The friendship of Augustus was shared with Agrippa by C. Cilnius Mæcenas, of the illustrious Etruscan house of the Cilnii (_Etrusci reges, reges atavi_):—it must have been a δυναστεία; the name is also met with innumerable times on monuments at Arretium. This clan must have had the Roman franchise even before the _lex Julia_; for as early as Livius Drusus, a Mæcenas, as we are told by Cicero,[36] was already among the _equites splendidissimi_. Horace seems to hint that the forefathers of Mæcenas’ line, both on the father and mother’s side, had been raised to the highest magistracy in the days of Etruscan freedom:— “—_quod avus tibi maternus fuit atque paternus, Olim qui magnis legionibus imperitarent_:” in all likelihood, both of these branches belonged to Arretium: Mæcenas himself was merely a Roman knight. With posterity, he has earned the honour of having been a patron of the poets: we may rejoice that he showed kindness to Horace and Virgil, without indeed troubling ourselves about his motives for it, which we have no means of finding out. He was a strange man, an epicurean in the very worst sense; and he unblushingly avowed it, as he set up ease and comfort as the highest good in life. He displayed a more than womanish love of life; for though in a wretchedly broken state of health, he was glad to live, even in torture, if only live he could (_vita dum superest, bene est_). There was also something childish and trifling about him: he had a foppish delight in trinkets and jewels, for which Augustus often laughed at him. To the latter, he was a convenient friend and a most agreeable companion; and for all honours he expressed an epicurean contempt, looking upon Agrippa’s love of distinction as folly. Yet for all that, he may have cared not a little for having influence; whenever Augustus consulted him, he got very sensible advice. Once only he behaved in a manly way. When Augustus, in the time of the triumvirate, or in that of the Perusian war, was seated on his tribunal, and was pronouncing one sentence of death after another, Mæcenas sent him a note with the words “Get up then, you executioner!” This looks like a man whose heart is much better than his philosophy.