=173. Training in Higher Arithmetic.=--Before the children leave Euganor they are also taught the higher forms of arithmetic. Prior to the coming of Arabic numerals this is pretty serious business, yet every Roman of property must be able to keep elaborate accounts, and not be too dependent upon his stewards. Indeed, in some superior schools a special arithmetic teacher is called in; a _calculator_, who is entitled to demand extra large fees, although one suspects that most of his pupils are equites’ sons who will probably engage in commerce. One thing, however, Euganor does not have to bother about--physical culture. The Greeks can send their sons to the _palæstra_ and to the harpist to learn gymnastics and music. The Romans try merely to see that their boys get exercise enough to keep them in good health, but they cannot grasp the practical value of a training that neither makes the lads better soldiers nor better men of business. Many Romans, of course, learn also about the fine arts, but never in the regular classroom. =174. The Grammarians’ High Schools.=--By their early teens, however, even Euganor’s pupils begin to forsake him. They are passed on to a higher teacher, a regular “grammarian” (_grammaticus_), who assumes that his charges are well grounded in the fundamentals, and who endeavors to instruct them in the real niceties of Greek and Latin literature. Sometimes also there is a specialist in each of the languages. In these high schools great stress is laid on proper pronunciation and elocution. Euclid’s theorems in geometry are studied, and a good deal of history is fluently if not very critically taught. Much of the learning is superficial, for it is a fine thing in many circles to _affect_ to be erudite,[107] and more stress is sometimes laid on absurd problems of mythology than upon learning sober facts. Grammarians who teach the sons of the parvenu rich are liable, indeed, to be scolded if they cannot themselves explain instantly “Who was Anchises’s nurse?” But the better grammarians’ schools turn out pupils who are not perhaps men of deep learning but who have a great fund of information, who can write a clear accurate Latin (and often a Greek) style, and generally carry themselves as cultivated young gentlemen. Those, however, who aspire to pass as highly educated will inevitably go on to the still higher school of the _rhetor_. [Illustration: GRAMMARIAN INSTRUCTING TWO UPPER PUPILS: an attendant (_capsarius_) standing at one side.]