Chapter 250: Akademia of Theonia (III)

Chapter 250: Akademia of Theonia (III)

The classroom of Theonia is a cube of three and a half meters in height; and is a colonnaded structure, with the interior being paved with cement and a brick wall was built to the northern side and was plastered in order to keep it smooth and was painted with black paint, while the other three sides were open in order to ensure sufficient light, and the roof is supported by numerous stone columns.

Before Patroclus entered the classroom, he saw many children already sitting inside, and so Patroclus had to sit in the back row if he didn’t want to sit outside the stone pillars and be exposed to the sun. He was not happy about this, but as soon as he saw that they were all boys (although the Senate had agreed to the proposal that girls could study at the akademia, but the traditional habits of the Greeks for many years still made them to make some restrictions, that men and women could not be in the same classroom), his usual mischievous nature began to show up.

Carrying his folding chair, he squeezed at the front and shouted, “Move back! Make room for me!”

Most of the boys in the classroom are only seven or eight years old, so the 13-year old Patroclus seems to be a huge man. Everyone had no choice but to retreat due to fear, but one of the children came forward and talked back to Patroclus.

With both of them refusing to give in, the verbal confrontation developed into a physical altercation, and by the time the teacher had arrived, he saw Patroclus throwing the boy to the ground.

He then quickly came forward to stop, then asked the cause of the fight and he immediately sent the culprit to stand outside the classroom.

However, Patroclus did not obey.

The teacher then sternly said, “If you don’t want to accept your punishment, then you don’t have to come back to the akademia anymore!”

Although Patroclus was stubborn, he knew the importance of the matter, so he obediently walked out of the classroom. Who knew that the boy who he had beaten took the opportunity to give him a kick in the butt, which infuriated the teacher and yelled, “You go out as well!”

After dealing with the fight, the teacher placed a big hourglass on the wooden table, then sat on a wooden chair and took out the student list, and said to the children sitting around him, “From today on, I will be the one teaching you Greek in this classroom. My name is Onatas….”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Hey big guy, I am Sthephilos, the adopted son of Amintas. What is your name?” The grudges between boys come and go quickly, and both of them who were standing outside the classroom felt very helpless and so he was unable to stop himself from not replying.

“Patroclus, son of Periandorus.” Patroclus casually replied, then he thought of something and asked quickly, “Your father’s name is Amintas? Which Amintas?!”

“It is of course the brave Amintas of the first legion!” Sthephilos said with pride.

“My father, Periandorus, is under your father, Amintas.” Patroclus said in surprise.

And so both boys got together….

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the past two years, the consequences of the military actions of Dionysius in unifying the southeastern Sicily resulted in many people being forced to flee their homes, most of them then became attracted to the Theonian Migration Act and chose to come to Thurii, which is not too far from Sicily.

As the first place to be developed and colonised by the Greeks in the western Mediterranean, Sicily was not only well developed in agriculture and trade, but also had closer cultural links with the mainland Greece, and its cultural heritage was somewhat deeper than that of the city-states in the Italian Peninsula, so some Sicilians manage to successfully passed the test organized by Ansitanos to become teachers of Theonia Union, and one of them was Onatas.

He chose to become a teacher of the newly established Akademia of Theonia even though his salary was not as much as that of a private teacher, he, however, could immediately become a citizen of Theonia and get an allocated land.

There is no standardised textbook and the content and pace of their teaching is at the discretion of the teacher, however, the akademia requires that: After three academic years, primary students must be able to recognize and write at least a thousand Greek words, read texts with accurate pronunciation, and write short articles with clear text and meaning, in order for them to be able to pass the test and become secondary students smoothly. Moreover, every teacher’s teaching performance will be assessed every year, and the teacher with poor performance for three consecutive years will be disqualified, which means that he will be deprived of all the rights given to teachers by Theonia.

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Therefore, Onatas has a sense of urgency in his heart. As a highly educated cultured person, he couldn’t allow himself to lose to other teachers, however, when he was learning knowledge, his parents hired teachers to teach him one-on-one at home, but now, he has to face more than 30 students in the akademia, so how could he ensure his teaching would be effective?

Onatas had seriously thought about it beforehand, so as soon as he came in, he punished the two children that were fighting, and after the roll call, he severely stressed the need to abide the rules of the classroom, and the students that violates the rules would be scolded and punished, and might even be expelled from the akademia.

In this way, the noisy classroom became quiet.

Onatas was very satisfied with its effect. He then stood up and picked up a white stylus from the wooden table, which was said to be made from limestone boiled down and mixed with some substances such as animal fat, which was then dried in the sun. Onatas had previously tried it out and he was able to write so clearly on the black wall that he could read it even from the back of the classroom.

Facing the more than 30 pairs of curious gazes, Onatas was overwhelmed with emotion. How lucky the children living in this new city-state union that attached so much importance to the quality of education of its citizens. They had not only created an unprecedented teaching system in the Greek city-state, but also attracted high-quality foreigners to serve as teachers with all kinds of favourable conditions, and even taking the trouble to research and make teaching materials!

At this moment, Onatas was already a citizen of Theonia, so he felt a sense of pride. He propped up his left hand on the flat wall and wrote a string of letters with the white stylus on his right hand, “Before I teach you the Greek alphabet, I hope that you know the word ‘Theonia’! Whether you are Greek or Lucanian, you live and grow up in Theonia and will become citizens of Theonia in the future. So read aloud with me, ‘T-H-E-O-N-I-A’….”

“Theonia!!….”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

For most of the children of the citizens of a city-state, they would have already begun to learn how to write under the guidance of their parents at the age of six. Therefore, compared with the students who are eager to answer questions, Patroclus seems to be having a very difficulty in his learning progress.

However, when it came to mathematics lessons, because of Patroclus growing up manning the market stalls together with his mother since childhood and being influenced by what he heard and saw, it had made him show great sensitivity to numbers, and even the teachers from the Institute of Mathematics had paid attention to his performance.

By noon, the morning class ended.

Originally, Greeks had two meals a day, but as a result of Davos’ influence and the military training, the Theonians had begun to get used to three meals a day. The children living in Thurii could go back to their home to eat their meals, while those who were far away, such as Patroclus, had been informed by the akademia in advance and so they had prepared dry food for lunch, and some children whose families had slaves, had sent their slaves to buy lunch in the city….

By the afternoon, the main focus was on outdoor classes. For the girls, it was dancing and music, and the akademia had even invited the priestess of the temple of Hera to teach. For the boys, physical training such as, running and long jump, and are supplemented by some of the simplest military exercises, such as queuing, formation and marching as a unit, and so on., which is taught by disabled veterans, so that the children can develop military discipline from childhood, and gradually understand and become familiar with the formation changes and some basic tactics of Theonia light and heavy infantry, and to know how to unite and cooperate, and so on., once they become adults, they would be able to easily integrate into the legion once they are called up. In this regard, Davos and the Senate humbly borrowed some of the Spartan’s practices.

After the military training, the children’s favorite sport is a new ball game invented by the archon – Football, because it is not as fierce and easy to get injured like rugby.

The children chase each other, controlling a nearly circular-looking ball made of stitched cowhide and stuffed with inflated tripe, and pass the ball to each other until they kick the ball into the goal….

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Our initial design of the road had caused the trees to be too close to the road, and over time, their roots tend to burrow out of the road and damage the roadbed, which has occurred many times on Thurii-Amendolara road….and currently, the pedestrian, livestocks and horse-drawn wagons are all using the road. During the day when the road is busy and is packed with people and livestock, it had not only caused long periods of obstructions, but it had also led to numerous accidents involving collisions….

My suggestion is to cut down the trees on both sides of the main road and build another road for the pedestrian outside the canals. In this way, the people and livestocks can traverse separately and not interfere with each other, and makes the main road to be more accessible….”

Davos read the 《Plan for the Reconstruction of the Road》 written by Heracleides the Younger while listening to his explanation, which surprised him after hearing him.

He admits that there were some defects in his design when he first built the road, such as the problem of the trees by the road. For example, he did not expect that the development of Theonia was so rapid that after more than a year, the four horse-wide road would not be enough….

But he did not expect that Heracleides the Younger was able to think of laying sidewalks so soon. Naturally, he knew that sidewalks were not new things in the era of science and technology. In the middle and late period of the Roman Republic, which even had a complete set of road systems, such as roads, sidewalks and drainage.

With a gentle expression, he asked, “What else needs improvements?”

Heracleides the Younger pondered, “Archon, if a foreigner sets out from Crotone and wants to walk to Thurii, he would be tired, thirsty and hungry from walking for a long time. He wouldn’t even know how far is the next town…where he could eat…a place to stay…so for the convenience of the pedestrians, we have placed stone tablets besides the main road in every other distance to mark the distance between nearby towns….and…um….aren’t we building post stations? We can engrave the distance of the post station on the stone tablet, so that when the pedestrians see the stone tablet, they can plan their own itinerary according to the above tips, and avoid sleeping in the wild at night….”

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