H.I. Marrou’s A History of Education in Antiquity, Part IV (Ad Navseam, Episode 137)

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This week the guys tackle Chapter IV of H.I. Marrou's monumental work, entitled "The 'Old' Athenian Education". Relying on Aristophanes, Thucydides, Solon, and others, Marrou explains how the Athenians decided to lay down their weapons within society, and soon after education was democratized. So, “the decisive step" was taken from a warrior to a scribe culture, and education was no longer exclusively military. There was a predictable reaction from conservative elites: they sprinted to their Formula 1 roadsters, hotrodding their chariots like any Verstappen, Leclerc, or Russell. Long-haired, aristocratic young dandies stuck to their horses, even as the common peasant, baker, or cobbler sent his son off to the schools of the rhetors to learn how to make the weaker argument stronger. With this new aristocratic ideal, the development of new institutions was needed, and thus was born the epoch-making school. And despite Socrates' trenchant skepticism that arete can be taught, many claimed to teach it, and thus Sophistry surged (which takes us to Chapter V and next time). So, tune in for the Solonic Greek couplets, the KALOKAGATHIA, the mid-winter Michigan nasal congestion, the brawny chicken (Pollo Loco!), and at least one atrocious limerick.