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Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (; 15 April 68 BC – 8 BC) was an ally, friend 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, including both Horace and Virgil. During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Emperor. His name has become a byword for a wealthy, generous and enlightened patron of the arts. ==Biography== Expressions in Propertius〔ii. I, 25-30〕 seem to imply that Maecenas had taken some part in the campaigns of Mutina, Philippi and Perugia. He prided himself on his ancient Etruscan lineage, and claimed descent from the princely house of the Cilnii, who excited the jealousy of their townsmen by their preponderant wealth and influence at Arretium in the 4th century BC.〔Livy x. 3.〕 Horace makes reference to this in his address to Maecenas at the opening of his first books of ''Odes'' with the expression "atavis edite regibus" (descendant of kings). Tacitus〔Tacitus, ''Annals'' 6. 11.〕 refers to him as "Cilnius Maecenas"; it is possible that "Cilnius" was his mother's nomen - or that Maecenas was in fact a cognomen.〔Varro, however, specifies that the name ''Maecenas'' is a nomen based on origin like Lesas, Ufenas, etc: see (Chris J. Simpson, "Two Small Thoughts on 'Cilnius Maecenas'" 1996. )〕 The Gaius Maecenas mentioned in Cicero〔(''Pro Cluentio,'' 56〕 as an influential member of the equestrian order in 91 BC may have been his grandfather, or even his father. The testimony of Horace〔''Odes'' iii. 8, 5〕 and Maecenas's own literary tastes imply that he had profited from 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 connection with the Emperor Augustus. He first appears in history in 40 BC, when he was employed by Octavian in arranging his marriage with Scribonia, and afterwards in assisting to negotiate the Treaty of Brundisium and the reconciliation with Mark Antony. As a close friend and advisor he acted even as deputy for Augustus when he was abroad. It was in 39 BC that Horace was introduced to Maecenas, who had before this received Lucius Varius Rufus and Virgil into his intimacy. In the "Journey to Brundisium,"〔Horace, ''Satires,'' i. 5.〕 in 37, Maecenas and Marcus Cocceius Nerva - great-grandfather of the future emperor 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. He was vicegerent of Octavian during the campaign that led to the Battle of Actium, when, with great promptness and secrecy, he crushed the conspiracy of Lepidus the Younger; 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. Suetonius〔''Augustus,'' 66〕 attributes the loss of the imperial favour to Maecenas' having indiscreetly revealed to Terentia, his beautiful but difficult wife, the discovery of the conspiracy in which her brother Lucius Licinius Varro Murena〔Murena was accused of being in a conspiracy with Fannius Caepio and executed in 22 BC ((Kline, Index to Horace Satires: Epistles )).〕 was implicated, but according to Cassius Dio〔liv. 19〕 (writing in the early 3rd century AD) it was due to the emperor's relations with Terentia. Maecenas died in 8 BC, leaving the emperor sole heir to his wealth. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gaius Maecenas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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