Its publication placed him in the first rank of contemporary poets, and amongst other things procured him admission to the literary circle of Maecenas.
Propertius had a large number of friends and acquaintances, chiefly literary, belonging to the circle of Maecenas.
The Gaius Maecenas mentioned in Cicero (Pro Cluentio, 56) as an influential member of the equestrian order in 91 B.C. may have been his grandfather, or even his father.
It was in 39 B.C. that Horace was introduced to Maecenas, who had before this received Varius and Virgil into his intimacy.
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.