From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gaius Maecenas (70 - 8 BC) was a confidant and political advisor to Augustus Caesar.
Maecenas also sponsored young poets - he is reputed to have discovered Horace and he supported Virgil as well. His name became a byword for a well-connected and wealthy patron.
Tacitus (Ann. 6. 11) refers to him as "Cilnius Maecenas"; it is possible that "Cilnius" was his mother's nomen.
