EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGICAL THOUGHT OF ANCIENT ROME IN THE EARLY EMPIRE PERIOD

Abstract

The article analyzes the educational system and pedagogical ideas of Ancient Rome and discusses their modifications during the early Empire. It is noted that with the establishment of Octavian Augustus’ Principate, the social system of Ancient Rome was transformed and acquired monarchical features. The focus is on searching for a «social consensus» and social support for the power of the Princeps based on the Senate and the equestrian class. The study has identified the ways of solving the social issues and creating a «new» administration that would meet the new goals and circumstances of the state’s existence and argues that the formation of administrative and management personnel in the central and provincial regions of the Empire was carried out from among the senatorial rank and the equestrian class, interested in preserving their power and influence, and completely devoted to the princeps. The article elucidates the educational system of Ancient Rome in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC and characterizes its three-stage school structure, revealing and updating the reasons for and changes in Roman school education during the Principate (1st–3rd centuries). The emphasis is placed on significant transformations in the content of rhetorical education, the formalized nature of education, and its focus on the professional training of administrators and managers devoted to the princeps. Rhetorical schools turned into elitist educational institutions with high fees and a limited social composition of students. The main learning method was memorization of texts and oratory exercises (progymnasmata), composing and delivering declamations. Trivial (primary) and grammar schools also operated in the early Empire, whose students had a low social status. Regarding the position of teachers, they were mostly of low origin and salary, and considered teaching as a way to increase their social status.The pedagogical ideas of Marcus Fabius Quintilian are identified as the basis for the formation of the educational system of the Middle Ages.