Gaius Maecenas
Roman political advisor (d. 8 BC) · Italy · Politicians · Died 8 BC
Gaius Maecenas is read about 380 times a day, in 50 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 16 September 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?His name became the word for arts patron in dozens of languages - a Roman equestrian who had the emperor's ear but refused the Senate, shaping Augustan culture from the shadows instead.
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Photos 8
Maecenas Coole Park_(14775340301).jpg?width=1200)
A day in ancient Rome; being a revision of Lohr's "Aus dem alten Rom", with numerous illustrations, by Edgar S. Shumway (1885) (14775340301)
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Gaius Cilnius Maecenas Roman Statesman (cropped)
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas Roman Statesman_(14596490588).jpg?width=1200)
Great men and famous women - a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 (1894) (14596490588)
Horaz Oden 1 1
Ingres - MI.867.2470, Auguste, Mécène et AgrippaAbout this person
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas was born on 13 April 68 BC and grew into the role of friend and political advisor to Octavian, the man who would become emperor Augustus. Despite wealth and proximity to power, he declined to enter the Senate, keeping his equestrian rank while functioning as a quasi-culture minister to the new regime. What secured his afterlife was his patronage: he backed the rising generation of Augustan poets, Horace and Virgil among them, and funded the verse that would define the age. He died in 8 BC, but the support he gave outlasted marble - his name became shorthand for anyone who opens the purse for art.
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