Editing Gaius Maecenas (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Maecenas Coole Park.JPG|thumb|Bust of Maecenas at [[Coole Park]], Ireland]]His name has become a byword in many languages<ref>''μαικήνας'' in Greek, ''mecenaat'' in Dutch, ''mesenaatti'' in Finnish, ''mécénat'' in French, ''Mäzen'' in German, ''mecenate'' in Italian, ''mesen'' in Norwegian, ''mecenat'' in Romanian, ''mecen'' in Slovenian, ''mecenas'' in Spanish, Polish, and Ukrainian, ''mecénás'' in Hungarian, and ''меценат'' in Russian and Bulgarian.</ref> for a well-connected and wealthy patron. 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. Probably many a savage tribe had its Maecenas."<ref>{{cite book |last=Dewey |first=John |author-link=John Dewey |date=1934 |title=''[[Art as Experience]]'' |location=New York |publisher=[[Capricorn Books|G.P. Putnam's Sons]] |page=9 }}</ref> Maecenas is celebrated for this role in two poems, the ''[[Elegiae in Maecenatem]]'', which were written after his death and collected in the ''[[Appendix Vergiliana]]''.

In various languages, Maecenas' name has given rise to a word for private [[patronage]], mainly cultural but sometimes wider, usually perceived as more [[Altruism|altruistic]] than [[sponsor (commercial)|sponsorship]]. A verse of the Latin-language student song ''[[Gaudeamus igitur]]'' wishes longevity upon the charity of the students' benefactors ("Maecenatum", genitive plural of "Maecenas").

[[Phillis Wheatley]], the 18th-century poet and the first African-American writer to publish a book, published a poem "To Maecenas" as the first poem in her 1773 book ''Poems on Various subjects, Religious and Moral''.

In Poland and Western Ukraine, a lawyer would customarily be addressed with the honorific ''Pan Mecenas''.

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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fitzgerald |first=F. Scott |author-link=F. Scott Fitzgerald |date=1925 |title=''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' |location=New York |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]] |page=4 |isbn=978-0-7432-7356-5 }}</ref>