Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/237

 *minating at twelve, the second at fourteen, the third at twenty, and the fourth at twenty-five years of age. Primary education began at from five to seven, and the pupils were usually sent to a day-school in the charge of a slave, named a paedagogue. There they were taught to read, write, and to count; and suitable pieces were given to them to learn by rote. A wooden tablet faced with wax, upon which they scratched with a style, took the place of the modern slate or copy-book. Calculation was restricted to some simple operations of mental arithmetic, owing to the cumbersome method of figuring employed by the ancients, which did not lend itself easily to the manipulation of written numbers. The schoolmasters who presided over such preparatory establish-*