Chapter X · THE CHILD IN ROME (continued 2)

The Spectacles.

The public games, or Spectacles, were the greatest amusements the Roman people had. Originating in early times as religious celebrations, they became so fixed as to make them a public necessity, a means of keeping the mass of the people busy so as to keep their attention away from affairs of state. As it became a duty of the government to provide grain free or at a nominal cost, so it became its duty to furnish free entertainment for the masses. These games were provided by the officials and made free to the public. There were four phases of the spectacles. Horse and chariot races were held in the circus, gladiatorial fights and fights with animals and also sea fights in the amphitheater, scenic representations in the theater, and athletic and musical contests in the stadium.

The Circus Maximus was located in Rome in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. It was of an oblong circular form, about a mile in circumference, and seated 150,000 or more people. Among the displays were exploits on horseback, such as leaping from horse to horse while running, picking up things from the ground with the horse in full gallop, and the like. Young men in full armor gave mock-fights, and sometimes there would be military drills, and again boys from senatorial families and young princes went through cavalry exercises in glittering armor. The greatest displays of all were the chariot races. Factions arose with their colors, at first but two with white and red, and then four with white, red, blue, green, and later gold and purple were added but soon dropped out, leaving the four factions and colors. Heavy bets were made by the factions and there were fierce contests and often fights between them. Sometimes two chariots raced, usually four, and again at times six, and there were two or four horses to each chariot, rarely three. The victor in the race was crowned and received a cash prize and his was greeted with great applause.

The amphitheater was an elliptical building with an arena in the center and with tiers of seats leading up all around. The Coliseum at Rome was the greatest of all, being computed to have contained 87,000 seats. In the amphitheater were held the gladiatorial fights. Just how these originated is unknown but the first public exhibition of gladiators at Rome was given in 264 B. C., by the brothers Marcus and Decimus Brutus at their father's funeral. Such continued at funerals and then they were given at other times, the number of days and number of fighters gradually increasing, till Trajan, upon his return after a victorious campaign on the Danube, gave gladiatorial games for 123 days, in which 10,000 fighters took part. The gladiators were captives, slaves, and criminals, and under the empire knights and senators and even women were enrolled among them. There were schools for the training of gladiators. Emperors, senators, and all classes of people attended these fights and although women at first were excluded, later they were admitted freely. The gladiators wore helmets and had leather coverings for their legs and they carried shields. Their weapons were the lance, dagger, sword, and rapier. There were others who used the trident and the net for entangling their opponents. They were usually matched by pairs and when one was overcome his life depended upon the people, who would turn down their thumbs for his life to be spared and upon the turning up of their thumbs the wounded gladiator was slain by his opponent. The victor received a palm crown, sometimes money, and he might be given his freedom.

"These gladiatorial exhibitions proclaim the true nature of the Roman character. When the vestal virgin, the Roman matron, and the young lady could find amusement in such scenes of human slaughter, it can certainly surprise no one that the Roman character, in its constituent elements, possessed so much hardihood, and could remain such firm proof against every tender feeling of humanity. The school of blood in which the young were reared, and the old matured, was eminently calculated to form precisely the character which the Roman possessed. It is thus that the manners and customs of a people are influenced by, and in their turn, influence the character from which they originate."197

Another great amusement of the Romans was the venatio, or exhibit of wild animals. The first known display of wild animals at Rome was given by Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, the conqueror of Ætolia, in 186 B. C., eighty years after the first gladiatorial exhibit. These displays grew until all parts of the world were searched to find animals. There were bears, elephants, deer, hares, stags, boars, bulls, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, lynxes, apes, giraffes, tigers, ostriches, hyenas. They were made to fight with one another. They were starved to make them fierce with hunger and then driven into the arena against one another with whips, pricked with lances, burnt with hot irons, and in other ways tormented to make them extremely angry. There were also fights between men and beasts. These were often captives and criminals compelled to fight, but there were others, bestiarii, who were trained, as the gladiators, in schools to fight against animals. These men sometimes were assisted by dogs trained to hunt and to fight wild animals. In some exhibits, captives and criminals were bound to stakes and animals set upon them or they were sent unarmed or poorly armed against the wild animals. There were, too, exhibits of trained animals and animal-training became a regular profession under Augustus.

Another form of the spectacle for the entertainment of the Roman public was the naumachia, or naval battle. As in the other contests, usually the combatants were captives and criminals. These were held in the amphitheater, in which case the arena was flooded with water, or great ponds were dug for the purpose. The first naval battle on a large scale was given by Julius Cæsar in 46 B. C., the two sides having biremes, triremes, and quadriremes, with 1,000 marines and 2,000 oarsmen on each side. Claudius in 52 A. D. gave a naval contest in which there were 100 triremes and quadriremes and 19,000 warriors and oarsmen. Other large naumachiæ were produced by Augustus, Nero, Titus, and Domitian. In these conflicts real fighting took place and large numbers were killed.

There were no theatrical entertainments in the early times of Rome. In 364 B. C., during a plague which could not be stopped, to appease the wrath of the gods scenic performances were first introduced into Rome. Actors from Etruria were brought to Rome, who gave mimic dances to the accompaniment of a flute. For a long time there were no theaters erected at Rome, a temporary wooden stage being erected for the occasion. Later wooden theaters were built and then torn down after the performances were over, being used but one time. The first stone theater was built on the Campus Martius in 55 B. C. by Pompey, and which was large enough to hold 40,000 people. Comedies, tragedies, and pantomimes were given. Tragedy was never popular with the masses as they were too much used to seeing real tragedies enacted in the arena for any great impression to be made upon them by the imitations of the stage. Pantomime attained to the most significance of all performances upon the Roman stage and especially under the empire. The professional actors were mostly slaves and freedmen or natives of other countries, as there was a prejudice against the profession in Rome. Noted actors were paid high fees for their performances. Many of the most famous actors belonged to the imperial households.

The last of the great spectacles were the athletic, literary and musical contests. These contests were not common under the republic but they grew on the people till they became popular under the empire. Athletic contests were first introduced into Rome at the same time as the exhibit of wild animals and by the same person, in 186 B. C., by Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who brought athletes from Greece for the purpose. These contests continued to be given and they increased in popularity till a stadium for them was built in 28 B. C. on the Campus Martius and the demand from the people became so great that the officials who provided the state games included athletic contests with the other games. The Capitoline Agon was instituted by Domitian in 86 A. D., and it took rank with the Olympian. For these contests he built a stadium large enough to accommodate 30,000 or more spectators. There were contests in oratory and poetry, in music, and in athletics. The oratorical contests ceased in later times, but those in poetry increased in importance and the most talented poets in the empire competed for the prize of oak-wreath, bestowed by the emperor upon the winner after the decision of the judges. The gymnastic contests for men and boys were the same as in Greece. The Spartan custom of races for girls was introduced but soon discontinued because of the feeling against it.

Other Amusements.

Among the sports of the Romans was that of hunting. They kept parks for this purpose and they also hunted in fields and forests. They used dogs in hunting and they were trained for hunting various kinds of animals, as, the lion, the bear, the stag, the hare, and the like. Boar-hunting was one of their most common pastimes. They had hawks and other birds of prey trained for hunting. Fishing was another sport and they made use of rod and line and net. In winter when the water was frozen over they would cut holes through the ice for fishing. They had large fish-ponds on their country estates.

Walking was used as a means of exercise and as a pastime. This was done in the open air and also there were covered walks built at different places and in particular about the Campus Martius and the Forum. There were also places provided for horseback riding and for pleasure driving in vehicles.

There was a game similar to chess in which the chess men were glass, ivory or metal colored. Dice were in great use and gambling with dice prospered in spite of laws against it. Under the empire there arose an entertainment similar to a lottery, in which tickets were distributed free to the guests or sold to them and a drawing was made for the prizes. At their banquets and elsewhere the guests were entertained with musicians, mimics, dancers, jugglers, acrobats, rope-dancers, and other kinds of performers.

The Bath.

The Romans in early times took their baths in the Tiber. Later, the

lavatrina

, or washhouse, connected with the kitchen by a heating apparatus, served as a bathroom. In those days they bathed only for health and cleanliness. Under the empire, bathing became a fashion and it was carried to excess. When the supply of water became abundant by means of the aqueducts, baths multiplied rapidly and public baths were established. The public baths were at first arranged for and used only by the common people, but their importance grew gradually until all classes used the public baths and they were enlarged and beautified and different kinds of baths provided, as, hot, tepid, cold, and shower. The usual time for the bath was in the afternoon shortly before the evening meal. It also became the custom to take a bath after the meal and then the number was often increased till the bath was taken seven or more times during the day and evening.

The thermæ, baths, at Rome, under the empire, covered large spaces, with magnificent structures adorned with paintings and sculptures, the walls lined inside with marble, with marble columns, and silver mouthpieces for the water pipes. There were rooms not only for bathing, but also large halls for swimming, and rooms for places of meeting for conversation, for listening to the reading of poems by their authors, for gymnastic exercises, and the like, and provided with libraries and museums. Thus these thermæ became centers for gatherings of various kinds and places of amusement.

Games and Plays.

Children in Rome played a great deal, just as do children everywhere. They had their dolls and hobby-horses and toy-houses. They played with carts and used them very much as the children of the present. They skipped stones and walked upon stilts and spun tops. They used nuts for playing a number of games, one being called

ludus castellorum

, in which three nuts were to be so arranged that a fourth nut could be placed upon them without displacing them, the winner receiving all the four nuts. They played

par impar

, odd or even. The boys and even sometimes the young men would roll a large iron hoop, which had iron or brass rings fastened around it and kept up quite a clatter while the hoop was rolling. Some of these hoops were five or six feet in diameter and required quite a little skill to roll them, being rolled and guided by means of an iron rod.

Ball was a game especially liked by the boys and young men of Rome. There were three kinds of balls used—a large hollow ball, a small hollow ball, and a ball stuffed with feathers. At the country villas about Rome there was usually a place for ball-playing. The boys used the streets and squares of Rome for ball-playing, particularly before the butchers' shops in the Forum Romanum. They played ball alone or with a few or with many. In one game the ball was thrown up into the air and all tried to catch it. The trigon, or pila trigonalis, was a favorite way of playing ball, the players being placed in a triangle and they were to fling the ball at one another, the one failing to catch it and return it being the loser. There was a game in which they would choose sides and have the ground marked out as for lawn-tennis.

Religion.

The Romans were of a deeply religious nature even down into the times of the empire. Religion entered into the life of the Romans in a practical way and touched upon the civic duties and social relations, as the events of life were held to be of a sacred nature. The Roman life was closely connected with religion, as every activity of life was presided over by a deity, whom it was necessary to worship properly in order that the activity might prove successful.

The child came in contact with religion at his very earliest life in the home in the worship of the household gods, the Penates and Lares, the former being the gods of the hearth, who guarded the stores and provisions of the family, and the latter were the spirits of departed ancestors, who were the protectors of the family. In the atrium was the image of the chief lar between two penates, to whom were offered sacrifices each morning by the father as priest, and birthdays and marriages and the putting on of the toga virilis by the boy and the return of a member of the family after a long absence were occasions of special religious exercises. The young people, too, were led further into religion as the gens and the state carried on similar sacrifices and ceremonies for the common good, for the state had its common hearth, presided over by the Vestal Virgins, who guarded the sacred fire upon the altar, which symbolized the home.

Vestal Virgins.

In Rome was a worship in which was preserved a common hearth, having always burning on it the domestic fire of the whole nation. This was in the temple of Vesta, the goddess of the home. The goddess being herself a virgin, it was considered necessary that this fire should be cared for by virgins.

This temple of Vesta went through a purification on June first of each year and a renewal of the fire was made on March first. In case the fire went out it was kindled again by the rubbing together of two pieces of "lucky wood," thus producing a fire, and in later times by use of a concave mirror to focus the sun's rays. This was the most sacred of all worship at Rome and the letting this fire go out was considered a great evil, as this was emblematic of the state and its extinction meant the extinction of the nation, hence the Virgin who, through carelessness or negligence, permitted this was severely scourged in the dark by the pontifex.

There were six Vestal Virgins. When chosen, the girl was not to be younger than six nor older than ten; she was to be the daughter of freeborn parents, alive at the time of her selection and residing in Italy, and not engaged in any dishonorable calling; she was to be free from mental and physical defects.

At the time of the admission of a Vestal, her hair was cut off, and a very solemn ceremony was gone through with, after which she was dressed in white and admitted to the work of the Virgins. It appears that her hair was allowed to grow again and to be worn long. Her dress was always white and she wore round her forehead a broad band which had ribbons fastened to it. In processions and at sacrifices she wore a white veil, buckled under the chin.

The term of service was thirty years, the Vestal being a novice during the first ten years, an active priestess the second ten, and a teacher of novices the remaining period. At the end of the term of service of thirty years, the vestal could go back to her family and even get married, but most of them remained in the service of the goddess.

The Virgins had four important duties to perform: (1) Tending the sacred fires; (2) Bringing water daily from the sacred spring, for ceremonial sprinkling and sweeping; (3) Offering sacrifices of salt and cakes, and pouring libations of wine and oil on the sacred fire; (4) Guarding the seven sacred objects on which the stability of Roman power was supposed to stand, the chief of these being the Palladium.

The Vestals were very jealously guarded. Death was inflicted on any one committing an offense against one of them. No man was allowed to go near the temple of Vesta at night nor at any time permitted to enter the dwelling of these Virgins. If a breach of chastity occurred on the part of one of them, she was severely punished by being cruelly beaten and then buried alive. The one sharing her disgrace met a violent death. Twelve Vestals were so punished.

The privileges of a Vestal were very great. She was entirely free from the control of her parents; she could make a will; could give evidence without taking an oath; had the seat of honor at banquets and games; one who was convicted of a crime, if he accidentally met her, was given his liberty. She was treated with the utmost respect and reverence; a consul meeting her on the street, always made way for her; and all the people gave great homage to her. In all the troublesome times between patricians and plebeians neither party disturbed the Vestal Virgins but on the contrary greatly respected them.

Education.

As long as Rome was in its full strength, education was wholly of a practical nature, its aim being to prepare its young that in manhood they might be of most service to the state. It was more of the Spartan idea than the Athenian, but unlike Sparta the Roman state did not undertake the education of the young but left that wholly to the home, and it was not till the time of the empire that education was taken up by the state, for before that time the state did not even assist in education, let alone control it. Although the state did not concern itself with education, yet love of country and obedience to its laws were so instilled into the minds of the young that no other nation has ever got its citizens to quite so high a pitch of patriotism as the Roman people reached under the republic. As conquest grew and wealth increased under the empire, the Romans came more and more under the influence of Greece until Greek methods and models and ideals dominated Roman education.

In the early times of Rome there were probably no public schools, education being wholly in the hands of the parents. The early years of the child were under the mother, and he received his training from her. These early years of the child could not have been passed better than under the care and training of the old Roman mother, for she was a woman of purity and dignity and industry, qualities fitted for the training of the child's younger years. As the boy grew older he would be permitted to be in the atrium of a morning when his father received his clients and so the boy would receive training in custom and law as he would hear the counsel given by his father to the clients. The boy would also gain much from the discussions of the men at the banquets and other gatherings as he would attend with his father. The child of these times did not learn through instruction so much as by informal training and in imitation of his elders.

Reading and writing were taught to the boy by the father and also simple calculations, such as would be needed in everyday affairs. Ballads, national songs, and religious hymns and deeds of the men of the past were learned by the Roman boys. Physical training of the boys came mostly through games while the young men practised gymnastic exercises, but only to prepare them for military life. Such training made warriors and loyal citizens but also made these Romans selfish, overbearing, cruel, and rapacious, without lofty ideals or enthusiasm for the higher things of life.

Literary education may have said to have begun at Rome during the third century before Christ. In 260 B. C., according to Plutarch, a school was opened by Spurius Carvilius at which fees were charged, the first of the kind. This man was a freedman and he had been a domestic tutor to the consul of the same name, Spurius Carvilius, who, as mentioned before, was the first man at Rome to divorce his wife. From this time education increased and there became three kinds of schools—elementary, grammar, and a higher school, the rhetor's school. The first was presided over by the litterator, or ludus magister; the second by the literatus, or, grammaticus; and the third by the rhetor. Added to these kinds of schools were those of the various philosophies, which were given to the adherents in form of lectures. The child entered the elementary school at about the seventh year of age. Near his twelfth year he went into the grammar school and at fifteen or sixteen, if he had determined on politics or law, he would enter the rhetor's school.

As stated above, the child entered school at about seven years of age. The term ludus was used to designate the elementary school and schola the higher school. In the elementary schools, reading, writing, and arithmetic of a very elementary nature were taught. In learning to read, the child was first taught his letters and then syllables, which were followed by words and then came the sentences. At the first of the elementary schools the reading was taught by means of exercises given by the teacher on account of the scarcity of books. But during the second century before Christ large numbers of slaves were put to copying books so that from this time there were plenty of copies to be had at reasonable cost, and no doubt each child had his own reading book, which contained, perhaps, a Latin version of the Odyssey and the standard Latin poets. Special attention was given to correct pronunciation and intelligent expression. After the child had learned to read he was then taught to write. In the beginning the teacher would make the letters with a stylus on a waxen tablet and then he would give the stylus to the child to trace the letters, the teacher guiding the child's hand. In arithmetic but simple calculations were taught in the elementary schools, the children learning to count and to calculate on the fingers or by means of pebbles and after using these means till they gained some facility an abacus with pebbles was used. Also the waxen tablet with the stylus was used for calculation.

It is quite probable that for a large number of the children school education ceased with the end of the training in the elementary schools. At twelve years of age the boy who went on with his education entered the grammar school. There were two kinds of these schools—the Greek and the Latin. In the Greek schools the language used was Greek with Greek literature and methods of instruction, and at first the teachers were Greek. The Latin schools differed in that the language used was Latin and while at first the literature was Greek translated into Latin later there was a Latin literature. Too, the Latin schools laid more stress upon the practical side of the work rather than the theoretical. The head of each grammar school determined what the curriculum should be but these were quite uniform after all, as all were striving for the same end. The principal studies were grammar and literature, but also were included mathematics, geography, history, and music.

In the study of grammar there were studied the divisions of the letters into vowels and consonants with the divisions of the vowels, the sounds of the letters or phonics, philology in a simple way, the parts of speech, the inflections of the parts of speech, and the like. In literature in the Greek schools, the study of Homer took the leading part as did the study of Vergil in the Latin schools, and also other authors were studied. Geometry was studied along the practical lines of mensuration and astronomy. Likewise geography and history were entered into for practical purposes. Music was taken up to aid in getting proper intonation and rhythm in oratory and for learning the religious chants. There was but little training in gymnastics, only for hygienic purposes and as an aid to military training. Dancing was not taught in the schools but in the home. This was not as with us, but more of the form of calisthenics. There was nothing such as the round dance with us, which would have been thought shockingly vulgar by the Romans.

When the youth, at about sixteen years of age, assumed the toga virilis, his further education depended upon what his life's work was to be. If it was to be war, then he at once entered the army. If he was to enter public life, then he attended the rhetorical school and studied oratory and law. Also he frequented the places where he could hear the public orations and he might have attached himself to some orator or jurist.

In the rhetor's school those things were studied which would help the young man in his public career. Oratory and rhetoric were the leading studies, and, as he sought, too, to gain a wide knowledge, mathematics, philosophy, law, and literature would be included in the course. The youth usually remained in these higher schools for two or three years. Then he might go on with his studies through travel and attendance at centers outside of Rome.

"Youths of higher intellectual ambition did not rest satisfied with the instruction obtainable at Rome, but (at least after 80 B. C.) resorted to Athens and other philosophical and rhetorical centers. In the last decade of the Republic there were many famous schools of this higher class. In addition to Athens, the mother city, we have the great university schools of Rhodes, Apollonia, Mitylene, Alexandria, Tarsus, Pergamus, and afterwards, in imperial times, Smyrna and Ephesus. In the time of Cicero Marseilles also was already a widely known school."198

The elementary schools were poorly provided for, as they were not held in regular school houses for there were no buildings for such educational purposes. The school-rooms were sometimes on the street or in the market-place, wherever a quiet, convenient corner was found; they were, too, in sheds or booths in front of a house like a lean-to; again they were in places similar to a veranda of a house. If the school-room was the street, the children sat on the stones; in buildings, they sat on the floor, or they might have had benches. The grammar schools were better cared for, as they were generally in covered places attached to large buildings and opening on the street. They had benches for the children and the teacher sat on a chair on a raised place. There were often placed in grammar schools sculptures of marble or plaster and also paintings. All school-rooms were open to the public and frequently the parents and friends went in to see the work and at times there were great "speech days."

The pedagogue was used in Rome, as in Greece, to have charge of the boy and to accompany him to and from school. Although the Romans used the Greek term pedagogue, yet the Latin terms custos, guardian, and pedisequus, attendant, were, perhaps, most commonly used and, too, were used comes, companion, and rector, governor. The Romans were more careful in the selection of a slave for pedagogue than were the Greeks, and yet he was too often too old or too much physically disabled for the best performance of his duties. These slaves often were manumitted when their duties were completed in a satisfactory manner.

The elementary teacher, litterator, was usually a slave or freedman, and too often quite ignorant, in consequence these teachers were held in little esteem and almost with contempt. Although the grammaticus was better educated and received more esteem yet he did not have a high standing. It was only the rhetor who was respected and praised in Rome. The elementary teacher received very poor pay and the grammar teacher did not fare much better. Yet in later times the grammaticus and rhetor were both well paid and there were some who even became wealthy.

The school year, at least for the elementary schools and probably, also, for the grammar schools, consisted of eight months, with a vacation from July to October inclusive. There was a holiday in whole or in part every eighth day, market day, and there were numerous other holidays throughout the school year. The school day began at daylight, often before, and continued till evening, with a recess for dinner. There were, however, no home lessons.

The discipline at school was very severe. The ferule, whip, strap, and rod were very liberally used. There must have been quite a good deal of such punishment, as many wrote protests against it, Quintilian, perhaps, most of all.

"Roman boys, like boys in our times, occasionally shirked school, or contrived to feign illness in order to avoid reciting their lessons. The master hung up, where all might read it, a board with names of pupils who absented themselves or had run away. Persius tells us that when a boy he used to rub his eyes with olive oil to give him the appearance of illness, though how oil would have that effect is not apparent. Pliny says that school children took cumin to make them pale."199

In the early days the education of the girls was for the most part that gained from the mother in the home. They were taught spinning and weaving and sewing and other household arts, and, no doubt, they also learned to read and write, the same as the boys. When education became common, girls had about the same studies as the boys but whether they attended the same schools with the boys is a disputed question. It is, perhaps, true that the girls of the common people attended the elementary schools with the boys, while the girls of the higher classes had tutors at home. It was more difficult for women to get higher education as they must have obtained it through private instruction and possibly, after marriage, from their husbands.

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