Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

CAIUS MAECENAS 201which he parodies his friend's style with happyeffect :'Vale mel gentium,' so it runs, ' melcule,ebur ex Hetruria, laver Aretinum, adamas supernus,Tiberinum margaritum, Cilniorum smaragde,jaspis figulorum, berylle Porsennae, carbunculumItaliae.' ^ Maecenas's love of precious stones, ofwhich we have evidence in some surviving hendecasyllablesaddressed by him to Horace, is alsorallied in this letter. Seneca, to whom we owemuch of our scanty knowledge of Maecenas, tellsus that his writings were often greatin theirmeaning, but enervated by their expression.^The change effected in the Roman characterat the close of the first century before Christ, withits subsequent developments, offers an interestingstudy to the philosophic historian. The housewas completed, the architects who had superintendedits completion had fought for its possession,into which the strongest of them had finallyentered. The employment which had absorbedthe lives of the workmen was at an end, and nowtheir unemployed descendants began to look aboutthem and to wonder what they were to do next.In fact, the cultivated Romans, havingfirst time leisure to remember that they werealive,life.was stillfor thebegan the dangerous search for theories ofPhilosophy, which, as we learn from Cicero,in his time by many considered a studybelow the dignity of a Roman gentleman,nowbegan powerfully to attract the attention of theeducated classes, and the writings of the Greekphilosophers were eagerly»Mac, Sat. ii.4discussed. Stoicism,»Ep. 92-