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MAECENAS, GAIUS (CILNIUS)
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See also:MAECENAS, See also:GAIUS (CILNIUS) , See also:Roman See also:patron of letters, was probably See also:born between 74 and 64 B.C., perhaps at See also:Arretium. Expressions in See also:Propertius (ii. 1, 25–30) seem to imply that he had taken some See also:part in the See also:campaigns of Mutina, See also:Philippi and Perusia. He prided himself on his See also:ancient See also:Etruscan lineage, and claimed descent from the princely See also:house of the Cilnii, who excited the See also:jealousy of their townsmen by their preponderating See also:wealth and See also:influence at Arretium in the 4th See also:century B.C. (See also:Livy X. 3). The Gains Maecenas mentioned in See also:Cicero (See also:Pro Cluentio, 56) as an influential member of the equestrian See also:order in 91 B.C. may have been his grandfather, or even his See also:father. The testimony of See also:Horace (Odes iii. 8, 5) and Maecenas's own See also:literary tastes imply that he had profited by the highest See also:education of his See also:time. His See also:great wealth may have been in part hereditary, but he owed his position and influence to his See also:close connexion with the See also:emperor See also:Augustus. He first appears in See also:history in 40 B.C., when he was employed by Octavian in arranging his See also:marriage with Scribonia, and after-wards in assisting to negotiate the See also:peace of Brundusium and the reconciliation with Antony. It was in 39 B.C. that Horace was introduced to Maecenas, who had before this received Varius and See also:Virgil into his intimacy. In the " See also:Journey to Brundusium," (Horace, Satires, i. 5) in 37, Maecenas and See also:Cocceius See also:Nerva are described as having been sent on an important See also:mission, and they were successful in patching up, by the Treaty of See also:Tarentum, a reconciliation between the two claimants for supreme See also:power. During the Sicilian See also:war against Sextus Pompeius in 36, Maecenas was sent back to See also:Rome, and was entrusted with supreme administrative See also:control in the See also:city and in See also:Italy. He was vicegerent of Octavian during the See also:campaign of See also:Actium, when, with great promptness and secrecy, he crushed the See also:conspiracy of the younger See also:Lepidus; and during the subsequent absences of his See also:chief in the provinces he again held the same position. During the latter years of his See also:life he See also:fell somewhat out of favour with his See also:master. Suetonius (Augustus, 66) attributes the loss of the imperial favour to Maecenas having indiscreetly revealed to Terentia, his wife, the See also:discovery of the conspiracy in which her See also:brother See also:Murena was implicated. But according to Dio See also:Cassius (liv. 19) it was due to the emperor's relations with Terentia. Maecenas died in 8 B.C., leaving, the emperor See also:heir to his wealth. Opinions were much divided in ancient times as to the See also:personal See also:character of Maecenas; but the testimony as to his administrative and See also:diplomatic ability was unanimous. He enjoyed the See also:credit of sharing largely in the See also:establishment of the new order of things, of reconciling parties, and of carrying the new See also:empire safely through many dangers. To his influence especially was attributed the humaner policy of Octavian after his first See also:alliance with Antony and Lepidus. The best See also:summary of his character as a See also:man and a statesman is that of Velleius Paterculus (ii. 88), who describes him as " of sleepless vigilance in See also:critical emergencies, far-seeing and knowing how to See also:act, but in his relaxation from business more luxurious and effeminate than a woman." Expressions in the Odes of Horace (ii. 17. 1) seem to imply that Maecenas was deficient in the robustness of fibre characteristic of the See also:average Roman. His character as a munificent patron of literature—which has made his name a See also:household word—is gratefully acknowledged by the recipients of it and attested by the regrets of the men of letters of a later See also:age, expressed by See also:Martial and See also:Juvenal. His patronage was exercised, not from vanity or a See also:mere See also:dilettante love of letters, but with a view to the higher See also:interest of the See also:state. He recognized in the See also:genius of the poets of that time, not only the truest See also:ornament of the See also:court, but a power of reconciling men's minds to the new order of things, and of investing the actual state of affairs with an ideal See also:glory and See also:majesty. The See also:change in seriousness of purpose between the Eclogues and the Georgics of Virgil was in a great measure the result of the direction given by the statesman to the poet's genius. A similar change between the earlier odes of Horace, in which he declares his epicurean indifference to affairs of state, and the great See also:national odes of the third See also:book is to be ascribed to the same guidance. Maecenas endeavoured also to divert the less masculine genius of Propertius from harping continually on his love to themes of public interest. Butif the See also:motive of his patronage had been merely politic it never could have inspired the See also:affection which it did in its recipients. The great See also:charm of Maecenas in his relation to the men of genius who formed his circle was his simplicity, cordiality and sincerity. Although not particular in the choice of some of the associates of his pleasures, he admitted none but men of See also:worth to his intimacy, and when once admitted they were treated like equals. Much of the See also:wisdom of Maecenas probably lives in the Satires and Epistles of Horace. It has fallen to the See also:lot of no other patron of literature to have his name associated with See also:works of such lasting interest as the Georgics of Virgil, the first three books of Horace's Odes, and the first book of his Epistles. Maecenas himself wrote in both See also:prose and See also:verse. The few fragments that remain show that he was less successful as an author than as a See also:judge and patron of literature. His prose works on various subjects—See also:Prometheus, See also:Symposium (a banquet at which Virgil, Horace and Messalla were See also:present), De cultu suo (on his manner of life)—were ridiculed by Augustus, See also:Seneca and See also:Quintilian for their See also:strange See also:style, the use of rare words and awkward transpositions. According to Dio Cassius, Maecenas was the inventor of a See also:system of shorthand. There is no See also:good See also:modern See also:biography of Maecenas. The best known is that by P. S. Frandsen (1843). See " I-Iorace at Mecene " by J. See also:Girard, in La Revue politique et litteraire (Dec. 27, 1873) ; V. Gardthausen, Augustus and See also:seine Zeit, i. 762 seq.; ii. 432 seq. The chief ancient authorities for his life are Horace (Odes with Scholia), Dio Cassius, See also:Tacitus (See also:Annals), Suetonius (Augustus). The fragments have been collected and edited by F. Harder (1889). 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