{"product_id":"romes-patron-by-emily-gowers-9780691193144","title":"Rome's Patron","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe story of Maecenas and his role in the evolution and continuing legacy of ancient Roman poetry and culture\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\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 \u003cem\u003eRome's Patron\u003c\/em\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRome's Patron\u003c\/em\u003e explores Maecenas's appearances in the central works of Augustan poetry written in his name—Virgil's \u003cem\u003eGeorgics\u003c\/em\u003e, Horace's \u003cem\u003eOdes\u003c\/em\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47598068498668,"sku":"9780691193144","price":89.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691193144-rome-s-patron.jpg?v=1777960961","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/romes-patron-by-emily-gowers-9780691193144","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}