth century, the lad, on leaving school, was left to live more or less as he pleased, if he was rich enough not to have to work for his living: the sons of poorer citizens at this age, if not before, settled down to learn a trade or engaged in merchandise. Rich boys, no doubt, spent most of their time in athletic pursuits; riding and chariot-driving were favourite amusements. But with the Periclean age arose a violent desire for a further course of intellectual study, and a system of secondary education arose, to occupy the four years which elapsed between the time when the lad finished his primary education and the time when the State summoned him to undergo his two years of military training.