Gaius Maecenas: Difference between revisions

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Expressions in [[Propertius]]<ref>ii. I, 25–30</ref> seem to imply that Maecenas had taken some part in the campaigns of [[Battle of Mutina|Mutina]], [[Battle of Philippi|Philippi]], and [[Battle of Perugia|Perugia]]. He prided himself on his ancient [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] lineage, and claimed descent from the princely house of the [[Cilnia (gens)|Cilnii]], who excited the jealousy of their townsmen by their preponderant wealth and influence at [[Arretium]] in the 4th century BC.<ref>[[Livy]] x. 3.</ref> Horace makes reference to this in his address to Maecenas at the opening of his first books of ''[[Odes (Horace)|Odes]]'' with the expression "atavis edite regibus" (descendant of kings). [[Tacitus]]<ref>Tacitus, ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' 6. 11.</ref> refers to him as "Cilnius Maecenas"; it is possible that "Cilnius" was his mother's [[Roman naming conventions|nomen]] – or that Maecenas was in fact a [[cognomen]].<ref>Varro, however, specifies that the name ''Maecenas'' is a nomen based on origin like Lesas, Ufenas, etc: see {{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www.cisi.unito.it/arachne/num4/simpson.html |first1=Chris J. |last1=Simpson |title=Two Small Thoughts on 'Cilnius Maecenas' |date=1996 |work=Arachnion |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401205942/http://www.cisi.unito.it/arachne/num4/simpson.html |archive-date=2010-04-01 }}</ref>

[[File:Bakalovich at Maecenas' reception.jpg|thumb|[[Stefan Bakałowicz]]: ''At Maecenas' Reception Room'', 1890]]

[[File:Page 30. — Frog; the seal-device of Mecaenas. If Isaac Taylor be right in interpreting his Etruscan, name, MAIKNE, as Frog-man (analogous to the Italian Ranuccio), the great statesman had put in his seal a rebus on his name, &c (frog).jpg|thumb|Frog on an engraved gem: the seal-device of Mecaenas.<ref>{{Cite book|last=King|first=Charles William|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofengrav00king/page/n11/mode/2up|title=Handbook of Engraved Gems|publisher=George Bell and Sons|year=1885|edition=2nd|location=London|pages=viii}}</ref>]]

 

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 [[Satires of Juvenal|Juvenal]]. His patronage was exercised, not from vanity or a mere [[Amateur|dilettante]] love of letters, but with a view to the higher interest of the state. He recognized in the genius of the poets of that time not only the truest ornament of the court, but the power of reconciling men's minds to the new order of things, and of investing the actual state of affairs with an ideal [[glory (religion)|glory]] and [[majesty]]. The 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 national odes of the [[Carminum liber tertius|third book]] has been ascribed by some to the same guidance. However, since the organization of the Odes is not entirely chronological, and their composition followed both books of ''[[Satires (Horace)|Satires]]'' and the ''[[Epodes (Horace)|Epodes]]'', this argument is plainly specious; but doubtless the milieu of Maecenas's circle influenced the writing of the Roman Odes (III.1–6) and others such as the ode to Pollio, Motum ex Metello (II.1).

 

==Legacy==

 

In various languages, Maecenas' name has given rise to a word for private [[patronage]], mainly cultural but sometimes wider, usually perceived as more [[Altruism|altruistic]] than [[sponsor (commercial)|sponsorship]]. A verse of the Latin-language student song ''[[Gaudeamus igitur]]'' wishes longevity upon the charity of the students' benefactors ("Maecenatum", genitive plural of "Maecenas").

[[Phillis Wheatley]], the 18th-century poet and the first African-American writer to publish a book, published a poem "To Maecenas" as the first poem in her 1773 book ''Poems on Various subjects, Religious and Moral''.

 

 

In [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s novel ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', Maecenas is one of the three famous wealthy men, along with [[Midas]] and [[J. P. Morgan]], whose secrets the novel's narrator [[Nick Carraway]] hopes to find in the books he buys for his home library.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fitzgerald |first=F. Scott |author-link=F. Scott Fitzgerald |date=1925 |title=''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' |location=New York |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]] |page=4 |isbn=978-0-7432-7356-5 }}</ref>

 

===Secondary sources===

* {{cite journal |last= André|first= Jean-Marie |date= 1967 |title= Mécène. Essai de biographie spirituelle|url= http://www.persee.fr/doc/ista_0000-0000_1967_mon_86_1|language= fr|journal= Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon |volume= 86 |issue= 86 |doi= 10.3406/ista.1967.1011 |isbn= 2251600868 }}

* Philippe Le Doze, "Mécène. Ombres et flamboyances", Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2014.

::''Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum epicorum et lyricorum praeter Ennium et Lucilium'', 3rd ed., Stuttgart: [[Teubner]], 1995, pp. 243–48.

 

{{Augustus}}