Maecenas: a reminder that Goethe in his late life poem for Carl August puns on Carl August's name and the traditional European Maecenas reference when he concludes the poem with "Niemals frug ein Kaiser nach mir, es hat sich kein König /Um mich bekümmert, und er war mir August und Mäcen" ("No emperor took me in, nor did a king ever care/ He was my Augustus and Maecenas in one").
And yes, Manteuffel going for the Augustus and Maecenas relationship is unusual to my knowledge, too; the authors of the "Hervey and Fritz of Wales" essay when summarizing the "good" and "bad" favourite classical comparisons in Europe at that time point out that Hephaistion is usually the go-to-guy if you want to style yourself as the good favourite who is intensely close to his lord but also speaks truth to power when necessary, and is very competent, too. Of course, here two factors might have caused Manteuffel to go for Maecenas instead - Hephaistion is of the same age as Alexander (Maecenas was the same age like Augustus, too, but that's not relevant to the story) and a soldier, whereas Maecenas wasn't a soldier, that was Agrippa (of the two friends of Octavian's youth). And Manteuffel wasn't a soldier, either. Also? He's talking to a young man who approached him specifically for a cultural education originally, and to one who is always in need of money.
Which brngs me back to Maecenas. When I say he wasn't a soldier, I don't mean he wasn't into politics. On the contrary. He arranged Augustus' first marriage to Scribonia (which ended when Augustus married Livia, but not before resulting in poor Julia, his only daughter), and was responsible for negotiating the treasy of Brundisium which reconciled Octavian with Mark Antony (for some years, until, etc.), and was Augustus' regent in Rome while Augustus and Agrippa were off to fight Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. Also possible not irrelevant: Maecenas famously left Augustus all his money as well as his extensive gardens, which ended up being used by Nero as building ground for his Domus Aureus a few generation later.
Lastly: Maecenas was, among others, famously Horace's patron, and Manteuffel was really and genuinely into Horace; as mentioned in my write up, he translated all of Horace's poems for his own benefit (Latin to French, not Latin to German) in his old age. I don't know when Fritz started to discover Horace for himself (in French translation, of course), but Horace as far as I know was a later day favourite, and it might have been through Manteuffel at that.
Maecenas
And yes, Manteuffel going for the Augustus and Maecenas relationship is unusual to my knowledge, too; the authors of the "Hervey and Fritz of Wales" essay when summarizing the "good" and "bad" favourite classical comparisons in Europe at that time point out that Hephaistion is usually the go-to-guy if you want to style yourself as the good favourite who is intensely close to his lord but also speaks truth to power when necessary, and is very competent, too. Of course, here two factors might have caused Manteuffel to go for Maecenas instead - Hephaistion is of the same age as Alexander (Maecenas was the same age like Augustus, too, but that's not relevant to the story) and a soldier, whereas Maecenas wasn't a soldier, that was Agrippa (of the two friends of Octavian's youth). And Manteuffel wasn't a soldier, either. Also? He's talking to a young man who approached him specifically for a cultural education originally, and to one who is always in need of money.
Which brngs me back to Maecenas. When I say he wasn't a soldier, I don't mean he wasn't into politics. On the contrary. He arranged Augustus' first marriage to Scribonia (which ended when Augustus married Livia, but not before resulting in poor Julia, his only daughter), and was responsible for negotiating the treasy of Brundisium which reconciled Octavian with Mark Antony (for some years, until, etc.), and was Augustus' regent in Rome while Augustus and Agrippa were off to fight Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. Also possible not irrelevant: Maecenas famously left Augustus all his money as well as his extensive gardens, which ended up being used by Nero as building ground for his Domus Aureus a few generation later.
Lastly: Maecenas was, among others, famously Horace's patron, and Manteuffel was really and genuinely into Horace; as mentioned in my write up, he translated all of Horace's poems for his own benefit (Latin to French, not Latin to German) in his old age. I don't know when Fritz started to discover Horace for himself (in French translation, of course), but Horace as far as I know was a later day favourite, and it might have been through Manteuffel at that.