Gaius Maecenas

Reading notes

• The Odes §1.1 Maecenas

  Horace's patron and literary intimate, descended (he claimed) from Etruscan kings; dedicatee of the whole collection.

• The Odes §1.20 Maecenas

  The patron, here recalled being applauded in the theater, with the Vatican echo answering.

• The Odes §2.12 Maecenas

  The patron, told that Horace would rather sing of love than of Caesar's wars.

• The Odes §2.17 Maecenas

  The patron, whose anxious talk of death Horace answers with a vow to die when he does.

• The Odes §2.20 Maecenas

  The patron addressed as the swan-poet foretells his own deathless fame.

• The Odes §3.8 Maecenas

  Bidden to drop the city's cares and drink a hundred ladles for his friend's deliverance.

• The Odes §3.16 Maecenas

  'Glory of the knights,' addressed as Horace praises the contentment of little.

• The Odes §3.29 Maecenas

  'Offspring of Tuscan kings,' urged to leave Rome's din for a simple country dinner.

• The Odes §4.11 Maecenas

  Whose birthday on the Ides of April Horace keeps 'almost more sacred' than his own.

• The Epistles §1.1 Maecenas

  Wealthy Etruscan-descended patron of the arts and confidant of Augustus, to whom Horace's Satires, Epodes, and first three books of Odes are dedicated.

• The Epodes §1 Maecenas

  Horace's patron and intimate of Octavian; the dedicatee here vowing to follow him to war.

• The Satires §1.1 Maecenas

  Horace's patron and the dedicatee of the Satires; a wealthy confidant of Augustus and the addressee throughout the collection.