Education for Public Life

Roman education aimed to make men and women effective speakers and exponents of traditional values. Most children received their education at home; there were no public schools, but the rich hired private teachers. Wealthy parents bought literate slaves called pedagogues to educate their children, especially to teach them Greek. In upper-class families, both daughters and sons learned to read. The girls were taught literature and music, and how to make educated conversation at dinner parties. The aim of women’s education was to prepare them to teach traditional social and moral values to their children.

Sons received physical training and learned to fight with weapons, but rhetorical training dominated an upper-class Roman boy’s education because a successful political career depended on the ability to speak persuasively in public. A boy would learn winning techniques by listening to speeches in political meetings and arguments in court cases. The orator Cicero said, “[Young men must learn to] excel in public speaking. It is the tool for controlling men at Rome.”