ABSTRACT
The Institutio oratoria (Education of an Orator) written in 95 CE by the most famous teacher in Rome, Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, provides us with a clear view of the Roman educational system and its objectives.
Quintilian lays out a systematic process beginning in the boy’s cradle and continuing through his professional life to retirement and beyond. Its objective is “the perfect orator,” who is described as “a good man speaking well.” A system of carefully-planned exercises in both writing and speaking creates in the student a “facility” of being able to speak on any subject, anytime, anywhere. These exercises include Rhetoric, Imitation, Declamation, and a dozen increasingly difficult Composition Exercises called Progymnasmata. Quintilian’s system has been adapted down through the ages and remains pertinent and lively today.
