Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

education in the roman empire 857
then syllables, then lists of words – often of names – then formulae for
letters, etc., and finally short edifying texts. They also copied lists of
numbers, multiplication and other tables, arithmetical rules, exercises and
problems. Coptic-speaking students were often expected to learn a little
Greek. So we find them copying lists of Greek words with their Coptic
equivalents, sententiae of Menander with interlinear Coptic translations, and
short scriptural texts in both languages. It is interesting and touching to find
a seventh-century schoolboy in upper Egypt copying a long list of characters
from the Iliad in alphabetical order.
Elementary schoolteachers were not in general paid by the state or by
municipalities, as were grammarians and rhetoricians, but depended on fees
payable by the parents of their pupils. Many children were taught to read
and write at home, either by their parents or by private tutors.
Grammarians occupied a more conspicuous social position than elementary
schoolmasters, and are consequently far more frequently mentioned
by contemporary sources. A recent study identifies 178 Greek or
Latin teachers of ‘grammar’ between the fourth and the sixth century, and
lists a further hundred individuals who may have exercised the profession. 7
We possess quite detailed information on the careers of some of these.
Unfortunately, we learn little about their day-to-day work.
The aims and methods of the teacher of grammar had changed little
over the centuries. The Grammatikē technē of Dionysios Thrax and the commentaries
which had grown up around it provided the theoretical foundation.
Reading and explication of a limited number of classical Greek or
Latin poetic texts provided the practical element in the teaching of the
grammarian. Damascius, the last head of the Academy in Athens, in the
early sixth century, defines grammar as ‘the art based on the explication of
poets and correct use of the Greek language’. 8 This is almost a direct translation
of the definition given by Quintilian five centuries earlier: recte
loquendi scientia et poetarum enarratio. 9 For both Greek and Latin speakers,
grammar was both explanatory and prescriptive. As both languages developed
and changed over the centuries, the prescriptive function came more
and more to the fore. Preservation of the purity of language as enshrined
in a limited number of ancient literary texts became the grammarian’s
primary aim. As correct speech became the badge of the educated urban
upper classes, the grammarian came to play a role in the process of social
differentiation. It is probably no accident that many more handbooks of
grammar composed in the fourth to sixth century survive in Latin than in
Greek. The bearers of culture were fewer in number in the Latin west and
felt their position more threatened than in the Greek east. It is perhaps
7 Kaster, Guardians of Language. 8 Vita Isidori fr. 111 Zintzen.
9 Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria i.4.2.
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