Literary scholars of Rome were the ancient analogues of modern day mega fans. The way Marrou notes these scholars' knowledge (including knowing the life of a character who appears in two lines of the Aeneid (Marrou 377)), they sound like they would have been trivia buffs extraordinaire.
But Marrou doesn't explicitly state that these scholars love their minutiae. Instead he frames their extensive knowledge as something that's the result of their love of learning for its own sake. This quality is admirable, but the sense that I get from Marrou's notes is that the majority of Romans frowned upon such practice. Why? Because it did nothing for the State.
I know that this is a relatively small point, but it sounds like this is another inheritance of the West care of Rome. Today, as then, it's easy to dismiss English Lit as just learning for learning's sake (and not so easy to defend your choice to get two degrees in it). But studying literature now, as then, imbues people with a greater sense of humanity. But my fellow arts majors and I don't need to sound this cry alone, Science is finally standing up for her older sister as more and more studies show the psychological and social benefits of reading fiction.
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