Quintilian was born in Calagurris in Spain, a
Roman province that was then a center of culture
and the birthplace to other notables, including the
elder and younger SENECA and the poet MARTIAL. By
the year 57, Quintilian had traveled to Rome to
study rhetoric under Domitius Afer. Following
Afer’s death, he returned to Spain to teach and
practice law, but in 68 he came once more to Rome
in the company of Galba, who briefly became emperor
in 69. In 71–72 he received a subsidy from
the emperor Vespasian, who supported education
in hopes of forming an educated citizenry. During
this time, from 68 to 88, he taught oratory in Rome
and became head of the first public school there
in 88. He retired two years later.
In 89 Quintilian published On the Causes of
Corrupted Eloquence, a work now lost. He began
writing his major work, On the Education of the
Orator, around 92 and published it in 94 or 95. In
this work, Quintilian synthesizes a lifetime of experience
in speaking and writing and blends it into
a work that is at once a treatise on education, a
manual of rhetoric, a recommended reading list,
and a handbook of moral duties. For Quintilian,
excellence in oration could not be separated from
excellence of mind. Thus, his teaching emphasized
the development of moral principles as well as
artistic skill. In his own words, oratory is “the good
man speaking well.” (At this time girls could receive
a basic education in grammar, but only
young men were allowed to study rhetoric, or the
uses of language and literature.)
Through its 12 books, On the Education of the
Orator charts a progression through the steps of
education. Quintilian’s recommended teaching
techniques include imitation, memorization,
translation, recitation, the study of history, and literary
criticism, among others. The first two books
provide the foundation of the work by defining
rhetoric and outlining the purposes and uses of
education. For Quintilian, education was a lifelong
pursuit that required turning every life experience
to instructional advantage. The product of his educational
system was a student schooled in both
eloquence and ethical conduct, equipped to act
justly in public affairs.
Most innovative, and most appealing to the
modern reader, is the attention Quintilian pays to
the development of the small child. From the moment
of birth, he maintains, care should be taken
to expose the child only to constructive influences
and moral teachers, even in the appointment of
the child’s nurse. Education can begin with music,
such as the lullabies sung to babies, since music
helps develop taste and a sense of aesthetic distinction.
He recommends giving exercises such as puzzles
and problems of geometry to small children to
stimulate their minds and hone their intellect. As
the child develops, the relationship between student
and teachers should be based on love. Quintilian
urges the pupil to love his tutors as much as
his studies, and he likewise instructs tutors to hold
their pupils in true affection.He further states that
if a student proves unequal to certain tasks, the
teacher should direct him toward exercises in
which he would have a chance of success.Most importantly,
the subjects of education should be varied
so as to create a well-rounded individual who
can excel in both physical and mental tasks, for
oration in particular required mastery of every
skill. “Eloquence is like a harp,” Quintilian wrote,
“not perfect unless with all its strings stretched, it
be in unison from the highest to the lowest note.”
Quintilian’s impact on the history of education
has been profound. Remarks by his contemporaries
JUVENAL and PLINY THE YOUNGER reveal the esteem
in which he was held in his own time. The
Dialogue on Orators by TACITUS borrows from
Quintilian, and so do JEROME’s instructions on the
education of Christian girls. Quintilian’s ideas enjoyed
great attention during the period of late antiquity,
and he was often quoted in the works of
French scholars during the 12th century. The humanist
movement looked again to Quintilian,with
scholars such as Petrarch, Erasmus,Martin Luther,
and Philip Melanchthon enlarging on his program.
In England, Ben Jonson and Alexander Pope
both read and praised Quintilian, and his techniques
remained part of the English system of education
well into the 19th century. Even in the 20th
century, Quintilian is still recognized as a landmark
figure in the history of education.
English Versions of Works by Quintilian
Quintilian: The Orator’s Education, Books 3–5. Edited
by Jeffrey Henderson and D. A. Russell. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Quintilian on the Teaching of Speaking and Writing.
Edited by James J.Murphy. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1987.
Works about Quintilian
Kennedy, George. Quintilian. New York: Twayne Publishers,
1969.
Tellegan-Couperus, Olga, ed. Quintilian & The Law:
The Art of Persuasion in Law & Politics. Leuven,
Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2003.