rare_, &c. The Etruscan element imparted to this earnestness an
especially solemn character. The Roman was no more, like the Greek,
unembarrassed at naturalness. He was ashamed of nakedness; _verecundia,
pudor_, were genuinely Roman. _Vitam praeferre pudori_ was shameful. On
the contrary, the Greek gave to Greeks a festival in exhibiting the
splendor of his naked body, and the inhabitants of Crotona erected a
statue to Philip only because he was so perfectly beautiful. Simply to
be beautiful, only beautiful, was enough for the Greek. But a Roman, in
order to be recognized, must have done something for Rome: _se bene de
republica mereri_.--

Sec. 220. In the first education of children the agency of the mother is
especially influential, so that woman with the Romans took generally a
more moral, a higher, and a freer position. It is worthy of remark that
while, as the beautiful, she set the Greeks at variance, among the
Romans, through her ethical authority, she acted as reconciler.

Sec. 221. The mother of the Roman helped to form his character; the father
undertook the work of instruction. When in his fifteenth year the boy
exchanged the _toga praetextata_ for the _toga virilis_, he was usually
sent to some relative, or to some jurist, as his guardian, to learn
thoroughly, under his guidance, of the laws and of the state; with the
seventeenth began military service. All education was for a long time
entirely a private affair. On account of the necessity of a mechanical
unity in work which war demands, the greatest stress was laid upon
obedience. In its restricted sense education comprised Reading, Writing,
and Arithmetic; the last being, on account of its usefulness, more
esteemed by the Romans than by the Greeks, who gave more time to
Geometry. The schools, very characteristically, were called _Ludi_,
because their work was, in distinction from other practice, regarded
simply as a recreation, as play.

--The Roman recognized with pride this distinction between the Greek and
himself; Cicero's Introduction to his Essay on Oratory expresses it. To
be practical was always the effort of the reflective character of the
Romans, which was always placing new ends and seeking the means for
their attainment; which loved moderation, not to secure beauty thereby,
but respected it as a means for a happy success (_medium tenuere
beati_); which did not possess serene self-limitation, or [Greek:
sophrosyne], but calculation _quid val