Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/844

838 MADVIG MAECENAS usages of the Brahmans, but made converts to Christianity. His conformity to heathen cus- toms was denounced to the pope, who sus- pended him for ten years. He resumed his work in 1623, and under him and his follow- ers the mission flourished till the middle of the 18th century, when, by the wars between the French and English, the natives discovered that the missionaries were Franks. Their con- verts had been reckoned by tens of thousands, but rapidly fell off upon the discovery. The mission was resumed in 1837, and in 1873 had 78 priests. Madura was made the centre of a Protestant mission, under the care of the American board of foreign missions, in 1834, which in 1873 had in and around the city 30 Pagoda at Madura. churches with 1,547 members, 149 congrega- tions of natives who have renounced heathen- ism, and 100 schools, of which 93 are free day schools, and one a training school for teachers. The mission had also a dispensary in Madura which treated 10,000 patients, and another in the district which treated about 15,000. The district, which includes Dindigul, has an area of about 10,700 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 2,259,- 263. It is largely composed of marsh and jun- gle, but in the northwest it is mountainous. Its chief river, the Vygay, falls into Palk strait. MADVIG, Johann Nikolai, a Danish philologist, born at Svanike, in the island of Bornholm, Aug. 7, 1804. He completed his education at the university of Copenhagen, where in 1829 he was appointed professor of the Latin lan- guage and literature. He has edited the works of Cicero, Lucretius, Juvenal, and Livy, and in 1829 wrote a pamphlet to prove that the work De Orthographia of Apuleius, first published by Mai in 1823, was written by a literary im- postor of the 15th century. Among his re- maining contributions to philological literature are a " Glance at the Constitutions of Antiqui- ty," " The Creation, Development, and Life of Language," " On the Fundamental Idea of Ancient Metres," a new " Latin Grammar for Schools" (translated by the Rev. G. Woods, 4th ed., Oxford, 1859), and Adversaria, Gritica ad Scriptores Grcecos et Latinos (vol. i., 1871). In 1848 he was made minister of public wor- ship, and in 1852 general director of public in- struction. In 1854 he was elected to the diet, of which he became a prominent member, ad- vocating especially the interests of the univer- sity of Copenhagen, and a union of the Scan- dinavian nations. M/EANDER, the ancient name of a river in western Asia Minor, now called Menderes, or Meinder. It rises near the S. extremity of the Turkish vilayet of Khodavendighiar (S. Phry- gia), flows S. W. (through Caria), and falls into the Archipelago a little north of the site of ancient Miletus. Its principal affluents are the Arras Tchai (anc. Harpasus), and the Tchine (Marsyas). The Mseander carries down an im- mense quantity of mud, which has extended the coast so as to take in several small islands. From its peculiarly winding course its name has become a synonyme for tortuousness. It is about 300 m. long, including windings, and very deep, but navigable only by small craft. JLECENAS, Caius Cilnins, a Roman statesman, born between 73 and 63, died in Rome in 8 B. C. Though his family was only of the equestrian order, it was yet of high antiquity. Maecenas received an excellent education, and was well acquainted with Greek and Roman literature. He was the principal counsellor of Octavius, negotiated his marriage with Scribo- nia, sister-in-law of Sextus Pompey, and repre- sented him at the conference of Brundusium (40), where peace was made with Antony. During the war with the latter Maecenas re- mained at Rome, and administered the civil government of Italy ; and after the return of Octavius from the East, it was he who is said to have counselled him to retain the supreme power and establish the empire. The influ- ence of Maecenas over Augustus, and his par- ticipation in the government, still continued for several years ; when a coolness sprang up between them, he retired to a palace on the Esquiline hill which he had built, and which had long been the principal resort of all the wits and literati of Rome. His fame rests upon his liberal patronage of literature. Hor- ace was indebted to him for his country estate, and Virgil for the restoration of his property near Mantua, which had been seized by the Octavian soldiery. Maecenas wrote poems, dramas, and memoirs, all of which have per- ished save the fragments collected by Lion in McBcenatiana (Gottingen, 1824).