Roman politician of ancient Etruscan lineage, who together with Agrippa played a key role in the rise to power of Octavian/Augustus, and his establishment of the empire after 31 BC. Besides being a trusted counsellor and diplomatic agent, he also helped the new regime by his judicious patronage of the arts, encouraging such poets as Horace, Virgil, and Propertius.
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (70 – 8 BC) was a confidant and political advisor to Octavian, who was to become the first Emperor of Rome as Caesar Augustus, as well as an important patron for the new generation of 'Augustan' poets.
Biography
Gaius was probably born between 74 and 64 B.C., perhaps at Arretium. it is possible that "Cilnius" was his mother's nomen - or that Maecenas was in fact a cognomen.
The Gaius Maecenas mentioned in Cicero (Pro Cluentio, 56) as an influential member of the equestrian order in 91 B.C. 8, 5) and Maecenas's own literary tastes imply that he had profited by the highest education of his time.
His great wealth may have been in part hereditary, but he owed his position and influence to his close connexion with the emperor Augustus.
It was in 39 B.C. that Horace was introduced to Maecenas, who had before this received Varius and Virgil into his intimacy. 5) in 37, Maecenas and Cocceius Nerva are described as having been sent on an important mission, and they were successful in patching up, by the Treaty of Tarentum, a reconciliation between the two claimants for supreme power. During the Sicilian war against Sextus Pompeius in 36, Maecenas was sent back to Rome, and was entrusted with supreme administrative control in the city and in Italy.
During the latter years of his life he fell somewhat out of favour with his master. Suetonius (Augustus, 66) attributes the loss of the imperial favour to Maecenas having indiscreetly revealed to Terentia, his wife, the discovery of the conspiracy in which her brother Murena was implicated, but according to Dio Cassius (liv. Maecenas died in 8 B.C., leaving the emperor sole heir to his wealth;
Opinions were much divided in ancient times as to the personal character of Maecenas; Expressions in the Odes of Horace (ii. a) seem to imply that Maecenas was deficient in the robustness of fibre characteristic of the average Roman.
'Mecenate' (patronage)
Maecenas is most famous for his support of young poets, hence his name has become a synonym to "patron of arts" in many languages. It was Virgil, impressed with examples of Horace's poetry, who introduced Horace to Maecenas. Indeed Horace begins the first poem of his Odes (Odes I.i) by addressing his new patron. He was given full financial support, as well as an estate in the Sabine mountains, by Maecenas in a spirit close to Greek evergetism.
His character as a munificent patron of literature - which has made his name a household word - is gratefully acknowledged by the recipients of it and attested by the regrets of the men of letters of a later age, expressed by Martial and Juvenal. He recognized in the genius of the poets of that time, not only the truest ornament of the 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 glory and majesty. A similar change between the earlier odes of Horace, in which he declares his epicurean indifference to affairs of state, and the great national odes of the third 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. The great charm of Maecenas in his relation to the men of genius who formed his circle was his simplicity, cordiality and sincerity. Much of the wisdom of Maecenas probably lives in the Satires and Epistles of Horace. It has fallen to the lot of no other patron of literature to have his name associated with 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.
Works
Maecenas also wrote literature himself in both prose and verse.
His prose works on various subjects - Prometheus, dialogues like Symposium (a banquet at which Virgil, Horace and Messalla were present), De cultu suo (on his manner of life) and a poem In Octaviam ("Against Octavia") of which the content is unclear - were ridiculed by Augustus, Seneca and Quintilian for their strange style, the use of rare words and awkward transpositions.
According to Dio Cassius, Maecenas was also the inventor of a system of shorthand.
Legacy
His name has become a byword for a well-connected and wealthy patron.
Sources and references
(incomplete)
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. A modern biography of Maecenas is that by P. See " Horace et Mecene " by J. Ancient authorities for his life are Horace (Odes with Scholia), Dio Cassius, Tacitus (Annals), Suetonius (Augustus). The fragments have been collected and edited by F.
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