Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

194 CAIUS MAECENASfrom the great lines which Milton puts into themouth of Belial ?Who would lose,Though full of pain, this intellectual being.Those thoughts that wander through eternity,To perish rather, swallowed up and lostIn the wide womb of uncreated nightDevoid of sense and motion ?However, that Maecenas was really selfindulgentand over-luxurious in his manner oflife is, of course, undeniable. All the Romanauthorities are agreed upon this point. Epicureanismwas the fashionable philosophy of thetime, and there can be little doubt that of thisfashion the indolent statesman was a principalleader. He disliked forms and despised conventions.The small Roman banquets, with theirwines and their sweet ointments, their music andtheir roses, were clearly delightful to him. Heforgave the numerous infidelities of his beautifulwife Terentia ;and although he often divorcedher he as often took her back, thinking perhapsthat to act otherwise would be to fling away thesubstance of his pleasure for a shadow. But,realist though he was, the fact that the emperor,to whom he was sincerely attached, was amongher lovers appears to have troubled his decliningyears. He forgave Augustus, nevertheless, andbequeathed to him the greater part of his possessions.Velleius Paterculus tells us that thoughprovident and energetic enough when somethingdefinite had to be done, as soon as the businessin hand ceased to be urgent he relapsed into an