The strategoi[190] exercised a superintendence over the epheboi during their two years’ training as recruits, as would naturally be expected. Late in the fourth century they appear also to have been connected with the local schools in Attica; an inscription at Eleusis, which Girard assigns to 320 B.C., thanks the strategos Derkulos for the diligence which he had shown in supervising the education of the children there.[191] Whether they exercised such functions in the days when their military duties were more important, is more than doubtful. But any Athenian magistrate could interest himself in the schools, no doubt, and intervene to check abuses.[192]

* * * * *

In the period of juvenile emancipation and increasing luxury and indulgence for children which marked the closing decades of the fifth century, it became customary for conservative thinkers to look back with longing, and no doubt idealising, eyes to the “good old times.” The sixth and early fifth centuries came, probably unjustly, to be regarded as the ideal age of education, when children learned obedience and morality, and were not pampered and depraved; when they were beautiful and healthy, not pale-faced, stunted, and over-educated.

Listen to Aristophanes,[193] yearning for “the good old style of education, in the days when Justice still prevailed over Rhetoric, and good morals were still in fashion. Then children were seen and not heard; then the boys of each hamlet and ward walked in orderly procession along the roads on their way to the lyre-school,—no overcoats, though it snowed cats and dogs. Then, while they stood up square—no lounging—the master taught them a fine old patriotic song like ‘Pallas, city-sacker dread,’[194] or ‘A cry that echoes afar,’[195] set to a good old-fashioned tune. If any one tried any vulgar trills and twiddles and odes where the metre varies, such as Phrunis and Co. use nowadays, he got a tremendous thrashing for disrespect to the Muses.” While being taught by the paidotribes, too, they behaved modestly, and did not spend their time ogling their admirers. “At meals children were not allowed to grab up the dainties or giggle or cross their feet.” “This was the education which produced the heroes of Marathon.… This taught the boys to avoid the Agora, keep away from the Baths, be ashamed at what is disgraceful, be courteous to elders, honour their parents, and be an impersonation of Modesty—instead of running after ballet-girls. They passed their days in the gymnasia, keeping their bodies in good condition, not mouthing quibbles in the Agora. Each spent his time with some well-mannered lad of his own age, running races in the Akademeia under the sacred olives, amid a fragrance of smilax and leisure and white poplar, rejoicing in the springtide when plane-tree and elm whisper together.” All the voices of generations of boys, bound down to indoor studies when wood and field and river are calling them, the complaint of ages of fevered hurry and bustle, looking back with regret on the days of “leisure” and “springtide,” seem to echo in Aristophanes’ lament for the ways that were no more.

“This education,” he goes on, “produced a good chest, sound complexion, broad shoulders, small tongue; the new style produces pale faces, small shoulders, narrow chest, and long tongue, and makes the boy confuse Honour with Dishonour: it fills the Baths, empties the Palaistra.”

The next witness to be called is Isokrates. He is somewhat prejudiced by his dream of restoring the Areiopagos to its old power, but he is an educational expert and his evidence is supported by that of many others. In the days when the Areiopagos had the superintendence of morals, he says,[196] “the young did not spend their time in the gambling dens, and with flute-girls and company of that sort, as they do now, but they remained true to the manner of life which was laid down for them.… They avoided the Agora so much, that, if ever they were compelled to pass through it, they did so with obvious modesty and self-control. To contradict or insult an elder was at that time considered a worse offence than ill-treatment of parents is considered now. To eat or drink in a tavern was a thing that not even a self-respecting servant would think of doing then; for they practised good manners, not vulgarity.”

Call Plato next.[197] “In a democratic state the schoolmaster is afraid of his pupils and flatters them, and the pupils despise both schoolmaster and paidagogos. The young expect the same treatment as the old, and contradict them and quarrel with them. In fact, seniors have to flatter their juniors, in order not to be thought morose old dotards.”

The counts of the indictment are luxury, bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect to elders, and a love for chatter in place of exercise. The old regime had strictly forbidden luxury. Warm baths had been regarded as unmanly, and were even coupled with drunkenness by Hermippos.[198] The boys had only worn a single garment, the sleeveless chiton, a custom which survived till late times in Sparta and Crete; but at Athens they began to wear the ἱμάτιον or overcoat as well. Xenophon, blaming parents “in the rest of Hellas” (i.e. elsewhere than in Sparta), says: “They make their boy’s feet soft by giving him shoes, and pamper his body with changes of clothes; they also allow him as much food as his stomach can contain.”[199] Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters. Alkibiades even smacked a literature-master. A similar change came over the position of children in England during the latter half of the nineteenth century. If Maria Edgeworth could have met a modern child, she would have uttered quite Aristophanic diatribes against the decay of good manners.

With this change went a more serious matter, a change of tone. Whether the old days were as moral as the conservatives supposed, may be doubted; but the atmosphere of Periclean and Socratic Athens, as represented by all its literary lights, was certainly most unsuitable for the young. Perhaps general morality was no worse, but the immorality was no longer concealed from the children. The old laws which had excluded unsuitable company from the schools and palaistrai were neglected, and these educational buildings became the resort of all the fashionable loungers of Athens.

The preference given to conversation over exercise was a feature of the age. In part, it was a preference for intellectual as against purely physical education. The free discussion with children of ethical subjects probably ceased with the death of Sokrates; this can hardly be regretted, if Plato’s evidence as to the nature of Socratic dialogues is to be believed. From the importance which Plato gives to gymnastics as a corrective to exclusive μουσική even in the education of his highly intellectual Philosopher-Kings, we may suspect that the revolt against excessive athletics at Athens, of which Euripides had been the leader, had gone too far, and that a reaction was needed. Certainly the Athenians do not distinguish themselves for pluck or energy in the fourth century: in Platonic phrase, the temper of their resolution had been melted away by their exclusive devotion to intellectual and artistic pursuits.

Let me close this subject, however, with a more pleasing picture of that αἰδώς or modesty at which the older education had aimed. It is taken from the midst of that brilliant but corrupt Socratic Athens.[200] Young Autolukos had won the boys’ contest for the pankration at the great Panathenaic festival. As a treat, Kallias, a friend of his father, had taken him to the horse-races, and afterwards invited him out to dinner with his father Lukon: such a dignity was rarely accorded to an Athenian boy.

The boy sits at table, while the grown men recline. Some one asked him what he was most proud of—“Your victory, I suppose?” He blushed and said, “No, I’m not.” Every one was delighted to hear his voice, for he had not said a word so far. “Of what then?” some one asked. “Of my father,” replied the boy, and cuddled up against him.

These shy, blushing boys were a feature of the age. The stricter parents, knowing the dangers which surrounded their sons, tried to keep them entirely from any knowledge or experience of the world.

* * * * *

As far as can be discovered from the somewhat fragmentary evidence, the Athenian type of education was prevalent throughout the civilised Hellenic world, with the exception of Crete and Lakedaimon, which had systems of their own. Xenophon, in praising the Spartan system and contrasting it with that which was prevalent in neighbouring countries, ascribes to what he calls “the rest of Hellas” educational customs and arrangements exactly similar to those which are found to have existed at Athens. His statement is borne out by other evidence. Chios certainly had a School of Letters before 494 B.C.; for a building of this sort collapsed in that year, destroying all but one of the 120 pupils.[201] Boiotia, byword for stupidity, had schools even in the smaller towns. A small place like Mukalessos had more than one; for a detachment of wild Thracian mercenaries in the pay of Athens fell upon the town at daybreak one morning during the Peloponnesian War, and entering “the largest school in the place,” killed all the boys.[202] Arkadia had an equally bad reputation; yet, according to Polubios,[203] in every Arcadian town the boys were compelled by law to learn to sing. Troizen must have had schools in 480, when she provided them for her Athenian guests. Aelian vouches for schools in Lesbos,[204] Pausanias[205] for a school of sixty boys in Astupalaia in 496 B.C. The poet Sophocles dined with a master of letters whose school was either in Eretria or Eruthrai.[206] The inscriptions show that before the third century there were flourishing schools in most of the islands.

Gymnastic education must have gone on in every Hellenic city, for the athletic victors at the great games come from every part. Musical training too was required for the dancing and singing which were universal throughout Hellas; but how far the lyre was taught must remain doubtful. In Boiotia the flute replaced the lyre in the schools. But it may be taken for granted that letters, some sort of music, and gymnastics were taught in every part of civilised Hellas, with the possible exception that letters may not have been taught at Sparta.

Secondary Education, as long as it was supplied by the Sophists, reached every village in the Hellenic world; later, it had a tendency to be confined to the large towns. The Tertiary system of military training and special gymnastics for the epheboi would seem, from the scanty evidence of the inscriptions, to have been well-nigh universal.

I will now proceed to give a more detailed account of the several branches of this widespread educational system. As the evidence comes almost entirely from Athens, my description will deal in the main with Athenian education; but, as the same type prevailed throughout the greater part of Hellas, the description may be taken as applying to the other cities also.

[98] Herod. ii. 167. Corinth was an exception.

[99] Plato, Laws, 846 D.

[100] Arist. Pol. viii. 2. 4.

[101] Xen. Econ. iv. 3. Sitting was regarded as a slavish attitude, since the free citizen mostly stood or lay down. Xen. Econ. iv. 3.

[102] Plato, Protag. 328 A.

[103] Xen. Revenues, ii. 2.

[104] Plato, Kleitophon, 409 B.

[105] Plato, Rep. 421 E.

[106] Plato, Gorg. 514 B.

[107] Plato, Rep. 467 A.

[108] Aristoph. Acharn. 1032.

[109] The fifth-century comic poet.

[110] Plutarch, Solon, 22.

[111] Plato, Laws, 643 E.

[112] Except possibly in Chios and Lokris, and of course in Sparta.

[113] Thuc. ii. 45. 4.

[114] Xen. Econ. vii. 5.

[115] Xen. Mem. ii. 7.

[116] Plato, Rep. 455 C.

[117] Plato, Laws, 805 E.

[118] As in Lusias, ag. Diogeiton, 32. 28.

[119] In the Econ. vii. 10.

[120] Thus the Axiochos (366 D) puts seven years as the age at which grammatistai and paidotribai began. Plato (Laws, 794) says six; Aristotle (Pol. vii. 17) about five; Xenophon (Constit. of Lak. ii.) “as soon as the children begin to understand.”

[121] Aesop was popular then, as now. This is the μουσική anterior to γυμναστική, so keenly criticised in the Republic.

[122] Plato, Protag. 325 C-E.

[123] Xen. Mem. ii. 2. 6.

[124] Plato, Protag. 326 C.

[125] Aristotle, Pol. vii. 17. 7.

[126] The three in this order in Plato, Protag. 312 B, 325-326; Charmid. 159 C; Kleitoph. 407 C; Xen. Constit. of Lak. ii. 1; Isok. Antid. 267. The first two in this order in Charmid. 160 A; Lusis, 209 B; inverted in Euthud. 276 A. Aristot. (Pol. viii. 3) gives γράμματα, γυμναστική, μουσική. Plato in the Laws 810 A makes κιθαριστική follow γραμματική; Aristophanes mentions the paidotribes just after the κιθαριστής.

[127] Aristot. Pol. viii. 3. 1.

[128] Xen. Constit. of Lak. ii.

[129] See Illustr. Plates I. A and I. B.

[130] Plato, Laws, 810 A.

[131] Vase B 192.

[132] Vases E 171, 172; see Plates III. and IV.

[133] Aristot. Pol. viii. 4. 9.

[134] Ibid. viii. 1. 2.

[135] [Plato] Rivals, 132 A.

[136] Plato, Lusis, 206 D.

[137] Plato, Laches, 179 A.

[138] Xen. Constit. of Lak. iii.

[139] Plato, Lusis, 214 B.

[140] Rhetoric is, of course, banished from a Platonic state.

[141] [Plato] Axiochos, 366 E.

[142] See Petit, Leges Atticae, ii. 4, compiled with great ingenuity out of many authors. Hence the proverbs ὁ μήτε νεῖν μήτε γράμματα ἐπιστάμενος, of utter dunce, and πρῶτον κολυμβᾶν δεύτερον δὲ γράμματα. The spelling-riddles of the tragedians imply a whole nation interested in spelling.

[143] Plato, Kriton, 50 D.

[144] Aristophanes, Knights, 189.

[145] Ibid. 1235-1239.

[146] Ibid. 987-996.

[147] [Plato] Theages, 122 E.

[148] Plato, Alkibiades, i. 122 B. The Athenian State, however, from the time of Solon onwards, supported and educated at public expense the sons of those who fell in battle. The endowed systems in Teos and at Delphoi belong to the third century; it is impossible to say whether such existed earlier.

[149] Xen. Mem. ii. 2. 6.

[150] [Xen.] Constit. of Athens, ii. 10.

[151] Plutarch, Alkib. 3; Plato, Charmides, 153 A.

[152] C.I.A. ii. 1. 444, 445, 446.

[153] See Excursus on γυμνιασιαρχοί.

[154] He could, and had to, use compulsion in collecting boys. This suggests that a parent could always, if he wished, get this free education for his son.

[155] This rule fell into abeyance.

[156] Dem. against Boiot. 1001.

[157] [Xen.] Constit. of Athens, i. 13.

[158] On the strength of the passages quoted from the law, and from Demosthenes, and of Aristophanes, Clouds, 964, some have maintained a theory that the Athenian tribes provided free education in dancing, and perhaps in other subjects, to all free boys, exclusive of competitions. But the quotation in Aischines, except for the actual law, which is a later interpolation, certainly refers only to the choregoi, and the passage in Demosthenes is concerned only with chorus-dancing for competitions. In Aristophanes the boys of the same neighbourhood naturally attend the same school, that is all.

[159] Plut. Themist. 10.

[160] Ael. Var. Hist. vii. 15.

[161] Diod. Sic. xii. 42.

[162] Probably lived circa 500 B.C.

[163] Plato, Tim. 21 B.

[164] Böckh, 3088.

[165] Ibid. 2214. I have omitted patronymics.

[166] C.I.G. Boeot. 1760-1766.

[167] Böckh, 232, 245.

[168] Pind. Nem. vii.

[169] Bacchul. xiii., Pind. Nem. v.

[170] Wrestling, Pind. Nem. iv., vi.

[171] Anthol. ed. Jacobs, vi. 308.

[172] Sometimes earlier. Plato, Protag. 325 C.

[173] Elderly, as in the picture of Medeia and her children given in Smith’s Smaller Classical Dictionary under “Medea,” and on Douris’ Kulix, Plates I. A and I. B (if those are paidagogoi), and on other vases.

[174] So Fabius Cunctator was called Hannibal’s paidagogos, because he followed him about everywhere.

[175] There is only one for Lusis and his brothers (Plato, Lus. 223 A), for Medeia’s two children (Eur. Med.), for two boys in Lusis, 223 A, and for Themistocles’ children (Herod. viii. 75).

[176] Plato, Lus. 208 C. He is referred to as ὅδε, showing that he is present.

[177] Illustr. Plates I. A and I. B. Perhaps only the walking-stick carried by all Athenians.

[178] Plato, Lus. 223 A.

[179] Plut. Education of Boys.

[180] Xen. Constit. of Lak. ii. 2.

[181] Herod. viii. 75.

[182] Aisch. ag. Timarch. 35. 10.

[183] In the guardian’s accounts given by Lusias, ag. Diogeiton, 32. 28, a paidagogos is paid for till the boy is eighteen; but there was a younger brother, for whom he may have been required, so the elder may have been free earlier. In Plautus (Bacch. 138) we find a paidogogos in attendance till his charge was twenty.

[184] Xen. Constit. of Lak. iii. 1.

[185] Plato, Rep. 406 A.

[186] Plato, Protag. 325 D.

[187] Aischin. ag. Timarch. 9.

[188] γυμνασιαρχής. See Excursus on γυμνασιαρχοί. This law was totally neglected in Socratic Athens. See Plato’s Lusis.

[189] Aischin. ag. Timarch. 10. The word σωφρονιστής, in a general sense, occurs three times in Thucydides.

[190] Deinarchos, ag. Philokles, 15.

[191] Girard, L’Éducation Athénienne, pp. 51, 52.

[192] The Archon Eponumos had the control of orphans and probably intervened if their education was neglected.

[193] Aristoph. Clouds, 960 ff.

[194] By Lamprokles (476 B.C.).

[195] By Kudides (? = Kudias. Smyth, Melic Poets, p. 347).

[196] Isok. Areiop. 149 C, D.

[197] Plato, Rep. 563 A.

[198] Floruit 432 B.C. (in Athen. 18 C).

[199] Xen. Constit. of Lak. ii. 1.

[200] Xen. Banquet, iii. 13.

[201] Herod. vi. 27.

[202] Thuc. vii. 29.

[203] Pol. iv. 20. 7.

[204] Ael. Var. Hist. 7. 15.

[205] Pausan. vi. 9. 6.

[206] Athen. 604 a-b.