From Antiquity onwards the Latin language remained in use as a supranational medium in Western, and later also in parts of Eastern, Europe as the language of education and all higher learning, of the Church, of law and administration, and as the vehicle of written texts of all kinds, including poetic texts. The tradition of exemplary comparisons and identifications attested in the classical Latin authors is transmitted to later Latin poets in the period stretching from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and beyond. The repertory of exemplars no longer consists solely of mythological characters, though these are still frequent, but may be expanded by the introduction of historical and biblical figures and the names of classical authors, oftenwith combinations of figures from all these different spheres, but the basic principle prompting their use, that of lending weight to praise or blame, remains the same. The period from Antiquity to the Middle Ages is a vast one. It is dicult to draw a clear dividing line between the different phases of post-classical Latin language and literature, and to say where late Antiquity ends and the Middle Ages begin, a subject which has prompted considerable scholarly debate. Moreover, for the purposes of the present study any attempt at chronological division is of lesser importance, since the tradition of exemplary comparison and identification is a continuous one. Therefore no attempt has been made to draw a chronological distinction, which would be largely artificial.