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 Heturia, 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 Octavius 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 Caesaris dextrum, "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 Pansa were slain in fighting against Antony; as he did afterwards at Philippi.

After this last battle began the memorable friendship Maecenas 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 negociator, 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 crat Maecenas optimus, atque Cocceius, missi 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 wars 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 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 Æneid 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 Varinus, but to Fundarius, whom Horace extols as an admirable writer of comedies; to Fuscus Aristius, 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 Asinius Pollio, 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.

Maecenas continued 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 we 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 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 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.