Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/212

194 M M C M C and in 1872 the new ruler was deprived of the right of collecting taxes, and made a Government pensioner, while his territory was split into the two Dutch departments " of Madura and Sampang. The sultan of Sumenep was in like manner succeeded by a panem- bahan in 1853 ; and the death of the panembahan in 1879 afforded an opportunity of enlarging the Government control. There are thus four "departments" in Madura, Pamakasan, Madura, Sumenep, and Sampang. The first three are also regencies, and the fourth a subregency of Bangkalang ; but Pamakasan alone has the full regency organization. The number of village communities is 1271. The best systematic account of Madura will be found in Professor Veth s Java, vol. ill., the proof sheets of which have, by the author s courtesy, been consulted for this article. See also Bleeker, in Indisch. Archie/., i., and Tijds. van Ned. Jnd., ix.; C. de Groot in Nat. Tijds. van Ned. Ind., iv.; Iloevell, Reis over Java, ii.; Zollinger, "Jets over de Nat. geschied. van Madura," in N. Tijds. van Ned. Ind., xvii. ; Jukes, Voyage of the "Fly"; and Hagemau in Tyds. van Ned. Ind., 1858. MAECENAS, C. CILNIUS, is, from two- different points of view, a prominent representative man of the ancient world. He was the first, and one of the most capable and successful, of those who filled the office of a great minister under the Komari empire. He was also, if not the first, certainly the most fortunate and influential among the patrons of Roman literature. It is in the latter capacity that he is best known. Among all the names, royal, noble, or otherwise eminent, associated with the patronage of letters, none either in ancient or modern times is so familiarly known as that of Maecenas. Yet, if we had any contemporary history of the establishment of the empire, possessing the same permanent interest which the poetry of Virgil and Horace possesses, it is probable that his influence in shaping the political destinies of the world would have been as amply recognized as his influence on its literature. The date and place of his birth are unknown. He first appears in history in the year 40 B.C., when he is employed by Octavianus in arranging his marriage with Scribonia, and afterwards in negotiating, along with Pollio and Cocceius Nerva ("aversos soliti componere amicos," Hor., Sat., i. 5, 28), the peace of Brundisium, and the reconciliation with Antony, which was confirmed by the marriage of the latter with Octavia. From the fact that he was then the most trusted friend and agent of the future emperor it is likely that he had been associated with his fortunes from the time when he came forward to claim his inheritance after the death of Julius Caesar; and expressions in Propertius (ii. 1, 25-30) seem to imply that he had borne some share in the campaigns of Mutina, Philippi, and Perusia. He may have been a few years older than Octavianus, who began to play the foremost part in Roman politics before he was twenty years of age. The men of the Augustan age great in action and literature were all born within a few years of one another. Agrippa, the right hand of Augustus in war as Maecenas was in peace, was born in the same year as his master ; and there is no indication in the relations of Maecenas to Augustus or to his friend Horace that he stood towards either of them in the relation of an older to a younger man. Although the place of his birth is unknown, we learn from Horace and Propertius that he prided himself on his ancient Etruscan lineage, and claimed descent from the princely house of the Cilnii, w"ho, as is recorded by Livy (x. 3), excited the jealousy of their townsmen by their preponderating wealth and influence at Arretium in the 4th century before our era. He probably prized the glories of his paternal and maternal ancestry (Hor., Sat., i. 6, 3) as compensating him for his original social inferiority to the members of the great Roman houses ; and the fact dwelt on so prominently by his panegyrists, that, through all his life, he preferred .the position of a great commoner to the new honours of the senate and of the Roman magistracies, may have been the result as much of pride in his provincial ancestry as of a politic desire to disarm the jealousy of his master or of the Roman aristocracy. Cicero, in his defence of Cluentius, speaks of a C. Maecenas as one of the most substantial members of the equestrian order during the tribunate of Drusus (91 B.C.), and as one of those w ho preferred the position their fathers had enjoyed before them to the higher rank obtainable through office (Cic., Cluent., 56, 153). From the identity of the prsenomen and the rarity of the cognomen it is not unlikely that he may have been the grandfather, or perhaps the father, of the future minister. It was in accordance with the policy of Julius Caesar to choose his confidential friends from men of this order, as he chose his tools from a less reputable class ; and the two most trusted friends and ministers of his successor would both have been regarded as " novi homines " by the representatives of the great senatorian families. The testimony of Horace (Odes, iii. 8, 5) and his own literary tastes imply that he had profited by the highest education of his time. His great wealth may have been in part hereditary, as there was no district of Italy in which the inequalities of wealth and station were greater than in Etruria ;* but he owed his position and influence in the state to his early adherence to and close connexion with Augustus. Among the charges brought against him by Seneca, one of the most prominent is that he had been spoiled by his excessive good fortune. From the year 40 B.C. his influence as the confidential adviser of Octavianus seems to have been thoroughly established. It was in the following year that Horace was introduced to him, and he had before this received Varius and Virgil into his intimacy. In the "Journey to Brundisium," which took place in the year 37 B.C., Maecenas and Cocceius Nerva are described as " missi magnis de rebus uterque Legati," and were again success ful in patching up, by the treaty of Tarentum, a reconcilia tion between the two claimants for supreme power. During the Sicilian war against Sextus Pompeius in 36 B.C., he was sent back to Rome, and was entrusted with supreme administrative control in the city and in Italy. He is again found acting as vicegerent of Octavianus during the campaign of Actium, when with great promptness and secrecy he crushed the conspiracy of the younger Lepidus ; and during the subsequent absences of his chief in the provinces he held .the same position. During the latter years of his life he fell somewhat out of favouT with his master, or his services were less needed. Perhaps the freedom with which, in the earlier stages of his career, he had offered advice and told unpleasant truths had become distasteful. One cause for a comparative coolness between the old friends was said to be the emperor s relations with Terentia, the wife of Maecenas, to whom he was uxoriously attached. Perhaps the ennui resulting from the cessation of a life of constant vigilance and activity may account for the state of sleepless restlessness and fever in which he passed the last three years of his life. He died in the year 8 B.C., leaving the emperor heir to his wealth, and affectionately commending his friend Horace, who only survived him a few days, to his protection. Opinions were much divided in ancient times as to the personal character of Maecenas ; but the testimony as to his administrative and diplomatic ability was unanimous. He enjoyed the credit or discredit, as the adherents of the republic must have regarded it of sharing largely in the establishment of the new order of things, 2 of reconciling parties, and of carrying the new empire safely through many dangers. To his influence especially was attributed 1 The lines of Propertius (iv. 8, 27-8) Et tibi ad effectum vires det Cassav et omni Tempore tamfaciles insinuentur opes show that his position under the empire also brought very substantial additions to his original fortune. 2 This is implied by the long speech which Dion C assius puts into his mouth, recommending the establishment and prompting the policy

of the new empire (Dion Cass., Hi. 14-40).