Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity

Abstract

The conventional approach to the study of Greek and Roman education has emphasized the elements in it that are most familiar to people who approach the subject from the perspective of the Western tradition. These elements include formal curricula, literary canons, pedagogical methods, teaching and learning materials, and schools. An expansion in what is understood as “education,” together with the influence of social history and anthropology on traditional classical studies, has since the 1970s led to the intensive examination of other features of Greek and Roman childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood (for both males and females), such as rites of passage, initiation, and civic education. Taking recent research into account, this chapter considers the role that the familiar, traditional elements played in Greek and Roman education, but it also surveys other widespread practices that are of broad social and historical interest for modern research.