The Classical Past in the Ancient Classroom, 280 BCE - 400 CE

FAIN: FT-291264-23

Jacqueline Michelle Arthur-Montagne
University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA 22903-4833)

Research and writing of a monograph that examines classical curricula while also compiling a searchable digital database of Greek and Latin sources on education in the classical period, from the 4th-1st centuries BCE. 

“The Classical Past in the Ancient Classroom” offers the first comprehensive account of what and how ancient students learned about the history of Classical Greece and democratic Athens in the centuries following their collapse. I analyze school texts, teaching handbooks, and rhetorical exercises composed after the fourth century BCE in order to address two questions. First, which historical figures and events from Classical Greece did (and did not) feature prominently in ancient school curricula? Second, how did ancient educators preserve the cultural memory of democracy and free expression in imperial societies that supported neither of these institutions? This project proposes that ancient schools became the most important vehicle for preserving the legacy of Classical Greece as a touchstone of democracy to the present day. I am seeking an NEH Summer Stipend to fund the early-stage primary source research for this book-length study.