Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

CAIUS MAECENAS197his fame, and here he held close intercourse withthe pure spirit of Virgil, to whom he had presenteda house on the Esquiline close to his own.Augustus, in one of the pleasant letters to himhappily preserved to us by Suetonius, declareshis wish to steal from him Horace, whom he desiresto engage as a private secretar3^ Veniet'ergo' he writes, ' ah ista parasitica mensa adhanc regiant, et nos in scrihendis episfolis'juvabitLet him (' quit that parasitic table of yours forour palace, and he shall help us with our correspondence' But Horace declined the^) . proposal ;and Augustus, ever reasonable, had the good sensenot to be offended. Both Horace and Virgil,however, much preferred the country to the town,and their patron, sorely against his will, wasobliged to indulge their inclinations in this respect.Maecenas had evidently a genius for friendship.We read that a certain Melissus, a distinguishedgrammarian, although free-born, hadbeen exposed in his infancy by his mother andbrought up as a slave. He became of the householdof Maecenas, and was by him treated ratheras a friend than as a servant. Afterwards, hismother, repenting of her action, claimed him asher son, and he was thus given the opportunityof recovering his freedom. But, preferring toliberty his actual condition in the service ofMaecenas, he rejected the proffered acknowledgment.He was afterwards manumitted byMaecenas, introduced to the emperor, and appointedlibrarian to the new Octavian Library.''» Suet,, in vita Hor. » Suet,, De Illus. Gramm. 21,