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 Balagate mountains, which separate it from Malabar, and on the north by Visapour 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. At this place is a pearl fishery, which brings in a large sum annually.

ΜΕΑΝΔΡΗ, in Ancient Geography, a celebrated river of Asia Minor, rising near Celene. It flows through Caria and Ionia into the Aegean sea between Miletus and Priene, after it has been increased by the waters of the Marfyas, Lycus, Eudon, Letheus, &c. It is celebrated among the poets for its windings, which amount to not less than 600, and from which all obliquities have received the name of meanders. It forms in its course, according to the observation of some travellers, the Greek letters ζ ξς & ω; and from its windings Daedalus is said to have had the first idea of his famous labyrinth.

ΜΕΑΤΓΕ, anciently a people of Britain, near Severus's wall, inhabiting the district now called Lauderdale, in Scotland.

ΜΕΑΕΝΑΣ, CAIUS CILNIUS, the great friend and counsellor of Augustus Caesar, was himself a very polite scholar, but is chiefly memorable for having been the patron and protector of men of letters. He was descended 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 dignity and splendour of his birth, since he excelled in every thing that related to arms, politics, and letters. How Maecenas spent his younger years is also unknown to us, any farther than by effects; there being no mention made of him by any writer before the death of Julius Caesar, which happened in the year of Rome 709. Then Oetavius Caesar, who was afterwards called Augustus, went to Rome, to take possession of his uncle's inheritance; and then Maecenas became first publicly known, though he appears to have been Augustus'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 Paedo Albinovanus justly called him Caesari dextram, "Caesar's right-hand."

In A. R. 710, the year that Cicero was killed and Ovid born, Maecenas distinguished himself by his courage and military skill at the battle of Modena, where the consuls Hirtius and Panpa were slain in fighting against Antony; as he did afterwards at Philippi.

After this last battle began the memorable friendship between Maecenas 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 prisoner of war. Maecenas, finding him an accomplished man, became immediately his friend and protector; and afterwards recommended him to Augustus, who restored him his estate with no small additions. In the mean time, though Maecenas behaved himself well as a soldier in these and other battles, yet his principal province was that of a minister and counsellor. He was the adviser, the manager, the negotiator, in everything that related to civil affairs. When the league was made at Brundusium between Antony and Augustus, Maecenas was sent to act on the part of Augustus. This we learn from Horace in his journey to Brundusium:

Huc venturus erat Maecenas optimus, atque Coccius, mili magnis de rebus uterque Legati, aversos soliti componere amicos. Sat. v. lib. i.

And afterwards, when this league was near breaking, through the suspicions of each party, Maecenas 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, Maecenas 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 military expeditions, yet whenever there was any thing to be done at Rome either with the senate or people, he was always despatched thither for that purpose.

Upon the total defeat of Antony at Actium, Maecenas returned to Rome, to take the government into his hands, till Augustus could settle some necessary affairs in Greece and Asia. Agrippa soon followed Maecenas; 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 Augustus was extinguishing the remains of the civil war in Asia and Egypt, young Lepidus, the son of the triumvir, was forming a scheme to afflantiate him at his return to Rome. This conspiracy was discovered at once, by the extraordinary vigilance of Maecenas; who, as Velleius Paterculus says, "observing the rash councils of the headstrong youth with the same tranquillity and calmness as if nothing at all had been doing, 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 Maecenas 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 Maecenas heirs to what he had. Maecenas 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 Aeneid be owing to the good taste and encouragement of this patron, as there is some reason to think, posterity cannot commemorate him with too much gratitude. Horace may be ranked next to Virgil in Maecenas's good graces: we have already mentioned how and at what time their friendship commenced. Propertius also acknowledges Maecenas 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, Maecenas's house was a place of refuge and welcome 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 comedies; to Tufcus Aritius, a noble grammarian, and Horace's intimate friend; to Plotius Tucea, who assisted Varius in correcting the Aeneid after the death of Virgil; to Valgus, a poet and very learned man, who, as Pliny tells us, dedicated a book to Augustus, De usu Herbarum; to Afinius Pollia, an excellent 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 Maecenas, and celebrated his praises in them over and over: and we may observe farther, what Plutarch tells us, that even Augustus himself inscribed his Commentaries to him and to Agrippa.