No other Roman contributed so much pedagogy to the world as Quintilian. He was born in Spain, but early moved to Rome, in order to be trained in the atmosphere of culture which that city alone afforded. His education was conducted by his father, a celebrated rhetorician, to whom he owed the particular direction of his powers which afterward made him so famous. He chose the law as a profession, because it offered the best opportunity for the exercise of oratory. Not finding the practice of law congenial, he soon abandoned it, and devoted his time to teaching. He founded a school at Rome, and conducted it with great success for twenty years, having for pupils children from the most distinguished patrician families. Among these were the grandnephews of Domitian, possible heirs to the throne. This was the best school in Rome at that time. Vespasian honored Quintilian by creating for him a chair of rhetoric and conferring upon him the title "Professor of Oratory." This is the first instance in history of State endowment of a chair for teaching a specific subject. Royal recognition was not without effect upon the fortunes of Quintilian, as it placed him in the front rank of the teachers of Rome. This, together with his subject, the teaching and mastery of which were considered by the Romans to be the climax of education, enabled him to wrest supremacy from the Greek teachers who so long had enjoyed a monopoly of teaching in the city.
When fifty-three years of age, Quintilian retired from his school, and devoted himself to authorship. In the first two books of his great work, "Institutes of Oratory,"[27] he sets forth his ideas on education. This is the most remarkable treatise on education bequeathed to us by antiquity.
He taught that as oratory was the climax of Roman education, especial attention should be given to it. He was not in sympathy with the prevailing use that was made of oratory. Oratorical contests were frequent, and they excited popular interest. Courts, lawyers, and public speakers resorted to all the tricks of speech to win popular favor, and audiences demanded something startling, dramatic, and unusual. Quintilian tried to stay this tide, and taught that oratory should conceal itself. He met, however, with poor success in reforming the evil.
Quintilian's Pedagogy.—His pedagogical teachings, some of which we present, are of the greatest importance.
1. There should be no corporal punishment, as punishment administered to slaves is not suitable for children who are to be citizens.
2. Nurses must be irreproachable in life and language, so that children be not brought in contact with anything impure.
3. Amusements should be turned to account as a means of education.
4. Teachers should be men of ability and of spotless character.
5. Children should begin early with a foreign tongue, as their own language will come to them naturally in their intercourse with those about them.
6. Education should begin with the earliest childhood.