Maecenas on policy 225 



about Maecenas ? His enjoyment of luxurious ease 1 was a byword : 

 that he retained his native commonsense under such conditions is 

 one of his chief titles to fame. No one^ can have expected him to 

 wield the spade and mattock or spread manure. The poet writing 

 with such a man for patron and prompter was not likely to find his 

 precepts enjoining personal labour taken too seriously. His readers 

 were living in a social and moral atmosphere in which to do any- 

 thing involving labour meant ordering a slave to do it. That the 

 Emperor wished to see more people interested in the revival of Italian 

 agriculture was well understood. But this interest could be shown by 

 investing capital in Italian land; and this is what many undoubtedly 

 did. Recent proscriptions and confiscations had thrown numbers of 

 estates on the market. It was possible to get a good bargain and at 

 the same time win the favour of the new ruler by a well-timed proof 

 of confidence in the stability of the new government. Now it is to say 

 the least remarkable that Dion Cassius, doubtless following earlier 

 authorities, puts into the mouth of Maecenas some suggestions 2 on 

 this very subject. After advising the Emperor to raise a standing 

 army by enlisting the able-bodied unemployed men in Italy, and 

 pointing out that with the security thus gained, and the provision of 

 a harmless career for the sturdy wastrels who were at present a cause 

 of disorders, agriculture and commerce would revive, he proceeds as 

 follows. For these measures money will be needed, as it would under 

 any government : therefore the necessity of some exactions must be 

 faced. ' The very first thing 3 then for you to do is to have a sale of 

 the confiscated properties, of which there are many owing to the wars, 

 reserving only a few that are specially useful or indispensable for your 

 purposes : and then to employ all the money so raised by lending it 

 out at moderate interest. If you do this, the land will be under culti- 

 vation (6^6/9709), being placed in the hands of owners who themselves 

 work (Seo-TTorais avrovpyols SoOeicra): they will become more prosperous, 

 having the disposal of capital : and the treasury will have a sufficient 

 and perpetual income.' He then urges the necessity of preparing a 

 complete budget estimate of regular receipts from the above and other 

 sources, and of the prospective regular charges both military and civil, 

 with allowance for unforeseen contingencies. ' And your next step 

 should be to provide for any deficit by imposing a tax on all properties 

 whatsoever that bring a profit (eiriKapTrLav riva) to the owner, and 

 by a system of tributary dues in all our subject provinces.' 



1 Velleius n 88, and many passages in Seneca and other authors. 

 3 Dion Cass LII 27-8. 



3 Compare Suet Aug 41 for the Emperor's actual policy. It seems that the influx of 

 specie captured at Alexandria sent the rate of interest down and the price of land up. 

 H.A. 15 



