MAECENAS, GAIUS (CILNius), Roman patron of letters, was probably born between 74 and 64 B.C., perhaps at Arretium. Expressions in Propertius (ii. 1, 25-30) seem to imply that he had taken some part in the campaigns of Mutina, Philippi and Perusia. He prided himself on his Etruscan lineage, and claimed descent from the princely Cilnii of Arretium. His great wealth may have been in part hereditary, but he owed his position and influence to his close connection with the emperor Augustus. He first appears in history in 4o B.C., when he was employed by Octavian in arranging his marriage with Scribonia, and after wards in assisting to negotiate the 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 Virgil into his intimacy. In the "journey to Brundusium," (Horace, Satires, i. 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 ad ministrative control in the city and in Italy. He was vicegerent of Octavian during the campaign of Actium. when, with great promptness and secrecy, he crushed the conspiracy of the younger Lepidus; and during the subsequent absences of his chief in the provinces he again held the same position. During the latter years of his life he fell somewhat out of favour with his master. Maecenas died in 8 B.C., leaving the emperor heir to his wealth.
He seems to have been of great use to Augustus in the estab lishment of the empire, and was credited with having influenced him towards a humane policy. The best summary of his char acter as a man and a statesman is that of Velleius Paterculus (ii. 88), who describes him as "of sleepless vigilance in critical emergencies, far-seeing and knowing how to a ct, but in his relaxation from business more luxurious and effeminate than a woman." His character as a munificent patron of literature has
made his name a household word. His patronage was exercised with a political object, and he sought to use the genius of the poets of the day to glorify the new regime. The diversion of Virgil and Horace towards themes of public interest may be ascribed to him, and he endeavoured less successfully to do the same thing with Propertius. The great charm of Maecenas in his relation to the men of genius who formed his circle was his simplicity, cordiality and sincerity. He admitted none but men of worth to his intimacy, and when once admitted they were treated like equals. 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.
Maecenas himself wrote in both prose and verse. His prose works on various subjects—Prometheus, Symposium (a banquet at which Virgil, Horace and Messalla were present), De cultu suo (on his manner of life)—were ridiculed by Augustus, Seneca and Quintilian for their awkward style. Dio Cassius states that Maecenas was the inventor of a system of shorthand.
There is no good modern biography of Maecenas. The best known is that by P. S. Frandsen (1843). See "Horace et Mecène" by J. Girard, in La Revue politique et litteraire (Dec. 27, 1873) ; V. Gardt hausen, Augustus and seine Zeit, i. 762 seq.; ii. 432 seq. The chief 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. Harder (1889).