Higher Education in Ancient Rome — Rhetoric and Traveling | Early European History And Religion

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STUDY OF RHETORIC IN ANCIENT ROME

The study of rhetoric was probably the closest thing in ancient Rome to higher education. Rhetoric was the final stage in Roman education. Very few boys went on to study it. Early on in Roman history, it may have been the only way to train as a lawyer or politician. Unlike other forms of Roman education, there is not much evidence to show that the rhetor level was available to be pursued in organized school. Because of this lack of evidence, it is assumed that the education was done by private tutors. These tutors had an enormous impact on the opinions and actions of their students. In fact, their influence was so great that the Roman government expelled many rhetoricians and philosophers in 161 B.C. [Source Wikipedia]

There were two fields of oratory study that were available for young men. The first of these fields was the deliberative branch of study. This field was for the training of young men who would later need to urge the "advisability or inadvisability" of measures affecting the Roman Senate. The second field of study was much more lucrative and was known as a judicial oratory. These orators would later enter into fields such as criminal law, which was important in gaining a public following. The support of the public was necessary for a successful political career in Rome.

The Schools of Rhetoric were formed on Greek lines and conducted by Greek teachers. They were not a part of the regular system of education, but corresponded more nearly to our colleges, since they were frequented by persons beyond the age of boyhood and, usually, of the higher classes only. In these schools the study of prose authors was begun, and philosophy might be studied, but the main work was the practice of composition. This was begun in its simplest form, the narrative (narratio), and continued step by step until the end in view was reached, the practice of public speaking (declamatio). One of the intermediate forms was the suasoria, in which a student assumed the character of some famous historical personage at the point of making a decision, and discussed the possible courses of action. A favorite exercise also was the writing of a speech to be put in the mouth of some person famous in legend or history. How effective these could be made is seen in the speeches inserted in their histories by Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

Problems with the Study of Rhetoric in Ancient Rome

The Roman professors of rhetoric uniformly forced every speech into a strait jacket of six parts, from the exordium to the peroration. Then they analysed the variety of combinations to which these could eventually be adapted. Next they devised a course of exercises by which perfection might be attained in each part; for example, the narration, the argument, the portrayal of character, the maxim, the thesis, the discussion. The most minute details were foreseen and provided for, and their development followed a series of invariable progressions leading to an almost automatic cadence. It seemed as if they took seriously the formula for turning out an orator complete from top to toe (fiunt orator es) and were convinced that by subjecting their pupils to these verbal acrobatics they could convert each and every one of them into a speaker deserving the fair name of orator. [Source: “Daily Life in Ancient Rome: the People and the City at the Height the Empire” by Jerome Carcopino, Director of the Ecole Franchise De Rome Member of the Institute of France, Routledge 1936]

Perhaps nothing is more characteristic of their cramped and crabbed method than the chria, this "declension" not of the noun but of the thought, or rather of the phrase which expresses the thought and adds the weight of some high authority, as if the maxim of a wise man could be enriched and given new shades of meaning by being indefatigably "declined" in various numbers and cases. For instance: "Marcus Porcius Cato has said that the roots of science are bitter..." "this maxim of M.P.C., which says that...""it appeared to M.P.C. that...""the Marcus Porcius Catos have maintained that..." and so on ad infinitum. In the same way, when Moli&re in the Bourgeois Gentilhomnie was initiating M. Jourdain into the art of elegant speech, the poor man was invited to embroider his meaning with interminable variations, or chriae, which his instructor suggested: "Lovely Marquise, your fieautiful eyes cause me to die of love; of love, lovely Marquise, your beautiful eyes cause me to die...." But whereas Moli&re was making merry over M. Jourdain and his teacher of literature, not a single rhetorician in Rome of the first and second centuries dreamed of laughing at the chriae whose boring variations have been solemnly recorded for us by Diomedes. Quintilian also recognises the practice in his Institutio Oratoria

When at last the professor of rhetoric considered his pupils sufficiently versed in these parrot-like repetitions and variations, he expected them to prove their accomplishments by delivering public harangues. In the time of Cicero these attempts were still known as causae a word from which the French chose is derived but they lost the title under the empire. The orations now became either suasoriae, in which more or less thorny questions of conscience were discussed, or controversiae, which consisted in imaginary indictment or defense; in either case they were never anything but declamationes, a term which had not in those days the derogatory meaning our "declamation" has since acquired. If only the masters of rhetoric could have shaken themselves free of their follies, this sort of test might have re-established contact between their schools and the concrete realities of life. But on the contrary they seemed determined to maintain as wide a gulf between the two as possible. The more far-fetched and improbable a subject was, the more eager they were to adopt it for discussion. The fact was that in origin the grammaticus and the rhetor were one. Later, the schools of grammar and the schools of rhetoric were separated, but the traces of their original identity were never obliterated. The grammaticus paved the way for the rhetorician's lessons, and the rhetorician for his part continued to mark time within the same narrow circle of ideas and images that had bounded the grammaticus's vision. The pupil might change his class: the spirit of the teaching, he received remained the same, and he was still the slave of an artificial literature and the prisoner of a narrow classicism.

Instead of directing the young men's thoughts to current problems, the subjects which Seneca the Elder set for the suasoriae of his pupils were always drawn from the past, and often from a foreign and distant past. The most up to date which he has left us are borrowed from imaginary episodes of the last weeks of Cicero's life: in one, Cicero hesitates as to whether he will or will not ask mercy of Anthony; in another he consents, in order to obtain it, to burn his works. In all other cases, episodes of Roman history are neglected in favor of Greek; Alexander the Great debates whether he will venture to sail the Indian Ocean, or whether he will enter Babylon in defiance of the oracles; the Athenians discuss whether they will surrender to the ultimatum of Xerxes, or the three hundred Spartans of Leonidas whether they will fight to the last man to hold up the Persians at Thermopylae. Sometimes, however, even these singular and ancient subjects seem to the rhetorician too new and commonplace. He retraces history into the mists of prehistoric legend and bids his pupils write an essay in which Agamemnon ponders whether in order to secure a favorable wind for his fleet he will obey the prophetic injunctions of Calchas and sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.

It is obvious how artificial these sitasoriae must have been. The controversiae, which might well have been made the means of preparing the future advocate for his profession, were no less far removed from real life. They deliberately turned away from current incidents of the day and went wandering in a dream world of weird hypotheses and monstrous events. The unnatural outlines which Suetonius has rescued from ancient manuals betray this morbid leaning toward the exceptional and the bizarre. In one of these preposterous -cases, for instance, some men were strolling along one summer day to enjoy the sea air on the beach at Ostia. They met some fisher folk and agreed with one of them to buy the whole of his catch for a certain small sum. The bargain concluded, they claimed the ownership of an ingot of gold which an amazing chance brought up in the fisherman's net. Another case deals with a slave merchant who, when unloading at Brindisi, wished to evade customs duty on the most valuable slave he had. He hit on the expedient of dressing up the handsome boy in the toga praetexta, the scarlet-bordered cloak of a young Roman citizen. Arrived at Rome the boy refused to lay his disguise aside and stoutly averred that it had been given him in token of his irrevocable manumission.

Augustodunum — Home of a Famous School of Rhetoric

Jarrett A. Lobell wrote in Archaeology Magazine: The Roman orator and rhetorician Eumenius delivered a speech to the Roman governor of Gallia Lugdunensis in present-day northern France in A.D. 298 advocating for the restoration of the famous schools called the Maeniana in the city of Augustodunum, at the center of the province. At the time of Eumenius’ speech, the once-thriving city had fallen on hard times. In A.D. 269, its residents had taken sides against Victorinus, the emperor of the ill-fated breakaway state now known as the Gallic Empire (ca. 269–271 A.D.), and the city was besieged for seven months. Access to the high level of culture and education that had been central to Augustodunum’s identity fell victim to a combination of circumstances, perhaps including damage to the Maeniana, funding diverted to the conflict, or a diminished student population. [Source: Jarrett A. Lobell, Archaeology Magazine, November/December 2021]

Eumenius was born in Augustodunum to a family of educators — his grandfather came to Gaul from Athens and was a teacher of rhetoric. It is likely Eumenius attended the Maeniana, where he perfected the skills that led him to a career as Constantius’ private secretary, a position in which he was responsible for answering all petitions on the emperor’s behalf. In his A.D. 298 speech, Eumenius praised Constantius — no doubt to secure his patronage of Augustodunum and funds for its restoration. He pledged to donate half of the enormous salary of 60,000 sesterces the emperor had awarded him as the schools’ newly appointed head — twice what he had earned as his secretary — for the effort. This set in motion the restoration not only of his prestigious alma mater, but also of his hometown. Most of the burials discovered by the INRAP team date to after the late third-century siege, and the extraordinary grave goods likely provide evidence of the city’s recovery and its return to the thriving center of learned culture it had once been.

Augustodunum — a Roman-Era University Town?

Jarrett A. Lobell wrote in Archaeology Magazine: Augustodunum(modern Autun) had been founded around 13 B.C. by the emperor Augustus (r. 27 B.C.– A.D. 14) as a new capital for the Aedui, a Celtic tribe that was — mostly — allied with the Romans. By 121 B.C., the tribe had been awarded the title of “brothers and kinsmen of Rome.” The Aedui largely supported Julius Caesar in his campaigns in Gaul, with the exception of a brief defection in 52 B.C. when they joined an unsuccessful rebellion led by Vercingetorix, the doomed chief of the Arverni tribe. The capital of the Aedui had been located at the settlement of Bibracte, but when the tribe became a civitas foederata, or allied community, of Rome, it was moved 15 miles east to its new location. It was given a name that combined its Roman and Gallic identities: Augustofor Augustus, and -dunum, the Celtic word for “hill,” “fort,” or “walled town.” [Source: Jarrett A. Lobell, Archaeology Magazine, November/December 2021]

From the start, Augustodunum was a city with a status and appearance befitting the prestige of the Aedui and their Roman governors. The provincial capital city of Lugdunum (modern Lyon), a little over 100 miles south, was its only superior in architectural splendor, economic prominence, and population in the region. “Augustodunum was one of the most important cities in Gaul,” says archaeologist Carole Fossurier of France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP). For most of the nearly three centuries preceding Eumenius’ oration, it was a thriving university town and one of the most Romanized in Gaul. It was encircled by a stout 4.5-mile city wall that enclosed an area of about 500 acres, with straight Roman streets laid out on a grid plan. It was also home to Gaul’s largest theater, an amphitheater, shops, manufacturing quarters, public baths, luxuriously decorated residences, a forum, numerous temples, and, eventually, places for Christian worship. The city was traversed by a major Roman road built by Augustus’ son-in-law Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa for military use and to encourage trade by connecting the province to the English Channel. Under the emperor Claudius (r. A.D. 41–54), who was born in Lugdunum, the Aedui became the first Gallic tribe whose members were allowed to serve as senators in Rome. In Augustodunum, writes the firstand second-century A.D. Roman historian Tacitus, “the noblest youth of Gaul devoted themselves to a liberal education.”

After the siege by Victorinus that damaged the city, the emperor Constantius I (r. A.D. 293–306) became Augustodunum’s benefactor. He promised to restore the city to its former status and appearance, an effort that was continued by his son, the emperor Constantine I (r. A.D. 306–337). “Augustodunum wanted to be a provincial capital,” says University of Kent archaeologist Luke Lavan, “and to become one, it competed with other provincial centers in Gaul for the emperor’s patronage.”

Christianity was well established in Augustodunum by the early fourth century A.D. In A.D. 313, its first recorded bishop, Reticius, was honored with an invitation to Rome to help resolve the schism in the church caused by the Donatists, a North African sect of Christians. One of Gaul’s oldest Christian inscriptions was found in a city cemetery in 1839. According to INRAP archaeologist Michel Kasprzyk, it dates to the late third or early fourth century A.D. The document’s Greek text, he explains, includes the name of a Christian man, Pektorios, and an acrostic of the Greek word ichthys, or fish, an early Christian symbol of Christ.

Another rare text included in a set of panegyrics called the Laudes Domini dates from A.D. 290 to the 310s and describes the city’s appearance in antiquity. This collection of speeches was made by delegates from Augustodunum to the imperial court at Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier). From about A.D. 250 to the middle of the next century, Trier was one of the largest cities in the empire and served as a residence for the Roman emperor. The texts mention many monuments in Augustodunum, some rebuilt after the crisis of the late third century A.D., including baths, aqueducts, houses, and the schools of the Maeniana. One describes a visit to Augustodunum by Constantine at the end of A.D. 310 during which he was shown “all the statues of their gods,” a clear indication, says Kasprzyk, that the city was both pagan and Christian at the time.

Travel as a Form of Education in Ancient Rome

Eva March Tappan wrote: “No Roman youth was thought to have completed his education until he had studied with some of the famous Greek teachers, and young men went to Greece as those of today go to a university. [Source: Eva March Tappan, ed., The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art, 14 Vols., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), Vol. IV: Greece and Rome, pp. 402-405]

In the case of persons of the noblest and most wealthy families, or of those whose talents in early manhood promised a brilliant future, the training of the schools was sure to be supplemented by a period of travel and residence abroad. Greece, Rhodes, and Asia Minor were the places most frequently visited, whether the young Roman cared for the scenes of great historical events and for rich collections of works of literature and art, or merely enjoyed the natural charms and social splendors of the gay and luxurious capitals of the East. For purposes of serious study, Athens offered the greatest attractions and might almost have been called the University for Romans. It must be remembered, however, that the Roman who studied in Athens was thoroughly familiar with Greek, and for this reason was much better prepared to profit by the lectures he heard than is the average American who now studies in Europe.2 [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

Future Emperors, famous politicians and children and established nobles traveled around the Mediterranean, particularly in Greece during their early adulthood to expose them to new ideas and finish off their education. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh wrote: “Marcus Tullius Cicero was born at Arpinum, Jan. 3, 106 B.C. His father, who was a man of property and belonged to the class of the "Knights," moved to Rome when Cicero was a child; and the future statesman received an elaborate education in rhetoric, law, and philosophy, studying and practising under some of the most noted teachers of the time. He began his career as an advocate at the age of twenty-five, and almost immediately came to be recognized not only as a man of brilliant talents but also as a courageous upholder of justice in the face of grave political danger. After two years of practice he left Rome to travel in Greece and Asia, taking all the opportunities that offered to study his art under distinguished masters. He returned to Rome greatly improved in health and in professional skill. [Source: “Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero, with his treatises on friendship and old age; translated by E. S. Shuckburgh. New York, P. F. Collier, 1909, The Harvard classics v.9.]

On young Marc Antony, Plutarch wrote: “For some short time he took part with Clodius, the most insolent and outrageous demagogue of the time, in his course of violence and disorder; but getting weary before long, of his madness, and apprehensive of the powerful party forming against him, he left Italy and travelled into Greece, where he spent his time in military exercises and in the study of eloquence. He took most to what was called the Asiatic taste in speaking, which was then at its height, and was, in many ways, suitable to his ostentatious, vaunting temper, full of empty flourishes and unsteady efforts for glory. [Source: Plutarch (A.D. c.46-c.120): Life of Anthony (82-30 B.C.) For “Lives,” written A.D. 75, translated by John Dryden MIT]

Caesar favored Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus) from an early age. In 48 B.C., Caesar had his fifteen-year-old great nephew elected to the priestly college of the pontifices, and he also enrolled him in the hereditary patrician aristocracy of Rome. After recovering from illness Octavian joined Caesar in 46 B.C. on a campaign against the two sons of Pompey the Great in Spain. In 45 B.C. Octavian was sent to Apollonia in Epirus to study with the Greek rhetorician Apollodorus of Pergamum, and to train with legions stationed nearby. Only months after arriving in Apollonia, in 44 B.C., Octavian learned that Caesar was murdered.” [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com, Nina C. Coppolino, Roman Emperors]

Letter Home From Cicero’s University-Age Son

The following extract is a translation of a letter written by the son of Cicero while a student in Athens in 44 B.C. to Tiro, his father's man of business: “After I had been anxiously expecting letter-carriers day after day, at length they arrived forty-six days after they left you. Their arrival was most welcome to me: for while I took the greatest possible pleasure in the letter of the kindest and most beloved of fathers, still your most delightful letter put a finishing stroke to my joy. So I no longer repent of having suspended writing for a time, but am rather rejoiced at it; for I have reaped a great reward in your kindness from my pen having been silent. I am therefore exceedingly glad that you have unhesitatingly accepted my excuse. I am sure, dearest Tiro, that the reports about me which reach you answer your best wishes and hopes. I will make them good and will do my best that this belief in me, which day by day be comes more and more in evidence, shall be doubled. Wherefore you may with confidence and assurance fulfill your promise of being the trumpeter of my reputation. [Source: “Letter Home of a Roman "University" Student, 44 B.C. Eva March Tappan, ed., “The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art,” 14 Vols., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), Vol. IV: Greece and Rome, pp. 402-405]

“For the errors of my youth have caused me so much remorse and suffering, that not only does my heart shrink from what I did, my very ears abhor the mention of it. And for this anguish and sorrow I know and am assured that you have taken your share. And I don't wonder at it! for while you wished me all success for my sake, you did so also for your own; for I have ever meant you to be my partner in all mygood fortunes. Since, therefore, you have suffered sorrow through me, I will now take care that through me your joy shall be doubled. Let me assure you that my very close attachment to Cratippus is that of a son rather than a pupil: for though I enjoy his lectures, I am also specially charmed with his delightful manners. I spend whole days with him, and often part of the night: for I induce him to dine with me as often as possible. This intimacy having been established, he often drops in upon us unexpectedly while we are at dinner, and laying aside the stiff airs of a philosopher joins in our jests with the greatest possible freedom. He is such a man — so delightful, so distinguished — that you should take pains to make his acquaintance at the earliest possible opportunity. I need hardly mention Bruttius, whom I never allow to leave my side. He is a man of a strict and moral life, as well as being the most delightful company. For in him fun is not divorced from literature and the daily philosophical inquiries which we make in common. I have hired a residence next door to him, and as far as I can with my poor pittance I subsidize his narrow means. Furthermore, I have begun practicing declamation in Greek with Cassius; in Latin I like having my practice with Bruttius. My intimate friends and daily companions are those whom Cratippus brought with him from Mitylene — good scholars, of whom he has the highest opinion. I also see a great deal of Epicrates, the leading man at Athens, and Leonides, and other men of that sort. So now you know how I am going on.

“You remark in your letter on the character of Gorgias. The fact is, I found him very useful in my daily practice of declamation; but I subordinated everything to obeying my father's injunctions, for he had written ordering me to give him up at once. I would not shilly-shally about the business, for fear my making a fuss should cause my father to harbor some suspicion. Moreover, it occurred to me that it would be offensive for me to express an opinion on a decision of my father's. However, your interest and advice are welcome and acceptable. Your apology for lack of time I quite accept; for I know how busy you always are. I am very glad that you have bought an estate, and you have my best wishes for the success of your purchase. Don't be surprised at my congratulations coming in at this point in my letter, for it was at the corresponding point in yours that you told me of your purchase. You are a man of property! You must drop your city manners: you have become a Roman country gentleman. How clearly I have your dearest face before my eyes at this moment! For I seem to see you buying things for the farm, talking to your bailiff, saving the seeds at dessert in the corner of your cloak. But as to the matter of money, I am as sorry as you that I was not on the spot to help you. But do not doubt, my dear Tiro, of my assisting you in the future, if fortune does but stand by me; especially as I know that this estate has been purchased for our joint advantage.

“As to my commissions about which you are taking trouble — many thanks! But I beg you to send me a secretary at the earliest opportunity — if possible a Greek; for he will save me a great deal of trouble in copying out notes. Above all, take care of your health, that we may have some literary talk together hereafter. I commend Anteros to you.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons and "The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated November 2024