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notes ad Pancirol, de nov. invent. to give him the appellation of the State-chancellor of Auguftus. It is true, that he performed many important fervices to this Prince, whom it is fo difficult to call by his proper titles, whilft he was fiyled Octavianus Cæfar, till the year of Rome 727, when the fupreme authority was committed to him under certain modifications which he himfelf had artfully framed, because there was no longer any one who had courage and power enough to difpute it with him. At this time he thared with Agrippa, afterwards fon-in-law of Auguftus, the most unbounded confidence of the youthful Emperor: he was at his fide on all critical emergencies; and it is highly probable, that Octavianus had never attained the object of his wifhes, but for the affiftance of thefe two perfons. The abfolute neceflity of having fuch a friend as Mæcenas was fo forcibly felt by Auguftus himself, that fome years after he had been deprived of him by death, lamenting the fad effects of the violent refolutions he had taken against his daughter Julia, he exclaimed in the bitterness of his heart: "This had never befallen me, if Mæcenas were ftill living!" Yet all thefe good offices no more make the favourite of Auguf tus his Minifter, than the private fignet, which was for a long time entrufted to him, conftitutes him his Chancellor. In thefe feveral particulars he only acted as one friend would act by another whofe party he had espoused, to whom he was perfonally attached, and whofe interefts were clofely connected with But he always continued in a private ftation, never filled any public poft, contented himfelf with the refpect his perfonal intimacy with Auguftus procured him, and was fatisfied with ftanding among 10,000 other Roman knights, one fingle ftep higher than the commonalty of Rome. Suppofing, however, that, on account of his in fluence with Auguftus, we fhould agree to call him his Minifter, as improperly as the former is ufually termed the firit or fecond Emperor of Roine (though fuch confounding of names is always attended by incorrectnefs in ideas it appears, nevertheless, that

his own.

*The præfectura urbis et italiæ, which Otavianus conferied upon him after the victory at A&tium, "for a time, was merely a private commiffion, not a public poft.

be

the vaft parade the Moderns have mad. about him, as the greatest of all Mufa getes, and what has ftamped his name as the highest title of honour that can be beflowed on such statesmen as are propitious to the Learned, refis more on the extravagances of opinion, than on the bafis of truth. That he readily fuffered about him Poets, Wits, and Scholars, of all denominations (if they were perfons of good breeding), and occafionally recommended them to Auguftus, had, in the first place, a very ftriking political reafon; and then what was it more than what may faid of almost every man of his rank and fortune in every nation not intirely barbarous? "His table was free to thefe gentry, whofe meals are frequently not the moft regular."-Accordingly, it was, as Auguftus once faid, between jeft and earnest, a menfa parafitica, where a Nomentanus, a Balathro, and a Bathyllus, found as ready a reception as Virgil and Varus; in fhort, it was what the tables of the rich and great have in all times been." But he prefented Horace with an eftate in the country, and induced Auguftus to fhew the fame liberality to Virgil.”— Well! as to what relates to Horace, he fhewed his gratitude by a fincere attachment; however, the donation was not fo very confiderable in itself, and from a man whom Auguflus and the fpoils of profcriptions and civil wars had rendered immenfely rich, was but a trifle. And as to Virgil, who had been ftripped of his paternal eftate by Octavianus himself, ` during the moft infamous and cruel of all the triumvirates, what could Octavianus do lefs for a Poet like Virgil than reftore to him what he had unjustly been defpoiled of? And even if Horace and Virgil had feraped together a little kind of fortune, with which fuch retired and contented people are ufually fatisfied, by meaus of Maecenas ; what mighty merit was it in Macenas beyond what many of his equals before and fince have a right to claim? Fer haps, if we examine the cafe fomewhat narrowly, never was a great reputation more cheaply bought than his. It has been accounted to him as a merit, what accident did for them, nay even what it did for himself; and. after all, it is far lefs his own light, than the lufire that reflected on him

from the merits and the fame of his friends, whence the nimbus arofe, in which pofterity has always been accustomed to fee this pretended Mufagetes.

Of how little moment foever it may be to the generality of mankind to rec tify more or lefs their ideas of a man that has long ago played out his part, and can do them neither good nor harin; yet it cannot be indifferent either to a commentator on the Epifiles of Horace, or to the reader, to whom it is of the utmoft confequence for the better understanding them, and for acquiring a perception of their most delicate beauties. I am fully convinced, with Lord Shafiesbury*, that, with out an accurate acquaintance with the characters of Auguftus, Mecenas, Florus, Lollius, &c. it is impoffible to have that relish for the Epiltles that are addreffed to them, which otherwife every reader ought to have who is or ganifed to the delicate feelings of the beautiful and the true. And as this is the principal reafon of my prefixing to every Epifile an introduction, fo the clofe and particular relation that fubfified between our Poet and Mæcenas, will be my excufe if I employ a few pages more in fetting the charac ter of this celebrated perfonage in fuch a point of view as may be of ufe in forming a jufter notion of this relation, and to the better understanding of the Epiftles addreffed to him.

Macenas, notwithstanding his pedigree from antient Etrurian lucumones, had neither a renown inherited from ancestors to maintain, nor does he feem to have been endowed by Nature with the qualities proper for forming what is called a great man. So much the more was he indebted to Fortune for placing him precifely in thofe circumfiances where he could fhew himfelf to the belt advantage; and his greatest merit seems to have confifted in knowing how to extract all poffible advantage from thefe favourable circumftances. Without ftrong paffions, without ambition, but with delicate organs and a clear head, acute enough to feize the decifive moment for action, prudent and cool enough to perform

properly and completely whatever he undertook, fanguine enough to pro mife himself always a happy termina tion, and not eafily to be deterred by difficulties, yet too fond of his eafe to delight in business, or to feek affairs when not urged to it by neceffity↑ ; agreeable in his perfon, jovial in com pany, with a good fhare of complai fance and affability; equally patient under the pleafantries that were thrown out upon him, as difpofed to be merry at the expence of others, in an agree able and even extraordinary manner; curious about trifles, but likewife well informed in important affairs; artful and ingenious in rendering others fubfervient to his views, expert in the art of making the moft of every man, but cautious in the felection of his more intimate friends, faithful and conflant when once he had chofen them, and ready to make any facrifices when ne ceffity required. With all these qua lities, Maecenas feemed expreffly formed for being the confidant of Auguftus, and the perfon of all others, that this vain and ambitious, but weak, timid, irrefolute, and yet on fome occafions rafh darling of Fortune flood in need of.

With thefe qualities, from the firft commencement of their connec tion, he had the art of inspiring him with a confidence, which (one fingle tranfient coolness excepted) lafted invariably to his death. With his friend Mæcenas, Auguftes was always at his eafe; for in him he ever found what was deficient in himself, advice, eva fions, refolution, gaiety, good humour and (what in intimacies of this nature is not the least effential) 'conftantly a fomething wherein he felt, himfelf ftronger and wifer, whereby he might banter his friend, without lofing any thing of his good opinion. Auguftus was very liberal in his railleries on Mæcenas, on account of his effe minacy, his paffion for jewels, gems, and all forts of rarities, his affectation of mixing Hetrurian words in the Roman language, or of coining new words on every occafion; vet this fame object of his derition could venture to addrefs him with the well.

known, Surge tandem Carniter t

of

under the form of a Republic, always either convulfed with intelline divifious, or defolating the reft of the world by bloody wars: if it had not been enrolled in the book of Fate, that the world must be challized by a Tiberius and a Caligula, by a Nero, and a Domitian, ere it could be worthy of a Titus, a Trajan, and an Antonine.

The modetty with which he delined every honourable poft in the ftate, that he might pafs his life in the obfcurity of retirement, fimply as a Roman Knight, while he might have made himfelf illuftrious by confulates and triumphs, has ever been confidered as an eminent virtue in the favourite of Auguftus. I very much question, whether this virtue was any thing elfe than his temperament, his love of indolence and pleasure, and perhaps might have arifen from his prudence. He was in poffeflion of the fubflantial, the ear and the heart of Auguftus, the affection of the people, immente riches, and all that could render private life agreeable to a man of his difpofitioni what did he care whether the purple ftripes of his gown were broad or narrow? There were no furer means for him to preferve at the fame time the favour of the prince and that of the people, than the moderation which kept him aloof from all dangerous collifions, from all repo fibility, and from all occafions of offence.

without fear of offending him by fo emphatical a laconifin. Mæcenas, who, in other circunftances, would never have been any thing more than what we call a man of wit and pleafare, by circumstances became the confidant of a young man, who, perhaps, had the most difficult part to act that can be affigned to a fiatefinan; and as wit and propenfity to pleasure were the leading features of his difpofition, he was certainly not a man likely to propofe to himself an Epaminondas or a Calo, as the model whereon to form his political conduct. That heroifm of virtue which is ever ready to perform the noblett achievements, and to facrifice every thing to the lofty idea of moral beauty or grandeur, implies an energy of foul and a modulation of its finest organs, which did not belong to him. When the question was, whether Octavianus hould retain the fupreme authority, or truckle' to the Senate and people of Rome; he thought it behoved him to do, not what in, a certain fenfe was the moft dignified and noble, but what was mott accommodating to the goyernment in its prefent conjunctures, and at the fame time was leaft dangerous to his perfonal fafety. The reations on which he voted against the reflitution advised by Agrippa, and the plan of government he on this occafion drew up for Octavianus, both plainly few that Mæcenas very rightly judged of what, according to the then tempers of men, and the complection of the times, and confidering the enor mous bulk of the Roman empire, was moft profitable to the flate, and fafett for the fucceffor of Cæfar. Indeed, during the latter times of the free Republic, the interefl of the ftate was always pompously difplayed as the motive and end; but certainly never with greater truth and dignity, than when Mac nas alleged it on this occafion. His plan would have rendered the Roman Empire as flourishing as pofli le, more profperous than it ever had been

His bounty and his fpotlets character have been highly extolled: by his ing fluence over the Emperor he did good to thousands, but never injured anyt. His habitudes with Auguftus enabled him to avoid all odious offices, and carefully to felect thofe that conciliate elleem. He recomme: ded, he fired for pardons; he uniformly adviled gentleness and lenity; whereby he acquired a popularity, which rendered him neither fafpected by the Prince, nor formidable to the men with whom he shared his authority. Would he, however, have been able to keep within

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Pedo, in epiced. Mæc, dift: 5.

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