Education as we know it today has deep roots in the late Roman Republic and Roman Empire. In the span of a few centuries, Rome went from an informal system of education that passed knowledge from parents to children to a specialized system of schools inspired by Greek educational practices. Roman educational practice made great and lasting contributions to the field of education as we know it.

Early Education in the Republic
During 750 BCE to the middle of the third century BCE, there is little evidence of anything more than basic education. A child’s primary educators were likely to be his or her own parents. Parents taught their children the skills necessary for living in the early republic, namely agricultural, domestic and military skills. Most important, however, were the moral and civil responsibilities.

The first schools in Rome arose by the middle of the fourth century BCE. These schools were called ‘ludi’,(means play). Like modern play schools were concerned with the basic socialization and rudimentary education of young Roman children. An ex-slave named Spurius Carvilius is credited with opening the first fee-paying school and thereby forging a teaching profession in ancient Rome. Later Roman Education At the height of the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, the Roman educational system gradually found its final form. Formal schools were established, which served paying students (very little in the way of free public education a). Normally, both boys and girls were educated, though not necessarily together.

Elementary Education:
Following various military conquests in the Greek East, Romans adapted a number of Greek educational precepts to their own fledgling system. At the Elementary level, Roman students were taught in similar fashion to Greek students, sometimes by Greek slaves who had a penchant for education. Also, Roman students that wished to pursue the highest levels of education went to Greece to study philosophy, as the Roman system developed to teach speech, law and gravitas.

In a system much like the one that predominates in the modern world, the Roman education system that developed arranged schools in tiers. A Roman student would progress through schools just as a student today might go from elementary school to middle school, then to high school, and finally college. Progression depended more on ability than age with great emphasis being placed upon a student’s ingenioum or inborn “gift” for learning.

We should recognize important contrasts to formal education as we know it today. In the modern world, a student generally pursues higher levels of education to gain the skills and certifications necessary to work in a more prestigious field. In contrast, only the Roman elite would expect a complete formal education. Higher education in Rome was more of a status symbol than a practical concern.

Absence of literature
The absence of a literary method of education from Roman life is due to the fact that Rome was bereft of any national literature. The military arts were all that Rome could afford to spend time studying. When not waging war, the Romans devoted what time remained to agriculture. The concern of Rome was that of survival, whether through defense or dominion. It is not until the appearance of Ennius (239-169 BCE), the father of Roman poetry, that any sort of national literature surfaces.

Music and Athletics While the Romans adopted many aspects of Greek education, two areas in particular were viewed as trifle: music and athletics. The area that many Romans considered unimportant equates to our modern definition of music. To the Greeks, the ability to play an instrument was the mark of a civilized, educated man, and through an education in all areas of mousike it was thought that the soul could become more moderate and cultivated. The Romans did not share this view but did, however, adopt one area of mousike: Greek literature.

Athletics, to the Greeks, was the means to obtaining a healthy and beautiful body, which was an end in and of itself and further promoted their love of competition. The Romans, though, did not share this stance either, believing that athletics was only the means to maintaining good soldiers.

This illustrates Roman’s culture and its take on education that Romans were more practically minded when it came to what they taught their children. To them, it would appear, an area of study was only good so far as it served a higher purpose or end determined outside of itself.