red balls. The sums which he did were mostly of a
practical kind. Here is the sample that Horace gives of an arithmetic
lesson. "The Roman boys are taught to divide the penny by long
calculations. 'If from five ounces be subtracted one, what is the
remainder?' At once you can answer, 'A third of a penny.' 'Good, you
will be able to take care of your money. If an ounce be added what does
it make?' 'The half of a penny.'"

While he was acquiring this knowledge he was also learning a language,
the one language besides his own which to a Roman was worth
knowing--Greek. Very possibly he had begun to pick it up in the nursery,
where a Greek slave girl was to be found, just as the French _bonne_ or
the German nursery-governess is among our own wealthier families. He
certainly began to acquire it when he reached the age at which his
regular education was commenced. Cato the Elder, though he made it a
practice to teach his own sons, had nevertheless a Greek slave who was
capable of undertaking the work, and who actually did teach, to the
profit of his very frugal master, the sons of other nobles. Aemilius,
the conqueror of Macedonia, who was a few years younger than Cato, had
as a tutor a Greek of some distinction. While preparing the procession
of his triumph he had sent to Athens for a scene-painter, as we should
call him, who might make pictures of conquered towns wherewith to
illustrate his victories. He added to the commission a stipulation that
the artist should also be qualified to take the place of tutor. By good
fortune the Athenians happened to have in stock, so to speak, exactly
the man he wanted, one Metrodorus. Cicero had a Greek teacher in his own
family, not for his son indeed, who was not born till later, but for his
own benefit. This was one Diodotus, a Stoic philosopher. Cicero had been
his pupil in his boyhood, and gave him a home till the day of his death,
"I learned many things from him, logic especially." In old age he lost
his sight. "Yet," says his pupil, "he devoted himself to study even more
diligently than before; he had books read to him night and day. These
were studies which he could pursue without his eyes; but he also, and
this seems almost incredible, taught geometry without them, instructing
his learners whence and whither the line was to be drawn, and of what
kind it was to be." It is interesting to know that when the old man died
he left his benefactor about nine thousand pounds.

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