an ancient town of France, in the department of the Seine and Marne, with a bishop's see, seated in a place abounding in corn and cattle, on the river Marne, which divides it into two parts; and its trade consists in corn, wool, and cheese. It sustained a siege of three months against the English in 1421. E. Long. 2. §8. N. Lat. 48. §8.

MECÆNAS, or MECOENAS, C. CILNIUS, a celebrated Roman knight, descended from the kings of Etruria. He has rendered himself immortal by his liberal patronage of learned men and of letters; and to his prudence and advice Augustus acknowledged himself indebted for the security he enjoyed. His fondness for pleasure removed him from the reach of ambition; and he preferred dying, as he was born, a Roman knight, to all the honours and dignities which either the friendship of Augustus or his own popularity could heap upon him. To the interference of Mecenas, Virgil owed the retribution of his lands; and Horace was proud to boast that his learned friend had obtained his forgiveness from the emperor, for joining the cause of Brutus at the battle of Philippi. Mecenas was himself fond of literature: and, according to the most received opinion, he wrote a history of animals, a journal of the life of Augustus, a treatise on the different natures and kinds of precious stones, besides the two tragedies of Ossavia and Prometheus, and other things, all now lost. He died eight years before Christ; and on his deathbed he particularly recommended his poetical friend Horace to the care and confidence of Augustus. Seneca, who has liberally commended the genius and abilities of Mecenas, has not withheld his censure from his dissipation, indolence, and effeminate luxury. From the patronage and encouragement which the princes of heroic and lyric poetry among the Latins received from the favourite of Augustus, all patrons of literature have ever since been called Mecenates. Virgil dedicated to him his Georgics, and Horace his Odes.