The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

LIFE OF MjECENAS Iv
ed by several years' experience ; and, it has probably been found that
the bent of liis genius fitted him for the cabinet rather tlian the field,
since his services could be so easily dispensed with in the latter.
iFrom this time till the battle of Aotium (B.C. 31) history is silent
concerning Maecenas j but at that period we again find him intrusted
with the administration of the civil affairs of Italy. It has indeed
been maintained by many critics that MEBoenas was present at the
sea-fight of Aetlum ; but the best modern scholars who have discussed
the subject have shown that this eould not have been the case, and
that he remained in Rome during this time, where he stipprebsed the
conspiracy of the younger l/epidus. By the detection of this conspiracy,
Maecenas nipped in the bud what might have proved another
fruitful germ of civil war. Indeed, his services at this period must
have been most important and valuable ; and how fa,ithfully and ably
he acquitted himself may be inferred from the unbounded confidence
reposed in him. In conjunction with Agrippa, we now find him empowered
not only to open all the letters addressed by Caesar to the
isenate, but even to alter their eontents as the posture of affairs at
Rome might require, and for this purpose he was intrusted with his
master's seal {Dio Cass., li., 3), in order that the letters might be
delivered as if they had come directly from Octavianus's own hand.
Yet, notwithstanding the height of favor and power to which he had
attained, Maecenas, whether from policy or inclination, remained
content with his equestrian rank, a circumstance which seems somewhat
to have diminished his authority with the populace.
After -Octavianus's victory over Antony and Cleopatra, the whole
power of the triumvirate centered in the former ; for Lepidus had
been previously reduced to the condition of a private person. On
his return to Rome, Caesar is represented to have taken counsel with
Agrippa and Maecenas respecting the expediency of restoring the
repubUo. Agrippa advised him to pursue that course, but Maecenas
strongly urged him to establish the empire.
The description of power exercised by Maecenas during the absence
of Caesar should not be confounded with the prafectmra urbis.
It was not till after the civil wars that the latter office was established
as a distinct and substantive one ; and, according to Dio Cassius
{lii., 21), by the advice of Maecenas himself. This is confirmed by
Taeitus {^rm., vi., 11), and by Suetonius (Aug., 37), who reckons it
among the «o»o officio,. The prafectus urbis was a mere police
magistrate, whose juvisdiction was confined to Rome and the adjacent
country, within a radius of 750 stadia ; but Maecenas had the
charge of political as well as municipal affairs, and his administra-
tion embraced the whole of Italy. It is the more necessary to attend
to this distmction, because the neglect of it has given rise to the
notion that Maecenas was never intrusted with the supreme administration
after the close of the civil wars. It must be confessed, how-
ever, that we have no means of determining with certainty on vv'hat
occasions, and for how long, liter the establishment of the empire,