82 
M A E 
fuffered greatly from a ftorm ; and by bis addrefs be pre- 
ferved the public tranquillity. When, in the early part of 
liis reign, Auguftus held a confultation with this minifter 
and his other confident Agrippa on the great queftion 
whether he (liould retain or lay down his power, Maecenas 
is related to have given the advice that he lhould keep the 
fupremacy, but exercife it as much as pofiible under the 
Cover of thofe authorities to which the Roman people had 
been accultomed in their republican conftitution. Dur¬ 
ing a long period he held the important poft of prefect of 
Rome, to which his political talents were peculiarly 
adapted ; and, with perfeft fidelity to the emperor, and 
vigilance to maintain his interefts, he was not chargeable 
with any acts of cruelty or oppreflion. Of his great fa¬ 
miliarity with his mailer, and the manner in which he 
exerted his influence, the following remarkable inftance 
is related : Auguftus once fitting on the judgment-feat, as 
was his frequent cuftom, had condemned feveral criminals 
to death, and was proceeding, when Maecenas, unable to 
approach him through the crowd, wrote on a billet, which 
he caufed to be handed to him. Surge, carnifex ; “ Rife, 
butcher!” He was ftruck with the admonition, and left 
the tribunal immediately. No minifter was more the per- 
fonal friend of his fovereign than Maecenas; for this it is 
thought he was partly indebted to the attachment of the 
emperor to his wife Terentia, at which the favourite dif- 
gracefully connived. It is faid that a coolnefs took place 
in his latter years between him and the emperor; but at 
his death, which happened about the eighth year before 
the birth of Chrilt, he inftituted him his general heir. 
Though a zealous patron of learning and learned men, he 
was a man addicted to the purfuit of pleafure. “ Where 
Vigilance was required,” fays Velleius Paterculus, “ he 
Was fieeplefs, provident, and active ; but, as foon as a re¬ 
laxation from bufinefs could be permitted, he dilfolved in 
a more than feminine indolence and delicacy.” The ftyle 
of his own compofitions was infected with the fame effe¬ 
minacy which characterifed his manners ; but the fouild- 
nefs of his judgment with refpeft to the writings of others, 
feems apparent from the merit of thofe on whom he be- 
ffowed his patronage. His name is perpetuated by the 
two great Roman poets, Virgil and Horace; with the lat¬ 
ter he lived upon a footing of freedom and familiarity 
which does equal honour to both ; and no name appears 
with fo much diftinction in his w'orks as that of Maecenas. 
In one paffage in his fatires a highly refpeCtable idea is 
given of the terms on which he opened his houfe to men 
of letters, difcouraging all intrigue and rivalry, and af- 
iigning to each a place according to his merit. (Sat. ix. 1 . i.) 
Virgil dedicated to him his admirable Georgies, which ap¬ 
pear to have been compofed at his requelt. Both thefe 
poets were introduced by him to the notice and favour of 
Auguftus ; and fo fignal were his good offices towards li¬ 
terary genius, that the name of a Macenas has ever fince 
been applied to its liberal patrons. Of his own writings 
feveral pieces exifted in the time of Seneca; but the 
only fpecimen of his compofition which has come down 
to modern times is a few verfes, the fienfe of which is, 
that, under all the bodily fufferings and infirmities that 
could be accumulated upon him, he would be content 
merely to live ; a fentiment which an old Roman, or a 
Grecian philofopher, would doubtlefs regard as the ex¬ 
treme of bafenefs and cowardice; but which has been 
avowed by perfons of our day, whofe names will be per¬ 
petuated to diftant ages by the works which they have 
left behind them ; among thefe may be mentioned the ce¬ 
lebrated Dr. Johnfon, and the author of the E irta. 7 rhpostlx ; 
the one from a dread of death, the other from an attach¬ 
ment to life. The hiftorian Dio has attributed to Maece¬ 
nas the introduction of warm baths at Rome ; and alfo 
the invention of a fpecies of fhort-liand writing; other 
writers, however, aferibe this laft to Cicero’s treedman 
Tiro. He is fuppofed to have been the author of a hif- 
tory of animals ; a journal of the life of Auguftus; a trea- 
tife on the different natures and kinds of precious ftones j 
MAE 
befides the two tragedies of OCtavia and Prometheus, and 
other things that are loft. ‘ 
MAEGO'A, or Fremo'na, a town of Abyffinia: nine' 
miles from Axum. 
MA'EL-CARHAI'X, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Northern Coafts, and chief place of a canton, 
in the diftrict of Guingamp. The place contains 1767, 
and the canton 7395, inhabitants. 
MAE'LER. See Malar. 
Ma 3 £'LIUS, the name of a Roman who was thrown 
down from the Tarpeian rock for afpiring to tyranny at 
Rome, in the early ages of the republic. 
MAEL'LA, a town of Spain, in Arragon : fifteen miles 
eaft of Alcaniz. 
MAE'LSTR AND. See Marstrand. 
MAE'LSTROM, a very dangerous whirlpool on the 
coalt of Norway, in the 68th degree of latitude, in the 
province of Nordland, and the diltriCt of Lofoden, and 
near the ifland of Molkoe, from whence it alfo takes the 
name of Mojkoe-Jlrom. Its violence and roarings exceed 
thofe of a cataraCt, being heard to a great diftance, and 
without any intermiffion, except a quarter every fixth 
hour, that is, at the turn of high and low water, when 
its impetuofity ftems at a ftand, which fhort interval is 
the only time the filhermen can venture in ; but this mo¬ 
tion foon returns, and, however calm the fea may be, gra¬ 
dually increafes with fuch a draught and vortex, as abforb 
whatever comes within their fphere of aCtion, and keep it 
under water for fome hours, when the fragments, ffiivered 
by the rocks, appear again. This circumftance, among 
others, makes ltrongly againft Kircher and others, who 
imagine that there is here an abyfs penetrating the globe, 
and iffuing in fome very remote parts, which Kircher is fo 
particular as to affign, for he names the Gulf of Bothnia. 
But, after the moft exaCt refearches which the circumftances 
will admit, this is but a conjecture without foundation ; 
for this and three other vortices among the Ferro iflands, 
but fmaller, have no other caufe than the collifion of waves 
rifing and falling, at the flux and reflux, againft a ridge of 
rocks and lhelves, which confine the water fo that it pre¬ 
cipitates itfielf like a cataraCt ; and thus, the higher the 
flood rifes, the deeper muft the fall be; and the natural 
refult of this is a whirlpool or vortex, the prodigious fuc- 
tion whereof is fufficiently known by experiment. But 
what has been thus abforbed, remains no longer at the 
bottom than the ebb lafts ; for the fuCtion then ceafes, and 
the flood removes all attraction, and permits whatever had 
been funk to make its appearance again. Of the fituation 
of this amazing Molkoe-ltrom we have the following ac¬ 
count from Mr. Jonas Ramus : “ The mountain of Hel- 
feggen, in Lofoden, lies a league from the ifland Ver, and 
betwixt thefe two runs that large and dreadful ftream called 
Mojkoe jirom, from the ifland Molkoe which is in the mid¬ 
dle of it, together with feveral circumjacent ifles, as Am- 
baaren, half a quarter of a league northward, Iflelen, Hoe- 
holm, Kieldholm, Suarven, and Buckholm. Molkoe lies 
about half a quarter of a mile fouth of the ifland of Ver, 
and betwixt them thefe fmall iflands, Otterholm, Flimen, 
Sanfiefen, and Stockholm. Betwixt Lofoden and Molkoe, 
the depth of the water is between thirty-fix and forty fa¬ 
thoms ; but on the other fide, towards Ver, the depth de- 
creafes, fo as not to afford a convenient paffage for a vef- 
fel, without the rilk of fplitting on the.rocks, which hap¬ 
pens even in the calmeli weather ; when it is flood, the 
Itream runs up the country between Lofoden and Mofkoe 
with a boilterous rapidity; but the roar of its impetuous 
ebb to the fea is fcarcely equalled by the loudelt and moll 
dreadful cataraCts, the noife being heard feveral leagues 
off; and the vortices or pits are of fuch an extent and 
depth, that, if a Ihip comes within its attraction, it is in¬ 
evitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and 
there beat to pieces againft the rocks; and, when the wa¬ 
ter relaxes, the fragments are thrown up again. But thefe 
intervals of tranquillity are only at the turn of the ebb 
and flood, and calm weather j and laft but a quarter of an 
hour. 
