[c] For Aurelia, the mother of Julius Caesar, see The Genealogical Table of the Caesars, No. 2.

[d] For Atia, the mother of Augustus, see Genealogical Table of the Caesars, No. 14.  As another instance of maternal care, Tacitus informs us that Julia Procilla superintended the education of her son.  See Life of Agricola, s. iv.

Section XXIX.

[a] Quintilian thinks the first elements of education so highly material, that he has two long chapters on the subject.  He requires, in the first place, that the language of the nurses should be pure and correct.  Their manners are of great importance, but, he adds, let them speak with propriety.  It is to them that the infant first attends; he listens, and endeavours to imitate them.  The first colour, imbibed by yarn or thread, is sure to last.  What is bad, generally adheres tenaciously.  Let the child, therefore, not learn in his infancy, what he must afterwards take pains to unlearn. Ante omnia, ne sit vitiosus sermo nutricibus.  Et morum quidem in his haud dubie prior ratio est; recte tamen etiam loquantur.  Has primum audiet puer; harum verba effingere imitando conabitur.  Et natura tenacissimi sumus eorum, quae rudibus annis percipimus; nec lanarum colores, quibus simplex ille candor mutatus est, elui possunt.  Et haec ipsa magis pertinaciter haerent, quae deteriora sunt.  Non assuescat ergo, ne dum infans quidem est, sermoni, qui dediscendus est. Quint. lib. i. cap. 1.  Plutarch has a long discourse on the breeding of children, in which all mistakes are pointed out, and the best rules enforced with great acuteness of observation.

[b] Juvenal has one entire satire on the subject of education: 

Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat,
Intra quae puer est.  Procul hinc, procul inde puellae
Lenonum, et cantus pernoctantis parasiti. 
Maxima debetur puero reverentia. 

          
                                                        SAT. xiv. ver. 44.

Suffer no lewdness, no indecent speech,
Th’ apartment of the tender youth to reach. 
Far be from thence the glutton parasite,
Who sings his drunken catches all the night. 
Boys from their parents may this rev’rence claim. 

          
                                                      DRYDEN’S JUVENAL.

[c] The rage of the Romans for the diversions of the theatre, and public spectacles of every kind, is often mentioned by Horace, Juvenal, and other writers under the emperors.  Seneca says, that, at one time, three ways were wanted to as many different theatres:  tribus eodem tempore theatris viae postulantur.  And again, the most illustrious of the Roman youth are no better than slaves to the pantomimic performers. Ostendam nobilissimos juvenes mancipia pantomimorum. Epist. 47.  It was for this reason that Petronius lays it down as a rule to be observed by the young student, never to list himself in the parties and factions of the theatre: