Meacenas was basically Virgil's patron - sure, it was
a financial support situation, but both parties
stressed that the relationship was more about
friendship than about money. Maecenas had a circle of
'clients' that he supported including Horace (though
none of them he supported fully - it wasn't a wage
thing) and they had no official obligation to speak
well of Maecenas. Thing is, because they're friends,
Virgil speaks well of him anyway. You get my drift.
Now, Octavian (that's actually Augustus - he changed
his name from Octavian to Augustus after the Georgics
was written) and Meacenas are close associates.
Virgil would speak well of Octavian for a couple of
reasons. If Octavian and Maecenas were such great
mates, maecenas would be a bit hurt if Virgil tore him
to pieces. Plus, Octavian, being Caesars heir (son,
adopted son, I'm not sure exactly), has an influence
on his writing anyway. Maecenas inspires Virgil to
write of bigger issues, specifically those of Caesar's
wars (see the proem to book 3). At the end of the day
though, I guess Virgil has to speak well of Augustus -
he's the boss after all, he's the guy who's pretty
much known as the first Roman Emperor, and I probably
wouldn't want to cross him regardless of not having
any official obligation to write well of him.
Virgil writes big of Octavian. Virgil writes the
whole 'you're up there with the gods' thing, he even
implies that he may one day become a god, that his
future is uncertain. His dad was deified, and
Augustud spends a lot of time later on in his rule
playing on that one. Anyway, even if he doesn't
become a god, he'll stay on being the living saviour
of the Roman world (take a look at book 1, lines
22-28). So either way, he's this political and
military genius, and potentially the political and
military saviour of the world. Already he's a
military victor - book 4, lines 559-562 are good for
that one.
I think I kind of got away from the point, but it's
about thwelve thirty at night in Australia and I'm
putting off writing an essay on post-modernist film
theory in relation to Peter Greenaway - have you seen
his films? Let me just say they're not Sunday
afternoon bludging on the couch with a bag of chips
and a hangover type films. Anyway, hope I helped a
little - this was my good deed for the day so I hope
it did. Good luck on the essay. Louise.
--- Michael Clarke
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> When working on a recent Virgil essay (his life
> basically...) I discovered that he received
> patronage from a man called gaius Maecenas, who was
> a close friend of Augustus.
> Can anyone give me some more info on this guy???
>
>
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