Description
Book SynopsisThis fascinating cultural and intellectual history focuses on education as practiced by the imperial age Romans, looking at what they considered the value of education and its effect on children. W. Martin Bloomer details the processes, exercises, claims, and contexts of liberal education from the late first century BCE to the third century CE--the epoch of rhetorical education. He examines the adaptation of Greek institutions, methods, and texts by the Romans, and traces the Romans' own history of education. Bloomer argues that while Rome's enduring educational legacy includes the seven liberal arts and a canon of school texts, its practice of competitive displays of reading, writing, and reciting were intended to instill in the young social as well as intellectual ideas.
Trade Review"Bloomer has composed a compelling, insightful work... [This] text deserves a wide audience." -- Zara M. Torlone, Miami University Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR) "A clever and sophisticated reading of [Roman] society." -- Tim Whitmarsh London Review Of Books "Adventurous... An entertaining reconstruction of the difficulties encountered by early schools of rhetoric at Rome." -- Teresa Morgan, Oriel College, Oxford Jrnl Of Roman Stds/Jrnl Of Hellenic Stds
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Three Vignettes 1. In Search of the Roman School 2. First Stories of School 3. The School of Impudence 4. The Manual and the Child 5. The Child an Open Book 6. Grammar and the Unity of Curriculum 7. The Moral Sentence 8. Rhetorical Habitus Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
