In the Roman classical age the poet Horace (65 BCE-8 CE) wrote: Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes / intulit agresti Latio . . . “Greece, taken captive, took captive her boorish conqueror and gave the arts to rustic Rome . . . “ (Epistula 2.1.156). The poet was referring to the defeat and occupation of Greece by Roman armies, followed by the triumph of Greek culture over the hitherto inferior artistic and intellectual life of Rome. In simplified form the idea can be expressed as “Rome captured Greece / Greece captured Rome” (ABBA), and can be further simplified to the irreducible
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