QUESTIONS

• Read Shelton’s "The Roman Ideal: A Traditional Education" on pp. 100-01. Describe briefly education in early Rome.

• Read carefully the selection from Plutarch’s Life of Marcus Cato (134). You have read this passage earlier in the term when we did this Life. Cato the Elder gave his son this traditional Roman education. Describe briefly the intellectual, physical and moral content of this education (134). Why did Cato refuse to entrust his son’s education to a slave (134)? It should be noted that the name of his slave (Chilon) is Greek.

• What point is Quintilian making when he uses Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, as an example (135)? What does Quintilian require of the paedagogue (135)? What danger does Quintilian warn against in the education of young children (135)?

• Why were there so many educated slaves who could serve as teachers (see footnote #12 on p. 102)? Read carefully Shelton’s "Orbilius, the Schoolteacher" on p. 103. Describe briefly the three different levels of Roman education. Note carefully the different kinds of education provided by a magister or litterator, grammaticus, and rhetor outlined in this introduction. What was Orbilius’s financial status (137)? What was he most famous for as a teacher (137)?

• Read carefully Shelton’s "A Schoolteacher’s Hours" on p. 104. Describe the typical Roman school. Note that, although Martial mentions girls along with boys at a school (139), not that many girls attended school for various reasons (see footnote #28 on p. 105). Why is Martial so annoyed with the schoolteacher in his neighborhood (139)? What does Juvenal say is bad about being a schoolteacher (grammaticus) (140)?

• What incentives did teachers use to encourage students to learn (141-42)? What problem does Pliny the Younger learn about in his hometown of Comum (143)? What offer does he make to help solve the problem (143)? "A Letter Home" gives evidence of the age-old problem of students at a school far from home (144).

• Read Shelton's "The Litterator: A Day in the Life of a Schoolboy" on p. 108 and selection 145 for important evidence about the experience of being a schoolboy in the ancient Roman world. On what did Roman students write and why wasn’t papyrus used (see footnote #56 on p. 109)? What typical method of learning was employed (read "Morals and Memorization" on pp. 109-110)? Why was this method used instead of others (see footnote #54 on p. 109)? What level of education was attained by the average Roman (148)? Read carefully Shelton’s "Apprenticeship to a Weaver" on pp. 111. For what kind of life did education prepare an upper-class boy? an upper-class girl? What kind of training would a lower-class receive after being taught briefly by a litterator? Describe in general terms the contract between Pausiris and Apollonius (149). Note the kind of careers which students of the lower classes could look forward to (150-51).

• What are the two main subjects taught by the grammaticus (152)? For what purpose does the grammaticus teach music, astronomy, and philosophy (152)? For what future career does the grammaticus lay the foundation (152)?

• Read Shelton’s "The Good Old Days" on p. 114. Briefly describe the difference between the training of an orator in Cato the Elder’s day and in Cicero’s lifetime. What does Tacitus like about the older way of training an orator (153)? Read carefully Shelton’s "Classroom Exercises" on p. 115. What is the difference between a suasoria and a controversia? For what did a suasoria prepare a student? a controversia? Note the examples of both kinds of exercises in selections from Seneca the Elder (154-55). What criticism does Tacitus make of these exercises (157; see also Shelton’s "Criticism of the Rhetor’s Exercises" on pp. 117-118

• Write two paragraphs on Quintilian’s criticism of the "new style’ of oratory (158). Describe briefly what Cicero requires of the orator in the way of content and delivery (159). Read Shelton’s "Studying in Athens" on p. 120. Where did many upper-class Roman young men go for advanced study? What did they study? Write a paragraph describing the education that the younger Cicero mentions in his letter to his father (160)

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