Le letture alla scuola del grammatico

One of the most important tasks of ancient Latin school was reading and explaining the idonei auctores for the instruction of a good orator. In the grammatical school pupils read especially poetry, with the help of their magister. The syllabus of Latin poets read in a classroom, according to the standard modern studies on Roman education, changed during the centuries: in Republican Age the archaic poets were largely used, then in the Augustan age the choice turned towards contemporary poetry, especially Virgil, and later, since Servius’ Virgilian commentary, the iuniores, like Lucanus, Statius, and Martial, began to be studied. But this reconstruction cannot be completely accepted: after the Augustan age it was easier for a modern poet to be read in grammatical school and we have witness of a scholastic use e.g. of Lucanus even before the IV century.