The Dissemination of Mary in Ancient Rome

Virgil died in 19 BC, he hadn't quite finished the Iliad actually but there hasn't been a day since the days he died when someone somewhere in Europe has not been reading it. How is it disseminated Mary to become so popular in ancient Rome sort of beyond the schoolroom? We imagine recitals you know we're in a culture in which maybe 20% of men were literate, it's big gas. The other kind of hints that you get in Pompeii is that you get little parodies of it, you get drawings that appear to be illustrating it.