Grammaticus (teacher)
Grammatikos ( Greek γραμματικός ), Latin grammaticus , was in ancient times in Hellenistic and Roman times the name for the teacher responsible for the advanced phase of teaching. In addition, the word could also designate a scholar who was active in linguistics.
Ancient Greek Republic
Since the 3rd century BC The name grammatikos for teachers is attested. The lessons with him built on the previous elementary lessons and consisted mainly of reading Homer and other poets (especially Euripides , Menander , Isocrates and Aesopian fables). Participation was limited to children from wealthier families. Grammar schools, which were clearly separated from elementary education, only emerged in the course of Hellenism, parallel to the development in Rome.
Roman Republic
The late Roman Republic largely adopted the Hellenistic educational system. So it followed here from the 1st century BC Chr. On elementary instruction in reading and writing ( ludus , schola ) the instruction in grammaticus , at least for children of the upper classes. It usually lasted four years, from 11 to 15 years of age. It is unclear whether girls also took part in grammar lessons.
In Rome, too, the grammaticus lessons consisted of reading and linguistic explanations by selected poets. A special feature was the bilingualism in Greek and Latin, usually divided between two teachers, the grammaticus Graecus and the grammaticus Latinus . Read authors in Greek were Homer and the Tragedians, in Latin initially early poets such as Livius Andronicus and Ennius . A canon consisting of Virgil , Terenz , Sallust and Cicero was developed during the imperial era . At the end of the grammar class there could be rhetorical preparatory exercises, the progymnasmata , which otherwise took place at the beginning of the rhetoric class.
literature
- Johannes Christes , Richard Klein , Christoph Lüth (eds.): Handbook of upbringing and education in antiquity , Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2006, ISBN 3-534-15887-3 , especially pp. 95–96 (Roland Baumgarten), 104– 106 (Diana Bormann).
Remarks
- ↑ Konrad Vössing , Coeducation and Public Communication - why girls were excluded from secondary education in Rome , in: Klio 86 (2004), pp. 126-140, has now spoken out against the previously prevailing assumption that girls also attended grammaticus .