Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

CAIUS MAECENAS191restoration of the republic ;and to this coursehe was urged by his most powerful lieutenant,Marcus Agrippa. But he was dissuaded fromadopting it by his other chief adviser, the Tuscanknight, Caius Maecenas, who, left in charge ofthe city while the emperor was still absent, hadrecently increased his influence by hisskilful suppressionin its inception of a conspiracy againsthis master's formed life, by Lepidus, the son ofthe triumvir.^The character of this celebrated man is initself an interesting study ; and, typically differingas it does from that of all the public menin earlier Roman history, it enables us to appreciatemore clearly the nature of the change that cameover Roman life after the accession of Augustusto sole power, and to weigh with more intelligencethe advantages and disadvantages of thatchange.Maecenas, in the first place, was a great realist.He professed and probably felt nothing butdisdain for allgood and evil derived not fromthings themselves, but from the opinions menform of them. Thus, though proud of his oldEtruscan lineage, he would never consent to enterthe Senate or to hold the official honours— nowbecome in the main titular— of praetor or consul.He died^as he was born^ inthe equestrian order.It is indeed possible that his moderation in thismatter was in part a compliment to the emperor,who, himself descended from an equestrianfamily in which his father had been the first1 Yell. Paterculus, ii. 88 ; Appian, iv. 49.