Youth (2)

Turning me into a proper Roman citizen involved more than a
decade of learning. When I turned six, my father sent me to a
nearby school--a small building where about six of us students
were taught by a teacher, who tried his mightiest to help us
learn to read and write. We were given little wax-pads on which
we could pen our rudimentary efforts. No paper for us, until we
could properly write. Paper was hard to make, hard to come by,
and thus expensive. So we went with the wax.

Naturally we boys were not exactly paradigms of devoted
scholarship. So, like in most Roman primary schools, our
teacher usually tried to beat an education down on our heads.
It was only after my bruises started to show dramatically that
my father decided that it might be best to tutor me at home.
This was not an unusual educational route for Equestrian or
Patrician children. However, the main challenge was to find
an appropriate tutor for me--one who could provide me with
the necessities of a good Roman education.

The first priority was to find a reliable tutor, an educated slave
who could be brought into our household. Preferably, too, the
tutor should be a Greek. For centuries Rome educated its sons
both in Greek and Latin. In time I came to understand that Greek
was the language of commerce throughout the Empire. Studying
history, I learned how Alexander the Great had spread the Greek
culture--and its language--throughout many of the Provinces that
eventually were included in the Roman Empire. What with the
considerable diversity of all its peoples, Greek became the
lingual tool of communication.

It took some time finding a tutor that would meet our needs.
Eventually my aunt Eleana came to the rescue. She knew of
a Greek freedman who aspired to be a tutor. He was young
and totally inexperienced, but my father decided to take him
on and give him a chance. I was seven by the time I finally
had my very own tutor. He had a long and difficult Greek name,
but he cheerfully told us to call him "Quint." Good enough!
I liked him.

My schooling had already begun, when I first began learning
to read and write. When Quint stepped in I had already started
counting. However, memorizing Roman numerals was not a
true talent of mine. Father worried over this, considering how I
might do when it came time to bring me into our shipping
corporation. Keeping correct records, counting, would be an
absolute necessity on my part. In the end, with Quint struggling
magnificently, I finally managed to learn to count. It's just that
I hated it.

Eventually I was given scrolls and books to read. Those that
I read, my favorites, were about the exploits of our military heroes
and our Roman legions. Early on I seemed to be drawn into a
different direction from my brothers. It became obvious that I was
more militarily inclined than commercially inclined. This began
to alarm my father, so he decided to continue my education in a
far different way.

Dragging Quint along with me, we were put aboard one of my
father's ships. And father went with us, probably to make sure we
didn't jump ship! Like my brothers before me, father decided to
have me visit some of the major ports in Gaul and Hispania. It
would be an education in which I would meet merchants who
dealt with my father. I would visit their shops and small factories.
Also I would visit agricultural plantations that provided needed
products for Rome.

Virtually during this whole tour we clung to the coastline. It's
safer sailing. Happily I have never had the tendency to get
seasick, but Quint had his bouts. Still, whilst sailing, poor Quint
would try to teach me rhetoric. Again, public speaking was not
my forte--especially when I tried to lift my voice above the noise
of the wind flapping against the sails. Still, I have to give credit
where credit is due. Rhetoric instilled in me the good sense of
logic. To think and actually feel logically helps one stand above
the chaos, especially the chaos that always lurks in our own mind.

All these educational efforts lasted more than a decade. I survived
through it all, moving from childhood through my adolescence.
The next step in this educational process was a *big* step. At the
age of eighteen I was to be sent to Athens, ostensibly to spend a
year studying at the major philosophical schools located there.
Again, this special time at Athens was part and parcel when it
came to the education of the nobility.

At least I didn't have to go alone. Quint would go with me.
Knowing Athens, he would ease me into its routines. As for
Quint, he took the opportunity to engage these philosophical
schools at a deeper level. His hope was eventually to become
a philosophical teacher in one of these schools situated around
the Roman Empire.