[Footnote 8:  non ... mittere\.  This infinitive clause is the subject of erat\.  Cf.  Sec. 216.  The same construction is repeated in the next clause, domi ... docere\.  The object of docere\ is filios\ understood.]

    [Footnote 9:  The peristyle was an open court surrounded by a
    colonnade.]

    [Footnote 10:  At the age of sixteen a boy laid aside the bulla
    and the toga praetexta and assumed toga virilis or manly gown.]

[Footnote 11:  annos\, Sec. 501.21.  The expression nondum sedecim annos nati sunt\ means literally, they were born not yet sixteen years.  This is the usual expression for age.  What is the English equivalent?]

  [Illustration:  TABULA ET STILUS]

SCENE IN SCHOOL :  AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

DISCIPULI.  Salve, magister. 
MAGISTER.  Vos quoque omnes, salvete. [1]Tabulasne portavistis et
  stilos? 
D. Portavimus. 
M. Iam fabulam Aesopi[2] discemus.  Ego legam, vos in tabulis scribite. 
  Et tu, Publi, da mihi e capsa[3] Aesopi volumen.[4] Iam audite
  omnes:  Vulpes et Uva. 
Vulpes olim fame coacta uvam dependentem vidit.  Ad uvam saliebat,
  sumere conans.  Frustra diu conata, tandem irata erat et salire
  cessans dixit:  “Illa uva est acerba; acerbam uvam [5]nihil moror.” 
Omnia’ne scripsistis, pueri? 
D. Omnia, magister.

[Footnote 1:  Tablets were thin boards of wood smeared with wax.  The writing was done with a stylus, a pointed instrument like a pencil, made of bone or metal, with a knob at the other end.  The knob was used to smooth over the wax in making erasures and corrections.]

    [Footnote 2:  Aesopi\, the famous Greek to whom are ascribed most of
    the fables current in the ancient world.]

    [Footnote 3:  A cylindrical box for holding books and papers, shaped
    like a hatbox.]

    [Footnote 4:  Ancient books were written on rolls made of papy’rus.]

    [Footnote 5:  nihil moror\, _I care nothing for_.]

LXVII.  PUBLIUS GOES TO ROME TO FINISH HIS EDUCATION

Iamque Publius, [1]quindecim annos natus, [2]primis litterarum elementis confectis, Romam petere voluit ut scholas grammaticorum et philosophorum frequentaret.  Et facillime patri[3] suo, qui ipse philosophiae studio tenebatur, persuasit.  Itaque [4]omnibus rebus ad profectionem comparatis, pater filiusque equis animosis vecti[5] ad magnam urbem profecti sunt.  Eos proficiscentis Iulia totaque familia votis precibusque prosecutae sunt.  Tum per loca[6] plana et collis silvis vestitos viam ingressi sunt ad Nolam, quod oppidum eos hospitio modico excepit.  Nolae[7] duas horas morati sunt, quod sol meridianus ardebat.  Tum recta via[8] circiter viginti milia[9] passuum[9]