ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 250 Dionia School ([-])

Dionia's classroom is a cube with a height of three and a half meters. It is a colonnade-type structure. Except for a brick wall built in the north, the inner surface is paved with cement and plastered. The wall surface is kept smooth and painted with black paint. The other three sides are transparent and are roofs supported by countless stone pillars to ensure sufficient light, so it is an open building.

Before Patroclus entered the classroom, he saw many children already sitting inside.If Patroclus didn't want to sit outside the stone pillar and be exposed to the sun for a long time, he would have to sit in the back row.He was not very happy, seeing that they were all boys (although the Senate agreed to the proposal that "girls can also study in school", years of traditional habits still made them impose restrictions, and men and women could not be in the same classroom) , the usually naughty temper started to show up.

He carried the folding wooden chair, pushed forward, and shouted: "Stay back! Make room for me!"

Most of the boys in the classroom were only seven or eight years old, so the 13-year-old Patroclus looked tall. Everyone had no choice but to retreat out of fear, but one child stood up and accused Patroclus.

The two refused to give in to each other, and the verbal conflict developed into physical violence. When the teacher arrived, they saw Patroclus throwing the boy to the ground.

He hurriedly stepped forward to stop the fight. After asking about the reason for the fight, he immediately asked the culprit to stand outside the classroom.

Patroclus refused.

The teacher said sternly: "If you don't want to accept punishment, then you don't have to come to school again!"

Although Patroclus was naughty, he knew the importance and walked out of the classroom obediently.Unexpectedly, the boy who was beaten took the opportunity to kick him in the butt, and the teacher was so angry that he yelled: "You should also go out and make me stand!"

After dealing with the fight incident, the teacher put a big hourglass on the wooden table, then sat on the wooden chair, took out the student roster, and said to the children sitting around him: "From today onwards, I will be in this classroom Professor Li, you know the teacher of Greek writing, my name is Onatas..."

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"Hey, big man, I'm Stepophos, the adopted son of Amyntas. What's your name?" The grudges between the boys came and went quickly. The boy stood outside the classroom feeling helpless. He couldn't help but said to his opponent just now.

"Patroclus, son of Pariandorus." He responded casually, then thought of something and hurriedly asked: "Your father is Amyntas! Which Amyntas?!"

"Of course it's the brave Amyntas of the First Legion!" Stepforos said proudly.

"My father Pariandorus was a soldier under your father Amyntas." Patroclus said in surprise.

The two little boys became very close...

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In the past two years, one of the consequences of Dionysius's military operations to unify southeastern Sicily was that many people in the city-states of southeastern Sicily were forced to flee their homes, most of whom were attracted by the Dionysian Immigration Act. Come to Turii, which is not too far from Sicily.

Sicily, as the first place where the Greeks developed colonization in the Western Mediterranean, not only developed agriculture and commerce, but also had closer cultural exchanges with mainland Greece. Its cultural heritage is deeper than that of the city-states in the Italian peninsula. Therefore, some Sicilians successfully passed through Ancita. North organized the test to become a teacher of the Dionian League, and Onatas was one of them.

He chose to become a teacher at the newly established Dionia school. Although the salary was not as high as that of a private school teacher, he could immediately become a citizen of Dionia and share land.

The school does not have unified teaching materials, and the content and pace of teaching are determined by the teachers themselves. However, the school requires that after three academic years, primary education students must be able to recognize and write at least one thousand Greek characters, recite letters with accurate pronunciation, and And be able to write short articles with smooth language and clear meaning, so that students can successfully pass the test and enter intermediate education.Moreover, each teacher's teaching performance will be assessed every year. A teacher with poor performance for three consecutive years will be disqualified as a teacher, which means that he will be deprived of all the rights given to teachers by Dionia.

Therefore, Onatas had a sense of urgency in his heart. As a highly educated man, he could not allow himself to lose to other teachers. However, when he first learned knowledge, his parents hired teachers to teach one-on-one at home. Nowadays, we have to face more than 30 students in school. How can we ensure the effectiveness of teaching?

Onatas thought carefully beforehand, so when he came in, he first punished the two children who were fighting. After the roll call, he sternly emphasized the need to abide by the classroom disciplines. Students who violated it would be criticized and punished. , serious cases will result in expulsion from school.

In this way, the originally noisy classroom became quiet.

Onatas was very satisfied with the effect. He stood up and picked up a white pen from the wooden table. It is said that it was made by boiling limestone, adding animal fat and other substances, and drying it in the sun.Onatas had tried it beforehand, and the writing on the black wall was very clear, and he could read it clearly even standing in the back row of the classroom.

Facing more than 30 pairs of curious gazes, Onatas couldn't help but feel deeply moved: a new city-state alliance pays so much attention to the quality education of citizens, not only created an unprecedented teaching system in Greek city-states, but also attracted them with various preferential terms. High-quality Gentiles serve as teachers, and even the teaching supplies are spent on careful research and production. How lucky are the children living in this alliance!

At this moment, he, who was already a citizen of Dionia, felt a sense of pride. He supported the flat wall with his left hand, and wrote a string of letters on the wall with a white pen in his right hand: "Teaching you the Greek alphabet." Before, I hope you know the word 'Dionia'! No matter you are a Greek or a Lucanian, you live in Dionia and grow up in Dionia, you will all be Dionia in the future. Citizens of Asia, so join me in saying loudly, 'Dai-ao-ni-ya'..."

"Dionia!!..."

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For most children of city-state citizens, they have already begun to learn writing under the guidance of their parents at the age of six or seven. Therefore, compared with the classmates who responded enthusiastically to the questions, Patroclus' learning progress seemed difficult.

But when it comes to arithmetic class, he has shown a strong sensitivity to numbers under the influence of his mother's stall-keeping in the market since he was a child. Even the teacher who graduated from the Institute of Mathematics paid attention to his performance.

At noon, the classroom teaching is over.

Originally, the Greeks had two meals a day, morning and evening. Affected by Davos and military training, the citizens of Dionia have become accustomed to three meals in the morning, lunch and evening. Those who are far away are like Patroclus, who have been notified by the school in advance and have prepared dry food at noon, and some children are sent by household slaves to the city to buy lunch...

In the afternoon, there were mainly outdoor classes: girls had dance and music classes, which were taught by priests from the Temple of Hera; boys had physical training, running, and long jump, interspersed with some of the simplest military exercises, such as lining up. , formation, overall advance, etc., are taught by disabled veterans, so that children can cultivate a martial spirit from an early age, gradually understand and become familiar with the formation changes and some basic tactics of the Dionian light and heavy infantry from an early age, and understand unity and cooperation, when they reach adulthood, they can easily integrate into the legion once recruited.In this regard, Davos and the Senate humbly borrowed some practices from Sparta.

After military training, the children's favorite is football, a new ball game invented by Archon Davos, because it is not as fierce as rugby and prone to injuries.

The children chase each other, using their feet to flexibly control a nearly round ball made of cowhide, stuffed with inflated tripe, passing each other, passing each other, until they kick the ball into the goal... …

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"In the avenue we originally designed, the trees were too close to the road. Over time, the tree roots easily came out of the road and damaged the roadbed. This situation has happened many times on the Turiyi-Amendolara Avenue...and now Pedestrians, pack cars, and horse-drawn carriages all walk on the road. During busy times during the day, the road is crowded with people and livestock, which not only easily causes long-term blockages, but also causes many collisions with people...

My suggestion is to cut down the trees on both sides of the avenue and build a road for pedestrians outside the drainage ditch, so that people and livestock can go their own way without interfering with each other, and the avenue will become smoother..."

Davos listened to his explanation while reading the "Avenue Improvement Plan" written by Heraclid the Younger.Hearing this, he couldn't help but feel shocked.

It should be admitted that when he originally built the avenue, his design had some flaws, such as problems with street trees. For example, he did not expect that Dionia would develop so rapidly. After just over a year, the four-horse-wide avenue was no longer enough... …

But what he didn't expect was that little Heraclides would think of laying sidewalks so quickly. Of course, he knew that sidewalks were not a new thing that only appeared in the technological era. In the middle and late Roman Republic, there were already complete avenues, sidewalks, A complete road system such as drainage ditches.

He exhaled softly and asked with a gentle expression: "Is there anything else that needs improvement?"

Young Heraclid considered it and said: "My lord consul, if a foreigner sets out from Crotone and wants to walk to Thurii, after walking for a long time, he will be tired, thirsty, and hungry. , he doesn’t know how far ahead there is a town? Where are the restaurants where you can eat? Where are the hotels where you can stay? For the convenience of pedestrians, can we erect a stone monument at intervals along the avenue to mark the distance to nearby towns... and …Well, aren’t we building an inn? We can also engrave the distance of the inn on the stone tablet, so that when pedestrians see the stone tablet, they can plan their itinerary according to the above tips and avoid sleeping in the wild at night..."

(End of this chapter)