What was the education policy in …

Education in the Roman empire contributed to the social mobility that characterized the earlier period of Imperial history known as the Principate.

Education was available only for those who could pay for it, since there was no state- supported system of schools with public funding.

A higher rate of literacy is indicated among military personnel than among the general population. Educated women were not unusual, and there was an expectation that upper-class girls would at least attend primary school, probably in the same classes as boys. Only an elite few, regardless of gender, went on to receive secondary education.

Modest number of slaves were educated and they played a key role in promoting education and the culture of literacy. Teachers, scribes, and secretaries were likely to be slaves. The education of slaves was not discouraged, and slave-children might attend classes with the children of their masters. Book stores were already well-established in Rome by the beginning of the Imperial period, and are found also in urban centers of the provinces.

Books were expensive, but by the later period, popular genres of literature indicated reading for pleasure among non-elites. Emperor sponsored libraries that were to some extent public, and a wealthy individual might donate a library for a community, or accumulate impressive private collections to which in-house scholars might be attached. Literacy is thought to have declined in late antiquity during the transition away from the classical institutions and practices that supported it.