Formal education

School days of Ancient Rome are believed to have begun before sunrise and lasted
until the late afternoon. The school year began on March 24, in honor of Minerva,
the Roman Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge.

The Roman education system was divided into three stages:

Primary

Primary school consisted of children aged seven to twelve. Students were

commonly accompanied by two slaves: one to escort them and another to carry
their books and possessions
Secondary

Boys aged 12–15 studied history, language and literature either at home with a
personal tutor, educated slave, or in public with a grammaticus.
Tertiary

Around 16, a relatively few number of boys went on to study rhetoric in public
lectures. These students, usually from privileged or wealthy families, were those
who wanted to pursue important jobs such as those in law or politics.

Education
In the early days of the Roman Republic, Rome did not have any public education.
What education there was, and we're speaking of education for the citizens of
Rome, was done within the context of the family. In other words, it was within the
family that children learned the basic techniques of farming, developed physical
skills for war, learned Roman traditions and legends, and in the case of young boys,
became acquainted with public affairs. However, in the second and third centuries
B.C., contact with the Greek world during the Macedonian Wars stimulated new
ideas and education. The wealthiest classes wanted their children exposed to
Greek studies, especially rhetoric and philosophy. This was necessary, so they
thought, to make them fit for successful public careers. This was a practical ideal
because these children would eventually serve Rome as administrators, officials,
and perhaps even members of the Senate. Incorporated in this new educational
ideal was the concept of humanitas, an education in the liberal arts or humanities.
It was hoped that such an education in the liberal arts would prevent
overspecialization and instead promote sound character. A sound knowledge of
Greek was positively essential and schools taught by professional scholars began to
emerge. And, of course, the Ro`mans already had the example of Plato's Academy
and Aristotle's Lyceum.

The very wealthy provided Greek tutors for their children. For the less wealthy there
were private schools in which Greek educated slaves would instruct students.
Children learned the basic requirements of reading, writing and arithmetic. By the
age of twelve or thirteen, and if the child had shown promise, he could attend
the grammaticus, or grammar school. The standard curriculum in the liberal arts
included literature, dialectics (or the art of reasoning), arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy, and music. At the core of this curriculum was, of course, Greek
literature. So, students were exposed to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey,
Hesiod's Theogony andWorks and Days, as well as Pindar's Odes. The philosophies
of Plato, Aristotle and Zeno of Elea, the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides and
dramas of Sophocles and Aeschylus were also standard fare.

Education played a significant role in ancient Greek life since the founding of
the poleis till the Hellenistic and Roman period. From its origins in the Homeric and
the aristocratic tradition, Greek education was vastly "democratized" in the 5th
century BC, influenced by the Sophists, Plato and Isocrates. In the Hellenistic period,
education in a gymnasium was considered an inextricable prerequisite for
participation in the Greek culture.

There were two forms of education in ancient Greece: formal and informal. Formal
education was attained through attendance to a public school or was provided by a
hired tutor. Informal education was provided by an unpaid teacher, and occurred in
a non-public setting. Education was an essential component of a person’s identity in
ancient Greece, and the type of education a person received was based strongly in
one’s social class, the culture of one’s polis, and the opinion of one’s culture on
what education should include.

Formal Greek education was primarily for men, and was, in general, not offered to
slaves, manual laborers, or women.[1] In some poleis, laws were passed to prohibit
the education of slaves.[2] A young girl would receive an informal education from her
mother and would be taught how to maintain a household to serve her father and,
later in life, her husband.[3] Women’s roles included managing the household,
raising children, preparing food, and making textiles.[3] One exception to this was in
Sparta, where women were expected to run the polis while the men were away at
war.[4] Women in Sparta also received an informal physical education.[5]

Greek education focused heavily on training the entire person, which included
education of the mind, body, and imagination.[6] The specific purposes of Greek
education differed from polis to polis. The Spartans placed a high emphasis on
military training, while the Athenians traditionally gave more attention to music,
literature, dance, and later also to the natural sciences, such as biology and
chemistry, as well as philosophy, rhetoric, and sophistry-the art of presenting an
argument using deception and reason to persuade the public to agree with a certain
point of view. The Spartans also taught music and dance, but with the purpose of
enhancing their maneuverability as soldiers.

Spartan System

The Spartan society desired that all male citizens become successful soldiers with
the stamina and skills to defend their polis as members of a Spartan phalanx. Thus,
only the healthiest male babies born to Spartan citizens were allowed to live. A
council convened at the birth of each male child with the purpose of examining the
baby for defects and signs of weakness.[25] After examination, the council would
either rule that the baby was fit to live or would reject the baby sentencing him to a
death by abandonment and exposure.[26]

Education of Spartan Women

Spartan women, unlike their Athenian counterparts, received a formal education

[38]
that was supervised and controlled by the state Much of the public schooling
received by the Spartan women revolved around physical education. Until about the
age of eighteen women were taught to run, wrestle, throw a discus, and also to
[39]
throw javelins The skills of the young women were tested regularly in
[40]
competitions such as the annual footrace at the Heraea of Elis In addition to
physical education the young girls also were taught to sing, dance, and play
instruments often by travelling poets such as Alcman or by the elderly women in the
[41]
polis The Spartan educational system for females was very strict, because its
purpose was to train future mothers of soldiers in order to maintain the strength of
[42]
Sparta’s phalanxes, which were essential to Spartan defence and culture