20 ^VOMAN IN SCIENCE 



As to her mental work, far from, being considered on its 

 own merits or as a factor in the world's growth, it was 

 flouted as 



"Mere woman's work 



Expressing the comparative respect 



Which means the absolute scorn." 



As early as 450 B.C., when the laws of the Twelve Tables 

 were promulgated, the girls of Borne received instruction 

 in reading, writing and arithmetic. "Up before dawn, 

 with a lamp to light the way, and an attendant to carry 

 her satchel, the little Roman maiden of seven years, or 

 over, would trudge off to the portico where the school- 

 master wielded his rod. 1 For some years this life con- 

 tinued, with but few holidays, and those far between, 

 until she attained some proficiency in the rudiments. Then, 

 most probably, her education in the scholastic sense came 

 to an end. Her brothers and boy schoolmates, if their 

 parents wished it, could proceed from the primary school 

 to the secondary, where geography, history and ethics were 

 taught; where the art of elocution was assiduously prac- 

 ticed and the works of the great Greek and Roman poets 



iThis type of the old Eoman schoolmaster is alluded to in the 

 following well known verses of Martial: 



"Quid tibi nobiscum est, ludi scelerate magister, 



Invisum pueris virginibusque caput? 

 Nondum cristati rupere silentia Galli 



Murmure jam saevo verberibusque tonas." 



Lib. IX, 79. 

 which have been rendered as follows: 



Despiteful pedant, why dost me pursue, 

 Thou head detested by the younger crew! 

 Before the cock proclaims the day is near 

 Thy direful threats and lashes stun my ear. 



Martial elsewhere refers to "Ferulaeque tristes, sceptra pedago- 

 gorum" melancholy rods, sceptres of pedagogues and it appears 

 from one of Juvenal's satires that "to withdraw the hand from the 

 rod" was a phrase meaning "to leave school." 



