Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education from 600 to 300 B. C.Freeman, Kenneth J. (Kenneth John)
History
Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education from 600 to 300 B. C.
Freeman, Kenneth J. (Kenneth John)
Education, Greek
[484] _Lus._ 21. 5.
[485] Thuc. vi. 32.
[486] Plut. _Themist._ 32.
[487] Lusias, speech 21. 1-2.
[488] Andok. 17. 20.
[489] [Xen.] _Constit. of Athen._ i. 13.
[490] So
lampadi γυμνασιαρχεῖν λαμπάδι [gymnasiarchein].――Isaios,
_Philoktemon_, 62. 60.
γυμνασιαρχεῖσθαι εὐ ταῖς λαμπάσιν [gymnasiarcheisthai eu
tais lampasin].――Xen. _Revenues_, 4. 52.
λάμπάδι νικήσας γυμνασιαρχῶν [lampadi nikêsas
gymnasiarchôn].――Böckh, 257.
[491] Dem. _ag. Lakritos_, 940; Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath.
Pol.] 57.
[492] Böckh, 243.
[493] Aesch. _Tim._ 12.
[494] Isaios, _Menekles_, § 42. See Wyse’s edition on the
passage.
CHAPTER V
SECONDARY EDUCATION: I. THE SOPHISTS
At fourteen or soon after, it was usual for the ordinary course of
letters and lyre-playing to terminate: the gymnastic lessons might be
carried on till old age interrupted them. During the first
three-quarters of the fifth century, the lad, on leaving school, was
left to live more or less as he pleased, if he was rich enough not to
have to work for his living: the sons of poorer citizens at this age,
if not before, settled down to learn a trade or engaged in
merchandise. Rich boys, no doubt, spent most of their time in athletic
pursuits; riding and chariot-driving were favourite amusements. But
with the Periclean age arose a violent desire for a further course of
intellectual study, and a system of secondary education arose, to
occupy the four years which elapsed between the time when the lad
finished his primary education and the time when the State summoned
him to undergo his two years of military training.
Many of the primary schools of the better sort started courses of
study for lads, providing, no doubt, separate class-rooms, or else the
younger boys attended at different hours from those at which the elder
pupils assembled. Probably some such provision had been made much
earlier for those who wished to obtain a more advanced knowledge of
literature and music than was offered by the primary schools. But in
the time of Sokrates many masters seemed to have held classes for lads
as well as for boys. On entering the schools of Dionusios,[495] the
master of letters, Sokrates finds a class of lads assembled here.[496]
They all belong to noble families: the poor were no doubt unable to
afford education of this sort. Two of the lads were busy discussing a
point of astronomy, and were quoting the authority of Oinopides[497]
and Anaxagoras, for Sokrates catches these two names as he enters the
room. They were drawing circles on the ground and imitating the
inclination of some orbit or other with their hands. This scene shows
a much more advanced sort of study than was usual at the primary
school of letters. The Sophists seem to have often lectured in
class-rooms.
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