A Guide to the History of Physical Education

THE ROMANS.

The year 400 B. C. may be taken as marking roughly the close of the two or three centuries which witnessed the gradual development and culmination of physical training in Greece. Meanwhile a people differing widely from the cultured, reflective, beauty-loving Athenian in character and ideals had been establishing itself on the banks of the Tiber, and was already beginning to display a military prowess and a genius for organization that were to make Rome mistress of Italy within the next hundred and fifty years, extend its sway over the Mediterranean states in another century, and finally achieve world empire. The early Roman possessed some traits in common with the Spartan. He was first of all a man of affairs, intensely practical, and interested in things whose usefulness was apparent. A stranger to the Greek passion for beauty, he considered vague and worthless the notion of harmonious development as something desirable for its own sake. Education should fit a man for his work in the world. It was to make of him a good citizen and a capable soldier, ready to play his part in public life. Bodily exercise was desirable only as it gave robust health and prepared for military service. Music was an unprofitable art, and anything more than the rudiments of literary training was unnecessary. Until the time of the later emperors the state did not concern itself in any way with education, but left it altogether in the parents' hands.