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nto that of the head of the household to which their husbands belonged. *Education.* The training of the Roman youth at this time was mainly of a practical nature. There was as yet little interest in intellectual pursuits and no Roman literature had been developed. The art of writing, it is true, had long been known and was employed in the keeping of records and accounts. Such instruction as there was, was given by the father to his sons. It consisted probably of athletic exercises, of practical training in agricultural pursuits, in the traditions of the state and of the Roman heroes, and in the conduct of public business through attendance at places where this was transacted. At the age of eighteen the young Roman entered upon a new footing in relation to the state. He was now liable to military service and qualified to attend the _comitia_. In these respects he was emancipated from the paternal authority. If he attained a magistracy, his father obeyed him like any other citizen. The discipline and respect for authority which was acquired in the family life was carried with him by the Roman into his public relations, and this sense of duty was perhaps the strongest quality in the Roman character. It was supplemented by the characteristic Roman seriousness (_gravitas_), developed under the stress of the long struggles for existence waged by the early Roman state. In the Roman the highest virtue was piety (_pietas_), which meant the dutiful performance of all one's obligations, to the gods, to one's kinsmen, and to the state. The Romans were preeminently a practical people, and their practical virtues laid the foundation for their political greatness. *The mos maiorum.* We have already referred to the conservatism of the Romans, and have seen how this characteristic was affected by their religious beliefs. It was further strengthened by the respect paid to parental authority and by the absence of intellectual training. In public affairs this conservatism was shown by the influence of ancestral custom--the _mos maiorum_. In the Roman government this became a very potent factor, since the Roman constitution was not a single comprehensive document but consisted of a number of separate enactments supplemented by custom and precedent and interpreted in the light thereof. CHAPTER VIII ROMAN DOMINATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN; THE FIRST PHASE--THE STRUGGLE WITH
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