Greek Influence on the Roman School System Essay Example

The education of a Roman youth would be, and was better, with the influence of the Greek school system. Without the Greek influence on the Roman school system, the Roman education would have been mostly practical, meaning there would be little or no focus on learning to read or write and it would focus more on farming, agricultural, and military learning. This would have reduced the amount of information about the ancient Romans that we have since the education of Roman youths would not have taught them the importance of reading and writing.

It was in 3rd century BC when a Greek captive from Tarentum named Livius Andronicus was sold as a slave and was employed as a tutor for his master’s children. When he obtained his freedom, he continued teaching and was made the first Roman schoolmaster. He began to implement the Greek methods of teaching, which taught more literature and music than the Roman system.

Before Livius came, the education system of the Romans relied on the family to teach the youths. This was called a moral education. The father did much of the teaching and taught his children the basic knowledge they would need to survive. This included apiculture, domestic, and military skills. The mother did much of the actual moral teaching and built her children’s sense of right and wrong and basic morality.

With the introduction of the Greek’s school system into the Roman education system, Roman youths gained a more formal education which was divided into three distinct categories. The first of these was the Elementary school. In this school the subjects which were taught were reading, writing, pronunciation, and basic arithmetic. The next category was Grammar school in which students received a literary education. The third and final category was the School of Rhetoric in which the students focused primarily on authors of prose, composition, and geography.

Now, as I have mentioned before, the Romans only taught practical lessons to their children and did not focus on reading or writing or other such subjects. If the Greeks had not influenced the Roman school system, then many of the great Roman scholars that we know today would not have received the education necessary for them to become great and thus would have never had a chance to add their knowledge to the world.

Furthermore, had the Greek influence not been introduced, there would have been less accounts of ancient Rome for us to study and learn from. We ultimately wouldn’t know as much about ancient Rome as we do today. So, the Roman youths received a better and more beneficial education with the Greek influence on the school system.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_ancient_Rome.