Roman school

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In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers active in Rome from the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries; the most famous was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

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A Roman school day was believed to begin before sunrise, and last until late afternoon. The fixed beginning of the school year was March 24th.

In earlier times, a boy's education would have taken place at home. His father would have taught him to read and write, and would have prepared him for war. Girls, on the other hand, were taught by their mothers, to sew, weave and spin cloth.

The Roman education was divided into three stages:

Primary (first stage)

Almost every Roman boy would go to Primary school, as there was only a small fee that most families would pay. It was believed important to have some basic skills and education. Primary school was for children aged seven to twelve. The school was held in a rented room in the Roman Forum, though it was also held in public collandes or sqaures. The students were taught by a ludi magister. The average class consisted of about thirty pupils, mostly boys. Most girls stayed at home with their mothers and learnt how to take care of a household and be a good wife. During school the students would learn basic Latin, writing skills and arithmetic. The school day started at sunrise and finished at sunset, leaving only a little time for dinner and sleep. There were no weekends, but there were many religious festivals and market days the made the schools close. Along with the festivals there was a summer holiday. A student would be accompanied by two slaves: one to escort him and another to carry his books and possesions. The students would write on a wax tablet with a Stylus until they were perfect at writing. This then gave them the option of writing in ink on parchment or papyrus with a quill. If the students were disobedient they would suffer corporal punishments such as a rap across the knuckles with a rod for being disobedient or disrespectful, hit on the back with a birch for not knowing the answer to a qauestion, whipping with a leather strap for making a serious mistake and being whipped with a strap with knots in it continuously for not knowing the answers to multiple questions

Second: Boys aged 12-15 studied language and literature either at home with a personal tutor, a gifted slave, or (boys only) in public with a grammaticus. Under the Empire, a primary position was given to Virgil's Aeneid.

The works that were studied allowed students to practice their reading and to develop their ability to comment on grammar, figures of speech, and the writer's use of mythology.

Third: Around 16, rhetoric was studied in public lectures. There were two main types of rhetorical exercise:

    1)Suasoriae:  Developed boy's skills in constructing arguments
    2)Contouersiae:  Devised arguments for and against the accused

At Rome from the time of Julius Caesar onwards, there were privileges for teachers who were also Roman citizens. Emperor Vespasian (Emperor from 69-79 AD) founded two chairs for the teaching of Greek and Latin rhetoric; Quintilian was the first holder of the Latin chair. Outside Rome, teachers of grammar and rhetoric were granted exemption from civic obligation - again by Vespasian.

The spread of Roman culture in the West was made possible by the teaching of a fairly standard curriculum to the sons of the local elites.