of the early emperors received a fixed salary of 250,000 sesterces, or about $10,500 per year, besides the income from their private practice, which was often very considerable. Q. Stertinius, the bodyphysician of the Emperor Claudius, reseived a salary of 500,000 sesterces, and then considered that he had made a great sacrifice in accepting the position, because he gave up a private practice that yielded him an annual income of 600,000 sesterces. These sums are large, and no doubt exceptional, and are so considered by Pliny,23 but they serve to give us an idea of the income of the chief physicians at Rome during the time of the early empire. The income of a leading advocate like Crassus, Hortensius, or Cicero, must have been vastly more than the salaries mentioned above, although Cicero boasted that he took nothing for his services as an advocate, and he did not assume a pro-consular government, the most certain mode of acquiring wealth at Rome,-until his return from exile. Still, we know that he invested vast sums in his numerous villas, in his magnificent library, consisting of rare and costly manuscripts purchased for him by his friend Atticus, regardless of expense, to say nothing of the sums that he loaned to friends and expended in luxury. Presents of enormous value must have been transmitted to him from distant kings and communities, who were desirous of securing the services of the foremost advocate of the times. To the rising politician the income of a pro-prætorean or pro-consular government was boundless wealth. The competition among the crowd of Greek schoolmasters who flocked to Rome, and into whose hands the work of instruction was chiefly given over, was too great to prevent a high standard of fees being maintained. It is no wonder that, under the circumstances, the master's temper often got the better of his discretion, and that he enforced his stern discipline with the rod. The severity of Orbilius and other schoolmasters was proverbial. It seems to have been the general practice to have acted on the precept of Plato, that "a boy is a ferocious animal." The rod was not spared for slight offences, for Plautus 24 tells us that if a boy missed a single letter in reading, he was soon black and blue all over,-" striped just like his nurse's cloak." Horace's recounts in his second epistle, in a most amusing manner, the severity of his old schoolmaster, and the floggings that the boys received while they were pouring over the verses of Livy Andronicus. Suetonius 26 informs us that Orbilius did not, like some schoolmasters, vent all his wrath on his pupils and exhibit a bland deportment to the rest of the world, but he attacked his rival teachers in the most bitter terms. Quintilian," the most famous 23 N. H. xxix. 5. 24 Bacchid iii. 3, 31. 25 ii. 1, 70. 25 Ill. Gram. c. 9. Inst. Orat. i. 3, 14. teacher of his time, made an earnest protest against the custom of flogging. A Pompeian picture represents a master flogging a boy who is hoisted on the shoulders of another, with a third holding him by the heels. Martial 28 mentions the railings of the master and the howlings of the pupils as one of the nuisances of city life. "Even before the crested cock had broken silence," says he, "the air resounds with the savage scoldings of the masters, the noise of floggings, and the cries of the children." "Not with louder noise," continues he, "does the metal resound on the struck anvil, nor is the noise greater in the large amphitheatre when the conquering gladiator is applauded by his partisans." These statements of Martial, of Juvenal, and of others, in regard to the severity of the master must not be overestimated. The cases mentioned by them were probably exceptional, and made prominent for satirical purposes, and do not probably imply any savage cruelty in the Roman schoolmaster above his modern prototype. Cicero,29 with rare exceptions, speaks kindly of the Roman schoolmaster as being learned, conscientious, and devoted to his work. In the time of the empire the number of schools 30 was multiplied, the work of instruction under such eminent teachers as Palæmon, Quintilian, Seneca, and Fronto was more thorough and systematic, and teaching became a regular profession, recognized as such by the State, and paid for out of the public treasury. The Romans, too, had learned to set a higher value on intellectual training. Even in the time of the Republic arms were no longer the only avenue to honor and glory; every noble Roman sought to win the favor of the people by figuring in some one of the great political trials that had become so common in consequence of the extortions of the provincial governors. During the later republic, then, every Roman who sought political preferment must, above all, be trained to be a public speaker. The home and foreign policy of the government demanded statesmen of enlightened views, and the day had long passed when a farmer could be taken from the plow and placed at the head of the State. No Roman could hope to arrive at political distinction without a thorough acquaintance with the Greek language and literature; even Cato himself, in his old age, had to succumb to the spirit of the times and learn Greek. The Romans themselves, when they became acquainted with the Greek language and literature, fully realized their own want of intellectual life and their own need of mental culture, and to meet this want Greek learning in all its forms was imported to Rome. With such eager zeal did the 28 xi. 68. 29 Ad. Att. vi. 1. 9; viii. 4. 80 Suet. Ill. Gr. c. 3; cf. Plut. Cicero. c. 2. Romans fling themselves on these newly-discovered treasures that Hellenic culture became no longer a mere stimulus, an accessory impulse as in former times, but it penetrated to the very heart of Roman life, and met spontaneously the craving there for a more advanced civilization. During the long period of good government that followed the accession of Augustus to power, the two literatures became amalgamated, and the two types of education, the Greek and the Roman, became thoroughly fused, and the ideal of the two systems was reached in the teachings of such men as Quintilian and Seneca. The three grades 3 already established in the time of the republic, embracing the elementary, the grammatical,33 and the rhetorical courses still continued. The methods of instruction had so improved that it was now possible for the pupil to hurry through the elementary course, and to enter at a much earlier age than formerly upon his grammatical and rhetorical studies. The education of young Romans of wealth and position was completed by a course in philosophy at Rome, or at Athens which was then the great university of the empire, or in some of the Greek cities of the East. Through a variety of influences Greek learning was no longer a mere stin.ulus, as in the days of the republic, but it had now penetrated to the very heart of Roman life, and created a lively,-in fact, an irresistible,— impulse to literary activity. The leading statesmen, even in the time of the republic, favored learned men. Fulvius Nobilior employed the poet Eunius to celebrate his achievements at Ambracia ; Scipio Emilianus, Loelius, and other members of "The Scipionic Circle," lived on intimate terms with Polybius and Panatius. Still, learned Romans and the "incorrigibly wretched pack" of Greeks were not held in high esteem solely on account of their literary ability. Cicero tells us that he treated his learned slave, Donysius, with more respect than Scipio treated Panatius; Ennius and Plautus. were ranked by the Roman aristocracy among the rabble. Julius Cæsar was the first who really patronized learned men at Rome; others, however, were not slow in following his example, - most of the emperors favored teachers, encouraging them by honorable dis 81 Flor. 20: Prima cratera literatoris ruditatem eximit, secunda grammatici doctrina instruit, tertia rhetoris loquentia armat. 82 Boys entered the elementary schools in the seventh year of their age.—Quintil. i. 1, 18. 8 Boys attended the schools of the grammarian and rhetoritician before assuming the toga virilis, or before the beginning of the seventeenth year, in early times (Liv. xxii. 57), and before the sixteenth in the time of the empire. There was no fixed age for assum. ing the toga virilis, but it depended upon the judicium patris. Cicero, Vergil, Persius, Augustus, and Marcus Aurelius assumed it at the end of the fifteenth year. Their education, however, was not completed; instruction continued as before. Cic. Brut. 89; cf. Ovid. Tr. iv. 29; et studium nobis, quod fuit ante, manet. tinctions and rewards, and often exempting them from public duties.34 Gellius 35 mentions a large number of grammarians who were raised to the senatorial rank. Quintilian, Seneca, Fronto, and Herodes Atticus were invested with the consular dignity and title. Pertinax, a schoolmaster, rose gradually to the highest offices of the State, until at last he mounted the throne.36 Nerva,37 Trajan,38 and Hadrian 39 established charity schools, which were cared for and extended by Antoninus Pius 4° (who founded a school for girls in honor of his wife, Faustina), and also by Marcus Aurelius" and Alexander Severus.42 The work of instruction was still left, for the most part, to private enterprise. It is true that Antoninus Pius 3 bestowed a fixed salary upon teachers of rhetoric and philosophy in the provinces, to be paid from the treasury of the town where the instruction was given. According to this emperor's arrangement five teachers of rhetoric and five of philosophy were assigned to the larger cities, four of each to the middle-sized, and three of each to the smaller towns. This number must have been far from adequate to meet the educational needs of cities like Ephesus and Smyrna, which were the largest and most populous in the empire, and hence the chief work of instruction there must still have been done by private schools. An inscription 45 found at Tritium Magellum, in Spain, mentions a grammarian who had been paid a salary from the city treasury as an unusual occurrence. There is no evidence that any schoolmaster at Rome (and Gellus mentions many grammarians who attained a good deal of distinction and esteem, and enjoyed the patronage and favor of the great) drew a salary for instruction from the imperial treasury until Hadrian 47 founded his Athenæum,48 and appointed a number of grammarians as professors, with a fixed salary. We have no means of knowing how much this salary was. We know that the grammarian was, in general, better paid than the elementary teacher had been; * Munera civilia seu publica: cf. Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6, 5. 85 iv. 1; x. 17; xiv. 5 and 10. 6 Jul. Copit. Pertin c. 1. 7. 37 Aurel. Vict. Ner. c. 12, §4. 88 Plin. Panegyr. c. 28. 40 Jul. Capit. Aut. P. ii. c. 8. 44 18 Jul. Capit. Ant. P. c. 11. 89 Ael. Spart. Hadr. c. 12 Ael. Lamprid c 57. 48 45 C. I. L. ii. 2892: L MELMIC · PROP CLVNENSI · GRAMMALICO · LATINo CVI RES TRTENSIVM·AN · HABEN · XXV · RAIAR CONTITVAE etc. 46 Grammatici, or literati, the elementary teacher was called in early times, ludimagister at a later time, literator, or grammatista. 47 Aur. Vict. Caes. 14. 48 This was by no means a university, according to the modern sense of the word. It was similar to the high schools of Holland. In the time of Theodosius II., there were three orators, ten grammarians, five sophists, one philosopher, two lawyers, or jurisconsults, employed as a staff of professors in the Athenaeum.—Theod. Cod. 14, 9, 1. his fees were paid annually at the end of the school-year 49 in March, and not monthly as was the case with the elementary teacher. Juvenal 50 mentions five gold pieces, or 500 sesterces, as the yearly honorarium of a grammarian for eight months' tuition. If we reckon thirty pupils, this would give the master an income of 15,000 ses terces, or about $800. From this sum the rent of the school-room and other expenses must be deducted. Some grammarians were much better paid. M. Verrius Flaccus," for example, who, at the request of Augustus, removed with his whole school to the Palatine, received a yearly salary of 100,000 sesterces 52 for instructing the grandsons of the emperor. Palamon,53 who stood high at Rome as a grammarian, derived an income of 40,000 sesterces from his school, and as much more from his private 54 fortune. Lucius Apuleius, a grammarian, was paid an annual salary of nearly 400,000 sesterces by a wealthy knight, who had taken him into his service 55 and employed. him in the same manner as Cato did his servant Chilo, the grammarian.56 Epaphroditus,57 a learned grammarian, who lived in Rome from the time of Nero to that of Nerva, and gave instruction there, owned at his death two houses in Rome, and a library of 30,000 volumes of valuable and rare books. Sometimes noted grammarians, like Citarius, obtained great wealth by marriage, or, like Marcellus of Narbo, was honored and acquired great wealth on account of the family connections of his wife.58 It is related of Antonius Gnipho,59 a good Greek and Latin scholar, and the teacher of some of the most eminent men at Rome, that he became rich, although he demanded no fixed remuneration for instruction, but left that to the liberality of his pupils. These, however, are exceptions; the large majority of schoolmasters, like Orbilius, Horace's teacher, the poet Valerius Cato, and a host of others, earned more honor than gold. "There is nothing," says Juvenal, "for which the father will not spend more money than for the education of his son." 61 In the time of the later empire the pay of the elementary teacher must have risen considerably. According to the edict of Diocletian, 49 Juv. vii. 228; Macr. i. 12; Juv. x 114, refers not to the payment for tuition, but to the entrance fee, the minerval, paid by each scholar. 52 The sesterce of the later republic and of the early empire was one-fourth of a denarius, or about four cents. 53 Suet. Ill. Gr. c. 23. A Plin. N. H. xiv. 48f. 55 Suet. Ill. Gr c. 3. Plut. Cat. Maj c. 20. 67 Suidas v. Επαφρόδιτος. 58 Aus. Prof. xiii. also xviii. 5. 69 Suet. Ill. Gr. c. 6. 60 Suet. Ill. Gr. c. 9 and 11. 61 vii. 187: Res nulla minoris constabit patri quam filius; nosse volunt omnes, merceden solvere nemo. 62 Mommsen, Edict Diocl. de pretiis rerum venalium (p. 21). Magistro institutori litterarum in singulis pueris menstruos denarios quinquaginta. |