Google provides information easily, which the ancients did as best they could. But what would they have made of ChatGPT?
Ancient education drew on information about the past to help deal with the problems of the present. Take the Romans. Future statesmen were taught to scour sources – both myth and history – for learning military strategy as well as how to win political and legal arguments. The cultural elite (poets) learnt the basics of poetry – i.e. verse composition – at school and then ransacked the masterpieces of ancient Greek literature to hone their skills.
But that was a long and arduous process, and Google-like reference works eased the problem. Varro wrote extensively on the Latin language, grammar and rhetoric (and much else). Long history books were summarised (and fathers paraphrased books they had read for their sons).
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