Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "TOSCANA Region ITALY" .
AREZZO (Town) TOSCANA
Cilnii, a powerful family in the Etruscan town of Arretium, who seem to have been usually firm supporters of the Roman interests. They were driven out of their native town in B. C. 301, by the party opposed to them, but were restored by the Romans. The Cilnii were nobles or Lucu-mones in their state, and some of them in ancient times may have held even the kingly dignity (Comp. Hor. Carm. i. 1. 1, iii. 29. 1, Serm. i. 6. 3). Till the fall of the republic no separate individual of this fallily is mentioned, for the "Cilnius" of Silius Italicus (vii. 29) is a poetical creation, and the name has been rendered chiefly memorable by C. Cilnius Maecenas, the intimate friend of Augustus. It appears from sepulchral inscriptions that the Etruscan form of the name was Cfenle or Cfelne, which was changed by the Romans into Cilnius, much in the same way as the Etruscan Lecne was altered into Licinius.
Maecenas . Of the life of Maecenas we must be content to glean what scattered
notices we can from the poets and historians of Rome, since it does not appear
to have been formally recorded by any ancient author. We are totally in the dark
both as to the date and place of his birth, and the manner of his education. It
is most probable, however, that he was born some time between B. C. 73 and 63;
and we learn from Horace (Carm. iv. 11) that his birth-day was the 13th of April.
His family, though belonging only to the equestrian order, was of high antiquity
and honour, and traced its descent from the Lucumones of Etruria. The scholiast
on Horace (Carm. i. 1) informs us that he numbered Porsena among his ancestors;
and his authority is in some measure confirmed by a fragment of one of Augustus'
letters to Maecenas, preserved by Macrobius (Sat. ii. 4), in which he is addressed
as "berylle Porsenae". His paternal ancestors are mentioned by Livy (x. 3, 5)
as having attained to so high a pitch of power and wealth at Arretium about the
middle of the fifth century of Rome, as to excite the jealousy and hatred of their
fellow-citizens, who rose against and expelled them; and it was not without considerable
difficulty that they were at length restored to their country, through the interference
of the Romans. The maternal branch of the family was likewise of Etruscan origin,
and it was from them that the name of Maecenas was derived, it being customary
among the Etruscans to assume the mother's as well as the father's name (Muller,
Etrusker, ii. p. 404). It is in allusion to this circumstance that Horace (Sat.
i. 6. 3) mentions both his avns maternus atque paternus as having been distinguished
by commanding numerous legions; a passage, by the way, from which we are not to
infer that the ancestors of Maecenas had ever led the Roman legions. Their name
does not appear in the Fasti Consulares; and it is manifest, from several passages
of Latin authors, that the word legio is not always restricted to a Roman legion
(See Liv. x. 5; Sall. Cat. 53, &c.). With respect to the etymology of the name
Maecenas, authors are at variance. We sometimes find it spelt Mecaenas, sometimes
Mecoenas; but it seems to be now agreed that Maecenas is right. As to its derivation,
several fanciful theories have been started. It seems most probable, as Varro
tells us (L. L. viii. 84, ed. Millerr), that it was taken from some place; and
which may possibly be that mentioned by Pliny (H. N. xiv. 8) as producing an inland
sort of wines called the vina Maeccnatiana. The names both of Cilnius and Maecenas
occur on Etruscan cinerary urns, but always separately, a fact from which Muller,
in his Etrusker, has inferred that the union of the two families did not take
place till a late period. Be that as it may, the first notice that occurs of any
of the family, as a citizen of Rome, is in Cicero's speech for Cluentius (§ 56),
where a knight named C. Maecenas is mentioned among the robora populi Romoani,
and as having been instrumental in putting down the conspiracy of the tribune,
M. Livius Drusus, B. C. 91. This person has been generally considered the father
of the subject of this memoir; but Frandsen, in his life of Maecenas, thinks,
and perhaps with more probability, that it was his grandfather. About the same
period we also find a Maecenas mentioned by Sallust, in the fragments of his history
(Lib. iii.) as a scribe.
Although it is unknown where Maecenas received his education, it must
doubtless have been a careful one. We learn from Horace that he was versed both
in Greek and Roman literature; and his taste for literary pursuits was shown,
not only [p. 891] by his patronage of the most eminent poets of his time, but
also by several performances of his own, both in verse and prose. That at the
time of Julius Caesar's assassination he was with Octavianus at Apollonia, in
the capacity of tutor, rests on pure conjecture. Shortly, however, after the appearance
of the latter on the political stage, we fnd the name of Maecenas in frequent
conjunction with his; and there can be no doubt that he was of great use to him
in assisting to establish and consolidate the empire; but the want of materials
prevents us from tracing his services in this way with the accuracy that could
be wished. It is possible that he may have accompanied Octavianus in the campaigns
of Mutina, Philippi, and Perusia; but the only authorities for the statement are
a passage in Propertius (ii. 1), which by no means necessarily bears that meaning;
and the elegies attributed to Pedo Albinovanus, but which have been pronounced
spurious by a large majority of the best critics. The first authentic account
we have of Maecenas is of his being employed by Octavianus, B. C. 40, in negotiating
a marriage for him with Scribonia, daughter of Libo, the fatherin-law of Sext.
Pompeius; which latter, for political reasons, Octavianus was at that time desirous
of conciliating. (App. B. C. v. 53; Dion Cass. xlviii. 16.) In the same year Maecenas
took part in the negotiations with Antony (whose wife, Fulvia, was now dead),
which led to the peace of Brundisium, confirmed by the marriage of Antony with
Octavia, Caesar's sister. (App. B. C. v. 64.) Appian's authority on this occasion
is supported by the scholiast on Horace (Sat. i. 5. 28), who tells us that Livy,
in his 127th book, had recorded the intervention of Maecenas. According to Appian,
however, Cocceius Nerva played the principal part. About two years afterwards
Maecenas. seems to have been again employed in negotiating with Antony (App. B.
C. v. 93); and it was probably on this occasion that Horace accompanied him to
Brundisium, a journey which he has described in the 5th satire of the 1st book.
Maecenas is there also represented as associated with Cocceius, and they are both
described as "aversos soliti componere amicos."
In B. C. 36 we find Maecenas in Sicily with Octavianus. then engaged
in an expedition against Sex. Pompeius, during the course of which Maecenas was
twice sent back to Rome for the purpose of quelling some disturbances which had
broken out there. (App. B. C. v. 99, 112.) According to Dion Cassins (xlix. 16),
this was the first occasion on which Maecenas became Caesar's vicegerent; and
he was entrusted with the administration not only of Rome, but of all Italy. His
fidelity and talents had now been tested by several years' experience; and it
had probably been found that the bent of his genius fitted him for the cabinet
rather than for the field, since his services could be so easily dispensed with
in the latter. From this time till the battle of Actium (B. C. 31) history is
silent concerning Maecenas; but at that period we again find him intrusted with
the administration of the civil affairs of Italy. It has indeed been maintained
by many critics that Maecenas was present at the sea-fight of Actium; but the
best modern scholars who have discussed the subject have shown that this could
not have been the case, and that he remained in Rome during this time, where he
suppressed the conspiracy of the younger Lepidus. The only direct authority for
the statement of Maecenas having been at Actium is an elegy ascribed to Albinovanus
on the death of Maecenas, which is certainly spurious; and the commentary of Acron
on the first epode of Horace, which kind of authority is of little value. The
first elegy of the second book of Propertius has also been quoted in support of
this fact, but upon examination it will be found wholly inadequate to establish
it. Yet the existence of Horace's first epode still remains to be accounted for.
Those critics who deny that Maecenas proceeded to Actium have still, we believe,
hitherto unanimously held that the poem is to be referred to that epoch; and they
explain the inconsistency by the supposition that Maecenas, when the epode was
written, had really intended to accompany Caesar, but was prevented by the office
assigned to him at home. In confirmation of this view, Frandsen, in his Life of
Maecenas, appeals to the 35th ode of Horace's first book, addressed to Augustus
on the occasion of his intended visit to Britain, a journey which it is known
he never actually performed. But to this it may be answered that Augustus at least
started with the intention of going thither, and actually went as far as Gaul;
but proceeded thence to Spain. A more probable solution, therefore, may be that
first proposed by the author of this article in the Classical Museum (vol. ii.
p. 205, &c.), that the epode does not at all relate to Actium, but to the Sicilian
expedition against Sext. Pompeius. But for the grounds of that opinion, which
would occupy too much space to be here re-stated, the reader is referred to that
work.
By the detection of the conspiracy of Lepidus, Maecenas nipped in
the bud what might have proved another fruitful germ of civil war. Indeed his
services at this period must have been most important and invaluable; and how
faithfully and ably he acquitted himself may be inferred from the unbounded confidence
reposed in him. In conjunction with Agrippa, we now find him empowered not only
to open all letters addressed by Caesar to the senate, but even to alter their
contents as the posture of affairs at home might require; and for this purpose
he was entrusted with his master's seal (Dion Cass. li. 3), in order that the
letters might be delivered as if they had come directly from Octavian's own hand.
Yet, notwithstanding the height of favour and power to which he had attained,
Maecenas, whether from policy or inclination, remained content with his equestrian
rank; a circumstance which seems somewhat to have diminished his authority with
the populace.
After Octavianus' victory over Antony and Cleopatra, the whole power
of the triumvirate centered in the former; for Lepidus had been previously reduced
to the condition of a private person. On his return to Rome, Caesar is represented
to have taken counsel with Agrippa and Maecenas respecting the expediency of restoring
the republic. Agrippa advised him to pursue that course, but Maecenas strongly
urged him to establish the empire; and Dion Cassius (lii. 14, &c.) has preserved
the speech which he is said to have addressed to Octavianus on that occasion.
The genuineness of that document is, however, liable to very great suspicion.
It is highly improbable that Maecenas, in a cabinet consultation of that kind,
would have addressed Octavianus in a set speech of so formal a description; and
still more so that any one should have been present to take it down, or that Maecenas
himself should have afterwards published it. Yet Suetonius, in his life of Augustus,
confirms the account of Dion Cassius so far as that some such consultation took
place; and the tenor of the speech perfectly agrees with the known character and
sentiments of Maecenas. If, therefore, we should be disposed to regard the part
here attributed by Dion Cassius to Agrippa and Maecenas as something more than
a mere fiction of the historian, for the purpose of stating the most popular arguments
that might be advanced against, or in favour of, the establishment of the empire,
the most probable solution is that the substance of the speech was extant in the
Roman archives in the shape of a state paper or minute, drawn up by Maecenas.
However that may be, the document is certainly a very able one, and should be
carefully consulted by all who are studying the history of Rome during its transition
from a republic to an empire. The regulations proposed for the consolidation of
the monarchical power are admirably adapted to their purpose; whether they were
indispensable, or calculated to secure the happiness of the Roman people, depends
upon the truth or falsehood of the former part of the speech, in which it is contended
that the republic could no longer exist without constant danger of civil wars
and dismemberment.
The description of power exercised by Maecenas during the absence
of Caesar should not be confounded with the praefectura urbis. It was not till
after the civil wars that the latter office was aestablished as a distinct and
substantive one; and, according to Dion Cassius (lii. 21), by the advice of Maecenas
himself. This is confirmed by Tacitus (Ann. vi. 11), and by Suetonius (Aug. 37),
who reckons it among the nova officia. The praefectus urbis was a mere police
magistrate, whose jurisdiction was confined to Rome and the adjacent country,
within a radius of 750 stadia; but Maecenas had the charge of political as well
as municipal affairs, and his administration embraced the whole of Italy. Thus
we are told by Seneca (Ep. 114) that he was invested with judicial power (in tribunali,
in rostris, in omni publico coetu); and also that he gave the watch-word (signum
ab eo petebatur); a function of the very highest authority, and afterwards exercised
by the emperors themselves.
It is the more necessary to attend to this distinction, because the
neglect of it has given rise to the notion that Maecenas was never entrusted with
the supreme administration after the close of the civil wars. The office of praefectus
urbis was a regular and continuous one; and we learn from Tacitus that it was
first filled by Messalla Corvinus, who held it but a few days; then by Statilius
Taurus, who, it is plain from Dion (liv. 19), must have enjoyed it for upwards
of ten years at least; and next by Piso, who, Tacitus tells us, was praefectus
for the space of twenty years. (Ann. vi. 11.) But there is nothing in all this
to show that Maecenas might not have been Caesar's vicegerent whilst Taurus filled
the subordinate office of praefectus. Nor are we to infer from the expression,
"bellis civilibus" in the passage of Tacitus (Augustus bellis civilibus Cilnium
Maecenatem cunctis apud Romam atque Italiam praeposuit, (Ann. vi. 1 ), that the
political functions of Maecenas absolutely ceased with the civil wars. His meaning
rather seems to be that, during that period Maecenas combined the duties which
afterwards belonged to the praefectus alone, with those of the supreme political
power. This is shown by the word cunctis, and by the mention of Italy as well
as Rome; to which latter only the praefectura related. In like manner Dion Cassius
(liv. 19), when relating how Maecenas was finally superseded (B. C. 16) by Taurus,
the praefectus, as vicegerent, during the absence of Augustus, expressly mentions
that the jurisdiction of Taurus was extended over the whole of Italy (to men astu
toi Tauroi meta tes alles Ita lias dioikein epitrepsas). When Agrippa, indeed,
could remain at Rome, he seems to have had the preference, as on the occasion
of Augustus's expedition into Sicily in B. C. 21. (Dion Cass. liv. 6.) But when
Agrippa accompanied the emperor, as in his Spanish campaign in B. C. 27, it is
hardly to be doubted that Maecenas exercised the functions of Augustus at Rome.
The 8th and 29th odes of the third book of Horace, which, although we cannot fix
their precise dates, were evidently written after the civil wars, contain allusions
to the political cares of Maecenas. Some of the expressions in them have been
too literally interpreted. In both urbs is used in a sufficiently common sense
for respublica; and though in the latter the word civitatem is taken by the scholiast
to allude to the office of praefecus, yet the phrase quis deceat status points
to infinitely higher functions than those of a mere police magistrate. It may
be observed, too, that both odes refer to the fobreign affairs of the empire.
It must be confessed, however, that we have no means of determining with certainty
on what occsions, and for how long, after the establishment of the empire, Maecenas
continued to exercise his political power; though, as before remarked, we know
that he had ceased to enjoy it in B. C. 16. That he retained the confidence of
Augustus till at least B. C. 21 may be inferred from the fact that about that
time he advised him to marry his daughter Julia to Agrippa, on the ground that
he had made the latter so rich and powerful, that it was dangerous to allow him
to live unless he advanced him still further. (Dion Cass. liv. 6.) The fact to
which we have before alluded of Agrippa being entrusted in that year with the
administration, and not Maecenas, affords no ground for concluding that any breach
had yet been made in the friendship of the emperor and Maecenas. Agrippa, being
more nearly connected with Augustus, would of course obtain the preference; and
such an act of self-renunciation was quite in the character of Maecenas, and might
have even formed part of his advice respecting the conduct to be observed towards
Agrippa. Between B. C. 21 and 16, however, we have direct evidence that a coolness,
to say the least, had sprung up between the emperor and his faithful minister.
This estrangement, for it cannot be called actual disgrace, is borne out by the
silence of historians respecting the latter years of Maecenas's life, as well
as by the express testimony of Tacitus, who tells us (Ann. iii. 30) that during
this period he enjoyed only the appearance, and not the reality, of his sovereign's
friendship. The cause of this rupture is enveloped in doubt. Seneca (Ep. 19) drops
a mysterious hint about Maecenas having taken in his sails too late; whilst Dion
Cassius (liv. 19) positively attributes it to an intrigue carried on by Augustus
with Terentia, Maecenas's wife. It is certain that such a connection existed;
and the historian just cited mentions a report that Augustus's motive for going
into Gaul in B. C. 16 was to enjoy the society of Terentia unmolested by the lampoons
which it gave occasion to at Rome. But, whatever may have been the cause, the
political career of Maecenas may be considered as then at an end; and we shall
therefore now turn to contemplate him in private life.
The public services of Maecenas, though important, were unobtrusive;
and notwithstanding the part that he played in assisting to establish the empire,
it is by his private pursuits, and more particularly by his reputation as a patron
of literature, that he has been best known to posterity. His retirement was probably
far from disagreeable to him, as it was accompanied with many circumstances calculated
to recommend it to one of his turn of mind, naturally a votary of ease and pleasure.
He had amassed an enormous fortune, which Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 53, 55) attributes
to the liberality of Augustus. It has been sometimes insinuated that he grew rich
by the proscriptions; and Pliny (H. N. xxxvii. 4), speaking of Maecenas's private
seal, which bore the impression of a frog, represents it as having been an object
of terror to the tax-payers. It by no means follows, however, that the money levied
under his private seal was applied to his private purposes; and had he been inclined
to misappropriate the taxes, we know that Caesar's own seal was at his unlimited
disposal, and would have better covered his delinquencies.
Maecenas had purchased a tract of ground on the Esquiline hill, which
had formerly served as a burial-place for the lower orders. (Hor. Sat. i. 8. 7.)
Here he had planted a garden and built a house remarkable for its loftiness, on
account of a tower by which it was surmounted, and from. the top of which Nero
is said to have afterwards contemplated the burning of Rome. In this residence
he seems to have passed the greater part of his time, and to have visited the
country but seldom; for though he might possibly have possessed a villa at Tibur,
near the falls of the Anio, there is no direct authority for the fact. Tacitus
tells us that he spent his leisure urbe in ipsa; and the deep tranquillity of
his repose may be conjectured from the epithet by which the same historian designates
it--velut peregrinum otium. (Ann. xiv. 53.) The height of the situation seems
to have rendered it a healthy abode (Hor. Sat. i. 8. 14); and we learn from Suetonius
(Aug. 72) that Augustus had on one occasion retired thither to recover from a
sickness.
Maecenas's house was the rendezvous of all the wits and virtuosi of
Rome; and whoever could contribute to the amusement of the company was always
welcome to a seat at his table. In this kind of society he does not appear to
have been very select; and it was probably from his undistinguishing hospitality
that Augustus called his board parasitica mensa. (Suet. Vit. Hor.) Yet he was
naturally of a reserved and taciturn disposition, and drew a broad distinction
between the acquaintances that he adopted for the amusement of an idle hour, and
the friends whom he admitted to his intimacy and confidence. In the latter case
lie was as careful and chary as he was indiscrimieating in the former. His really
intimate friends consisted of the greatest geniuses and most learned men of Rome;
and if it was from his universal inclination towards men of talent that he obtained
the reputation of a literary patron, it was by his friendship for such poets as
Virgil and Horace that he deserved it. In recent times, and by some German authors,
especially the celebrated Wieland in his Introduction and Notes to Horace's Epistles,
Maecenas's claims to the title of a literary patron have been depreciated. It
is urged that he is not mentioned by Ovid and Tibullus; that the Sabine farm which
he gave to Horace was not so very large; that his conduct was perhaps not altogether
disinterested, and that he might have befriended literary men either out of vanity
or from political motives; that he was not singular in his literary patronage,
which was a fashion amongst the eminent Romans of the day, as Messalla Corvinus,
Asinius Pollio, and others; and that he was too knowing in pearls and beryls to
be a competent judge of the higher works of genius. As for his motives, or the
reasons why he did not adopt Tibullus and Ovid, we shall only remark, that as
they are utterly unknown to us, so it is only fair to put the most liberal construction
on them; and that he had naturally a love of literature for its own sake, apart
from all political or interested views, may be inferred from the fact of his having
been himself a voluminous author. Though literary patronage may have been the
fashion of the day, it would be difficult to point out any contemporary Roman,
or indeed any at all, who indulged it so magnificently. His name had become proverbial
for a patron of letters at least as early as the time of Martial; and though the
assertion of that author (viii. 56), that the poets enriched by the bounty of
Maecenas were not easily to be counted, is not, of course, to be taken literally,
it would have been utterly ridiculous had there not been some foundation for it.
That he was no bad judge of literary merit is shown by the sort of men whom he
patronised--Virgil, Horace, Propertius; besides others, almost their equals in
reputation, but whose works are now unfortunately lost, as Varius, Tucca. and
others. But as Virgil and Horace were by far the greatest geniuses of the age,
so it is certain that they were more beloved by Maecenas, the latter especially,
than any of their contemporaries. Virgil was indebted to him for the recovery
of his farm, which had been appropriated by the soldiery in the division of lands,
in B. C. 41; and it was at the request of Maecenas that he undertook the Georgics,
the most finished of all his poems. To Horace he was a still greater benefactor.
He not only procured him a pardon for having fought against Octavianus at Philippi,
but presented him with the means of comfortable subsistence, a farm in the Sabine
country. If the estate was but a moderate one, we learn from Horace himself that
the bounty of Maecenas was regulated by his own contented views, and not by his
patron's want of generosity. (Carrm. ii. 18. 14, Carm. iii. 16. 38.) Nor was this
liberality accompanied with any servile and degrading conditions. The poet was
at liberty to write or not, as he pleased, and lived in a state of independence
creditable alike to himself and to his patron. Indeed their intimacy was rather
that of two familiar friends of equal station, than of the royally-descended and
powerful minister of Caesar, with the son of an obscure freedman. But on this
point we need not dwell, as it has been already touched upon in the life of Horace.
Of Maecenas's own literary productions, only a few fragments exist.
From these, however, and from the notices which we find of his writings in ancient
authors, we are led to think that we have not suffered any great loss by their
destruction; for, although a good judge of literary merit in others, he does not
appear to have been an author of much taste himself. It has been thought that
two of his works, of which little more than the titles remain, were tragedies,
namely the Prometheus and Octavia. But Seneca (Ep. 19) calls the former a book
(librum); and Octavia, mentioned in Priscian (lib. 10), is not free from the suspicion
of being a corrupt reading. An hexameter line supposed to have belonged to an
epic poem, another line thought to have been part of a Galliambic poem, one or
two epigrams, and some other fragments, are extant, and are given by Meibom and
Frandsen in their lives of Maecenas. In prose he wrote a work on natural history,
which Pliny several times alludes to, but which seems to have related chiefly
to fishes and gems. Servius (ad Virg. Aen. viii. 310) attributes a Symposium to
him. If we may trust the same authority he also composed some memoirs of Augustus;
and Horace (Carm. ii. 12. 9) alludes to at least some project of the kind, but
which was probably never carried into execution. Maecenas's prose style was affected,
unnatural, and often unintelligible, and for these qualities he was derided by
Augustus. (Suet. Aug. 26.) Macrobius (Saturn. ii. 4) has preserved part of a letter
of the emperor's, in which he takes off his minister's way of writing. The author
of the dialogue De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae (c. 26) enumerates him among the
orators, but stigmatizes his affected style by the term calamistros Maecenatis.
Quintiiian (Inst. Orat. ix. 4. 28) and Seneca (Ep. 114) also condemn his style;
and the latter author gives a specimen of it which is almost wholly unintelligible.
Yet, he likewise tells us (Ep. 19), that he would have been very eloquent if he
had not been spoiled by his good fortune; and allows him to have possessed an
ingenium grande et virile (Ep. 92). According to Dion Cassius (1v. 7), Maecenas
first introduced short-hand, and instructed many in the art through his freedman,
Aquila. By other authors, however, the invention has been attributed to various
persons of an earlier date; as to Tiro, Cicero's freedman, to Cicero himself,
and even to Ennius.
But though seemingly in possession of all the means and appliances
of enjoyment, Maecenas cannot be said to have been altogether happy in his domestic
life. We have already alluded to an intrigue between Augustus and his wife Terentia;
but this was not the only infringement of his domestic peace. Terentia, though
exceedingly beautiful, was of a morose and haughty temper, and thence quarrels
were continually occurring between the pair. Yet the natural uxoriousness of Maecenas
as constantly prompted him to seek a reconciliation; so that Seneca (Ep. 114)
remarks that he married a wife a thousand times, though he never had more than
one. Her influence over him was so great, that in spite of his cautious and taciturn
temper, he was on one occasion weak enough to confide an important state secret
to her, respecting her brother Murena, the conspirator (Suet. Aug. 66; Dion Cass.
liv. 3). Maecenas himself, however, was probably in some measure to blame for
the terms on which he lived with his wife, for he was far from being the pattern
of a good husband. His own adulteries were notorious. Augustus, in the fragment
of the letter in Macrobius before alluded to, calls him malagma maecharum; and
Plutarch (Erot. 16) relates of him the story of the accommodating husband, Galba,
who pretended to be asleep after dinner in order to give him an opportunity with
his wife. Nay, he is even suspected of more infamous vices. (Tacit. Ann. i. 54.)
In his way of life Maecenas was addicted to every species of luxury.
We find several allusions in the ancient authors to the effeminacy of his dress.
Instead of girding his tunic above his knees, lie suffered it to hang loose about
his heels, like a woman's petticoat; and when sitting on the tribunal he kept
his head covered with his pallium (Sen. Ep. 114). Yet, in spite of this softness
he was capable of exerting himself when the occasion required, and of acting with
energy and decision (Vell. Pat. ii. 88). So far was he from wishing to conceal
the softness and effeminacy of his manners, that he made a parade of his vices;
and, during the greatest heat of the civil wars, openly appeared in the public
places of Rome with a couple of eunuchs in his train (Senec. l. c.). He was fond
of theatrical entertainments, especially pantomimes; as may be inferred from his
patronage of Bathyllus, the celebrated dancer, who was a freedman of his. It has
been concluded from Tacitus (Ann. i. 54) that he first introduced that species
of representation at Rome; and, with the politic view of keeping the people quiet
by amusing them, persuaded Augustus to patronize it. Dion Cassius (lv. 7) tells
us that he was the first to introduce warm swimming baths at Rome. His love of
ointments is tacitly satirized by Augustus (Suet. Aug. 86), and his passion for
gems and precious stones is notorious. According to Pliny he paid some attention
to cookery; and as the same author (xix. 57) mentions a book on gardening, which
had been dedicated to him by Sabinus Tiro, it has been thought that he was partial
to that pursuit. His tenacious, and indeed, unmanly love of life, he has himself
painted in some verses preserved by Seneca (Ep. 101), and which, as affording
a specimen of his style, we here insert:
Debilem facito manu
Debilem pede, coxa;
Tuber adstrue gibberum,
Lubricos quate dentes
Vita dum superest, bene est,
Hanc mihi, vel acuta
Si sedeam cruce, sustine.--
From these lines it has been conjectured that he belonged to the sect of the Epicureans; but of his philosophical principles nothing certain is known.
That moderation of character which led him to he content with his
equestrian rank, probably arose from the love of ease and luxury which we have
described, or it might have been the result of more prudent and political views.
As a politician, the principal trait in his character was fidelity to his master
(Maecenatis erunt vera tropaea fides,Propert. iii. 9), and the main end of all
his cares was the consolidation of the empire. But, though he advised the establishment
of a despotic monarchy, he was at the same time the advocate of mild and liberal
measures. He recommended Augustus to put no check on the free expression of public
opinion; but above all to avoid that cruelty, which, for so many years, had stained
the Roman annals with blood (Senec. Ep. 114). To the same effect is the anecdote
preserved by Cedrenus, the Byzantine historian; that when on some occasion Octavianus
sat on the tribunal, condemning numbers to death, Maecenas, who was among the
bystanders, and could not approach Caesar by reason of the crowd, wrote upon his
tablets, " Rise, hangman !" (Surge tandem carnifex !), and threw them into Caesar's
lap, who immediately left the judgment-seat (comp. Dion Cass. Iv. 7).
Maecenas appears to have been a constant valetudinarian. If Pliny's
statement (vii. 51 ) is to be taken literally, he laboured under a continual fever.
According to the same author he was sleepless during the last three years of his
life; and Seneca tells us (de Provid. iii. 9) that he endeavoured to procure that
sweet and indispensable refreshment, by listening to the sound of distant symphonies.
We may infer from Horace (Carm. ii. 17) that he was rather hypochondriacal. He
died in the consulate of Gallus and Censorinus, B. C. 8 (Dion Cass. lv. 7), and
was buried on the Esquiline. He left no children, and thus by his death his ancient
family became extinct. He bequeathed his property to Augustus, and we find that
Tiberius afterwards resided in his house (Suet. Tib. 15). Though the emperor treated
Maecenas with coldness during the latter years of his life, he sincerely lamented
his death, and seems to have sometimes felt the want of so able, so honest, and
so faithful a counsellor. (Dion Cass. liv. 9, lv. 7; Senec. de Ben. vi. 32.)
The life of Maecenas has been written in Latin by John Henry Meibom,
in a thin quarto, entitled Liber singularis de C. Cilnii MJaecenatis Vita, Moribus,
et Rebus Gestis, Leyden, 1653. It contains at the end the elegies ascribed to
Pedo Albinovanus, and is a learned and useful work, though the author has taken
an extravagant view of his hero's virtues, and, according to the fashion of those
days, has been rather too liberal of the contents of his commonplace book. In
Italian there is a life by Cenni, Rome 1684; by Dini, Venice 1704; and by Sante
Viola, Rome, 1816; in German, by Bennemann, Leipzig, 1744; by Dr. Albert Lion
(Maecenatiana), Gottingen, 1824; and by Frandsen, Altona, 1843; which last is
by far the best life of Maecenas. In French there is a life of Maecenas by the
Abbe Richer, Paris, 1746. The only life in English is by Dr. Ralph Schomberg,
London, 1766, 12mo. It is a mere compilation from Meibom and Richer, and shows
no critical discrimination.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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