a province of Asia, in the peninsula on this side the Ganges; bounded on the east by Tanjour and Marava, on the south-east by the sea, on the west by the Balagore mountains, which separate it from Malabar, and on the north by Vizapour and Carnate. The inhabitants are Gentooes, and of a thievish disposition. The commodities are rice, elephants teeth, and cotton-cloth; of which last a great deal is made here, and very fine. The Dutch have a pearl-fishery, which brings them in a large sum annually.

MÆANDER (anc. geogr.), a celebrated river of Asia Minor, rising near Celsoe. It flows through Caria and Ionia into the Ægean sea between Miletus and Priene, after it has been increased by the waters of the Marsyas, Lycus-Eudon, Lethaeus, &c. It is cele- Mæcenas, celebrated among the poets for its windings, which Mæcenas amount to not less than 600, and from which all obli- quities have received the name of meanders. It forms in its course, according to the observation of some tra- vellers, the Greek letters ηξεναι; and from its wind- ings Daedalus is said to have had the first idea of his famous labyrinth.

Mætæ, anciently a people of Britain, near Se- verus's wall, inhabiting the district now called Lauder- dale, in Scotland.

Mæcenas (Caius Cilnius), the great friend and counsellor of Augustus Caesar, was himself a very po- lite scholar, but is chiefly memorable for having been the patron and protector of men of letters. He was de- scended from a most ancient and illustrious origin, even from the kings of Hetruria, as Horace often tells us; but his immediate forefathers were only of the equestrian order. He is supposed to have been born at Rome, because his family lived there; but in what year, antiquity does not tell us. It says as little about his education; but we know it must have been of the most liberal kind, and perfectly agreeable to the digni- ty and splendor of his birth, since he excelled in every thing that related to arms, politics, and letters. How Mæcenas spent his younger years is also unknown to us, any farther than by effects; there being no men- tion made of him by any writer before the death of Julius Caesar, which happened in the year of Rome 709. Then Octavius Caesar, who was afterwards called Augustus, went to Rome, to take possession of his uncle's inheritance; and then Mæcenas became first publicly known, though he appears to have been Au- gustus's intimate friend, and as it should seem guardian, from his childhood. From that time he accompanied him through all his fortunes, and was his counsellor and adviser upon all occasions; so that Pedo Albino- vanus justly called him Caesaris dextram, "Caesar's right-hand."

In A.D. 710, the year that Cicero was killed and Ovid born, Mæcenas distinguished himself by his cou- rage and military skill at the battle of Modena, where the consuls Hirtius and Pansa were slain in fighting against Antony; as he did afterwards at Philippi. After this last battle began the memorable friendship between Mæcenas and Horace. Horace, as Suetonius relates, was a tribune in the army of Brutus and Cassius, and upon the defeat of those generals made a pri- oner of war. Mæcenas, finding him an accomplished man, became immediately his friend and protector; and afterwards recommended him to Augustus, who restored to him his estate with no small additions. In the mean time, though Mæcenas behaved himself well as a solder in these and other battles, yet his principal province was that of a minister and counsellor. He was the adviser, the manager, the negociator, in every thing that related to civil affairs. When the league was made at Brundusium between Antony and Au- gustus, Mæcenas was sent to act on the part of Au- gustus. This we learn from Horace in his journey to Brundusium:

Huc venturus erat Mæcenas optimus, atque Cocceius, mihi magnis de rebus uterque Legati, aversos soliti componere amicos. Sat. v. l. i.

And afterwards, when this league was near breaking,

through the suspicions of each party, Mæcenas was sent to Antony to ratify it anew.

In the year 717, when Augustus and Agrippa went to Sicily to fight Sextus Pompeius by sea, Mæcenas went with them; but soon after returned, to appease some commotions which were rising at Rome: for though he usually attended Augustus in all his mili- tary expeditions, yet, whenever there was anything to be done at Rome either with the senate or people, he was always dispatched thither for that purpose.

Upon the total defeat of Antony at Actium, Mae- cenas returned to Rome, to take the government into his hands, till Augustus could settle some necessary af- fairs in Greece and Asia. Agrippa soon followed Mæcenas; and when Augustus arrived, he placed these two great men and faithful adherents, the one over his civil the other over his military concerns. While Au- gustus was extinguishing the remains of the civil war in Asia and Egypt, young Lepidus, the son of the triumvir, was forming a scheme to assassinate him at his return to Rome. This conspiracy was discovered at once, by the extraordinary vigilance of Mæcenas; who, as Velleius Paterculus says, "observing the rash councils of the headstrong youth with the same tran- quillity and calmness as if nothing at all had been do- ing, instantly put him to death, without the least noise and tumult; and by that means extinguished another civil war in its very beginning."

The civil wars being now at an end, Augustus returned to Rome; and from this time Mæcenas indulged himself at vacant hours in literary amusements, and the conversation of men of letters. In the year 734 Virgil died, and left Augustus and Mæcenas heirs to what he had. Mæcenas was excessively fond of this poet, who, of all the wits of the Augustan age, stood highest in his esteem; and if the Georgics and the Æneid be owing to the good taste and encouragement of this patron, as there is some reason to think, po- liteness cannot commemorate him with too much gra- titude. Horace may be ranked next to Virgil in Mæ- cenas's good graces: we have already mentioned how and at what time their friendship commenced. Pro- pertius also acknowledges Mæcenas for his favourer and protector, lib. ii. eleg. 7. Nor must Varius be forgot, though we have nothing of his remaining; since we find him highly praised by both Virgil and Horace. He was a writer of tragedies; and Quintilian thinks he may be compared with any of the ancients. In a word, Mæcenas's house was a place of refuge and wel- come to all the learned of his time; not only to Virgil, Horace, Propertius, and Varius, but to Fundarius, whom Horace extols as an admirable writer of come- dies; to Fulcus Ariftius, a noble grammarian, and Horace's intimate friend; to Plotius Tucca, who assisted Varius in correcting the Æneid after the death of Virgil; to Valgius, a poet and very learned man, who, as Pliny tells us, dedicated a book to Au- gustus, De usu Herbarum; to Afinius Pollio, an excel- lent tragic writer; and to several others, whom it would be tedious to mention. All these dedicated their works, or some part of them at least, to Mæce- nas, and celebrated his praises in them over and over; and we may observe farther, what Plutarch tells us, that even Augustus himself inscribed his Commenta- ries to him and to Agrippa. Mæcenas continued in Augustus's favour to the end of his life, but not uninterruptedly. Augustus had an intrigue with Mæcenas's wife; and though the minister bore this liberty of his matter very patiently, yet there was a coldness on the part of Augustus, which, however, soon went off. Mæcenas died in the year 745; but at what age we cannot precisely determine, though we know he must have been old. He must have been older than Augustus, because he was a kind of tutor to him in his youth; and then find him often called an old man by Pæo Albionanus, a contemporary poet, whose elegy upon his dead patron is still extant. He made Augustus his heir; and recommended his friend Horace to him in those memorable last words, "Horatii filiæ, ut mei, memor effe, &c." Horace, however, did not probably survive him long, as there is no elegy of his upon Mæcenas extant, nor any account of one having ever been written, which there certainly would have been if Horace survived him any time. Nay, Father Sadon, the French editor of Horace, will have it, that the poet died before his patron; and that these last words were found only in Mæcenas's will, which had not been altered.

Mæcenas is said never to have enjoyed a good state of health in any part of his life; and many singularities are related of his bodily constitution. Thus Pliny tells us, that he was always in a fever; and that, for three years before his death, he had not a moment's sleep. Though he was certainly an extraordinary man, and possessed many admirable virtues and qualities, yet it is agreed on all hands, that he was very luxurious and effeminate. "Mæcenas (says Velleius Paterculus) was of the equestrian order, but sprung from a most illustrious origin. He was a man, who, when business required, was able to undergo any fatigue and watching; who consulted properly upon all occasions, and knew as well how to execute what he had consulted; yet a man who in seasons of leisure was luxurious, soft, and effeminate, almost beyond a woman. He was no less dear to Caesar than Agrippa, but distinguished by him with fewer honours; for he always continued of the equestrian rank, in which he was born: not that he could not have been advanced upon the least intimation, but he never solicited it."

But let moralists and politicians determine of Mæcenas as they please, the men of letters are under high obligations to celebrate his praises and reverence his memory; for he countenanced, protected, and supported, as far as they wanted his support, all the wits and learned men of his time; and that too, out of a pure and disinterested love of letters, when he had no little views of policy to serve by their means; whence it is no wonder, that all the protectors and patrons of learning, ever since, have usually been called Mæcenas's.