[Sidenote: Informal training in the family and in public.]
Until the Greek institutions began to be adopted, schools did not exist in Rome, except possibly the _ludus_ or elementary school. During this pristine period education consisted in a practical training in Roman ideals and everyday living conducted largely through the family. In childhood the boys and girls alike were given a physical and moral training by their mother, but, as the boy grew older, he went more in the company of his father, and learned efficiency in life informally through his example and that of the older men, while the girl was taught at home by her mother. If the boy belonged to a patrician family, he might acquire much knowledge concerning Roman custom and law by hearing his father advise and aid the family _clients_, or ‘dependents,’ and by attending banquets with him. He might also receive an apprenticeship training from his parent or some other older man in the profession of soldier, advocate, or statesman. In case he was born in a less exalted station, he might learn his father’s occupation at the farm or shop. The girl, whatever her social status, was trained by her mother in the domestic arts, especially in spinning and weaving wool. Through their parents children probably learned to read and write; and they committed to memory stories of Roman heroes, ballads, martial and religious songs, and the _Twelve Tables_ of national laws, after these had been codified (451 B. C.). Physical exercise was secured largely by games, which were mostly in imitation of future occupations, and gymnastics were employed simply as training for war. The usages of home and public religion also played an important part in the education of the young Romans, especially since almost every activity in life was presided over by some deity, whom it was necessary to propitiate when engaging in it.
[Sidenote: Practical and occupational character.]
Thus education in early Rome was practical, and, to some extent, occupational. It was intended to produce efficiency as fathers, citizens, and soldiers. It consisted in training the youths to be healthy and strong in mind and body, and sedate and simple in their habits; to reverence the gods, their parents, the laws, and institutions; and to be courageous in war, and familiar with the traditional agriculture, or the conduct of some business. It did produce a nation of warriors and loyal citizens, but it inevitably tended to make them calculating, selfish, overbearing, cruel, and rapacious. They never possessed either lofty ideals or enthusiasm. Their training was best adapted to a small state, and became unsatisfactory when they had spread over the entire Italian peninsula. The golden age of valor and stern virtue had then largely departed, and they began unconsciously to seek a more universal culture. While such a people regarded the Greeks as visionary, just as the Greeks looked upon them as barbarians, they felt instinctively that only by absorption of the Hellenic ideals could their cosmopolitan ambitions be carried out. On the other hand, it was through the organization which the Romans were able to furnish, that the great ideals formulated by the Greeks were destined to be rendered effective and to become a matter of value and concern to civilization ever since.