Those who caught the fire directly may indeed have
been few, but they were men of parts whose fire was communicated.
As for the influence exercised by Horace upon Roman society at large
through generation after generation of schoolboys as the centuries
passed, its depth and breadth cannot be measured. It may be partly
appreciated, however, by those who realize from their own experience
both as pupils and teachers the effect upon growing and impressionable
minds of a literature rich in morality and patriotism, and who reflect
upon the greater amplitude of literary instruction among the ancients,
by whom a Homer, a Virgil, or a Horace was made the vehicle of
discipline so broad and varied as to be an education in itself.
3. HORACE AND THE MIDDLE AGE
There is no such thing as a line marking definitely the time when
ancient Rome ceased to be itself and became the Rome of the Middle Age.
If there were such a line, we should probably have crossed it already,
whether in recording the last real Roman setting of the Horatian house
in order by Mavortius in 527, or in referring to Venantius Fortunatus,
the last of the Latin Christian poets.
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