{"product_id":"romes-patron-the-lives-and-afterlives-of-maecenas-9780691193144","title":"Rome's Patron: The Lives and Afterlives of Maecenas","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe story of Maecenas and his role in the evolution and continuing legacy of ancient Roman poetry and culture\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn unelected statesman with exceptional powers, a patron of the arts and a luxury-loving friend of the emperor Augustus: Maecenas was one of the most prominent and distinctive personalities of ancient Rome. Yet the traces he left behind are unreliable and tantalizingly scarce. Rather than attempting a conventional biography, Emily Gowers shows in \u003ci\u003eRome's Patron\u003c\/i\u003e that it is possible to tell a different story, one about Maecenas's influence, his changing identities and the many narratives attached to him across two millennia. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eRome's Patron\u003c\/i\u003e explores Maecenas's appearances in the central works of Augustan poetry written in his name--Virgil's \u003ci\u003eGeorgics\u003c\/i\u003e, Horace's \u003ci\u003eOdes\u003c\/i\u003e and Propertius's elegies--and in later works of Latin literature that reassess his influence. For the Roman poets he supported, Maecenas was a mascot of cultural flexibility and innovation, a pioneer of gender fluidity and a bearer of imperial demands who could be exposed as a secret sympathizer with their own values. For those excluded from his circle, he represented either favouritism and indulgence or the lost ideal of a patron in perfect collaboration with the authors he championed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Gowers shows, Maecenas had and continues to have a unique cachet--in the fantasies that still surround the gardens, buildings and objects so tenuously associated with him; in literature, from Ariosto and Ben Johnson to Phillis Wheatley and W. B. Yeats; and in philanthropy, where his name has been surprisingly adaptable to more democratic forms of patronage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEmily Gowers\u003c\/b\u003e is professor of Latin literature and a fellow of St John's College at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature\u003c\/i\u003e and the editor of \u003ci\u003eHorace: Satires Book I\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50394577535250,"sku":"9780691193144","price":49.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1bc581af-f431-4f77-afeb-101b75df187f.jpg?v=1729010049","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/romes-patron-the-lives-and-afterlives-of-maecenas-9780691193144","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}