MECE'NAS, C. CILNIUS, a Roman statesman, celebrated for his patronage of letters, was b. in the early part of the first century before Christ. His family WRS of Etruscan origin, and of royal descent (Dor. Cann. i 1), perhaps from Porsena. He received au excellent education, was familiar with Greek and Roman literature, and occasionally did a little in the way of authorship himself. His first appearance in public life dates after.. the assassination of Julius Cmsar (44 "Lc.), when he figures as the friend and adviser of Octavian. He had, it is clear, a talent for private diplomacy, and was employed mainly in that capacity. He " arranger] " a marriage between Octavian and Scribonm, made up (temporarily) the differences between Octavian and Antony, and brought about the peace of Bruudisium. In 36 B.C. he was in Sicily, helping Octavian, as usual.. Five years later, when the latter was fighting- the great and decisive sea-battle of Actium with his rival Antony and the Egyptian princess Cleopatra, MTcenas proved himself a vigilant governor of Rome by crushing a conspiracy of the younger Lepidus, and thereby pre venting a second civil war. When Octavian became emperor under the title of Augustus (a step which he is said to have taken by the advice of MTeenas, who MS profoundly impressed with the necessity of a " strong government" to repress the anarchic elements of the period), the latter was appointed administrator of all Italy. The nature and extent of his official power are not very precisely understood, but they were undoubtedly great, though the influence and authority of Mreeenas are to be estimated rather from his intimacy with tlie emperor than his mere position as a public servant. This intimacy
—friendship it might, perhaps, be called—continued uninterrupted for many years; but some time before 16 B.C. it was ruptured from causes which cannot now be ascertained. No enmity, however, ensued. :Maecenas was a thoroughly sincere imperialist. Ile had a belief in the value of an established government; and when he found that he no longer retained the confidence of his sovereign, he did not lapse into a conspirator; but, as a modern minister might do, retired into the obscurity of private life. Literature and the society of literary men now occupied all his time. He was immensely rich, and kept an open table for men of parts at his fine house on the Esquiline hill. Mwcenas's inter course with Iforace especially was of the most cordial nature, and equally honorable to both. So far as personal morality went, Mweenas was a thorough pagan—not a bad man in the usual sense of the word, but copiously addicted to sensual delights. IIis adul teries—if not worse—were the talk of the city; he dressed effeminately, had a passion for theatrical entertainments, paid great attention to cookery, gardening, etc.; and, in short, in his theory of life, was an epicurean of " the baser sort." It does not, there fore, surprise us to find that he was a valetudinarian and a hypochondriac, and that he died childless, 8 B.C. He left the bulk of his property to Augustus.