Juvenal, in the first quarter of the next,
gives us a chiaroscuro glimpse into a Roman school-interior where little
boys are sitting at their desks in early morning, each with odorous lamp
shining upon school editions of Horace and Virgil smudged and discolored
by soot from the wicks,
_totidem olfecisse lucernas_,
Q_uot stabant pueri, cum totus decolor esset_
F_laccus et haereret nigro fuligo Maroni_.
(VII. 225 ff.)
The use of the poet in the schools meant that lovers of learning as well
as lovers of literary art were occupying themselves with Horace. The
first critical edition of his works, by Marcus Valerius Probus, appeared
as early as the time of Nero. A native of Berytus, the modern Beirut,
disappointed in the military career, he turned to the collection, study,
and critical editing of Latin authors, among whom, besides Horace, were
Virgil, Lucretius, Persius, and Terence. His method, comprising careful
comparison of manuscripts, emendations, and punctuation, with
annotations explanatory and aesthetic, all prefaced by the author's
biography, won him the reputation of the most erudite of Roman men of
letters.
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