ontinued in Augustus's favour to the end of his life, but not uninterruptedly. Augustus had an intrigue with Maecenas's wife: and though the minister bore this liberty of his master very patiently, yet there was a coldness on the part of Augustus, which, however, soon went off. Maecenas 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 Pædo Albinovanus, 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 Flacci, ut mei, memor esto," &c. Horace, however, did not probably survive him long, as there is no elegy of his upon Maecenas extant, nor any account of one having ever been written, which there certainly would have been had Horace survived him any time. Nay, Father Sanadon, the French editor of Horace, will have it, that the poet died before his patron; and that these last words were found only in Maecenas's will, which had not been altered.

Maecenas 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. "Maecenas (says Velleius Paterculus) was of the equestrian order, but sprung from a most illustrious origin. He was a man, who, when bufines 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 feasts 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 Maecenas as they please, the men of letters are under high obligations to celebrate his praises and revere 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 Maecenas's.