The Private Life of the Romans Part 4

--83. The _coemptio_ began with the fict.i.tious sale, carried out in the presence of no less than five witnesses. The purchase money represented by a single coin was laid in the scales held by a _libripens_. The scales, scaleholder, coin, and witnesses were all necessary for this kind of marriage. Then followed the _dextrarum iunctio_ and the words of consent, borrowed, as has been said, from the confarreate ceremony. Originally the groom had asked the bride: _An sibi mater familias esse vellet._ She a.s.sented, and put to him a similar question: _An sibi pater familias esse vellet._ To this he too gave the answer "Yes." A prayer was then recited and sometimes perhaps a sacrifice offered, after which came the congratulations as in the other and more elaborate ceremony.

--84. The third form, that is, the ceremonies preliminary to _usus_, probably admitted of more variation than either of the others, but no description has come down to us. We may be sure that the hands were clasped, the words of consent spoken, and congratulations offered, but we know of no special customs or usages. It was almost necessary for the three forms to get more or less alike in the course of time, though the cake of spelt could not be borrowed from the confarreate ceremony by either of the others, or the scales and their holder from the ceremony of _coemptio_.

--85. The Wedding Feast.--After the conclusion of the ceremony came the wedding feast (_cena nuptialis_) lasting until evening. There can be no doubt that this was regularly given at the house of the bride's father and that the few cases when we know that it was given at the groom's house were exceptional and due to special circ.u.mstances which might cause a similar change to-day. The feast seems to have concluded with the distribution among the guests of pieces of the wedding cake (_mustaceum_), which was made of meal steeped in must (--296) and served on bay leaves. There came to be so much extravagance at these feasts and at the _repotia_ mentioned below (--89) that under Augustus it was proposed to limit their cost by law to one thousand sesterces ($50), a piece of sumptuary legislation as vain as such restrictions have usually proved to be.

--86. The Bridal Procession.--After the wedding feast the bride was formally taken to her husband's house. This ceremony was called _deductio_, and as it was essential to the validity of the marriage (--74) it was never omitted. It was a public function, that is, any one might join the procession and take part in the merriment that distinguished it, and we are told that persons of rank did not scruple to wait in the street to see the bride. As evening approached the procession was formed before the house with torch bearers and flute players at its head. When all was ready the marriage hymn (_hymenaeus_) was sung and the groom took the bride with a show of force from the arms of her mother. The Romans saw in this custom a reminiscence of the rape of the Sabines, but it probably goes far back beyond the founding of Rome to the custom of marriage by capture that prevailed among many peoples. The bride then took her place in the procession attended by three boys, _patrimi et matrimi_ (--82); two of these walked by her side, holding each a hand, while the other carried before her the wedding torch of white thorn (_spina alba_). Behind the bride were carried the distaff and spindle, emblems of domestic life.

The _camillus_ with his _c.u.merus_ also walked in the procession.

--87. During the march were sung the _versus Fescennini_, abounding in coa.r.s.e jests and personalities. The crowd also shouted the ancient marriage cry, the significance of which the Romans themselves did not understand. We find it in at least five forms, all variations of the name Tala.s.sius or Tala.s.sio, who was probably a Sabine divinity, though his functions are unknown. Livy derives it from the supposed name of a senator in the time of Romulus. The bride dropped on the way one of three coins which she carried as an offering to the _Lares compitales_; of the other two she gave one to the groom as an emblem of the dowry she brought him, and one to the _Lares_ of his house. The groom meanwhile scattered nuts through the crowd. This is explained by Catullus as a token of his having become a man and having put away childish things (--103), but the nuts were rather a symbol of fruitfulness. The custom survives in the throwing of rice in modern times.

--88. When the procession reached the house, the bride wound the door posts with bands of wool, probably a symbol of her own work as mistress of the household, and anointed the door with oil and fat, emblems of plenty. She was then lifted carefully over the threshold, in order to avoid the chance of so bad an omen as a slip of the foot on entering the house for the first time. Others, however, see in the custom another survival of marriage by capture. She then p.r.o.nounced again the words of consent: _Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia_, and the doors were closed against the general crowd; only the invited guests entered with the pair.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 16. THE MARRIAGE COUCH]

--89. The husband met the wife in the atrium and offered her fire and water in token of the life they were to live together and her part in the home. Upon the hearth was ready the wood for a fire, and this the bride kindled with the marriage torch which had been carried before her. The torch was afterwards thrown among the guests to be scrambled for as a lucky possession. A prayer was then recited by the bride and she was placed by the _p.r.o.nuba_ on the _lectus genialis_ (Fig. 16), which always stood on the wedding night in the atrium. Here it afterwards remained as a piece of ornamental furniture only. On the next day was given in the new home the second wedding feast (_repotia_) to the friends and relatives, and at this feast the bride made her first offering to the G.o.ds as a _matrona_. A series of feasts followed, given in honor of the newly wedded pair by those in whose social circles they moved.

--90. The Position of Women.--With her marriage the Roman woman reached a position unattained by the women of any other nation in the ancient world. No other people held its women in so high respect; nowhere else did they exert so strong and beneficent an influence. In her own house the Roman matron was absolute mistress. She directed its economy and supervised the tasks of the household slaves but did no menial work herself. She was her children's nurse, and conducted their early training and education. Her daughters were fitted under their mother's eye to be mistresses of similar homes, and remained her closest companions until she herself had dressed them for the bridal and their husbands had torn them from her arms. She was her husband's helpmeet in business as well as in household affairs, and he often consulted her on affairs of state. She was not confined at home to a set of so-called women's apartments, as were her sisters in Greece; the whole house was hers. She received her husband's guests and sat at table with them. Even when subject to the _ma.n.u.s_ of her husband the restraint was so tempered by law and custom (--36) that she could hardly have been chafed by the fetters which had been forged with her own consent (--73).

--91. Out of the house the matron's dress (_stola matronalis_, --259) secured for her the most profound respect. Men made way for her in the street; she had a place at the public games, at the theaters, and at the great religious ceremonies of state. She could give testimony in the courts, and until late in the Republic might even appear as an advocate. Her birthday was sacredly observed and made a joyous occasion by the members of her household, and the people as a whole celebrated the _Matronalia_, the great festival on the first of March, and gave presents to their wives and mothers. Finally, if she came of a n.o.ble family, she might be honored, after she had pa.s.sed away, with a public eulogy, delivered from the _rostra_ in the forum.

--92. It must be admitted that the education of women was not carried far at Rome, and that their accomplishments were few, and rather useful and homely than elegant. But the Roman women spoke the purest and best Latin known in the highest and most cultivated circles, and so far as accomplishments were concerned their husbands fared no better. Respectable women in Greece were allowed no education at all.

--93. It must be admitted, too, that a great change took place in the last years of the Republic. With the laxness of the family life, the freedom of divorce, and the inflow of wealth and extravagance, the purity and dignity of the Roman matron declined, as had before declined the manhood and the strength of her father and her husband.

It must be remembered, however, that ancient writers did not dwell upon certain subjects that are favorites with our own. The simple joys of childhood and domestic life, home, the praises of sister, wife, and mother may not have been too sacred for the poet and the essayist of Rome, but the essayist and the poet did not make them their themes.

The mother of Horace must have been a singularly gifted woman, but she is never mentioned by her son. The descriptions of domestic life, therefore, that have come down to us are either from Greek sources, or are selected from precisely those circles where fashion, profligacy, and impurity made easy the work of the satirist. It is, therefore, safe to say that the pictures painted for us in the verse of Catullus and Juvenal, for example, are not true of Roman women as a cla.s.s in the times of which they write. The strong, pure woman of the early day must have had many to imitate her virtues in the darkest times of the Empire. There were mothers then, as well as in the times of the Gracchi; there were wives as n.o.ble as the wife of Marcus Brutus.

CHAPTER IV

CHILDREN AND EDUCATION

REFERENCES: Marquardt, 80-134; Voigt, 322 f., 397 f., 455 f.; Goll, "Gallus," II, 65-113; Friedlander, I, 456 f., III, 376 f.; Ramsay, 475 f.; Smith, _ludus litterarius_; Harper, _education_; Baumeister, 237, 1588 f.; Schreiber, Pl. 79, 82, 89, 90; Lubker, _Erziehung_.

--94. Legal Status.--The position of the children in the _familia_ has been already explained (----31, 32). It has been shown that in the eyes of the law they were little better than the chattels of the Head of the House. It rested with him to grant them the right to live; all that they earned was his; they married at his bidding, and either remained under his _potestas_ or pa.s.sed under another no less severe.

It has also been suggested that custom (--32) and _pietas_ (--73) had made this condition less rigorous than it seems to us.

--95. Susceptio.--The power of the _pater familias_ was displayed immediately after the birth of the child. By invariable custom it was laid upon the ground at his feet. If he raised (_tollere_, _suscipere_) it in his arms, he acknowledged it as his own by the act (_susceptio_) and admitted it to all the rights and privileges that membership in a Roman family implied. If he refused to do so, the child became an outcast, without family, without the protection of the spirits of the dead (--27), utterly friendless and forsaken. The disposal of the child did not ordinarily call for any act of downright murder, such as was contemplated in the case of Romulus and Remus and was afterwards forbidden by Romulus the King (--32). The child was simply "exposed" (_exponere_), that is, taken by a slave from the house and left on the highway to live or to die. When we consider the slender chance for life that the newborn child has with even the tenderest care, the result of this exposure will not seem doubtful.

--96. But there was a chance for life, and the mother, powerless to interpose in her infant's behalf, often sent with it some trinkets or trifling articles of jewelry that would serve perhaps to identify it, if it should live. Even if the child was found in time by persons disposed to save its life, its fate might be worse than death. Slavery was the least of the evils to which it was exposed. Such foundlings often fell into the hands of those whose trade was beggary and who trained children for the same profession. In the time of the Empire, at least, they cruelly maimed and deformed their victims, in order to excite more readily the compa.s.sion of those to whom they appealed for alms. Such things are still done in southern Europe.

--97. Dies l.u.s.tricus.--The first eight days of the life of the acknowledged child were called _primordia_, and were the occasion of various religious ceremonies. During this time the child was called _pupus_ (--55), although to weak and puny children the individual name might be given soon after birth. On the ninth day in the case of a boy, on the eighth in the case of a girl, the _praenomen_ (--43) was given with due solemnity. A sacrifice was offered and the ceremony of purification was performed, which gave the day its name, _dies l.u.s.tricus_, although it was also called the _dies nominum_ and _nominalia_. These ceremonies seem to have been private; that is, it can not be shown that there was any taking of the child to a _templum_, as there was among the Jews, or any enrollment of the name upon an official list. In the case of the boy the registering of the name on the list of citizens may have occurred at the time of putting on the _toga virilis_ (--127).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 17. CREPUNDIA]

--98. The _dies l.u.s.tricus_ was, however, a time of rejoicing and congratulation among the relatives and friends, and these together with the household slaves presented the child with little metal toys or ornaments in the form of flowers, miniature axes and swords, and especially figures shaped like a half-moon (_lunulae_), etc. These, called collectively _crepundia_, were strung together and worn around the neck and over the breast (Fig. 17). They served in the first place as playthings to keep the child amused, hence the name "rattles," from _crepo_. Besides, they were a protection against witchcraft or the evil eye (_fascinatio_), especially the _lunulae_. More than this, they were a means of identification in the case of lost or stolen children, and for this reason Terence calls them _monumenta_. Such were the trinkets sometimes left with an abandoned child (--96), their value depending, of course, upon the material of which they were made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 18. THE BULLA]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 19. GIRL'S NECKLACE]

--99. The Bulla.--But of more significance than these was the _bulla aurea_, which the father hung around the child's neck on this day, if he had not done so at the time of the _susceptio_. It consisted of two concave pieces of gold, like a watch case (Fig. 18), fastened together by a wide spring of the same metal and containing an amulet as a protection against _fascinatio_. It was hung around the neck by a chain or cord and worn upon the breast. The _bulla_ came originally from Etruria,[1] and for a long time the children of patricians only were allowed to wear those of gold, the plebeians contenting themselves with an imitation made of leather, hung on a leathern thong. In the course of time the distinction ceased to be observed, as we have seen such distinctions die out in the use of names and in the marriage ceremonies, and by Cicero's time the _bulla aurea_ might be worn by the child of any freeborn citizen. The choice of material depended rather upon the wealth and generosity of the father than upon his social position. The girl wore her _bulla_ (Fig. 19) until the eve of her wedding day, laying it aside with other childish things, as we have seen (--76); the boy wore his until he a.s.sumed the _toga virilis_, when it was dedicated to the _Lares_ of the house and carefully preserved. If the boy became a successful general and won the coveted honor of a triumph, he always wore his _bulla_ in the triumphal procession as a protection against envy.

[Footnote 1: The influence of Etruria upon Rome faded before that of Greece (--5), but from Etruria the Romans got the art of divination, certain forms of architecture, the insignia of royalty, and the games of the circus and the amphitheater.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 20. CHILD IN LITTER]

--100. Nurses.--The mother was the child's nurse (--90) not only in the days of the Republic but even into the Empire, the Romans having heeded the teachings of nature in this respect longer than any other civilized nation of the old world. Of course it was not always possible then, as it is not always possible now, for the mother to nurse her children, and then her place was taken by a slave (_nutrix_), to whom the name _mater_ seems to have been given out of affection. In the ordinary care of the children, too, the mother was a.s.sisted, but only a.s.sisted, by slaves. Under the eye of the mother, slaves washed and dressed the child, told it stories, sang it lullabies, and rocked it to sleep on the arm or in a cradle. None of these nursery stories have come down to us, but Quintilian tells us that Aesop's fables resembled them. For a picture of a cradle see Smith under the words _cunae_ and _cunabula_; in Rich under _cunaria_ is a picture of a nurse giving a baby its bath. The place of the modern baby carriage was taken by a litter (_lectica_), and a terra cotta figure has come down to us (Fig. 20) representing a child carried in such a litter by two men.

--101. After the Punic wars (--5) it became customary for the well-to-do to select for the child's nurse a Greek slave, that the child might acquire the Greek language as naturally as its own. In Latin literature are many pa.s.sages that testify to the affection felt for each other by nurse and child, an affection that lasted on into manhood and womanhood. It was a common thing for the young wife to take with her into her new home, as her adviser and confidant, the nurse who had watched over her in infancy. Faithfulness on the part of such slaves was also frequently repaid by manumission.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 21. JOINTED DOLL]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 22. CHILDREN PLAYING BALL]

--102. Playthings.--But little is known of the playthings, pets, and games of Roman children, because as has been said (--93) domestic life was not a favorite theme of Roman writers and no books were then written especially for the young. Still there are scattered references in literature from which we can learn something, and more is known from monumental sources (--10). This evidence shows that playthings were numerous and of very many kinds. The _crepundia_ have been mentioned already (--98), and these miniature tools and implements seem to have been very common. Dolls there were, too, and some of these have come down to us, though we can not always distinguish between statuettes and genuine playthings. Some were made of clay, others of wax, and even jointed arms and legs were not unknown (Fig. 21). Little wagons and carts were also common (Schreiber, Lx.x.xII, 10), and Horace speaks of hitching mice to toys of this sort. There are numerous pictures and descriptions of children spinning tops, making them revolve by blows of a whiplash, as in Europe nowadays. Hoops also were a favorite plaything, driven with a stick and having pieces of metal fastened to them to warn people of their approach. Boys walked on stilts and played with b.a.l.l.s (Fig. 22), too, but as men enjoyed this sport as well, it may be deferred until we reach the subject of amus.e.m.e.nts (--318).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 23. BOY AND GOOSE]

--103. Pets and Games.--Pets were even more common then than now, and then as now the dog was easily first in the affections of children (Schreiber, Lx.x.xII, 6). The cat, on the other hand, was hardly known until very late in the history of Greece and Rome. Birds were very commonly made pets, and besides the doves and pigeons which are familiar to us as well, we are told that ducks, crows, and quail were pets of children. So also were geese, odd as this seems to us, and the statue of a child struggling with a goose as large as himself is well known (Fig. 23). Monkeys were known, but could not have been common.

Mice have been mentioned already. Games of many kinds were played by children, but we can only guess at the nature of most of them, as we have hardly any formal descriptions. There were games corresponding to our Odd or Even, Blindman's Buff, Hide and Seek, Jackstones (--320), and Seesaw (Schreiber, LXXIX and Lx.x.x). Pebbles and nuts were used in games something like our marbles, and there were board-games also. To these may be added for boys riding, swimming, and wrestling, although these were taken too seriously, perhaps, to be called games and belonged rather to their training for the duties of citizenship.

--104. Home Training.--The training of the children was conducted by the father and mother in person. More stress was laid upon the moral than upon the intellectual development: reverence for the G.o.ds, respect for the law, unquestioning and instant obedience to authority, truthfulness, and self-reliance were the most important lessons for the child to learn. Much of this came from the constant a.s.sociation of the children with their parents, which was the characteristic feature of the home training of the Romans as compared with that of other peoples of the time. The children sat at table with their elders or helped to serve the meals. Until the age of seven both boys and girls had their mother for their teacher. From her they learned to speak correctly their native tongue, and Latin rhetoricians tell us that the best Latin was spoken by the n.o.ble women of the great houses of Rome.

The mother taught them the elements of reading and writing and as much of the simpler operations of arithmetic as children so young could learn.

--105. From about the age of seven the boy pa.s.sed under the care of regular teachers, but the girl remained her mother's constant companion. Her schooling was necessarily cut short, because the Roman girl became a wife so young (--67), and there were things to learn in the meantime that books do not teach. From her mother she learned to spin and weave and sew: even Augustus wore garments woven by his wife.

By her mother she was initiated into all the mysteries of household economy and fitted to take her place as the mistress of a household of her own, to be a Roman _matrona_, the most dignified position to which a woman could aspire in the ancient world (----90, 91).

--106. The boy, except during the hours of school, was equally his father's companion. If the father was a farmer, as all Romans were in earlier times, the boy helped in the fields and learned to plow and plant and reap. If the father was a man of high position and lived in the capital, the boy stood by him in his hall as he received his guests, learned to know their faces, names, and rank, and acquired a practical knowledge of politics and affairs of state. If the father was a senator, the boy, in the earlier days only it is true, accompanied him to the senate house to hear the debates and listen to the great orators of the time; and the son could always go with him to the forum when he was an advocate or concerned in a public trial.

--107. Then as every Roman was bred a soldier the father trained the son in the use of arms and in the various military exercises, as well as in the manly sports of riding, swimming, wrestling, and boxing. In these exercises strength and agility were kept in view, rather than the grace of movement and symmetrical development of form, on which the Greeks laid so much stress. On great occasions, too, when the cabinets in the atrium were opened and the wax busts of their ancestors displayed, the boy and girl of n.o.ble family were always present and learned the history of the family of which they were a part, and with it the history of Rome.

--108. Schools.--The actual instruction given to the children by the father would vary with his own education and at best be subject to all sorts of interruptions due to his private business or his public duties. We find that this embarra.s.sment was appreciated in very early times, and that it was customary for a _pater familias_ who happened to have among his slaves one competent to give the needed instruction, to turn over to him the actual teaching of the children. It must be remembered that slaves taken in war were often much better educated than their Roman masters. Not all households, however, would include a competent teacher, and it would seem only natural for the fortunate owner of such a slave to receive into his house at fixed hours of the day the children of his friends and neighbors to be taught together with his own.

--109. For this privilege he might charge a fee for his own benefit, as we are told that Cato actually did, or he might allow the slave to retain as his _peculium_ (--33) the little presents given him by his pupils in lieu of direct payment. The next step, one taken in times too early to be accurately fixed, was to select for the school a more convenient place than a private house, one that was central and easily accessible, and to receive as pupils all who could pay the modest fee that was demanded. To these schools girls as well as boys were admitted, but for the reason given in --105 the girls had little time for studying more than their mothers could teach them, and those who did carry their studies further came usually of families who preferred to educate their daughters in the privacy of their own homes and could afford to do so. The exceptions to this rule were so few, that from this point we may consider the education of boys alone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 24. WAXED TABLETS AND STILUS]

--110. Subjects Taught in Elementary Schools.--In these elementary schools the only subjects taught were reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the first, great stress was laid upon the p.r.o.nunciation: the sounds were easy enough but quant.i.ty was hard to master. The teacher p.r.o.nounced first syllable by syllable, then the separate words, and finally the whole sentence, the pupils p.r.o.nouncing after him at the tops of their voices. In the teaching of writing, wax tablets (Fig. 24) were employed, much as slates were a generation ago.

The teacher first traced with a _stilus_ the letters that served as a copy, then he guided the pupil's hand with his own until the child had learned to form the letters independently. When some dexterity had been acquired, the pupil was taught to use the reed pen and write with ink upon papyrus. For practice, sheets were used that had had one side written upon already for more important purposes. If any books at all were used in these schools, the pupils must have made them for themselves by writing from the teacher's dictation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 25. ABACUS]

--111. In arithmetic mental calculation was emphasized, but the pupil was taught to use his fingers in a very elaborate way that is not now thoroughly understood, and harder sums were worked out with the help of the reckoning board (_abacus_, Fig. 25). In addition to all this, attention was paid to the training of the memory, and the pupil was made to learn by heart all sorts of wise and pithy sayings and especially the Twelve Tables of the Law. These last became a regular fetich in the schools, and even when the language in which they were written had become obsolete pupils continued to learn and recite them.

Cicero had learned them in his boyhood, but within his lifetime they were dropped from the schools.

--112. Grammar Schools.--Among the results of contact with other peoples that followed the Punic wars (--5) was the extension of education at Rome beyond these elementary and strictly utilitarian subjects. The Greek language came to be generally learned (--101) and Greek ideas of education were in some degree adopted. Schools were established in which the central thing was the study of the Greek poets, and these schools we may call Grammar Schools because the teacher was called _grammaticus_. Homer was long the universal text-book, and students were not only taught the language, but were instructed in the matters of geography, mythology, antiquities, history, and ethics suggested by the portions of the text which they read. The range of instruction and its value depended entirely upon the teacher, as does such instruction to-day, but it was at best fragmentary and disconnected. There was no systematic study of any of these subjects, not even of history, despite its interest and practical value to a world-ranging people like the Romans.