Villius, and, according to a jest preserved in Macrob. Saturn. ii. 2, of many others; but see Weichert, Poet. Lat. p. 414. LUCILIUS-See "Poets." LUPUS. (Sat. II. i. 68.) Though Consul and Princeps Senatûs, yet an object of fierce satire to Lucilius“ Tubulus si Lucius unquam si Lupus aut Carbo, aut Neptuni filius, ut ait Lucilius, putâsset esse Deos, tam perjurus, aut tam impurus fuisset?" Cic. de N. D. i. 23. LUSCUS.-See "Aufidius." LYCE.-Carm. III. x. 1; IV. xiii. LYCIDAS.-Carm. 1. iv. 20. LYCISCUS.-Epod. xi. 10. LYCORIS.-Carm. I. xxxiii. 5. LYCUS.-Carm. I. xxxii. 11. Probably another Lycus, if not an imaginary person. Carm. III. xix. 23. LYDE.-Carm. 1. xi. 22; III. xi. 7; III. xxviii. 3. 7-20. MECENAS.-C. CILNIUS. Passim, especially Carm. 1. i. 1; II. xii.; III. viii.; III. xxix. Epod. I.; III; IX.; XIV. Sat. I. i.; I. V.; I. vi.; I. iv. 43; IX. 81; II. iii. 312; II. vi. 31, &c.; II. viii. Epist. I. i.; VII. 1, 19. Mæcenas, although he deduced his family from the ancient Etrurian kings, had neither to maintain a high reputation inherited from his ancestors, nor does he appear to have been gifted by nature with those which belong to what is called a great man. He had rather to thank fortune for having placed him precisely in those circumstances which would raise him to the greatest importance, and his principal merit seems to have been that he knew how to derive the greatest advantage from those favourable circumstances. Without strong passions, or ambition, but with shrewd sense and a clear head; with sufficient energy to be active in all decisive exigencies; prudent and coldblooded enough to carry through all that he undertook; so sanguine as always to promise himself success, and not easily daunted with difficulties; but too easy and too fond of pleasure to love or to seek business when there was no strong impulse of necessity; agreeable in his person, cheerful in his address, with a considerable share of urbanity and good humour; as ready to bear a jest against himself as to make one upon others; pleasantly peculiar, even to singularity, in little things, but therefore more solid in affairs of importance; acute and supple in employing others for his own views; dexterous in deriving advantage from all sorts of men, but cautious in the choice of his more intimate friends; true and steady, when he had made his choice, and capable of any sacrifice in an emergency; with all these qualities Mæcenas appears to have been expressly formed to be the confidential friend of Augustus, and the very man who was absolutely necessary to that vain, ambitious, but weak, timid, irresolute, yet nevertheless sometimes hasty and precipitate, child of fortune. With these qualities he was able, from the beginning of their connection, to inspire him with a confidence which (excepting one passing coolness) continued unaltered to his death. Augustus was always at his ease with his friend Maecenas, for with him he found precisely that which he wanted, advice, resources, decision, courage, and happy temper, and, that which is by no means the most immaterial, always some points on which he felt himself stronger and wiser, and on which he could play off his friend, without that friend losing in the least in his estimation. 66 Augustus delighted in jesting on the effeminacy of Maecenas, his love for curiosities, precious stones, and gems, upon his affectation of mingling Etrurian words with Latin, or of coining new ones; and therefore Mæcenas could venture the well-known' Surge tandem, carnifex,' without fear that the Emperor would take ill a sentence so sternly laconic.* Mæcenas, under other circumstances, would have been nothing more than what an Englishman in the time of Queen Anne and George the First would have called a man of wit and pleasure. When from circumstances he became the confidential adviser of a young man, who had perhaps to play the most difficult game that was ever committed to a statesman, Mæcenas was not a person (wit and the love of pleasure, after all, being the chief features of his character) to set up Epaminondas or Cato as his example in political life. In his advice to Augustus he regarded the safe and the useful, rather than the noble and heroic. "The modesty with which the favourite of Augustus declined the highest honours of the state, and passed that life, which he might have rendered illustrious by consulates and triumphs, as a mere Roman knight in the obscurity of a private station, has been considered a great effort of virtue. I doubt whether this virtue sprang from any source but his natural temperament, his love for idleness and pleasure, and perhaps his prudence. He possessed the substance of power; the ear, and the heart of Augustus, the love of the people, immeasurable wealth, and all that could make private life agreeable to a man of way of thinking. What did he care whether his toga his *One day, when Octavius was sitting in judgment as Triumvir, and condemning a multitude of persons to death, Mæcenas handed up to him a tablet inscribed with those significant words. |