Editing Roman Empire (section)

===Education===
{{Main|Education in ancient Rome}}
[[File:Roman school.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A teacher with two students, as a third arrives with his ''loculus'', a writing case{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=95}}]]
Traditional Roman education was moral and practical. Stories were meant to instil Roman values (''[[mos maiorum|mores maiorum]]''). Parents were expected to act as role models, and working parents passed their skills to their children, who might also enter apprenticeships.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=84–85}} Young children were attended by a [[Paedagogus (occupation)|pedagogue]], usually a Greek slave or former slave,{{Sfnp|Laes|2011|pp=113–116}} who kept the child safe, taught self-discipline and public behaviour, attended class and helped with tutoring.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=90, 92}}

Formal education was available only to families who could pay for it; lack of state support contributed to low literacy.<ref>{{Harvp|Laes|2011|p=108}}; {{Harvp|Peachin|2011|p=89}}.</ref> Primary education in reading, writing, and arithmetic might take place at home if parents hired or bought a teacher.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=87–89}} Other children attended "public" schools organized by a schoolmaster (''[[ludi magister|ludimagister]]'') paid by parents.{{Sfnp|Laes|2011|p=122}} ''Vernae'' (homeborn slave children) might share in-home or public schooling.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=90}} Boys and girls received primary education generally from ages 7 to 12, but classes were not segregated by grade or age.{{Sfnp|Laes|2011|pp=107–108, 132}} Most schools employed [[corporal punishment]].{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=93–94}} For the socially ambitious, education in Greek as well as Latin was necessary.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=89}} Schools became more numerous during the Empire, increasing educational opportunities.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=89}}

[[File:MANNapoli 124545 plato's academy mosaic (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Mosaic from Pompeii depicting the [[Academy of Plato]]]]
At the age of 14, upperclass males made their [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Rites of passage|rite of passage]] into adulthood, and began to learn leadership roles through mentoring from a senior family member or family friend.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=88, 106}} Higher education was provided by ''[[Grammarian (Greco-Roman)|grammatici]]'' or ''[[rhetor]]es''.{{Sfnp|Laes|2011|p=109}} The ''grammaticus'' or "grammarian" taught mainly Greek and Latin literature, with history, geography, philosophy or mathematics treated as explications of the text.{{Sfnp|Laes|2011|p=132}} With the rise of Augustus, contemporary Latin authors such as Virgil and Livy also became part of the curriculum.{{Sfnp|Potter|2009|pp=439, 442}} The ''rhetor'' was a teacher of oratory or public speaking. The art of speaking (''ars dicendi'') was highly prized, and ''eloquentia'' ("speaking ability, eloquence") was considered the "glue" of civilized society.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=102–103, 105}} Rhetoric was not so much a body of knowledge (though it required a command of the [[literary canon]]{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=104–105}}) as it was a mode of expression that distinguished those who held social power.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|pp=103, 106}} The ancient model of rhetorical training—"restraint, coolness under pressure, modesty, and good humour"{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=110}}—endured into the 18th century as a Western educational ideal.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=107}}

In Latin, ''illiteratus'' could mean both "unable to read and write" and "lacking in cultural awareness or sophistication".{{Sfnp|Harris|1989|p=5}} Higher education promoted career advancement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saller |first=R. P. |date=2012 |title=Promotion and Patronage in Equestrian Careers |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |volume=70 |doi=10.2307/299555 |pages=44–63 |jstor=299555 |s2cid=163530509}}</ref> Urban elites throughout the Empire shared a literary culture imbued with Greek educational ideals (''[[paideia]]'').{{Sfnp|Potter|2009|p=598}} Hellenistic cities sponsored schools of higher learning to express cultural achievement.{{Sfnp|Laes|2011|pp=109–110}} Young Roman men often went abroad to study rhetoric and philosophy, mostly to Athens. The curriculum in the East was more likely to include music and physical training.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=88}} On the Hellenistic model, Vespasian [[endowed chair]]s of grammar, Latin and Greek rhetoric, and philosophy at Rome, and gave secondary teachers special exemptions from taxes and legal penalties.<ref>{{Harvp|Laes|2011|p=110}}; {{Harvp|Gagarin|2010|p=19}}.</ref> In the Eastern Empire, [[Berytus]] (present-day [[Beirut]]) was unusual in offering a Latin education, and became famous for its [[Law School of Beirut|school of Roman law]].{{Sfnp|Gagarin|2010|p=18}} The cultural movement known as the [[Second Sophistic]] (1st–3rd century AD) promoted the assimilation of Greek and Roman social, educational, and esthetic values.<ref>The wide-ranging 21st-century scholarship on the Second Sophistic includes {{Cite book |last=Goldhill |first=Simon |title=Being Greek under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |editor-link=Simon Goldhill}}; {{Cite book |title=Paideia: The World of the Second Sophistic |editor-first=Barbara E. |editor-last=Borg |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2004}}; {{Cite book |first=Tim |last=Whitmarsh |title=The Second Sophistic |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2005}}</ref>

Literate women ranged from cultured aristocrats to girls trained to be [[calligrapher]]s and [[scribe]]s.<ref name="h122">{{Cite book |last=Habinek |first=Thomas N. |title=The Politics of Latin Literature: Writing, Identity, and Empire in Ancient Rome |date=1998 |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=122–123 |author-link=Thomas Habinek}}</ref>{{Sfnp|Rawson|2003|p=80}} The ideal woman in Augustan love poetry was educated and well-versed in the arts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=James |first=Sharon L. |title=Learned Girls and Male Persuasion: Gender and Reading in Roman Love Elegy |date=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=21–25}}; {{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=W.R. |chapter=Propertius |date=2012 |title=A Companion to Roman Love Elegy |publisher=Blackwell |pages=42–43}}; {{Cite book |first=Sharon L. |last=James |chapter=Elegy and New Comedy |page=262 |title=A Companion to Roman Love Elegy |publisher=Blackwell |date=2012}}</ref> Education seems to have been standard for daughters of the senatorial and equestrian orders.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=90}} An educated wife was an asset for the socially ambitious household.<ref name=h122/>