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

LIFE or M^OENAS. Ivi)
ed it a healthy abode (Hoi-., Sat. i., 8, 14), and we learn from Sue-
tonius {.^ug., 72) that Augustus had on one occasion retired thither
to recover from a sickness.
Maecenas's house was the rendezvous of all the wits and virtuosi
of Rome ; and whoever could contribute to the amusement of the
company was always welcome to a seat at his table. In this kind
of society he does not appear to have been very select ; and it was
probably from his undistingubhing hospitality that Augustus called
his board "parasitica mensa." {Suet., Vit. Hor.) Yet he was nat-
urally of a reserved and taciturn disposition, and drew a broad distinction
between the acquaintances that he adopted for the amusement
of an idle hour, and the friends whom he admitted to his intimacy
and confidence. In the latter case he was as careful and
chary as he was indiscriminating in the former. His really intimate
friends consisted of the greatest geniuses and most learned men of
Rome ; and if it was from his universal inclination toward men of
talent that he obtained the reputation of a literary patron, it was by
his friendship for such poets as Virgil and Horace that he deserved
it. In recent tunes, and by some German authors, especially the
celebrated Wieland in his Introduction and Notes to Horace's Epis-
tles, MiEOenas's claims to the title of a literary patron have been depreciated.
It is urged that he is not mentioned by Ovid and Tibullus
; that the Sabine farm which he gave to Horace was not so very
large ; that his conduct was perhaps not altogether disinterested, and
that he might have befriended literary men either out of vanity or
from political motives ; that he was not singular in his literary patronage,
which was a fashion among the eminent Romans of the
day, as Messalla Corvinus, Asinius PoUio, and others ; and that he
was too knowing in pearls and beryls to be a competent judge of the
higher works of genius-. As for his motives, or the reasons why he
did not adopt TibuUus or Ovid, we shall only remark, that as they
are utterly unknown to us, so it is only fair to put the most liberal
construction on them j and that he had naturally a love of literature
for its own sake, apart from all political or interested views, may be
inferred from the fact of his having been himself a voluminous author.
Though literary patronage may have been the fashion of the day, it
would be difficult to point out any contemporary Roman, or, indeed,
any at all, who indulged it so magnificently. His name had become
proverbial for a patron of letters at least as early' as the time of Martial
; and though the assertion of that author (viii., 66), that the poets
enriched by the bounty of Maecenas were not easily to be counted,
is not, of course, to be taken literally, it would have been utterly
ridiculous had there not been some foundation for it. That he was
no bad judge of literary merit is shown by the sort of men whom he
patronized—Virgil, Horace, Propertius, besides others almost their
equals in reputation, but whose works are now unfortunately lost, as
Varius, Tucoa, and others. But as Virgil and Horace were by fai
the greatest geniuses of the age, so it is certain that they were mor*
3*