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Libanius, iii. 256.

away wolves,' they watched over the daily life of their young charges, kept them to their hours of study, warning, encouraging, and threatening even in the last resort; they travelled with them over the subject of the Professors' lectures, looked to see if their notes were rightly taken, and helped them often in their exercises. Yet they were commonly of lower social rank, and as such had not always moral weight, and even were at times exposed, as we shall see, to sorry treatment. So the public teachers exercised a were expected to exert a pastoral care; the lecturers. supervision, speak of themselves as shepherds, and their audience as a flock which they must tend.

but the professors

moral

and each freshman specially

attaches himself to one.

The students touted for

their own

professors.

Greg. Naz. in laud Basil.

But

It was the first thing for every youth on his arrival to put himself upon the list of some Professor, chosen at the wish of guardians or friends, and, after some sort of examination and settlement of money terms, his name was entered on the roll, and he was made free of all the future courses. this was not always such a simple matter as it may seem to us at first sight. Let us hear what Gregory Nazianzen has to tell us. Most of the young enthusiasts for learning, noble and lowborn alike, become mad partisans of their Professor. As those who have a passionate love of racing hardly can contain themselves, but copy all the gestures of the jockeys, or bet upon the horses entered for the prize,

although they hardly have the wherewithal to live. themselves; so the students show like eagerness for their teachers and the masters of their favourite studies: they are all anxiety to get their audience larger, and to have their fees increased. And this is carried to portentous lengths. They post themselves over the city, on the highways, about the harbour, on the tops of the hills, nay, in lonely spots; they win over the inhabitants to join their faction. As each new comer disembarks, he falls into their hands; they carry him off at once to the house of some countryman or friend, who is bent on trumpeting the praises of his own Professor, and by that means gaining his favour or exemption from his fees.'

Hardly had

suffered

from this

practice.

i. 13.

Libanius was one of those who suffered most Libanius hardly from this practice, and in his memoirs he draws a lively picture of his treatment. he set foot in the city, after the hazards of a winter voyage from Constantinople, than he fell into the hands of a party of these touters, who, carrying him off by main force, kept him in durance vile until he promised to give up his former plans, and attach himself to the lecturer for whom they catered. They made light of all his protests, and only let him out when he had bound himself by solemn oath. He went accordingly to lecture with them, but, whether

The practical jokes to which the freshmen were subjected.

from chagrin or not, he was very painfully impressed by the feebleness of the instruction given, and was in no mood to join the others in their rapturous applause. Their scowling looks, however, speedily convinced him that it might be dangerous to criticise too freely, so he excused himself upon the plea that he was suffering from sore throat, and must sit by in silent admiration. But as soon as he safely could, he quietly gave up attending, betook himself to lonely studies, training himself on the old models, yet never quite forgot his disappointment, or spoke otherwise than with contempt of the lecturers of Athens.

Nor was this the only ordeal which the freshmen had to bear. They were exposed to other treatment, in sorry taste as it may seem to us, as practical jokes are commonly, with little Attic salt about them. Yet Gregory, even in a funeral speech on his friend Basil, lingers complaisantly on such memories of their youth. He tells us how the novice, just arrived and carried off to the house of some acquaintance, was set upon and badgered by the senior men about him. If he was very fresh, and inexperienced in repartee, they resorted to mere vulgar banter; but if he showed any quickness in retort, they tried upon him all the resources of their practised wit. Wearied of this, at last they set off for a walk, which proved to be a

sort of mock parade of the new-comer.

Two and

two they paced the streets in slow procession, till they brought him to the bath; but as they drew near they broke out suddenly into frantic uproar, as if the door were barred and they must needs take the place by storm. After this feint of assault and of defence, when the nerve of the freshman had been tested, they took him in at last, and the trials of the novitiate were over.

spared like

Now and then, by special favour, some were spared. Few were Eunapius, on his way by sea to the Piræus, had Eunapius been struck down by fever, and carried to a lodging in an almost hopeless state. A quack doctor was allowed to try his hand upon him, when his life was now despaired of, and, to the surprise of all, he cured his patient. The news spread through the city, and Proæresius, the professor, showed a lively interest when he heard it. So, turning to his class, he said, Excuse him, if you love me, the ordeal of the bath, and be sparing of your jests and banter; treat him. as if he were my son.'

In like manner, in the case of Basil, Gregory and Basil. interceded for his countryman, whose character, he knew, was far too earnest and reserved to enter

6

readily into such poor jests. This,' says Gregory, 'was the beginning of our friendship, for no one in our time, save him, was exempted from the general

National differences

seem to

have been

social clubs.

law.' Yet even so he did not quite escape from captious quibbles. Some Armenian students, jealous possibly of the young freshman's reputation, set upon him unawares, and tried to draw him into a dispute; and even Gregory at first failed to see their malice. But they found their match in the clearheaded Basil, who was too strong for them in dialectic, and made his way out of their snares.

Besides the references already made to the ties of race among the youths, there seems evidence of marked by closer union among the several nations represented than can be found at earlier times. In Philostratus, indeed, we read of the Greek set, as if it were kept separate from the rest; but now we are told of national differences, so strongly marked, as if they had some organised form of clubs or social unions among them, somewhat as in later days we read in modern Universities of standing jealousies between north and south, or recognised subdivision into nations. There are some data even which may lead us to infer that not only were the students to be distinguished as gownsmen from the world, but that each nation had its own variety of academic garb. They grouped themselves in this way round their favourite Professors, attracted often by such local ties, and thus intensified by sympathies of race the passionate spirit of their partisanship.

Olympiodorus ap. Phot. 63.

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