We learned the history of Rome not so different in school (Gymnasium in Switzerland, early 70s). The word "virtue" was not taken seriously, but the story remained the one Jefferson appears to have believed. For what it is worth the story sounded similar in Rome itself when told by people like Tacitus. Years ago (in the US) I found a book when browsing in the public library about the end of the Roman Republic. I don't remember the author but the book told the story of the end of the Republic as a sort of preview of the 1930s: Roosevelt succeeded where the Gracchi failed. History is good for anything if interpreted "properly".