Since the middle of the 3rd century BC, Rome has been winning foreign wars, expanding its territory and increasing its population, forming a huge empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa. During this period, Rome's foreign trade continued to expand, industry and commerce developed to a certain extent, domestic cultural life became increasingly rich, and political and economic struggles within the ruling class became increasingly fierce. During this period, the development of Rome's politics and economy and the widespread spread of Athenian culture in Rome urgently demanded that the backward state of relying only on families to carry out education should be changed as soon as possible, and Athenian-style school educational institutions should be widely established to cultivate citizens with high cultural literacy for the ruling class.

During this period, Roman rulers attached great importance to education and hired a large number of educated Greeks as teachers. Therefore, the school education in this country has developed rapidly and gradually formed a relatively complete school education system.

(1) primary school

This kind of educational institution is private and expensive, but the teaching facilities are very simple. It mainly recruits children of Roman slave owners aged 7- 12 and a small number of children of civilians. The main contents of study are reading, writing, calculation and twelve tables method.

(2) Grammar School (Latin School)

Grammar schools are one level higher than primary schools and are equivalent to institutions that implement secondary education. They are also private and expensive, mainly for children of slave owners aged 12- 16. At first, the grammar school mainly taught Greek and Greek literature, but later it turned to teach Latin and Latin literature. Roman grammar school mainly allows students to learn grammar, composition, literature, Roman theology, music, geometry, astronomy and so on. So as to lay a good foundation for training speakers, but such schools prohibit students from taking physical education courses.

(3) rhetoric school

This kind of school is equivalent to a special school. It was founded by the Roman rulers to cultivate speakers and debaters who are good at rhetoric, proficient in literature and history and eloquent. Mainly recruit children of slave owners aged 16-20. The content of study mainly includes literature, rhetoric, history, law, astronomy, geometry, ethics, music, dialectics and other disciplines. Learning methods include letting students listen to the teacher.