During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Roman emperor but in spite of his wealth and power he chose not to enter the Senate, remaining of equestrian rank.

He prided himself on his ancient Etruscan lineage, and claimed descent from the princely house of the Cilnii, who excited the jealousy of their townsmen by their preponderant wealth and influence at Arretium in the 4th century BC.

[3] Horace makes reference to this in his address to Maecenas at the opening of his first books of Odes with the expression "atavis edite regibus" (descendant of kings).

He first appears in history in 40 BC, when he was employed by Octavian in arranging his marriage with Scribonia, and afterwards in assisting to negotiate the Treaty of Brundisium and the reconciliation with Mark Antony.

During the Sicilian war against Sextus Pompeius in 36, Maecenas was sent back to Rome, and was entrusted with supreme administrative control in the city and in Italy.

He was vicegerent of Octavian during the campaign that led to the Battle of Actium, when, with great promptness and secrecy, he crushed the conspiracy of Lepidus the Younger; during the subsequent absences of his chief in the provinces he again held the same position.

The best summary of his character as a man and a statesman, by Marcus Velleius Paterculus,[12] describes him as "of sleepless vigilance in critical emergencies, far-seeing and knowing how to act, but in his relaxation from business more luxurious and effeminate than a woman."

His character as a munificent patron of literature – which has made his name a household word – is gratefully acknowledged by the recipients of it and attested by the regrets of the men of letters of a later age, expressed by Martial and Juvenal.

He recognized in the genius of the poets of that time not only the truest ornament of the court, but the power of reconciling men's minds to the new order of things, and of investing the actual state of affairs with an ideal glory and majesty.

Maecenas endeavoured also to divert the less masculine genius of Propertius from harping continually on his love to themes of public interest, an effort which to some extent backfired in the ironic elegies of Book III.

His prose works on various subjects – Prometheus, dialogues like Symposium (a banquet at which Virgil, Horace, and Messalla were present), De cultu suo (on his manner of life), and a poem In Octaviam ("Against Octavia") of which the content is unclear – were ridiculed by Augustus, Seneca, and Quintilian for their strange style, the use of rare words and awkward transpositions.

Though the approximate site is known, it is not easy to reconcile literary indications to determine the gardens' exact location, whether or not they lay on both sides of the Servian ager and both north and south of the porta Esquilina.

For instance, John Dewey, in his lectures Art as Experience, said: "Economic patronage by wealthy and powerful individuals has at many times played a part in the encouragement of artistic production.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, Maecenas is one of the three famous wealthy men, along with Midas and J. P. Morgan, whose secrets the novel's narrator Nick Carraway hopes to find in the books he buys for his home library.

[28] Maecenas is a supporting character in William Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra, in which he is presented as a level-headed and loyal lieutenant to Octavian; Enobarbus describes him as 'half the heart of Caesar'.