Family perpetrated and condoned violence in the education of male Greco-Roman children.

This article examines the role of family-perpetrated physical, emotional, and verbal abuse in the education of Greco-Roman males identified as having learning impairments. Focusing on cases such as Kottalos, the son of Mētrotimē; Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus (later Emperor Claudius); and Atticus Bradua, son of the sophist Herodes Atticus and Regilla, it highlights how family members and household agents, including slaves and freedmen, condoned or administered violence as part of educational discipline. While corporal punishment was culturally accepted and legally permitted for correction, excessive or cruel abuse was sometimes condemned, and some elite families sought educators who balanced strictness with moral guidance. The study reveals that children with learning difficulties were often subjected to intensified family violence, yet some, like Claudius and Atticus Bradua, overcame these challenges to achieve social and political success.