Roman Education

General Education for the Romans was done in wealthy families by individual tutors, and for ordinary citizens, by tutors in schools consisting of a room at the back of a shop.
Higher Education was conducted in Schools of Rhetoric and Law.

The Roman School was not a separate building, but often a room next to, or in a shop, divided by a curtain.
Boys attended ‘school’ up to the age of 12 or 13. Girls did not attend school, but were taught at home.
Mathematics was taught by using an Abacus.
Writing was taught by using a stylus on a Wax Tablet
Discipline was severe and administered by caning.
School was 7 days a week. The schoolday started at sunrise and finished at sunset.
Schools were closed on Religious holidays and market days, which was every eighth day of the week. Schools were closed for the summer holidays.
There were no books, lessons were dictated and the children were expected to memorise their lessons.

Boys and Girls from wealthy families were taught at home by a private Tutor who would be a Greek Slave or freedman.
Between the ages of nine and twelve, boys would take up studies with a ‘Grammaticus’, who developed the skills of writing, speaking and analysing poetry.
The standard Textbook for the History of Rome was Annales by Ennius, an Epic Poem in Dactylic Hexameter. Under Augustus (27BCE-14 CE) it was replaced with the Aeneid by Virgil.
After the age of 14, studies changed from the ‘Grammaticus’ to the ‘Rhetor’. The Rhetor taught Rhetoric and how to train to become a Politician or Lawyer.
Girls were taught how to be a good wife, how to sew, cook, play music and maintain a household.
Boys could not marry before the age of 14. Girls were expected to marry at the age of 12.

Quintilian was a Roman Educator who set up his own school of Rhetoric in Rome.
He wrote the ‘Institutio Oratoria’ (c.95 CE), a work in 12 volumes on the Theory and Practice of Rhetoric.

After 12, older boys would go on to more advanced schools of Rhetoric or Law.
Here they would learn the art of Public Speaking and study the great Orators such as Cicero.
The Romans built schools specifically to study Law or Rhetoric, but not Philosophy, which was considered to be part of Greek Culture.
Romans who wished to study Philosophy had to go to Greece or Alexandria in Egypt.

Roman Medicine was taught in Greece and Roman Doctors were predominantly Greeks including the Father of Roman Medicine, Galen (c.129-210 CE).

The ‘Roman Room’ is a method of memorising a large quantity of information without writing anything down, by visualising objects in a room and associating them with the information to be memorised.
By recalling the objects, the information is recalled instantly, and is then easily reproduced.
Roman Orators could speak for hours without using notes.

The Romans kept various types of Books in both Private Libraries and Public Libraries.
The Seven Public Libraries of Rome were just a few of the Libraries of Ancient Rome.
Roman Libraries had books in both Latin and Greek.
Each Library had two Reading Rooms, one for books in Latin and one for books in Greek.
Throughout the Roman Period, the Great Library of Alexandria continued as a centre of academic excellence.