story.=--We have seen that Rome began with a small
territory in the center of Italy, and that province after province was
added, until in the time of Augustus she ruled the world. Italy, the
center of the empire, has a diversified surface, a mild climate, and a
fertile soil. In the time of Augustus, the Roman Empire embraced all of
the border of the Mediterranean, extended as far north as the North Sea,
as far east as the Euphrates, as far south as the Sahara, and west to
the Atlantic. With the great Mediterranean entirely under its control,
including the seas, bays, and rivers tributary to it; with its rich
territories; and with its vast population, which represented most of the
enterprise and civilization of the world,--this great empire possessed
wonderful advantages for the spread of Christianity, for the
dissemination of intelligence, and for the improvement of the human
race.

The government of the Romans was generally some form of republic, the
people always being jealous of their rights. Their religion took on
gross forms of idolatry, for they readily adopted and worshiped the gods
of the Grecians, Egyptians, and other conquered peoples. Temples to
Faith, Hope, Concord, and other virtues were erected and maintained. The
Romans were very superstitious. These facts have a bearing upon
Christian education, and will explain some of the chief difficulties
which it had to encounter.

=The Home.=--While in Athens the father had charge of the education of
the boy in his early years, in Rome that duty devolved almost entirely
upon the mother. In early Roman history the matron was celebrated for
her virtues--fidelity to her husband, love for her children, and queenly
guardianship of the sacred precincts of the home. The name of the Roman
matron became a synonym of all that is noble, wifely, and motherly in
the home. Without doubt the character had sadly deteriorated at the
period of which we write, but there still remained with many the lofty
ideals which had been fostered in earlier times.

The husband was the head of the house, but to the wife was committed the
care of the children and their instruction for the first six or seven
years of their lives. She taught them strict obedience and politeness,
and instructed them in the "Twelve Tables of Roman Law."[21]

The mother also took great pains to teach her children correct
pronunciation. She taught them their letters, first the name and then
the form, a practice whic