Well, you're right, of course, Faldage. Certainly little Greek and Roman children didn't learn the basics of the language out of books, although there certainly must have been a lot of little rules children would be admonished with while learning the language. After all, we have to correct children to let them know that it's 'feet', not 'foots' and that kind of thing, and later on get in the i before e except after c rule. I would imagine that parents, or tutors, spent lots of time correcting little Iphegenia or Marcus when they had the gender of something wrong, or some such. It would seem that they learned all the inflections somehow, but how to use the various tenses, moods, etc. was a more serious matter.
The trivium or first 3 of the 7 ancient liberal arts and sciences, consisted of Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic. Basic grammar was learned as a child, but rhetoric and logic were learned from tutors. St. Augustine was a professional rhetor and tutor before he got religion. From him you would learn matters such as progression of tenses, when the subjunctive is needed and what tense; in Greek, the use of the middle voice (non-existent in Latin) and the Aorist tenses, etc. Logic came last, as you had to know how to express yourself before you took up how to make sense. Sure wish some of our leaders had had such an education.
