This paternal discipline may be harsh but it is seldom negligent. Boys are taught to go with their fathers almost everywhere; to watch and listen in silence, but to ask intelligent questions afterward. Thus young Titus is already old enough to accompany his father Calvus to the sessions of the Senate itself. On a seat reserved near the door for senators’ sons he listens through many a solemn debate. Presently the routine of business is so familiar to him, that he presumptuously thinks he can correct the consul on certain points of order. He and his companions of like rank already are playing “prætor’s court”--with one of them on the tribunal and the others (like their parents) the orators in the great basilica. As the good old customs have waned this companionship of fathers and sons has perhaps somewhat waned also--but it still remains one of the worthiest features of the Roman training. =165. Toys and Pets.=--Roman children lack nothing in playthings. All but the elaborate mechanical toys of a later age are at their disposal. Little children have their rattles, balls, and carts. Small Junia plays with very life-like dolls of ivory, wax, and painted terra cotta, often fashioned by exceedingly skilful Greek craftsmen. She and her brothers rejoice in swings and hobby horses, while Titus and young Decimus also make glad in a finely painted “century” of wooden soldiers and in tops, hoops, and marbles--such as are transmitted almost unchanged across the ages, and they receive somewhat suspiciously (as soon as they are of proper age) a gift of a carefully carved set of wooden letters, a sly device for teaching the alphabet. Much more welcome than these last are, of course, the New Year and birthday presents of tame nightingales, talking parrots, and caged blackbirds, of dogs, large and small, of that somewhat rare animal from Egypt--a delightful furry cat, and best of all--when they grow a little older--being children of a senator, each a well-broken pony--of little use in Rome, but a splendid comrade when the family goes to its villas. As they get older still a decent allowance of pocket money is added and an earnest attempt is made to teach the children financial responsibility, to add accounts, to save their sesterces, and not to run up bills. It is not ungenteel, however, for a youth of family to be an easy spender, and Pliny the Younger has scolded a friend as outrageously severe for “thrashing his son because he was too lavish in buying horses and dogs.” =166. The Learning of Greek by Roman Children.=--Even before formal schooling begins, the young Calvi, like all other Romans of the better class, have begun an important part of their education--the learning of Greek. The Athenian education was a single-language education with no studies outside those of the mother tongue.[100] The Roman education is a bi-lingual education.