Gaius Maecenas

Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (13 April 68 BC – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian (who later reigned as emperor Augustus). He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Roman emperor but in spite of his wealth and power he chose not to enter the Senate, remaining of equestrian rank.

Quotes

• Lucentes, mea vita, nec smaragdos,
  beryllos neque, Flacce mi, nitentes
  <nec> percandida margarita quaero
  nec quos Tunnica lima perpolivit
  anellos nec iaspios lapillos.
  • ???
  • Quoted by Isidore, Etymologiae, XIX, 32, 6 (tr. ???)

• Ipsa enim altitudo attonat summa.
  • There's thunder even on the loftiest peaks.
  • Quoted by Seneca, Epistulae, XIX, 9 (tr. R. M. Gummere)

• Nec tumulum curo. Sepelit natura relictos.
  • I want no tomb; for Nature doth provide
    For outcast bodies burial.
  • Quoted by Seneca, Epistulae, XCII, 35 (tr. R. M. Gummere)
  • Cp. Webster, "Cornelia's Song" in The White Devil (1612), V, iv

• Debilem facito manu, debilem pede, coxo,
  tuber adstrue gibberum, lubricos quate dentis:
  vita dum superest, bene est.
  • Fashion me with a palsied hand,
    Weak of foot, and a cripple;
    Build upon me a crook-backed hump;
    Shake my teeth till they rattle;
    All is well, if my life remains.
    Save, oh, save it, I pray you,
    Though I sit on the piercing cross!
  • Quoted by Seneca, Epistulae, CI, 10 (tr. R. M. Gummere)

About

• Maecenas atavis edite regibus,
  o et praesidium et dulce decus meum.
  • Maecenas, sprung from royal stock, my bulwark and my glory dearly cherished.
  • Horace, Odes, I, i, 1–2 (tr. C. E. Bennett)

External links

• Emil Baehrens, ed. Fragmenta Poetarum Romanorum (Leipzig, 1886), p. 338

• W. M. Lindsay, ed. Isidori: Etymologiarum sive Originum, Vol. 2 (Oxford, 1911)

• H. W. Garrod, ed. The Oxford Book of Latin Verse (Oxford, 1912), no. 108

• C. E. Bennett, Horace: The Odes and Epodes (LCL, 1912), p. 2

• R. M. Gummere, ed. Seneca: Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Vol. 1 (LCL, 1917), p. 130

• R. M. Gummere, ed. Seneca: Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Vol. 2 (LCL, 1920), p. 470

• R. M. Gummere, ed. Seneca: Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Vol. 3 (LCL, 1925), p. 164

• "Gaius Cilnius Maecenas", PHI Latin Texts. The Packard Humanities Institute.