On the whole the life of the child, though strictly governed, appears to have been pleasant enough until schooldays began.  Though many children were taught at home by a more or less learned slave acting as private tutor, the great majority, at least of the boys, were sent to school.  There was at this date no compulsory education; the state dictated nothing and provided nothing in connection with the matter; many children must have received no education at all, and many only the barest elements.  Nevertheless the average parent realised the practical utility of at least reading, writing, and simple arithmetic, and schools of the elementary type sprang up according to the demand.  What the higher education was like will be set forth in its place.

The ideal education, as understood in the older days of Rome, was a training which should fit a man for his duty to the gods, the state, and the family.  It was above all things a moral and practical training.  A man has certain domestic, political, and religious functions to perform:  let him learn how best to perform these.  Under this system there was little room for accomplishments or for purely intellectual pursuits.  Little by little, however, such liberal elements, artistic and philosophical, struggled into the sphere of Roman education, but never to the extent or with the intellectual effect which belonged to them in Greece.  Even by A.D. 64 the education of a Roman boy was very narrow, and, in the direction in which it sought some liberality, it often went sadly astray.  The clearest course will be for us to take young Publius Silius through a course typical of the time.  We will assume that he does not receive all his lessons at home, but that, through an old-fashioned preference on the part of his father, he goes to a school, along with boys who are mostly but not necessarily of the same social standing with himself.

We have unfortunately almost no information as to any social grading of schools, or as to their size.  All we know is that some schools were taught entirely by one man, while others employed an undermaster or several.  In some cases the school is entirely a private enterprise, the master charging a monthly fee—­amounting in the elementary schools to a penny or twopence a week—­together with small money presents on certain festivals.  The more select establishments naturally charged more.  Probably most of the schools in Rome and the larger towns were upon this private footing.  In other instances a number of parents in a smaller town would club together and subscribe sufficient money to provide the salary of a schoolmaster for their children.  In yet others some benefactor, generally a wealthy local magnate, had given or bequeathed an endowment fund, from which a school was either wholly or partially financed.  At a rather later date Pliny writes a letter, of which the following is a passage, interesting in this connection.  “When I was lately in my native part of the country (that is to say,