Читать книгу A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - William Smith - Страница 12

Table of Contents

CĂBEIRĬA (καβείρια), mysteries, festivals, and orgies, solemnised in all places in which the Pelasgian Cabeiri were worshipped, but especially in Samothrace, Imbros, Lemnos, Thebes, Anthedon, Pergamus, and Berytos. Little is known respecting the rites observed in these mysteries, as no one was allowed to divulge them. The most celebrated were those of the island of Samothrace, which, if we may judge from those of Lemnos, were solemnised every year, and lasted for nine days. Persons on their admission seem to have undergone a sort of examination respecting the life they had led hitherto, and were then purified of all their crimes, even if they had committed murder.

CĀDŪCĔUS (κηρύκειον, κηρύκιον), the staff or mace carried by heralds and ambassadors in time of war. This name is also given to the staff with which Hermes or Mercury is usually represented, as is shown in the following figure of that god. From caduceus was formed the word caduceator, which signified a person sent to treat of peace. The persons of the caduceatores were considered sacred.

Hermes bearing the Caduceus. (Museo Borbonico, vol. vi. pl. 2.)

CĂDŪCUM. [Bona Caduca.]

CĂDUS (κάδος, κάδδος), a large vessel usually made of earthenware, which was used for keeping wine, drawing water, &c. The name of cadus was sometimes given to the vessel or urn in which the counters or pebbles of the dicasts were put, when they gave their vote on a trial, but the diminutive καδίσκος was more commonly used in this signification.

CAELĀTŪRA (τορευτική), a branch of the fine arts, under which all sorts of ornamental work in metal, except actual statues, appear to be included. The principal processes, which these words were used to designate, seem to have been of three kinds: hammering metal plates into moulds or dies, so as to bring out a raised pattern; engraving the surface of metals with a sharp tool; and working a pattern of one metal upon or into the surface of another: in short, the various processes which we describe by the words chasing, damascening, &c. The objects on which the caelator exercised his art were chiefly weapons and armour—especially shields, chariots, tripods, and other votive offerings, quoits, candelabra, thrones, curule chairs, mirrors, goblets, dishes, and all kinds of gold and silver plate. The ornamental work with which the chaser decorated such objects consisted either of simple running patterns, chiefly in imitation of plants and flowers, or of animals, or of mythological subjects, and, for armour, of battles. The mythological subjects were reserved for the works of the greatest masters of the art: they were generally executed in very high relief (anaglypha). In the finest works, the ornamental pattern was frequently distinct from the vessel, to which it was either fastened permanently, or so that it could be removed at pleasure, the vessel being of silver, and the ornaments of gold, crustae aut emblemata. The art of ornamental metal-work was in an advanced stage of progress among the Greeks of the heroic period, as we see from numerous passages of Homer: but its origin, in the high artistic sense, is to be ascribed to Phidias, and its complete development to Polycletus. In the last age of the Roman Republic, the prevailing wealth and luxury, and the presence of Greek artists at Rome, combined to bring the art more than ever into requisition. After this period it suddenly fell into disuse.

CAELĬBĀTUS. [Aes Uxorium; Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea.]

CAERĬTUM TĂBŬLAE. [Aerarii.]

CAESAR, a title of the Roman emperors, was originally a family name of the Julia gens; it was assumed by Octavianus as the adopted son of the great dictator, C. Julius Caesar, and was by him handed down to his adopted son Tiberius. It continued to be used by Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, as members either by adoption or female descent of Caesar’s family; but although the family became extinct with Nero, succeeding emperors still retained the name as part of their titles, and it was the practice to prefix it to their own names, as for instance, Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus. When Hadrian adopted Aelius Varus, he allowed the latter to take the title of Caesar; and from this time, though the title of Augustus continued to be confined to the reigning emperor, that of Caesar was also granted to the second person in the state and the heir presumptive to the throne. [Augustus.]

CĂLĂMISTRUM, an instrument made of iron, and hollow like a reed (calamus), used for curling the hair. For this purpose it was heated, the person who performed the office of heating it in wood ashes (cinis) being called ciniflo, or cinerarius.

CĂLĂMUS, a sort of reed which the ancients used as a pen for writing. The best sorts were got from Aegypt and Cnidus.

CĂLANTĬCA. [Coma.]

CĂLĂTHUS (κάλαθος, also called τάλαρος), usually signified the basket in which women placed their work, and especially the materials for spinning. In the following cut a slave, belonging to the class called quasillariae, is presenting her mistress with the calathus. Baskets of this kind were also used for other purposes, such as for carrying fruits, flowers, &c. The name of calathi was also given to cups for holding wine. Calathus was properly a Greek word, though used by the Latin writers. The Latin word corresponding to it was qualus or quasillus. From quasillus came quasillaria, the name of the slave who spun, and who was considered the meanest of the female slaves.

Slave presenting a Calathus. (From a Painting on a Vase.)

CALCĔUS, CALCĔĀMEN, CALCĔĀMENTUM (ὑποδήμα, πέδιλον), a shoe or boot, anything adapted to cover and preserve the feet in walking. The use of shoes was by no means universal among the Greeks and Romans. The Homeric heroes are represented without shoes when armed for battle. Socrates, Phocion, and Cato, frequently went barefoot. The Roman slaves had no shoes. The covering of the feet was removed before reclining at meals. People in grief, as for instance at funerals, frequently went barefooted. Shoes may be divided into those in which the mere sole of a shoe was attached to the sole of the foot by ties or bands, or by a covering for the toes or the instep [Solea; Crepida; Soccus]; and those which ascended higher and higher, according as they covered the ankles, the calf, or the whole of the leg. To calceamenta of the latter kind, i.e. to shoes and boots, as distinguished from sandals and slippers, the term calceus was applied in its proper and restricted sense. There were also other varieties of the calceus according to its adaptation to particular professions or modes of life. Thus the Caliga was principally worn by soldiers; the Pero by labourers and rustics; and the Cothurnus by tragedians, hunters, and horsemen. The calcei probably did not much differ from our shoes, and are exemplified in a painting at Herculaneum, which represents a female wearing bracelets, a wreath of ivy, and a panther’s skin, while she is in the attitude of dancing and playing on the cymbals. The form and colour of the calceus indicated rank and office. Roman senators wore high shoes like buskins, fastened in front with four black thongs. They were also sometimes adorned with a small crescent: we do not find on any ancient statues the crescent, but we may regard the bottom right hand figure in the annexed cut as representing the shoe of a senator. Among the calcei worn by senators, those called mullei, from their resemblance to the scales of the red mullet, were particularly admired; as well as others called alutae, because the leather was softened by the use of alum.

Greek Shoes. (From ancient Vases.)

Roman Shoes. (Museo Borbonico.)

CALCŬLĀTOR (λογιστής), a keeper of accounts in general, and also a teacher of arithmetic. In Roman families of importance there was a calculator or account-keeper, who is, however, more frequently called by the name of dispensator, or procurator: he was a kind of steward.

CALCŬLI, little stones or pebbles, used for various purposes, as, for instance, among the Athenians for voting. Calculi were used in playing a sort of draughts. Subsequently, instead of pebbles, ivory, or silver, or gold, or other men (as we call them) were used; but they still bore the name of calculi. Calculi were also used in reckoning; and hence the phrases calculum ponere, calculum subducere.

CALDĀRĬUM. [Balneum.]

CĂLENDAE or KĂLENDAE. [Calendarium.]

CĂLENDĀRĬUM or KĂLENDĀRĬUM, generally signified an account-book, in which were entered the names of a person’s debtors, with the interest which they had to pay, and it was so called because the interest had to be paid on the calends of each month. The word, however, was also used in the signification of a modern calendar or almanac. (1) Greek Calendar. The Greek year was divided into twelve lunar months, depending on the actual changes of the moon. The first day of the month (νουμηνία) was not the day of the conjunction, but the day on the evening of which the new moon appeared; consequently full moon was the middle of the month. The lunar month consists of twenty-nine days and about thirteen hours; accordingly some months were necessarily reckoned at twenty-nine days, and rather more of them at thirty days. The latter were called full months (πληρεῖς), the former hollow months (κοῖλοι). As the twelve lunar months fell short of the solar year, they were obliged every other year to interpolate an intercalary month (μὴν ἐμβολιμαῖος) of thirty or twenty-nine days. The ordinary year consisted of 354 days, and the interpolated year, therefore, of 384 or 383. This interpolated year (τριέτηρις) was seven days and a half too long, and to correct the error, the intercalary month was from time to time omitted. The Attic year began with the summer solstice: the following is the sequence of the Attic months and the number of days in each:—Hecatombaeon (30), Metageitnion (29), Boedromion (30), Pyanepsion (29), Maemacterion (30), Poseideon (29), Gamelion (30), Anthesterion (29), Elaphebolion (30), Munychion (29), Thargelion (30), Scirophorion (29). The intercalary month was a second Poseideon inserted in the middle of the year. Every Athenian month was divided into three decads. The days of the first decad were designated as ἱσταμένου or ἀρχομένου μηνος, and were counted on regularly from one to ten; thus, δευτέρα ἀρχομένου or ἱσταμένου is “the second day of the month.” The days of the second decad were designated as ἐπὶ δέκα or μεσοῦντος, and were counted on regularly from the 11th to the 20th day, which was called εἴκας. There were two ways of counting the days of the last decad; they were either reckoned onwards from the 20th (thus, πρώτη ἐπὶ εἰκάδι was the 21st), or backwards from the last day, with the addition φθίνοντος, παυομένου, λήγοντος, or ἀπίοντος; thus, the twenty-first day of a hollow month was ἐνάτη φθίνοντος; of a full month, δεκάτη φθίνοντος. The last day of the month was called ἕνη καὶ νέα, “the old and new,” because as the lunar month really consisted of more than twenty-nine and less than thirty days, the last day might be considered as belonging equally to the old and new month. Separate years were designated at Athens by the name of the chief archon, hence called archon eponymus (ἄρχων ἐπώνυμος), or “the name giving archon;” at Sparta, by the first of the ephors; at Argos, by the priestess of Juno, &c.—(2) Roman Calendar. The old Roman, frequently called the Romulian year, consisted of only ten months, which were called Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quinctilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, December. That March was the first month in the year is implied in the last six names. Of these months, four, namely, Martius, Maius, Quinctilis, and October, consisted of thirty-one days, the other six of thirty. The four former were distinguished in the latest form of the Roman calendar by having their nones two days later than any of the other months. The symmetry of this arrangement will appear by placing the numbers in succession:—31, 30; 31, 30; 31, 30, 30; 31, 30, 30. The Romulian year therefore consisted of 304 days, and contained thirty-eight nundinae or weeks; every eighth day, under the name of nonae, or nundinae, being especially devoted to religious and other public purposes. Hence we find that the number of dies fasti afterwards retained in the Julian calendar tally exactly with these thirty-eight nundines; besides which, it may be observed that a year of 304 days bears to a solar year of 365 days nearly the ratio of five to six, six of the Romulian years containing 1824, five of the solar years 1825 days; and hence we may explain the origin of the well-known quinquennial period called the lustrum, which ancient writers expressly call an annus magnus; that is, in the modern language of chronology, a cycle. It was consequently the period at which the Romulian and solar years coincided. The next division of the Roman year was said to have been made by Numa Pompilius, who instituted a lunar year of 12 months and 355 days. Livy says that Numa so regulated his lunar year of twelve months by the insertion of intercalary months, that at the end of every nineteenth year (vicesimo anno) it again coincided with the same point in the sun’s course from which it started. It is well known that 19 years constitute a most convenient cycle for the junction of a lunar and solar year. It seems certain that the Romans continued to use a lunar year for some time after the establishment of the republic; and it was probably at the time of the decemviral legislation that the lunar year was abandoned. By the change which was then made the year consisted of 12 months, the length of each of which was as follows:—

Martius,	31	days.	September,	29	days.
Aprilis,	29	”	October,	31	”
Maius,	31	”	November,	29	”
Junius,	29	”	December,	29	”
Quinctilis,	31	”	Januarius,	29	”
Sextilis,	29	”	Februarius,	28	”

The year thus consisted of 355 days, and this was made to correspond with the solar year by the insertion of an intercalary month (mensis intercalaris or intercalarius), called Mercedonius or Mercidonius. This month of 22 or 23 days seems to have been inserted in alternate years. As the festivals of the Romans were for the most part dependent upon the calendar, the regulation of the latter was entrusted to the college of pontifices, who in early times were chosen exclusively from the body of patricians. It was therefore in the power of the college to add to their other means of oppressing the plebeians, by keeping to themselves the knowledge of the days on which justice could be administered, and assemblies of the people could be held. In the year 304 B.C., one Cn. Flavius, a secretary (scriba) of Appius Claudius, is said fraudulently to have made the Fasti public. The other privilege of regulating the year by the insertion of the intercalary month gave the pontiffs great political power, which they were not backward to employ. Every thing connected with the matter of intercalation was left to their unrestrained pleasure; and the majority of them, on personal grounds, added to or took from the year by capricious intercalations, so as to lengthen or shorten the period during which a magistrate remained in office, and seriously to benefit or injure the farmer of the public revenue. The calendar was thus involved in complete confusion, and accordingly we find that in the time of Cicero the year was three months in advance of the real solar year. At length, in the year B.C. 46, Caesar, now master of the Roman world, employed his authority, as pontifex maximus, in the correction of this serious evil. The account of the way in which he effected this is given by Censorinus:—“The confusion was at last carried so far that C. Caesar, the pontifex maximus, in his third consulate, with Lepidus for his colleague, inserted between November and December two intercalary months of 67 days, the month of February having already received an intercalation of 23 days, and thus made the whole year to consist of 445 days. At the same time he provided against a repetition of similar errors, by casting aside the intercalary month, and adapting the year to the sun’s course. Accordingly, to the 355 days of the previously existing year he added ten days, which he so distributed between the seven months having 29 days that January, Sextilis, and December received two each, the others but one; and these additional days he placed at the end of the several months, no doubt with the wish not to remove the various festivals from those positions in the several months which they had so long occupied. Hence in the present calendar, although there are seven months of 31 days, yet the four months, which from the first possessed that number, are still distinguishable by having their nones on the seventh, the rest having them on the fifth of the month. Lastly, in consideration of the quarter of a day, which he regarded as completing the true year, he established the rule that, at the end of every four years, a single day should be intercalated, where the month had been hitherto inserted, that is, immediately after the terminalia; which day is now called the bissextum.” The mode of denoting the days of the month will cause no difficulty, if it be recollected that the kalends always denote the first of the month; that the nones occur on the seventh of the four months of March, May, Quinctilis or July, and October, and on the fifth of the other months; that the ides always fall eight days later than the nones; and lastly, that the intermediate days are in all cases reckoned backwards upon the Roman principle of counting both extremes. For the month of January the notation will be as follows:—

1. Kal. Jan.

2. a. d. IV. Non. Jan.

3. a. d. III. Non. Jan.

4. Prid. Non. Jan.

5. Non. Jan.

6. a. d. VIII. Id. Jan.

7. a. d. VII. Id. Jan.

8. a. d. VI. Id. Jan.

9. a. d. V. Id. Jan.

10. a. d. IV. Id. Jan.

11. a. d. III. Id. Jan.

12. Prid. Id. Jan.

13. Id. Jan.

14. a. d. XIX. Kal. Feb.

15. a. d. XVIII. Kal. Feb.

16. a. d. XVII. Kal. Feb.

17. a. d. XVI. Kal. Feb.

18. a. d. XV. Kal. Feb.

19. a. d. XIV. Kal. Feb.

20. a. d. XIII. Kal. Feb.

21. a. d. XII. Kal. Feb.

22. a. d. XI. Kal. Feb.

23. a. d. X. Kal. Feb.

24. a. d. IX. Kal. Feb.

25. a. d. VIII. Kal. Feb.

26. a. d. VII. Kal. Feb.

27. a. d. VI. Kal. Feb.

28. a. d. V. Kal. Feb.

29. a. d. IV. Kal. Feb.

30. a. d. III. Kal. Feb.

31. Prid. Kal. Feb.

The letters a d are often, through error, written together, and so confounded with the preposition ad which would have a different meaning, for ad kalendas would signify by, i.e. on or before the kalends. The letters are in fact an abridgment of ante diem, and the full phrase for “on the second of January,” would be ante diem quartum nonas Januarias. The word ante in this expression seems really to belong in sense to nonas, and to be the cause why nonas is an accusative. Whether the phrase kalendae Januarii was ever used by the best writers is doubtful. The words are commonly abbreviated; and those passages where Aprilis, Decembris, &c. occur are of no avail, as they are probably accusatives. The ante may be omitted, in which case the phrase will be die quarto nonarum. In the leap year (to use a modern phrase), the last days of February were called,—

Feb. 23. a. d. VII. Kal. Mart.

Feb. 24. a. d. VI. Kal. Mart. posteriorem.

Feb. 25. a. d. VI. Kal. Mart. priorem.

Feb. 26. a. d. V. Kal. Mart.

Feb. 27. a. d. IV. Kal. Mart.

Feb. 28. a. d. III. Kal. Mart.

Feb. 29. Prid. Kal. Mart.

In which the words prior and posterior are used in reference to the retrograde direction of the reckoning. From the fact that the intercalated year has two days called ante diem sextum, the name bissextile has been applied to it. The term annus bissextilis, however, does not occur in any classical writer, but in place of it the phrase annus bissextus.—The names of two of the months were changed in honour of Julius Caesar and Augustus. Julius was substituted for Quinctilis, the month in which Caesar was born, in the second Julian year, that is, the year of the dictator’s death, for the first Julian year was the first year of the corrected Julian calendar, that is, B.C. 45. The name Augustus in place of Sextilis was introduced by the emperor himself in B.C. 27. The month of September in like manner received the name of Germanicus from the general so called, and the appellation appears to have existed even in the time of Macrobius. Domitian, too, conferred his name upon October; but the old word was restored upon the death of the tyrant.—The Julian calendar supposes the mean tropical year to be 365 d. 6 h.; but this exceeds the real amount by 11′ 12″, the accumulation of which, year after year, caused at last considerable inconvenience. Accordingly, in the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII. again reformed the calendar. The ten days by which the year had been unduly retarded were struck out by a regulation that the day after the fourth of October in that year should be called the fifteenth; and it was ordered that whereas hitherto an intercalary day had been inserted every four years, for the future three such intercalations in the course of four hundred years should be omitted, viz., in those years which are divisible without remainder by 100, but not by 400. Thus, according to the Julian calendar, the years 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, were to be bissextile as before. The bull which effected this change was issued Feb. 24th, 1582. The Protestant parts of Europe resisted what they called a papistical invention for more than a century. In England the Gregorian calendar was first adopted in 1752. In Russia, and those countries which belonged to the Greek church, the Julian year, or old style, as it is called, still prevails. In the ancient calendars the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, were used for the purpose of fixing the nundines in the week of eight days; precisely in the same way in which the first seven letters are still employed in ecclesiastical calendars, to mark the days of the Christian week.

CĂLĬGA, a strong and heavy sandal worn by the Roman soldiers, but not by the superior officers. Hence the common soldiers, including centurions, were distinguished by the name of caligati. The emperor Caligula received that cognomen when a boy, in consequence of wearing the caliga, and being inured to the life of a common soldier. The cuts on pp. 1, 41, show the difference between the caliga of the common soldier and the calceus worn by men of higher rank.

CĂLIX (κύλιξ). (1) a drinking-cup used at symposia and on similar occasions.—(2) A vessel used in cooking.—(3) A tube in the aquaeducts attached to the extremity of each pipe, where it entered the castellum.

Calices, Drinking-cups. (Museo Borbonico, vol. v. pl. 18.)

CALLIS, a beaten path or track made by the feet of cattle. The sheep-walks in the mountainous parts of Campania and Apulia were the property of the Roman state; and as they were of considerable value, one of the quaestors usually had these calles assigned to him as his province, whence we read of the Callium provincia. His principal duties were to receive the scriptura, or tax paid for the pasturage of the cattle, and to protect life and property in these wild and mountainous districts. When the senate wished to put a slight upon the consuls on one occasion they endeavoured to assign to them as their provinces, the care of the woods (silvae) and sheep-walks (calles).

CALLISTEIA (καλλιστεῖα), a festival, or perhaps merely a part of one, held by the women of Lesbos; at which they assembled in the sanctuary of Hera, and the fairest received the prize of beauty. Similar contests of beauty are said to have been held in other places.

CĀLŌNES, the slaves or servants of the Roman soldiers, so called from carrying wood (κᾶλα) for their use. The word calo, however, was also applied to farm-servants. The calones and lixae are frequently spoken of together, but they were not the same: the latter were freemen, who merely followed the camp for the purposes of gain and merchandise, and were so far from being indispensable to an army, that they were sometimes forbidden to attend it.

CĂLUMNĬA. When an accuser failed in his proof, and the accused party was acquitted, there might be an inquiry into the conduct and motives of the accuser. If the person who made this judicial inquiry found that the accuser had merely acted from error of judgment, he acquitted him in the form non probasti; if he convicted him of evil intention, he declared his sentence in the words calumniatus es, which sentence was followed by the legal punishment. The punishment for calumnia was fixed by the lex Remmia, or as it is sometimes, perhaps incorrectly, named, the lex Memmia. But it is not known when this lex was passed, nor what were its penalties. It appears from Cicero, that the false accuser might be branded on the forehead with the letter K, the initial of Kalumnia. The punishment for calumnia was also exsilium, relegatio in insulam, or loss of rank (ordinis amissio); but probably only in criminal cases, or in matters relating to status.

CĂMĂRA (καμάρα), or CĂMĔRA. (1) A particular kind of arched ceiling, formed by semicircular bands or beams of wood, arranged at small lateral distances, over which a coating of lath and plaster was spread, and the whole covered in by a roof, resembling in construction the hooped awnings in use amongst us.—(2) A small boat used in early times by the people who inhabited the shores of the Palus Maeotis, capable of containing from twenty-five to thirty men. These boats were made to work fore and aft, like the fast-sailing proas of the Indian seas, and continued in use until the age of Tacitus.

CĂMILLI, CĂMILLAE, boys and girls employed in the religious rites and ceremonies of the Romans. They were required to be perfect in form, and sound in health, free born, and with both their parents alive; or, in other words, according to the expression of the Romans, pueri seu puellae ingenui, felicissimi, patrimi matrimique.

CĂMĪNUS. [Domus.]

CAMPESTRE (sc. subligar), a kind of girdle or apron, which the Roman youths wore around their loins, when they exercised naked in the Campus Martius. The campestre was sometimes worn in warm weather, in place of the tunic under the toga.

CAMPUS MARTĬUS. [See Classical Dictionary.]

CĂNĂBUS (κάναβος), a figure of wood in the form of a skeleton, round which the clay or plaster was laid in forming models. Figures of a similar kind, formed to display the muscles and veins, were studied by painters in order to acquire some knowledge of anatomy.

CĀNATHRON (κάναθρον), a carriage, the upper part of which was made of basket-work, or more properly the basket itself, which was fixed in the carriage.

CANCELLĀRĬUS. [Cancelli.]

CANCELLI, lattice-work, placed before a window, a door-way, the tribunal of a judge, or any other place. Hence was derived the word Cancellarius, which originally signified a porter, who stood at the latticed or grated door of the emperor’s palace. The cancellarius also signified a legal scribe or secretary, who sat within the cancelli or lattice-work. The chief scribe or secretary was called Cancellarius κατ’ ἐξοχήν, and was eventually invested with judicial power at Constantinople. From this word has come the modern Chancellor.

CANDĒLA, a candle, made either of wax (cerea), or tallow (sebacea), was used universally by the Romans before the invention of oil lamps (lucernae). In later times candelae were only used by the poorer classes; the houses of the more wealthy were always lighted by lucernae.

CANDĒLABRUM, originally a candlestick, but afterwards the name of a stand for supporting lamps (λυχνοῦχοι), in which signification it most commonly occurs. The candelabra of this kind were usually made to stand upon the ground, and were of a considerable height. The most common kind were made of wood; but those which have been found in Herculaneum and Pompeii are mostly of bronze. Sometimes they were made of the more precious metals, and even of jewels. The candelabra did not always stand upon the ground, but were also placed upon the table. Such candelabra usually consisted of pillars, from the capitals of which several lamps hung down, or of trees, from whose branches lamps also were suspended.

Candelabrum in the Vatican. (Visconti, vol. IV. tav. 5.)

CANDĬDĀTUS. [Ambitus.]

CANDYS (κάνδυς), a robe worn by the Medes and Persians over their trowsers and other garments. It had wide sleeves, and was made of woollen cloth, which was either purple or of some other splendid colour. In the Persepolitan sculptures, from which the annexed figures are taken, nearly all the principal personages wear it.

Candys, Persian Cloak. (From Bas-relief at Persepolis.)

CĂNĒPHŎROS (κανηφόρος), a virgin who carried a flat circular basket (κάνεον, canistrum) at sacrifices, in which the chaplet of flowers, the knife to slay the victim, and sometimes the frankincense were deposited. The name, however, was more particularly applied to two virgins of the first Athenian families who were appointed to officiate as canephori at the Panathaenaea. The preceding cut represents the two canephori approaching a candelabrum. Each of them elevates one arm to support the basket while she slightly raises her tunic with the other.

Canephori. (British Museum.)

CANTHĂRUS (κάνθαρος), a kind of drinking cup, furnished with handles. It was the cup sacred to Bacchus, who is frequently represented on ancient vases holding it in his hand.

Cantharus. (From an ancient Vase.)

CANTĬCUM, an interlude between the acts of a Roman comedy, and sometimes, perhaps, of a tragedy. It consisted of flute music, accompanied by a kind of recitative performed by a single actor, or if there were two, the second was not allowed to speak with the first. In the canticum, as violent gesticulation was required, it appears to have been the custom, from the time of Livius Andronicus, for the actor to confine himself to the gesticulation, while another person sang the recitative.

CĂPILLUS. [Coma.]

CĂPISTRUM (φορβειά), a halter, or tie for horses, asses, or other animals, placed round the head or neck, and made of osiers or other fibrous materials. The Greek word φορβειά was also applied to a contrivance used by pipers and trumpeters to compress their mouths and cheeks, and thus to aid them in blowing. It is often seen in works of ancient art, and was said to be the invention of Marsyas. [Tibia.]

CĂPĬTE CENSI. [Caput.]

CĂPĬTIS DĒMĬNŪTĬO. [Caput.]

CĂPĬTŌLĪNI LŪDI. [Ludi.]

CĂPĬTŌLĬUM. [See Class. Dictionary.]

CĂPĬTŬLUM. [Columna.]

CAPSA, or SCRĪNĬUM, a box for holding books among the Romans. These boxes were of a cylindrical form. There does not appear to have been any difference between the capsa and scrinium, except that the latter word was usually applied to those boxes which held a considerable number of rolls. The slaves who had the charge of these book-chests were called capsarii, and also custodes scriniorum; and the slaves who carried in a capsa behind their young masters the books, &c. of the sons of respectable Romans, when they went to school, were called by the same name.

The Muse Clio with a Capsa. (Pitture d’Ercolano, vol. ii. pl. 2.)

CAPSĀRĬI, the name of three different classes of slaves. [Balneum; Capsa.]

CĂPUT, the head. The term “head” is often used by the Roman writers as equivalent to “person,” or “human being.” By an easy transition it was used to signify “life:” thus, capite damnari, plecti, &c., are equivalent to capital punishment. Caput is also used to express a man’s status, or civil condition; and the persons who were registered in the tables of the censor are spoken of as capita, sometimes with the addition of the word civium, and sometimes not. Thus to be registered in the census was the same thing as caput habere: and a slave and a filius familias, in this sense of the word, were said to have no caput. The sixth class of Servius Tullius comprised the proletarii and the capite censi, of whom the latter, having little or no property, were barely rated as so many head of citizens.—He who lost or changed his status was said to be capite minutus, deminutus, or capitis minor. Capitis minutio or deminutio was a change of a person’s status or civil condition, and consisted of three kinds.—A Roman citizen possessed freedom (libertas), citizenship (civitas), and family (familias): the loss of all three constituted the maxima capitis deminutio. This capitis deminutio was sustained by those who refused to be registered at the census, or neglected the registration, and were thence called incensi. The incensus was liable to be sold, and so to lose his liberty. Those who refused to perform military service might also be sold.—The loss of citizenship and family only, as when a man was interdicted from fire and water, was the media capitis deminutio. [Exsilium.]—The change of family by adoption, and by the in manum conventio, was the minima capitis deminutio.—A judicium capitale, or poena capitalis, was one which affected a citizen’s caput.

CĂPUT. [Fenus.]

CĂPUT EXTŌRUM. The Roman soothsayers (haruspices) pretended to a knowledge of coming events from the inspection of the entrails of victims slain for that purpose. The part to which they especially directed their attention was the liver, the convex upper portion of which seems to have been called the caput extorum. Any disease or deficiency in this organ was considered an unfavourable omen; whereas, if healthy and perfect, it was believed to indicate good fortune. If no caput was found, it was a bad sign (nihil tristius accidere potuit); if well defined or double, it was a lucky omen.

CĂRĂCALLA, an outer garment used in Gaul, and not unlike the Roman lacerna. It was first introduced at Rome by the emperor Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, who compelled all the people that came to court to wear it, whence he obtained the surname of Caracalla. This garment, as worn in Gaul, does not appear to have reached lower than the knee, but Caracalla lengthened it so as to reach the ankle.

CARCER (kerker, German; γοργύρα, Greek), a prison, is connected with ἕρκος and εἵργω, the guttural being interchanged with the aspirate. (1) Greek. Imprisonment was seldom used amongst the Greeks as a legal punishment for offences; they preferred banishment to the expense of keeping prisoners in confinement. The prisons in different countries were called by different names; thus there was the Ceadas (Κεάδας), at Sparta; and, among the Ionians, the Gorgyra (γοργύρα), as at Samos. The prison at Athens was in former times called Desmoterion (δεσμωτήριον), and afterwards, by a sort of euphemism, οἴκημα. It was chiefly used as a guard-house or place of execution, and was under the charge of the public officers called the Eleven.—(2) Roman. A prison was first built at Rome by Ancus Martius, overhanging the forum. This was enlarged by Servius Tullius, who added to it a souterrain, or dungeon, called from him the Tullianum. Sallust describes this as being twelve feet under ground, walled on each side, and arched over with stone work. For a long time this was the only prison at Rome, being, in fact, the “Tower,” or state prison of the city, which was sometimes doubly guarded in times of alarm, and was the chief object of attack in many conspiracies. There were, however, other prisons besides this, though, as we might expect, the words of Roman historians generally refer to this alone. In the Tullianum prisoners were generally executed, and this part of the prison was also called robur.

CARCĔRES. [Circus.]

CARCHĒSĬUM (καρχήσιον). (1) A beaker or drinking-cup, which was used by the Greeks in very early times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was much employed in libations of wine, milk, and honey.—(2) The upper part of the mast of a ship. [Navis.]

CARMENTĀLĬA, a festival celebrated in honour of Carmenta or Carmentis, who is fabled to have been the mother of Evander, who came from Pallantium in Arcadia, and settled in Latium: he was said to have brought with him a knowledge of the arts, and the Latin alphabetical characters as distinguished from the Etruscan. This festival was celebrated annually on the 11th of January. A temple was erected to the same goddess, at the foot of the Capitoline hill, near the Porta Carmentalis, afterwards called Scelerata. The name Carmenta is said to have been given to her from her prophetic character, carmens or carmentis being synonymous with vates. The word is, of course, connected with carmen, as prophecies were generally delivered in verse.

CARNEIA (καρνεῖα), a great national festival, celebrated by the Spartans in honour of Apollo Carneios. The festival began on the seventh day of the month of Carneios = Metageitnion of the Athenians, and lasted for nine days. It was of a warlike character, similar to the Attic Boëdromia. During the time of its celebration nine tents were pitched near the city, in each of which nine men lived in the manner of a military camp, obeying in everything the commands of a herald. The priest conducting the sacrifices at the Carneia was called Agetes (Ἀγητής), whence the festival was sometimes designated by the name Agetoria or Agetoreion (Ἀγητόρια or Ἀγητόρειον), and from each of the Spartan tribes five men (Καρνεᾶται) were chosen as his ministers, whose office lasted four years, during which period they were not allowed to marry. When we read in Herodotus and Thucydides that the Spartans during the celebration of this festival were not allowed to take the field against an enemy, we must remember that this restriction was not peculiar to the Carneia, but common to all the great festivals of the Greeks: traces of it are found even in Homer.

CARNĬFEX, the public executioner at Rome, who executed slaves and foreigners, but not citizens, who were punished in a manner different from slaves. It was also his business to administer the torture. This office was considered so disgraceful, that he was not allowed to reside within the city, but lived without the Porta Metia or Esquilina, near the place destined for the punishment of slaves, called Sestertium under the emperors.

CARPENTUM, a cart; also a two-wheeled carriage, enclosed, and with an arched or sloping cover overhead. The carpentum was used to convey the Roman matrons in the public festal processions; and this was a high distinction, since the use of carriages in the city was entirely forbidden during the whole of the republican period. Hence the privilege of riding in a carpentum in the public festivals was sometimes granted to females of the imperial family. This carriage contained seats for two, and sometimes for three persons, besides the coachman. It was commonly drawn by a pair of mules, but more rarely by oxen or horses, and sometimes by four horses like a quadriga.—Carpenta, or covered carts, were much used by the Britons, the Gauls, and other northern nations. These, together with the carts of the more common form, including baggage-waggons, appear to have been comprehended under the term carri, or carra, which is the Celtic name with a Latin termination. The Gauls took a great multitude of them on their military expeditions, and when they were encamped, arranged them in close order, so as to form extensive lines of circumvallation.

CARRĀGO, a kind of fortification, consisting of a great number of waggons placed round an army. It was employed by barbarous nations, as, for instance, the Scythians, Gauls, and Goths. Carrago also signifies sometimes the baggage of an army.

CARRŪCA, a carriage, the name of which only occurs under the emperors. It appears to have been a species of rheda [Rheda], had four wheels, and was used in travelling. These carriages were sometimes used in Rome by persons of distinction, like the carpenta; in which case they appear to have been covered with plates of bronze, silver, and even gold, which were sometimes ornamented with embossed work.

CARRUS. [Carpentum.]

CĂRỸA or CĂRỸĀTIS (καρύα, καρυατίς), a festival celebrated at Caryae, in Laconia, in honour of Artemis Caryatis. It was celebrated every year by Lacedaemonian maidens with national dances of a very lively kind.

CĂRỸĀTĬDES, female figures used in architecture instead of columns. Their name is usually derived from Caryae, a city in Arcadia, near the Laconian border, the women of which are said to have been reduced to slavery by the Greeks, because Caryae had joined the Persians at the invasion of Greece. But this tale is probably apocryphal. One of the porticos of the Erechtheum at Athens is supported by Caryatides.

CASSIS. [Galea.]

CASTELLUM ĂQUAE. [Aquae Ductus.]

CASTRA. Roman armies never halted for a single night without forming a regular entrenchment, termed castra, capable of receiving within its limits the whole body of fighting men, their beasts of burden, and the baggage. So completely was this recognised as a part of the ordinary duties of each march, that pervenire ad locum tertiis ... quartis ... septuagesimis castris are the established phrases for expressing the number of days occupied in passing from one point to another. Whenever circumstances rendered it expedient for a force to occupy the same ground for any length of time, then the encampment was distinguished as castra stativa. In wild and barbarian lands, where there were no large towns and no tribes on whose faith reliance could be placed, armies, whether of invasion or occupation, were forced to remain constantly in camps. They usually, however, occupied different ground in summer and in winter, whence arose the distinction between castra aestiva and castra hiberna, both alike being stativa. But whether a camp was temporary or permanent, whether tenanted in summer or in winter, the main features of the work were always the same for the same epoch. In hiberna, huts of turf or stone would be substituted for the open tents of the aestiva (hence aedificare hiberna), and in stativa held for long periods the defences would present a more substantial and finished aspect, but the general outline and disposition of the parts were invariable. Polybius has transmitted to us a description of a Roman camp, from which the annexed plan has been drawn up. It is such as would be formed at the close of an ordinary day’s march by a regular consular army consisting of two Roman legions with the full contingent of Socii. Each legion is calculated at 4200 infantry and 300 cavalry; the Socii furnished an equal number of infantry, and twice as many cavalry, so that the whole force would amount to 16,800 foot and 1800 horse. Skill in the selection of a spot for a camp (capere locum castris) was ever considered as a high quality in a general, and we find it recorded among the praises of the most renowned commanders that they were wont in person to perform this duty. Under ordinary circumstances, however, the task was devolved upon one of the military tribunes, and a certain number of centurions appointed from time to time for the purpose. These having gone forward in advance of the army until they reached the place near which it was intended to halt, and having taken a general survey of the ground, selected a spot from whence a good view of the whole proposed area might be obtained. This spot was considerably within the limits of the contemplated enclosure, and was marked by a small white flag. The next object was to ascertain in what direction water and fodder might be most easily and securely provided. These two preliminary points being decided, the business of measuring out the ground (metari castra) commenced, and was executed, as we learn from various sources, with graduated rods (decempedae) by persons denominated metatores. In practice the most important points were marked by white poles, some of which bore flags of various colours, so that the different battalions on reaching the ground could at once discover the place assigned to them.