Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds

This book offers an assessment of the content, structures and significance of education in Greek and Roman society. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, including the first systematic comparison of literary sources with the papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, Teresa Morgan shows how education developed from a loose repertoire of practices in classical Greece into a coherent system spanning the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. She examines the teaching of literature, grammar and rhetoric across a range of social groups and proposes a model of how the system was able both to maintain its coherence and to accommodate pupils’ widely different backgrounds, needs and expectations. In addition Dr Morgan explores Hellenistic and Roman theories of cognitive development, showing how educationalists claimed to turn the raw material of humanity into good citizens and leaders of society.

• An interpretation of the place of education in Greek and Roman society • A systematic examination of all the evidence for Hellenistic and Roman literate education • An examination of ancient theories of cognitive development in education

List of tables; Preface; Map of Egypt; 1. Introduction: setting the scene; 2. Structures of enkyklios paideia; 3. Literature I: the writing on the wall, and elsewhere; 4. Literature II: maxims and morals; 5. Grammar and the power of language; 6. Rhetoric: art and articulation; 7. All in the mind: images of cognitive development; Conclusion; Appendix I: Egyptian roots of Hellenistic education; Appendix II: index of papyri in school-hands; Tables; Bibliography; Index of names; General index.