DOI: 10.53084/2220-9050.2025.31.1.003

A.V. Podossinov
The Place of Geographical Discipline in the Educational Institutions of Antiquity

Abstract: The article is devoted to the question of where, who and when (at what level) taught and studied geography on a regular basis. The fact is that there are practically no references to teaching it as a special subject. It is also not included in the cycle of “liberal arts” (artes liberales). At the same time, almost all ancient literature is filled with geographical information. The article analyzes those few texts that talk (or can talk) about teaching geography in secondary and higher education. The author comes to the conclusion that geography as a science in itself was not taught in secondary school, but was presented within the framework of commentary on the classical authors read. Teachers had to use various manuals, commentaries and scholia, which had been widely used since the Hellenistic period. It can be assumed that higher education also contained geography, included in the cycle of geometric and astronomical disciplines.

Keywords: teaching in antiquity, geography and cartography as subjects of study, secondary school, higher school

To cite this article: Podossinov A.V. The Place of Geographical Discipline in Educational Institutions of Antiquity. Aristeas XXXI (2025): 46–75.

References:
Basargina E.Ju. 1989: Naglyadnoye obucheniye astronomii v V v. do n. e. [Visual teaching of astronomy in the 5th century BC]. In: Nekotoryye problemy istorii antichnoy nauki. Sbornik nauchnykh rabot [Some problems of the history of ancient science. Collection of scientific works]. Leningrad. 56–62.
Басаргина Е.Ю. Наглядное обучение астрономии в V в. до н. э. В кн.: Некоторые проблемы истории античной науки. Сборник научных работ. Л., 1989. 56–62.
Bonner S.F. 1977: Education in Ancient Rome: From the Elder Cato to the Younger Pliny. Berkeley. Bromberg J.A. 2012: Academic disciplines in Aristophanes’ Clouds (200-3). The Classical Quarterly 62/1: 81–91.
Clarke M.L. 1971: Higher education in the ancient world. London.
Collart P. 1937: Les papyrus scolaires. In: Mélanges offerts à A.-M. Desrousseaux. Paris. 69–80.
The Colloquia 2012: The Colloquia of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana. Ed. with introduction, translation, and commentary by E. Dickey. Cambridge University Press.
A Companion 2015: A Companion to Ancient Education. Ed. by W. Martin Bloomer. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
Corbeill A. 2001: Education in the Roman Republic: Creating Traditions. In: Too Y.L. (ed.). Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity Leiden. 261–287.
Dickey E. 2010: The Creation of Latin Teaching Materials in Antiquity: A Re-Interpretation of P. Sorb. inv. 2069. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 175: 188–208.
Dickey E. 2016: Learning Latin the ancient way: Latin textbooks from the ancient world. Cambridge University Press.
Diederich S. 2019: Kartenkompetenz und Kartenbenutzung bei den Römischen Eliten – Teil I. Orbis terrarum 16: 51–136.
Diels H. 1904: Laterculi Alexandrini aus einem Papyrus ptolemäischer Zeit. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Phil.-Hist. Klasse 2 (https://archive.org/details/abhandlungenderk1904kn/page/n390/mode/1up?view=theater)
Dueck D. 2013: Geographie in der antiken Welt. Darmstadt.
Dueck D. 2021: Illiterate Geography in Classical Athens and Rome (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies). Routledge; London; New York.
Gautier Dalché P. 2014: L’enseignement de la géographie dans l’antiquité tardive. Klio 96/1: 144–182.
Gavrilov A.K. 1989: Uchenaya obshchina sokratikov v «Oblakakh» Aristofana [The Socratic Learned Community in Aristophanes’ Clouds]. In: Nekotoryye problemy istorii antichnoy nauki. Sbornik nauchnykh rabot [Some problems of the history of ancient science. Collection of scientific works]. Leningrad. 62–77.
Гаврилов А.К. Ученая община сократиков в «Облаках» Аристофана. В кн.: Некоторые проблемы истории античной науки. Сборник научных работ. Л., 1989. 62–77.
Gehrke H.-J. 1998: Die Geburt der Erdkunde aud dem Geiste der Geometrie. Überlegungen zur Entstehung und zur Frühgeschichte der wissenschaftlichen Geographie bei den Griechen. In: Kullmann W., Althoff J., Asper M. (eds.). Gattungen wissenschaftlicher Literatur in der Antike (Script Oralia 95). Tübingen. 163–192.
Gianotti G. F. 1989: I testi nella scuola. In: Cavallo Gu., Fedeli P., Giardana A. (eds.). Lo spazio litterario di Roma antica. Vol. 2. La circolazione del testo. Roma. 421–466.
Cribiore R. 1993: Writing, teachers and students in Graeco-Roman Egypt. New York.
Guéraud O., Jouguet P. 1938: Un livre d’écolier du IIIe siècle avant J.-C. Le Caire, Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale.
Gwynn Au. 1926: Roman Education from Cicero to Quintilian. Oxford. Hadot I. 2002: Svobodnyye iskusstva i filosofiya v antichnoy mysli [Arts libéraux et philosophie dans la pensée antique]. Moscow.
Адо И. Свободные искусства и философия в античной мысли. М., 2002.
Hagel St., Lynch T. 2015: Musical Education in Greece and Rome. In: A Companion to Ancient Education. Ed. by W. Martin Bloomer. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. 401–412.
Hamdy I.M. 1992: Education of Latin in Roman Egypt in the light of papyri. In: Roma e l’Egitto nell’antichitа classica: Atti del I congresso internazionale Italo-Egiziano. Roma. 219–226.
Joyal M., McDougall I., Yardley J. 2009: Greek and Roman Education New York.
Kastely J.L. 1997: The Clouds: Aristophanic Comedy and Democratic Education. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 27/4: 25–46.
Legras B. 1994: L’horizon géographique de la jeunesse grecque d’Égypte (IIIème siè cle av. n. è.–VIème siècle de n. è.). In: Bülow-Jacobsen A. (ed.). Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Papyrologists: Copenhagen, 23–29 August, 1992. Copenhagen. 165–176.
Lozovsky N.2008: Maps and panegyrics: Roman geo-ethnographical rhetoric in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In: Talbert R.J.A., Unger T.W. (eds.). Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Fresh perspectives, new methods Leiden; Boston. 169–172.
Maehler H. 1983: Die griechische Schule im ptolemäischen Ägypten. In: Egypt and the Hellenistic World. Leuven. 191–203.
Marrou Henri-Irénée. 1998: Istoriya vospitaniya v antichnosti (Gretsiya) [A history of education in antiquity (Greece)]. Moscow.
Марру А.-И. История воспитания в античности (Греция). М., 1998.
Martianus Capella 2019: Brakosochetaniye Filologii i Merkuriya. Perevod, kommentariy, vstupitel’naya stat’ya Yu.A. Shakhova; otv. red. A.K. Gladkov [De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. Translation, commentary, introduction by Yu.A. Shakhov; editor-in-chief A.K. Gladkov]. St. Petersburg.
Марциан Капелла. Бракосочетание Филологии и Меркурия. Перевод, комментарий, вступительная статья Ю.А. Шахова; отв. ред. А.К. Гладков. М.; СПб., 2019.
Martin Bloomer W. 2011: The School of Rome: Latin Studies and the Origins of Liberal Education. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London.
Monda S. 2008: La Cosmographia di Giulio Onorio. Un exceptum scolastico tardo-antico. Roma.
Morgan T.J. 1998: Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds. Cambridge.
Morgan T. 2018: Obrazovaniye na osnove gramotnosti v Afinakh klassicheskogo perioda. HYPOTHEKAI. Zhurnal nauchnykh statey po istorii antichnoy pedagogicheskoy kul’tury [Literacy-Based Education in Classical Athens. HYPOTHEKAI. Journal of Scientific Articles on the History of Ancient Pedagogical Culture] 2: 204–231.
Морган Т. Образование на основе грамотности в Афинах классического периода. HYPOTHEKAI. Журнал научных статей по истории античной педагогической культуры 2 (2018): 204–231.
Pajón Leyra I. 2014: The order of the seven greatest islands in the Laterculi Alexandrini (P.Berol. 13044r). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 192: 85–88.
Pichugina V.K. 2017: Afinskiye obrazovatel’nyye realii vo «Vsadnikakh» i «Oblakakh» Aristofana. Psikhologo-pedagogicheskiy poisk [Athenian educational realities in Aristophanes’ “Riders” and “Clouds”. Psychological and pedagogical search] 3.43: 29–41.
Пичугина В.К. Афинские образовательные реалии во «Всадниках» и «Облаках» Аристофана. Психолого-педагогический поиск 3.43 (2017): 29-41.
Podossinov A.V. 2024: Karta mira v «myslil’ne» Sokrata: unikal’nyy epizod iz istorii grecheskoy kartografii. In: Otrada strastno zhelayushchey dostich’ istiny. Sbornik statey ko dnyu rozhdeniya Iriny Gennadiyevny Konovalovoy. [The World Map in Socrates’ “Thinking Chamber”: A Unique Episode from the History of Greek Cartography. In: The Joy of Those Who Passionately Desire to Achieve Truth. A Collection of Articles for Irina Gennadievna Konovalova’s Birthday]. Moscow. 113–119.
Подосинов А.В. Карта мира в «мыслильне» Сократа: уникальный эпизод из истории греческой картографии. В кн.: Отрада страстно желающей достичь истины. Сборник статей ко дню рождения Ирины Геннадиевны Коноваловой. М., 2024. 113–119.
Rathmann M. 2020: New perspectives on the Tabula Peutingeriana II. Orbis terrarum 18: 197–251.
Schade G. 2004: Die griechischen Papyri und die antike Schule. Pegasus-Onlinezeitschrift IV/2: 55–63.
Schmid W.1948: Das Sokratesbild der Wolken. Philologus 97: 209–228.
Strel’nikova L.Ju. 2020: Komediya Aristofana «Oblaka» kak zerkalo dukhovnoy zhizni epokhi afinskoy demokratii. Vestnik Ryazanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta imeni S.A. Yesenina [Aristophanes’ comedy “Clouds” as a mirror of spiritual life in the era of Athenian democracy. Bulletin of the Ryazan State University named after S.A. Yesenin] 2 (67): 138–146.
Стрельникова Л.Ю. Комедия Аристофана «Облака» как зеркало духовной жизни эпохи афинской демократии. Вестник Рязанского государственного университета имени С.А. Есенина 2 (67). 2020. 138–146.
Too Y.L. 2001: Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity. Leiden.
Wrenhaven K.L. 2015: Slaves. In: A Companion to Ancient Education. Ed. by W. Martin Bloomer. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. 464–473.
Ziebarth E. 1910: Aus der antiken Schule. Sammlung griechischer Texte auf Papyrus, Holztafeln, Ostraka. Bonn.
Ziebarth E. 1914: Aus dem griechischen Schulwesen. 2. Aufl. Leipzig; Berlin.


Author:

Alexander V. Podossinov