History of Education

by Levi Seeley

Literature.—Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire; Bury, The Roman Empire; Church, Pictures from Roman Life and Story; Clarke, Ten Great Religions; Gibbon, Decline and Fall of Roman Empire; Lord, Beacon Lights; Capes, Roman Empire; Merivale, History of the Romans; Shumway, A Day in Ancient Rome; Mommsen, History of Rome; Liddell, History of Rome; Ploetz, Epitome of Universal History; Gilman, Story of Rome; Collins, Ancient Classics; Monroe, Source Book of the History of Education.

The Age of Augustus.—The history of Rome covers a period of a thousand years. From the little village on the Palatine Hill Rome grew to be the mightiest empire of the world. The "Age of Augustus" represents not only the summit of military glory, but also the highest civilization, and the noblest ideals of the Roman people. It was the age of Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Livy, and Seneca. Rome was at peace with the world, and therefore had time to devote to art, literature, and other intellectual pursuits. It was during this period that Christ was born.

Like Sparta, Rome for a long time maintained her supremacy by force of arms, and therefore encouraged physical education. But when she became mistress of the world, and came in contact with the culture of the Greeks, she began to feel the need of an intellectual and aesthetic development. Accordingly it became the fashion to study Greek, to bring teachers from Athens to Rome, and to send young men to Athens to study. The Roman Empire was therefore the medium through which Grecian culture was transmitted to the western world, and during the Augustan Age the center of learning was transferred from Athens to Rome.

Gibbon says, "The first seven centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils."[20] The Augustan Age shows Rome at her best, and a study of the educational system at that time will be most fruitful for the student of pedagogy.

Geography and History.—We have seen that Rome began with a small territory in the center of Italy, and that province after province was added, until in the time of Augustus she ruled the world. Italy, the center of the empire, has a diversified surface, a mild climate, and a fertile soil. In the time of Augustus, the Roman Empire embraced all of the border of the Mediterranean, extended as far north as the North Sea, as far east as the Euphrates, as far south as the Sahara, and west to the Atlantic. With the great Mediterranean entirely under its control, including the seas, bays, and rivers tributary to it; with its rich territories; and with its vast population, which represented most of the enterprise and civilization of the world,—this great empire possessed wonderful advantages for the spread of Christianity, for the dissemination of intelligence, and for the improvement of the human race.

The government of the Romans was generally some form of republic, the people always being jealous of their rights. Their religion took on gross forms of idolatry, for they readily adopted and worshiped the gods of the Grecians, Egyptians, and other conquered peoples. Temples to Faith, Hope, Concord, and other virtues were erected and maintained. The Romans were very superstitious. These facts have a bearing upon Christian education, and will explain some of the chief difficulties which it had to encounter.

The Home.—While in Athens the father had charge of the education of the boy in his early years, in Rome that duty devolved almost entirely upon the mother. In early Roman history the matron was celebrated for her virtues—fidelity to her husband, love for her children, and queenly guardianship of the sacred precincts of the home. The name of the Roman matron became a synonym of all that is noble, wifely, and motherly in the home. Without doubt the character had sadly deteriorated at the period of which we write, but there still remained with many the lofty ideals which had been fostered in earlier times.

The husband was the head of the house, but to the wife was committed the care of the children and their instruction for the first six or seven years of their lives. She taught them strict obedience and politeness, and instructed them in the "Twelve Tables of Roman Law."[21]

The mother also took great pains to teach her children correct pronunciation. She taught them their letters, first the name and then the form, a practice which is pedagogically false, as Quintilian pointed out. She also taught them poems from the great masters. In taking pains with pronunciation she prepared the way for later training in oratory, which was the most important study in Roman education.

Only when Rome had begun to decay did mothers commit the training of their children to nurses and slaves. When Rome was at her best, the child grew up in an atmosphere of love under direct care of the mother, who shaped his morals and guided his religious life as well as his early mental development. Around the mother centered all that was ennobling and elevating in the first seven years of the child's life. The father had but little to do with this period, and did not interfere with the mother's work. His duty lay in public life; hers lay within the home, and well did she meet her responsibilities until the time of her debasement with all the other elements of Roman society.