A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

11. MAENIUS, a contemporary of Lucilius, was a great spendthrift, who squandered all his property and afterwards supported himself by playing the buffoon. He possessed a house in the forum, which Cato in his censorship (B. C. 184 ) purchased of him, for the purpose of building the basilica Porcia. Some of the ancient scholiasts ridiculously relate, that when Maenius sold his house, he reserved for himself one column, the Columna Maenia, from which he built a balcony, that he might thence witness the games. The true origin of the Columna Maenia, and of the balconies called Maeniana, has been explained above. [See No. 6.] (Hor. Sat. 1.1. 101, 1.3. 21, Epist. 1.15. 26, &c.; Liv. 39.44; Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. 1.3. 21; Pseudo-Ascon. in Cic. Divin. in Caecil. p. 121, ed. Or.; Becker, Handbuch der Römisch. Alterth. vol. i. p. 300.)