MÆCENAS, CAIUS CILNIUS, the friend and counselor of Augustus Cæsar, a man whose name has become a synonyme for a patron of literature, from the munificent and generous support he afforded to the learned. He flourished from about 41 to 8 B. C. He was very generally considered by the ancients as descended from the royal line of Etruria. The family of the Cilnii is mentioned by Livy (x. 3) as very powerful at Arretium, now Arrezzo, B. C. 300. We have no account of the early years of Mæcenas, but there is little doubt that his education was carefully attended to, and becoming the dignity of his birth. In what way he acquired the friendship of Octavius we have no means of knowing; but we find him actively engaged in his cause immediately after the murder of Julius Cæsar, B. C. 44. His talents seem to have been particularly adapted for the administration of the civil affairs of government, and we find him more frequently thus engaged than in the active business of war. He was employed (B. C. 40) to negotiate the marriage between Augustus and Scribonia, the sister of Scribonius Libo, the father-in-law of Sextus Pompey, with the view of securing a channel by which he might obtain peace with Pompey if circumstances should require it (Appian. B. C. v. 53). The same year Mæcenas was one of the commissioners appointed to negotiate the peace between Antony and Octavius at Brundusium, which was sealed by the marriage of Octavia and Antony (v. 64). He was again the principal person employed in the conference between Octavius and Antony (B. C. 37), on the banks of the river between Metapontum and Tarentum, when peace was agreed upon (v. 92). He had the command of the whole of Italy and Rome at the time of the battle of Actium, B. C. 31, at which period he put down a conspiracy entered into by Lepidus the son of the triumvir (iv. 50; Vell. Pat. ii. 88). The victory at Actium having placed the Roman empire in the hands of Octavius, he consulted with his friends, Agrippa and Mæcenas, whether he ought not to abdicate his authority. Agrippa advised him to restore the republic, but Mæcenas was of a contrary opinion. The speeches which they each delivered are given by Dion Cassius (411, 1-40). Augustus adopted the opinion of Mæcenas, and was guided in all his more important transactions by his advice, having confidence not only in his good sense and discretion, but in the integrity of his character. To Mæcenas therefore may, in a great measure, be ascribed the glory of his reign. After his death, Augustus frequently regretted that he had no longer a friend
to assist him; and when he had committed any act of Mæcenas which he repented, he used to say, that if Mæcenas or Agrippa had been alive, he would not have had cause to reproach himself for the folly of his conduct (Sen. De Benef. vi. 32). It is said that Mæcenas one day observed Augustus on the point of condemning some persons to death, and being unable to approach the tribunal on account of the crowd, he threw a paper to him, on which he had inscribed these words, "Descend from the tribunal, thou butcher;" upon which Augustus, struck by the admonition, left the judgment-seat without passing sentence. The palace of Mæcenas was on the Esquiline Hill, and his gardens are frequently mentioned as occupying the ground which had been previously employed as the place of burial for the poor (Tacit. Ann. xv. 39). It is, however, to his generous patronage of the learned that he is principally indebted for his fame; and their gratitude has amply repaid all the attention he may have bestowed on them. His palace was the common resort of all the literary characters of his age. There might be found Virgil and Horace, Varius, famed for his tragedies, Propertius, Domitius Marsus the rival of Catullus, Valgius, Plotius, and Tucca. It was through Mæcenas that the learned had access to the emperor, and were loaded with his favours. Horace gives a very interesting account of his introduction to Mæcenas, which must have taken place as early as B. C. 40, when both the poet and Mæcenas were still young. To Mæcenas Horace was indebted for his Sabine farm; and Virgil was through him restored to his paternal estate, near Mantua. Virgil dedicated the Georgics to his patron; and to him Propertius has dedicated several of his poems. It is needless to add, that much of the poetry of Horace was also addressed to him. Mæcenas has been accused, however, of being devoted to pleasure; but his faults were those of the age in which he lived, and his virtues were his own (Senec. Epist. 92, 114). Virgil died many years before Mæcenas, B. C. 19; but whether Horace predeceased Mæcenas or not is uncertain. Horace died in the month of November B. C. 8 (Sueton.); and Dion Cassius (41, 3) mentions the death of Mæcenas towards the close of the same year. The clause in the will of Mæcenas, in which he recommends to Augustus his friend Horace, would lead us to conclude that Horace survived him. At all events, only a few months could have intervened between their deaths. He was married to Terentia, a woman of a disagreeable temper, from whom he frequently separated; but found his happiness so dependent on her smiles, that he soon received her back to his arms (Sen. De Prov. 3). Pliny states that the health of Mæcenas was at all times delicate; and that for the last three years of his life he scarcely enjoyed an hour's sleep (vii. 52, 2). Of the writings of Mæcenas we have nothing remaining except a few epigrams, which are published in the Anthologia Latina of Burmann (i. 53, ii. 225, iii. 149). He was also the author of two tragedies, Prometheus and Octavia; and is supposed to have written Memoirs to serve for the history of Augustus. (See Fabricius, Bibliotheca Latina, iii. 964; De Mæcenatis Vita, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis, auct. Meibom. Lugd. Bat. 1653; Lion, Mæcenatiana, Götting. 1824; Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscr. xiii.)