in the new. The history of the Romans on the other hand in all that concerns the development of the schools of higher intellect is scarcely distinct enough to form even an episode in that of the Greeks. The educational method of the more primitive periods of the republic, though strongly impressed with the masculine simplicity and noble moral nature of the people,' bears eloquent testimony to that peculiar inaptitude for speculation which rendered the Romans, with all their propensity to grave and lofty sentiment, unable to receive, much less advance that highest mental culture which so essentially springs from the creative contemplation of the eternal. 27. One of the very few who appear to have theorized at all on this subject was shrewd old Cato,' who, sturdy and stubborn a specimen as he was of the genuine old Roman breed in the utmost intensity of its strongly marked peculiarities, seems nevertheless, here as elsewhere, to have been borne by the sheer force of a prodigious understanding so far beyond the narrowminded limits of his day and generation. The mode of education which prevailed throughout the best ages of the republic has been set forth in the well known and classic passage of the dialogus de oratoribus commonly attributed to Tacitus. The youth after having completed certain courses of preliminary instruction was at the approach of manhood introduced to one of the eminent public men of the day, to whose person he continued attached for a suitable period in the capacity of an assistant and companion. In thus enabling him to become insensibly, and according to the advancing measure of his strength and capacity more and more a co-agent in the grandest and most stirring political existence the world has ever seen, where cases like the impeachment of Warren Hastings were of almost constant occurrence, it is easy to perceive what an incomparable training to a life of action and energy would of necessity be furnished. 28. Such a practice was of course only adapted to the most virtuous and glorious periods of the commonwealth, when the general grandeur and moral elevation of the times supplied its evident deficiency in the scientific and universally humanizing elements of higher education. In the hideous disorder and crime which finally rendered the republic insupportable, when the rapine and carnage of the proscriptions were succeeded by the scandalous excesses of the rabble 1. Most justly described by Horace as natura sublimis et acer, Et spirans tragicum satis, et feliciter audens. Polybius in the same manner speaks of a certain magnanimous hardihood of design ( rò μeyaλοψυχον καὶ παράβολον as a distinctively characteristic trait of the Romans, 2. See Nonius and Festus in Ellendt's Historia Eloquentiae Romanae, p. 21. Compare also Macrobius II1. 6. in Jo. Alb. Fabr. Bibl. Lat. T. I. Lib. I. c. 2. under Clodius, and the high handed violence of Caesar, the tone of public life, and the character of public men were alike abhorrent to the spirit and purpose with which the custom had been originally instituted. 29. A single exception is mentioned as having then existed, and that probably the most signal and illustrious instance ever furnished of the admirable effects which were meant to flow from so wisely conceived and sagaciously practical a mode of educational influence. Few circumstances in the life of Cicero are calculated to give a stronger impression of the atmosphere of noble and lofty thought which he spread around him than the remarkably enlivening power of his personal intercourse upon generous youthful minds.' The number of high-born and thoughtful Roman youths whom he attracted around him, and inspired with the loftiest principles of individual and public duty is said to have given Cicero a mighty power in the state at the very time when to all outward appearance his political authority was most completely annihilated." 30. A remarkable feature in the earlier form of Roman education consisted in the practice, mentioned by Valerius Maximus' and Cicero, of sending young patricians into Etruria fer the purpose of completing their studies. This is no doubt rightly interpreted by Ellendt' as originating in the extent to which the ceremonies, legal fictions and forms of the Roman state were regulated in accordance with the Etruscan system of divination. ATHENAEUM OF ROME-UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS." 31. Although the principle of University study made little progress if it did not actually retrograde, under the dominion of Rome, the external existence of academic institutions was then established with a degree of solidity and permanence which has exercised the most important influence upon the destinies of the future civilization of mankind. The emperors from Augustus downwards recognized the entire system of educational institutions as an integral element in the organism of the state. Existing schools in Rome and throughout the provinces received the imperial patronage and support, new institutions of the same kind were founded, and professional chairs (póvo) 1. The correspondence of Cicero abounds in evidences of this most interesting feature in his character. Compare, as instances taken almost at random, Ep. ad Fam. II, 4 and 5. 2. Αφέμενος τοῦ τὰ κοινὰ πράττειν ἐσψόλαζε τοὶς βουλομένοις φιλοσοφεῖν τῶν νεῶν, καὶ σχεδὸν ἐκ τῆς πρὸς τούτους συνηθείας εὐγενεστατους καὶ πρώτους ὄντας αὖθις ἴσχυαν ἐν τῇ módel μÉYLOTOV. Plut. vit. Cic. p. 483. 3. De Relig. I. 1. Cic. de Divinat. II. 23. quoted by Lips. ad. Tac. Ann. XI. 15. 4. Hist. Eloquent. Rom. p. 75. sqq. either created, or, if already existing, perpetuated by means of endowments. Vespasian, Hadrian, both the Antonines, Marcus Aurelius, and Severus, in a word, all the most virtuous, and not a few of even the most sanguinary and atrocious amongst the Caesars' vied with each other in endeavoring to promote the interests of learning in all its various forms throughout the Empire. It is of course only to those who were most preeminently distinguished as the patrons and benefactors of the highest erudition that we can at present briefly allude. Vespasian, (A. D. 69–79) himself an admirer and connoisseur of Greek literature, led the way in the appointment of professors of both languages, who in addition to the immunities and honors granted by former Emperors were paid an annual salary from the imperial fisc. Among the eminent scholars thus formally taken into the service of the state was the celebrated Quinctilian who held the professorship of eloquence for a period of twenty years with an income of 100,000 sesterces, or about 700 pounds, per annum.3 Under Hadrian (A. D. 117-138) along with the same princely munificence in the endowment of separate professional chairs, we behold a decided step towards form and combination in the means and aids to higher instruction such as previously, it would seem, was unattempted at Rome. The rhetoricians and men of letters who had hitherto taught in virtue of public appointment to their respective offices (publice docendis juvenibus magistri), instead of giving instruction in separate schools as formerly, were gathered into a collective body known as the Athenaeum, which held its sittings on the capital, and appears like the Museum of Alexandria, to have united in a great measure the functions of a modern academy of sciences with those of a higher school. Separate lecture rooms (loca specialiter deputata) were assigned to each instructor, who was henceforward not permitted to teach in private. The age of Marcus Aurelius (A. D. 161-180) is distinguished by the complete endowment of what may now indisputably be called the University of Athens. The professors of the schools of this city seem under this emperer first to have received annual salaries from the government, though chairs of Political science, Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Sophistry had probably been in existence 1. e. g. Domitian. See Niebuhr Vorles. über alte Gesch. III. p. 209. Sueton. vit. Dom. c. 4. 20. Compare on the other hand Tac. vit. Agric. c. 2. 2. Ingenia et artes vel maxime fovit. primus enim e fisco Latinis Graecisque rhetoribus annua centena constituit. ctt Sueton. vit. Vesp. c. 18 Gräfenhahn Gesch. der Cl. Philol. III. p. 29. 2. Gräfenhahn Gesch. der class. Philol. IV. p. 32. Twenty years appears to have been the term of service for public officials of this class, after which they were entitled to retire with a pension. Cresoll. Theatr. Rhet. I. 8. 4. Gräfenhahn Gesch. der. class. Phil. IV. p. 32. Bernhardy Gr. der Römischen Litt. p. 86. 5. Bulaeus Hist. Univ. Par. I. p. 68. for some time previously. The number of regular professorships amounted to ten, of which two were assigned to Rhetoric, and as many to each of the philosophical sects as supposed to be represented by the Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics and Epicureans.' A certain preeminence appears to have been conceded to the teachers of Platonic philosophy. The chair of this subject was designated as o Spóvos par excellence, and its teachers are all along described as being preeminently the diadoxo. This office, together with lectureships on Grammar and criticism, was held by the celebrated Longinus.3 32. The appointment to these offices was naturally vested in the highest instance with the Emperor, though they appear generally to have been bestowed in accordance with the recommendation of the University and the town. In a decree of Julian cited by Bernhardy,* the electoral bodies are specified as consisting of the Ordo, or philosophic sect, the Curiales, or municipal senate, and the Optimi, timocratic ecclesia, established according to Roman usage in the provinces," with an ultimate reference to the emperor. In the case of the philosophic professorships the initiative, and most decisive stage of the process was doubtless that entrusted to the first of these associations. Photius' accordingly speaks of Isidore as at once appointed to the Platonic chair by the ψήφισμα τῆς διαδοχής. Nor does the influence of the University in the bestowal of rhetorical professorships appear to have been greatly inferior. Gregory of Nazianzus when desirous 1. See Lucian Eun. § 3. Such is the view adopted by Ahrens (de Athenarum statu, p. 70. as quoted by Gräfenhahn Gesch. der class. Philol. III. p. 29,) in which he is opposed by Bernhardy Gr. der Gesch. der Gr. Litt. p. 413, and Zumpt (über den Bestand der philosoph. Schul. in Athen. p. 26.) The latter himself however admits that Lucian speaks of the death of one of the two Peripatetics who held offices of this nature in Athens, (ἀποθανεῖν τῶν Περιπατητικών Tóv Tepov) and it is not easy to discover any reason why a larger number of appointments shou'd have been bestowed upon this sect in particular. 2. Wyttenbach ad Eunap., p. 44. The Academics were also designated as ǹ oxoλý. (Suidas s. Πλούταρχος et Πρόκλος.) The students of the Academus seem all along to have been regarded as quite the Christ churchmen of the Athenian University. They are reproached with excessive "bumptiousness" (rūdos), and with puppyism as exhibited in matters of dress and external deportment. Ephippus (Nauag. Meinecke Fragm. Com. III. p. 332,) thus describes one of the philosophic exquisites of the day. εὖ μὲν μαχαίρα ξύστ ̓ ἔχων τριχώματα, See also a similar passage in the Antaeus of Antiphanes (Meinecke Fr. Com. III. p. 17.) 3. Wyttenbach ad Eunap., p. 28. 4. Grundriss der Geschichte der Gr. Litt., p. 415. The same mode of election existed. at Rome also. See Cresoll. Theatr. Rhet. IV. I. 5. Hermann Gr. Alterthümer. 7. Biblioth. Cod. 242. of departing fromthens was detained almost by main force on the part of his admirers (ȧmpik karɛīɣov). Masters and scholars are described as directly offering him the gift of a professional chair (ws δὴ λόγων δώσοντες ἐκ ψήφου κράτος). 33. In every such election, whether of sophists or philosophers, a formal examination (doriparia) was held before the most important and influential inhabitants, on which occasion the different candidates gave a public specimen of their ability, and at the same time underwent a scrutiny into their moral character. The amount of income enjoyed by each of the above mentioned principal professors is stated by Lucian at ten thousand drachmae, or about £400 a year. Philostratus however speaks of the sophist Apollonius as receiving a talent annually while occupying the chair of political oratory.3. Tatian on the other hand speaks of the payment of the leading appointments as amounting to twelve thousand drachmae per annum, a statement considered by commentators as in all probability more strictly correct than the sum mentioned in round numbers by Lucian.' 34. The solid nucleus formed by the ten endowed professorships seems gradually to have collected around it a multitude of philosophers and academic teachers of every description. At a later period Himerius speaks of parents who had accompanied their sons to Athens as perfectly bewildered by the number of sophists in that city. Many of these were no doubt attached to the University in the capacity of assistants to the occupants of the principal chairs, a class of teachers who are found in existence at the earliest period of academic history," while the majority, it may be conjectured, held a position not unlike that of the professores extraordinarii and privatim docentes of continental Universities at the present day. In the case of the Sophists a broad line of distinction is throughout observable between the junior instructors and those holding the salaried appointments of the University. The latter gloried in the high sounding titles of δυνατώτεροι, λόγων τύραννοι, μείζους, μεγαλόμισθοι, δημοτελεῖς, 1. Philostr. II. pp. 566. 567. Morell. Luc. Eun. p. 352. Hemsterhus. Wyttenbach ad Eunap. p. 79. 2. Vit. Sophist. II. p. 597. Morell. 3. Zumpt supposes that the modurikòs Opóvos is to be understood of a chair the appointment to which vested with the town, as opposed to the Baridiròs Opóvos, which was in the gift of the Crown. See über den Bestand der philosoph. Schulen in Athen. p. 25. Anm. 3.) The arguments adduced in favor of this opinion do not, however, appear very convincing. 4. See Lucian Eunuch. p. 352. Hemster. Cresoll. Theatr. Rhet., II. 3. 5. Orat. XXXIII. § 2. 6. Zumpt über den Bestand der philosoph. Schulen in Athen, p. 6. Bernhardy Gr. der Gr. Litt. I, p. 415. 7. See Lucian Rhet. Praecept. quoted in Cresoll. IV. II. Baσideùs ér rois dóyois, rà réßpinna ἐλαύνων τοῦ λόγου. |