The Horrors of Roman Early Education

Cato the Elder famously spent much of his time focused on the intellectual and physical growth of his sons. But as the empire grew and enveloped the east, it became fashionable to turn over the children to educated Greek slaves for schooling. Students would use wax tablets to practice writing and an abacus for basic math. For starters, students were required to learn the names of the letters of the alphabet first,. without any context for what they might mean to later word construction.