Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/901

MACRO. MACRO. 887 (fe Cues. 22, EpiL jdi. 13.) Eutrop. viii. 1 2 ; Zonar. [W. R.J COIN OF MACRINUS. MACRI'NUS, BAE'BIUS, aRoman rhetori- cian, is mentioned along with Julius Frontinus and Julius Granianus, as one of the teachers of the emperor Alexander Severus. (Lamprid. Alew. Sev. 3.) MACRI'NUS, PLO'TIUS, to whom Persius addressed his second satire, but of whom we know nothing, except that he was a friend of the poet. MACRIS (Mct/c/jjs), a daughter of Aristaeus, who fed the infant Dionysus with honey, after he was brought to her in Euboea by Hermes ; but being expelled by Hera, she took refuge in the island of the Phaeacians. (ApoUon. Rhod. iv. 540, 990, 1131 ; comp. Aristaeus.) [L. S.] MAC HIS (MaKpis), an Odrysian woman, wife of Lysimachus, king of Thrace, by whom she was the mother of two sons, Agathocles and Alexander. [Lysimachus.] [E. H. B.] MACRO, NAE'VIUS SERTO'RIUS, was praetorian prefect under Tiberius and Caligula. His origin was obscure (Philo, Le.gat. ad Caium, 4); lie was perhaps a freedman by birth (Tac. Ann. vi. 38) ; and the steps by which he attracted the no- tice and favour of Tiberius are unknown. Macro first appears in history as the conductor of the arrest of Aelius Sejanus, his immediate predecessor in the command of the praetorians, a. d. 31. The seizure of this powerful favorite in the midst of the senate where he had many adherents, and of the guards whom he principally had organised (Tac. Ann. iv. 2), seemed, at least before its exe- cution, a task of no ordinary peril. The plan of the arrest was concerted at Capreae by Tiberius and Macro, and the latter was despatched to Rome, on the 19th of October, with instructions to the officials of the government and the guards, and with letters to some of the principal members of the senate. Macro reached the capital at mid- night; and imparted his errand to P. Memmius Re- gulus, one of the consuls, and to Graecinus Laco, prefect of the city-police (vigiles). By daybreak the senate assembled in the temple of Apollo, ad- joining the imperial palace. Macro, by the promise of a donation, and by showing his commission from Tiberius, had dismissed the praetorians to their camp, and supplied their place at the entrance and along the avenues of the temple by Laco and his vigiles. He had also lulled the suspicions which his sudden arrival at Rome had awakened in Se- janus by informing him, as if confidentially, that the senate was specially convened to confer on him the tribunitian dignity, which would have been equivalent to adopting him to the empire. Sejanus therefore took no steps for his own security, but, had he shown any disposition to resist, Macro had secret orders to release from prison Drusus, son of Germanicus and Agrippina [Drusus, No. 18], and proclaim him heir to the throne. Macro presented Tiberius' letters to the consul in the senate, but withdrew before they were opened, since his pre- sence was ref[uired at the praetorian camp, where the soldiers, jealous of the preference shown to the vigiles, were in mutiny, and, in the confusion that followed the arrest of Sejanus, began to plunder and burn the suburbs. Macro, however, reduced them to discipline by a donation of more than tliirty pounds sterling to each man, and they ac- cepted him as their new prfefect. For his services on this day the senate decreed Macro a large sum of money, a seat in the theatre on the senatorian benches, the right of wearing the praetexta, and the ornaments of a praetor. But he prudently de- clined these unusual honours, and contented him- self with the more substantial favour of Tiberius. He was praetorian prefect for the remainder of that emperor's reign and during the earlier part of Caligula's. Macro, whom L. Arruntius described as a worse Sejanus (Tac. Ann. vi. 48), was unre- lenting in his persecution of the fallen favourite's adherents. He laid informations ; he presided at the rack ; and he lent himself to the most savage caprices of Tiberius during the last and worst pe- riod of his government. Mam. Aemilius Scaunis was accused by him of glancing at Tiberius in his tragedy of Atreus, and driven to destroy himself ; the veteran delator Fulcinius Trio denounced Macro and Tiberius with his dying breath ; and L. Ar- runtius died by his own hands, to avoid being his victim. As praetorian prefect Macro had the charge of the state prisoners — among others of the Jewish prince Agrippa (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 6)^ [Agrippa Herodes, No. l.J and of Ca- ligula. Tiberius, a. d. 37, was visibly declining, and, in a new reign, Macro might be even more powerful than he had been under a veteran and wary despot. Of the Claudian house there re- mained only two near claimants for the throne, — Tiberius, the grandson, and Caligula, the grand- nephew, of the reigning emperor. In Roman eyes the claim of the latter was preferable, since by his mother Agrippina he was a descendant of the Julian house. Tiberius was an infant, Cali- gula had attained manhood, but he was a prisoner, and therefore more under the influence of his keeper. To Caligula, therefore. Macro applied himself ; he softened his captivity, he interceded for his life, and he connived at, or rather promoted, an intrigue between his wife Ennia [Ennia] and his captive. Tiberius noticed but was not alarmed at Macro's homage to Caligula. " You quit," he said, " the setting for the rising sun." It was ru- moured, but it could not be known, that Macro shortened the fleeting moments of the dying em- peror by stifling him with the bedding as he re- covered unexpectedly from a swoon. Macro cer- tainly induced the senate to accept Caligula as sole emperor, although Tiberius had in his will declared his grandson partner of the empire. During the better days of Caligula s government Macro re- tained his office and his influence. But his services were too great to be rewarded or forgiven. Ac- cording to one account ( Philo, Z^^af. ad Caium, 4), Macro presumed to remonstrate with the emperor for his extravagance, his indecorous levity, his ad- diction to sensual pleasures, and his neglect of business. A rebuke which Agrippa might have offered and Augustus received was thrown away on Caligula, ahd was unseasonable in Macro. Dread of the prefect's influence with the guards at first induced the emperor to dissemble ; he even 3 L 4