A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

C

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.

A, praetorium.—B, tents of the tribunes.—C, tents of the praefecti sociorum.—D, street 100 feet wide.—E, F, G, and H, streets 50 feet wide.—L, select foot and volunteers.—K, select horse and volunteers.—M, extraordinary horse of the allies.—N, extraordinary foot of the allies.—O, reserved for occasional auxiliaries.—Q, the street called Quintana, 50 feet wide.—V P, via principalis, 100 feet wide.

The white flag A, which served as the starting point of the whole construction, marked the position of the consul’s tent, or praetorium, so called because praetor was the ancient term for any one invested with supreme command. A square area was left open, extending a hundred feet each way from the praetorium. The camp was divided into two parts, the upper and the lower. The upper part formed about a third of the whole. In it was the praetorium (A) or general’s tent. A part of the praetorium was called the Augurale, as the auguries were there taken by the general. On the right and left of the praetorium were the forum and quaestorium; the former a sort of market-place, the latter appropriated to the quaestor and the camp stores under his superintendence. On the sides of and facing the forum and quaestorium, were stationed select bodies of horse (K) taken from the extraordinaries, with mounted volunteers, who served out of respect to the consul, and were stationed near him. And parallel to these were posted similar bodies of foot-soldiers (L). Before the quaestorium and the forum were the tents of the twelve tribunes of the two legions (B), and before the select bodies of horse and infantry the tents of the praefecti sociorum were probably placed (C). Again, behind the praetorium, the quaestorium, and the forum, ran a street or via (D), 100 feet broad, from one side of the camp to the other. Along the upper side of this street was ranged the main body of the “extraordinary” horse (M): they were separated into two equal parts by a street fifty feet broad (E). At the back of this body of cavalry was posted a similar body of infantry (N), selected from the allies, and facing the opposite way, i.e. towards the ramparts of the camp. The vacant spaces (O) on each side of these troops were reserved for foreigners and occasional auxiliaries. The lower part of the camp was divided from the upper by a street, called the Via Principalis (V P), or Principia, a hundred feet broad. Here the tribunal of the general was erected, from which he harangued the soldiers, and here the tribunes administered justice. Here also the principal standards, the altars of the gods, and the images of the emperors were placed. The lower part of the camp was occupied by the two legions and the troops of the allies according to the arrangement of the preceding cut. Between the ramparts and the tents was left a vacant space of 200 feet on every side, which was useful for many purposes: thus it served for the reception of any booty that was taken, and facilitated the entrance and exit of the army. The camp had four gates, one at the top and bottom, and one at each of the sides; the top or back-gate, which was the side most away from the enemy, was called the decumana. The bottom or the front gate was the practoria, the gates of the sides were the porta principalis dextra, and the porta principalis sinistra. The whole camp was surrounded by a trench (fossa), generally nine feet deep and twelve broad, and a rampart (vallum) made of the earth that was thrown up (agger), with stakes (valli) fixed at the top of it. The labour of this work was so divided, that the allies completed the two sides of the camp alongside of which they were stationed, and the two Roman legions the rest.—In describing the Roman camp and its internal arrangements, we have confined ourselves to the information given by Polybius, which, of course, applies only to his age, and to armies constituted like those he witnessed. When the practice of drawing up the army according to cohorts, ascribed to Marius or Caesar [[Exercitus]], had superseded the ancient division into maniples, and the distinction of triarii, &c., the internal arrangements of the camp must have been changed accordingly. In each legion the tribunes divided themselves into three sections of two each, and each section in turn undertook for two months the superintendence of all matters connected with the camp. Out of the twenty maniples of Principes and Triarii in each legion, two were appointed to take charge of the broad passage or street called Principia, extending right across the camp in front of the tents of the tribunes. Of the remaining eighteen maniples of Principes and Hastati in each legion, three were assigned by lot to each of the six tribunes, and of these three maniples one in turn rendered each day certain services to the tribune to whom it was specially attached. One maniple was selected each day from the whole legionary force, to keep guard beside the tent of the general. Three sentinels were usually posted at the tents of the quaestor, and of the legati: and by night sentinels kept watch at every maniple, being chosen out of the maniple which they guarded. The Velites mounted guard by day and by night along the whole extent of the vallum: to them also in bodies of ten was committed the charge of the gates, while strong bodies of infantry and cavalry were thrown forward in advance of each gate, to resist any sudden onset, and give timely notice of the approach of the enemy.—Excubiae; excubias agere; excubare; are the general terms used with reference to mounting guard whether by night or by day. Vigiliae; vigilias agere; vigilare; are restricted to night duty: Excubiae and Vigiliae frequently denote not only the service itself, but also the individuals who performed it. Stationes is used specially to denote the advanced posts thrown forward in front of the gates. Custodes or Custodiae the parties who watched the gates themselves, Praesidia the sentinels on the ramparts, but all these words are employed in many other significations also. The duty of going the rounds (Vigilias circuire s. circumire) was committed to the Equites, and for this purpose each legion supplied daily four, picked out from each turma in rotation by the commander of the troop. The eight persons thus selected decided by lot in which watch they should make their rounds, two being assigned to each watch. They then repaired to the tribune, and each individual received a written order specifying the posts which he was to visit, every post being visited in each watch by one or other of the two to whom the watch belonged. Sometimes we find centurions, tribunes, and even the general in chief represented as going the rounds, but, under ordinary circumstances, the duty was performed as we have described. The watchword for the night was not communicated verbally, but by means of a small rectangular tablet of wood (πλατεῖον ἐπιγεγραμμένον—tessera) upon which it was written.—Breaking up a Camp. On the first signal being given by the trumpet, the tents were all struck and the baggage packed, the tents of the general and the tribunes being disposed of before the others were touched. At the second signal the baggage was placed upon the beasts of burden; at the third, the whole army began to move.

CĂTĂLŎGUS (κατάλογος), the catalogue of those persons in Athens who were liable to regular military service. At Athens, those persons alone who possessed a certain amount of property were allowed to serve in the regular infantry, whilst the lowest class, the thetes, had not this privilege. [[Census].] Thus the former are called οἱ ἐκ καταλόγου στρατεύοντες, and the latter οἱ ἔξω τοῦ καταλόγου.

CĂTĂPHRACTA. [[Lorica].]

CĂTĂPHRACTI (κατάφρακτοι). (1) Heavy-armed cavalry, the horses of which were also covered with defensive armour. Among many of the Eastern nations, who placed their chief dependence upon their cavalry, we find horses protected in this manner; but among the Romans we do not read of any troops of this description till the later times of the empire, when the discipline of the legions was destroyed, and the chief dependence began to be placed on the cavalry. This species of troops was common among the Persians from the earliest times, from whom it was adopted by their Macedonian conquerors. They were called by the Persians clibanarii.—(2) Decked vessels, in opposition to Aphracti.

CĂTĂPĪRĀTĒR (καταπειρατηρία, βολίς), the lead used in sounding (ἐν τῷ βολίζειν), or fathoming the depth of water in navigation. The mode of employing this instrument appears to have been precisely the same as that now in use.

CĂTĂPULTA. [[Tormentum].]

CĂTĂRACTA (καταῤῥάκτης), a portcullis, so called because it fell with great force and a loud noise. It was an additional defence, suspended by iron rings and ropes, before the gates of a city, in such a manner that, when the enemy had come up to the gates, the portcullis might be let down so as to shut them in, and to enable the besieged to assail them from above.

CĂTEIA, a missile used in war by the Germans, Gauls, and some of the Italian nations, supposed to resemble the [Aclis].

CĂTĒNA, dim. CĂTELLA (ἄλυσις, dim. ἀλύσιον, ἀλυσίδιον), a chain. The chains which were of superior value, either on account of the material or the workmanship, are commonly called catellae (ἀλύσια), the diminutive expressing their fineness and delicacy as well as their minuteness. The specimens of ancient chains which we have in bronze lamps, in scales, and in ornaments for the person, especially necklaces, show a great variety of elegant and ingenious patterns. Besides a plain circle or oval, the separate link is often shaped like the figure 8, or is a bar with a circle at each end, or assumes other forms, some of which are here shown. The links are also found so closely entwined, that the chain resembles platted wire or thread, like the gold chains now manufactured at Venice. This is represented in the lowest figure of the woodcut.

Ancient Chains.

CĂTERVĀRĬI. [[Gladiatores].]

Cathedra. (From a Painting on a Vase.)

CĂTHEDRA, a seat or chair, was more particularly applied to a soft seat used by women, whereas sella signified a seat common to both sexes. The cathedrae were, no doubt, of various forms and sizes; but they usually appear to have had backs to them. On the cathedra in the annexed cut is seated a bride, who is being fanned by a female slave with a fan made of peacock’s feathers. Women were also accustomed to be carried abroad in these cathedrae instead of in lecticae, which practice was sometimes adopted by effeminate persons of the other sex. The word cathedra was also applied to the chair or pulpit from which lectures were read.

CĂTĪNUS, or CĂTĪNUM, a large dish, on which fish and meat were served up at table. Hence Horace speaks of an angustus catinus as an indication of niggardliness on the part of the host.

CĂVAEDĬUM. [[Domus].]

CĂVĔA. [[Theatrum].]

CAUPŌNA. (1) An inn, where travellers obtained food and lodging; in which sense it answered to the Greek words πανδοκεῖον, καταγώγιον, and κατάλυσις. Inns for the accommodation of persons of all classes existed among the Greeks and Romans, although they were not equal either in size or convenience to similar places in modern times. An inn was also called taberna and taberna diversoria, or simply diversorium or deversorium.—(2) A shop, where wine and ready-dressed meat were sold, thus corresponding to the Greek καπηλεῖον. The person who kept a caupona was called caupo. In Greek κάπηλος signifies in general a retail trader, who sold goods in small quantities; but the word is more particularly applied to a person who sold ready-dressed provisions, and especially wine in small quantities. In these καπηλεῖα only persons of the very lowest class were accustomed to eat and drink. In Rome itself there were, no doubt, inns to accommodate strangers; but these were probably only frequented by the lower classes, since all persons in respectable society could easily find accommodation in the houses of their friends. There were, however, in all parts of the city, numerous houses where wine and ready-dressed provisions were sold. The houses where persons were allowed to eat and drink were usually called popinae and not cauponae; and the keepers of them, popae. They were principally frequented by slaves and the lower classes, and were consequently only furnished with stools to sit upon instead of couches. The Thermopolia, where the calida or warm wine and water was sold, appear to have been the same as the popinae. Many of these popinae were little better than the lupanaria or brothels; whence Horace calls them immundas popinas. The ganeae, which are sometimes mentioned in connection with the popinae, were brothels, whence they are often classed with the lustra. Under the emperors many attempts were made to regulate the popinae, but apparently with little success. All persons who kept inns or houses of public entertainment of any kind were held in low estimation both among the Greeks and Romans. They appear to have fully deserved the bad reputation which they possessed, for they were accustomed to cheat their customers by false weights and measures, and by all the means in their power.

CAUSĬA (καυσία), a hat with a broad brim, which was made of felt, and worn by the Macedonian kings. Its form is seen in the annexed figure. The Romans adopted it from the Macedonians.

Causia, Hat. (From a Painting on a Vase.)

CAUTĬO, CĂVĒRE. These words are of frequent occurrence, and have a great variety of significations, according to the matter to which they refer. Their general signification is that of security given by one person to another, or security which one person obtains by the advice or assistance of another. The cautio was most frequently a writing, which expressed the object of the parties to it; accordingly the word cautio came to signify both the instrument (chirographum or instrumentum) and the object which it was the purpose of the instrument to secure. Cicero uses the expression cautio chirographi mei. The phrase cavere aliquid alicui expressed the fact of one person giving security to another as to some particular thing or act. The word cautio was also applied to the release which a debtor obtained from his creditor on satisfying his demand; in this sense cautio is equivalent to a modern receipt; it is the debtor’s security against the same demand being made a second time. Thus cavere ab aliquo signifies to obtain this kind of security. Cavere is also applied to express the professional advice and assistance of a lawyer to his client for his conduct in any legal matter. Cavere and its derivatives are also used to express the provisions of a law, by which any thing is forbidden or ordered, as in the phrase, Cautum est lege, &c. It is also used to express the words in a will, by which a testator declares his wish that certain things should be done after his death.

CĔADAS or CAEADAS (κεάδας or καιάδας), a deep cavern or chasm, like the Barathron at Athens, into which the Spartans were accustomed to thrust persons condemned to death.

CĔLĔRES, are said by Livy to have been three hundred horsemen, who formed the body-guard of Romulus both in peace and war. There can, however, be little doubt that these Celeres were not simply the body-guard of the king, but were the same as the equites, or horsemen, a fact which is expressly stated by some writers. [[Equites].] The etymology of Celeres is variously given. Some writers derived it from their leader Celer, who was said to have slain Remus, but most writers connected it with the Greek κέλης, in reference to the quickness of their service. The Celeres were under the command of a Tribunus Celerum, who stood in the same relation to the king as the magister equitum did in a subsequent period to the dictator. He occupied the second place in the state, and in the absence of the king had the right of convoking the comitia. Whether he was appointed by the king, or elected by the comitia, has been questioned, but the former is the more probable.

CELLA, in its primary sense, means a store-room of any kind. Of these there were various descriptions, which took their distinguishing denominations from the articles they contained, as, for instance, the cella penuaria or penaria, the cella olearia and cella vinaria. The slave to whom the charge of these stores was intrusted, was called cellarius, or promus, or condus, “quia promit quod conditum est,” and sometimes promus condus and procurator peni. This answers to our butler and housekeeper. Any number of small rooms clustered together like the cells of a honeycomb were also termed cellae; hence the dormitories of slaves and menials are called cellae, and cellae familiaricae, in distinction to a bed-chamber, which was cubiculum. Thus a sleeping-room at a public-house is also termed cella. Cella ostiarii, or janitoris, is the porter’s lodge. In the baths the cella caldaria, tepidaria, and frigidaria, were those which contained respectively the warm, tepid, and cold bath. [[Balneae].] The interior of a temple, that is the part included within the outside shell (σηκός), was also called cella. There was sometimes more than one cella within the same peristyle or under the same roof, in which case each cell took the name of the deity whose statue it contained, as cella Jovis, cella Junonis, cella Minervae, as in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline.

CĔNOTĂPHĬUM, a cenotaph (κενός and τάφος), was an empty or honorary tomb, erected as a memorial of a person whose body was buried elsewhere, or not found for burial at all.

CENSOR (τιμητής), the name of two magistrates of high rank in the Roman republic. Their office was called Censura (τιμητεία or τιμητία). The Census, which was a register of Roman citizens and of their property, was first established by Servius Tullius, the fifth king of Rome. After the expulsion of the kings it was taken by the consuls; and special magistrates were not appointed for the purpose of taking it till the year B.C. 443. The reason of this alteration was owing to the appointment in the preceding year of tribuni militum with consular power in place of the consuls; and as these tribunes might be plebeians, the patricians deprived the consuls, and consequently their representatives, the tribunes, of the right of taking the census, and entrusted it to two magistrates, called Censores, who were to be chosen exclusively from the patricians. The magistracy continued to be a patrician one till B.C. 351, when C. Marcius Rutilus was the first plebeian censor. Twelve years afterwards, B.C. 339, it was provided by one of the Publilian laws, that one of the censors must necessarily be a plebeian, but it was not till B.C. 280 that a plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people (lustrum condidit). In B.C. 131 the two censors were for the first time plebeians.—The censors were elected in the comitia centuriata held under the presidency of a consul. As a general principle, the only persons eligible to the office were those who had previously been consuls; but a few exceptions occur. At first there was no law to prevent a person being censor a second time; but the only person, who was twice elected to the office, was C. Marcius Rutilus in B.C. 265; and he brought forward a law in this year, enacting that no one should be chosen censor a second time, and received in consequence the surname of Censorinus.—The censorship is distinguished from all other Roman magistracies by the length of time during which it was held. The censors were originally chosen for a whole lustrum, that is, a period of five years; but their office was limited to eighteen months, as early as ten years after its institution (B.C. 433), by a law of the dictator Mam. Aemilius Mamercinus. The censors also held a very peculiar position with respect to rank and dignity. No imperium was bestowed upon them, and accordingly they had no lictors. The jus censurae was granted to them by a lex centuriata, and not by the curiae, and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors. But notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship; it was a sanctus magistratus, to which the deepest reverence was due. They possessed of course the sella curulis. The funeral of a censor was always conducted with great pomp and splendour, and hence a funus censorium was voted even to the emperors.—The censorship continued in existence for 421 years, namely, from B.C. 443 to B.C. 22; but during this period many lustra passed by without any censor being chosen at all. Its power was limited by one of the laws of the tribune Clodius (B.C. 58). After the year B.C. 22 the emperors discharged the duties of the censorship under the name of Praefectura Morum.—The duties of the censors may be divided into three classes, all of which were however closely connected with one another: I. The Census, or register of the citizens and of their property, in which were included the lectio senatus, and the recognitio equitum; II. The Regimen Morum; and III. The administration of the finances of the state, under which were classed the superintendence of the public buildings and the erection of all new public works.—I. The [Census], the first and principal duty of the censors, for which the proper expression is censum agere, was always held in the Campus Martius, and from the year B.C. 435 in a special building called Villa Publica. After the auspicia had been taken, the citizens were summoned by a public crier (praeco) to appear before the censors. Each tribe was called up separately, and every paterfamilias had to appear in person before the censors, who were seated in their curule chairs. The census was conducted ad arbitrium censoris; but the censors laid down certain rules, sometimes called leges censui censendo, in which mention was made of the different kinds of property subject to the census, and in what way their value was to be estimated. According to these laws each citizen had to give an account of himself, of his family, and of his property upon oath, ex animi sententia. First he had to give his full name (praenomen, nomen, and cognomen) and that of his father, or if he were a freedman that of his patron, and he was likewise obliged to state his age. He was then asked, Tu, ex animi tui sententia, uxorem habes? and if married he had to give the name of his wife, and likewise the number, names, and ages of his children, if any. Single women (viduae) and orphans (orbi orbaeque) were represented by their tutores; their names were entered in separate lists, and they were not included in the sum total of capita. After a citizen had stated his name, age, family, &c., he then had to give an account of all his property, so far as it was subject to the census. In making this statement he was said censere or censeri, as a deponent, “to value or estimate himself,” or as a passive “to be valued or estimated:” the censor, who received the statement, was also said censere, as well as accipere censum. Only such things were liable to the census (censui censendo) as were property ex jure Quiritium. Land formed the most important article in the census; next came slaves and cattle. The censors also possessed the right of calling for a return of such objects as had not usually been given in, such as clothing, jewels, and carriages. We can hardly doubt that the censors possessed the power of setting a higher valuation on the property than the citizens themselves had put. The tax (tributum) was usually one per thousand upon the property entered in the books of the censors; but on one occasion the censors, as a punishment, compelled a person to pay eight per thousand (octuplicato censu, Liv. iv. 24). A person who voluntarily absented himself from the census, and thus became incensus, was subject to the severest punishment. It is probable that service in the army was a valid excuse for absence. After the censors had received the names of all the citizens with the amount of their property, they then had to make out the lists of the tribes, and also of the classes and centuries; for by the legislation of Servius Tullius the position of each citizen in the state was determined by the amount of his property. [[Comitia Centuriata].] These lists formed a most important part of the Tabulae Censoriae, under which name were included all the documents connected in any way with the discharge of the censors’ duties. These lists, as far at least as they were connected with the finances of the state, were deposited in the aerarium, which was the temple of Saturn; but the regular depository for all the archives of the censors was in earlier times the Atrium Libertatis, near the Villa publica, and in later times the temple of the Nymphs. The censors had also to make out the lists of the senators for the ensuing lustrum, or till new censors were appointed; striking out the names of such as they considered unworthy, and making additions to the body from those who were qualified. [[Senatus].] In the same manner they held a review of the equites equo publico, and added and removed names as they judged proper. [[Equites].] After the lists had been completed, the number of citizens was counted up, and the sum total announced; and accordingly we find that, in the account of a census, the number of citizens is likewise usually given. They are in such cases spoken of as capita, sometimes with the addition of the word civium, and sometimes not; and hence to be registered in the census was the same thing as caput habere. [[Caput].]—II. Regimen Morum. This was the most important branch of the censors’ duties, and the one which caused their office to be the most revered and the most dreaded in the Roman state. It naturally grew out of the right which they possessed of excluding unworthy persons from the lists of citizens. They were constituted the conservators of public and private virtue and morality; they were not simply to prevent crime or particular acts of immorality, but their great object was to maintain the old Roman character and habits, the mos majorum. The proper expression for this branch of their power was regimen morum, which was called in the times of the empire cura or praefectura morum. The punishment inflicted by the censors in the exercise of this branch of their duties was called Nota or Notatio, or Animadversio Censoria. In inflicting it they were guided only by their conscientious convictions of duty; they had to take an oath that they would act neither through partiality nor favour; and in addition to this, they were bound in every case to state in their lists, opposite the name of the guilty citizen, the cause of the punishment inflicted on him,—Subscriptio censoria. The consequence of such a nota was only ignominia and not infamia [[Infamia]], and the censorial verdict was not a judicium or res judicata, for its effects were not lasting, but might be removed by the following censors, or by a lex. A nota censoria was moreover not valid, unless both censors agreed. The ignominia was thus only a transitory capitis deminutio, which does not appear even to have deprived a magistrate of his office, and certainly did not disqualify persons labouring under it for obtaining a magistracy, for being appointed as judices by the praetor, or for serving in the Roman armies. This superintendence of the conduct of Roman citizens extended so far, that it embraced the whole of the public and private life of the citizens. Thus we have instances of their censuring or punishing persons for not marrying, for breaking a promise of marriage, for divorce, for bad conduct during marriage, for improper education of children, for living in an extravagant and luxurious manner, and for many other irregularities in private life. Their influence was still more powerful in matters connected with the public life of the citizens. Thus we find them censuring or punishing magistrates who were forgetful of the dignity of their office or guilty of bribery, as well as persons who were guilty of improper conduct towards magistrates, of perjury, and of neglect of their duties both in civil and military life. The punishments inflicted by the censors are generally divided into four classes:—1. Motio or ejectio e senatu, or the exclusion of a man from the number of senators. This punishment might either be a simple exclusion from the list of senators, or the person might at the same time be excluded from the tribes and degraded to the rank of an aerarian. The censors in their new lists omitted the names of such senators as they wished to exclude, and in reading these new lists in public, passed over the names of those who were no longer to be senators. Hence the expression praeteriti senatores is equivalent to e senatu ejecti. 2. The ademptio equi, or the taking away the equus publicus from an eques. This punishment might likewise be simple, or combined with the exclusion from the tribes and the degradation to the rank of an aerarian. [[Equites].] 3. The motio e tribu, or the exclusion of a person from his tribe. If the further degradation to the rank of an aerarian was combined with the motio e tribu, it was always expressly stated. 4. The fourth punishment was called referre in aerarios or facere aliquem aerarium, and might be inflicted on any person who was thought by the censors to deserve it. [[Aerarii].]—III. The Administration of the Finances of the State, was another part of the censors’ office. In the first place the tributum, or property-tax, had to be paid by each citizen according to the amount of his property registered in the census, and, accordingly, the regulation of this tax naturally fell under the jurisdiction of the censors. [[Tributum].] They also had the superintendence of all the other revenues of the state, the vectigalia, such as the tithes paid for the public lands, the salt-works, the mines, the customs, &c. [[Vectigalia].] All these branches of the revenue the censors were accustomed to let out to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum or five years. The act of letting was called venditio or locatio, and seems to have taken place in the month of March. The censors also possessed the right, though probably not without the concurrence of the senate, of imposing new vectigalia, and even of selling the land belonging to the state. The censors, however, did not receive the revenues of the state. All the public money was paid into the aerarium, which was entirely under the jurisdiction of the senate; and all disbursements were made by order of this body, which employed the quaestors as its officers. [[Aerarium]; [Senatus].]—In one important department the censors were entrusted with the expenditure of the public money; though the actual payments were no doubt made by the quaestors. The censors had the general superintendence of all the public buildings and works (opera publica); and to meet the expenses connected with this part of their duties, the senate voted them a certain sum of money or certain revenues, to which they were restricted, but which they might at the same time employ according to their discretion. They had to see that the temples and all other public buildings were in a good state of repair (aedes sacras tueri and sarta tecta exigere), that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons (loca tueri), and that the aquaeducts, roads, drains, &c. were properly attended to. The repairs of the public works and the keeping of them in proper condition were let out by the censors by public auction to the lowest bidder. The persons who undertook the contract were called conductores, mancipes, redemptores, susceptores, &c.; and the duties they had to discharge were specified in the Leges Censoriae. The censors had also to superintend the expenses connected with the worship of the gods. In these respects it is not easy to define with accuracy the respective duties of the censors and aediles: but it may be remarked in general that the superintendence of the aediles had more of a police character, while that of the censors had reference to all financial matters.—After the censors had performed their various duties and taken the census, the lustrum or solemn purification of the people followed. When the censors entered upon their office, they drew lots to see which of them should perform this purification (lustrum facere or condere), but both censors were obliged of course to be present at the ceremony. [[Lustrum].]—In the Roman and Latin colonies and in the municipia there were censors, who likewise bore the name of quinquennales. They are spoken of under [Colonia]. A census was sometimes taken in the provinces, even under the republic; but there seems to have been no general census taken in the provinces till the time of Augustus. At Rome the census still continued to be taken under the empire, but the old ceremonies connected with it were no longer continued, and the ceremony of the lustration was not performed after the time of Vespasian.—The word census, besides the meaning of “valuation” of a person’s estate, has other significations, which must be briefly mentioned: 1. It signified the amount of a person’s property, and hence we read of census senatorius, the estate of a senator; census equestris, the estate of an eques. 2. The lists of the censors. 3. The tax which depended upon the valuation in the census.

CENSUS.—(1) Greek.—The Greek term for a man’s property as ascertained by the census, as well as for the act of ascertaining it, is τίμημα. The only Greek state concerning whose arrangement of the census we have any satisfactory information, is Athens. Previous to the time of Solon no census had been instituted at Athens. According to his census, all citizens were divided into four classes: 1. Pentacosiomedimni (Πεντακοσιομέδιμνοι), or persons possessing landed property which yielded an annual income of at least 500 medimni of dry or liquid produce. 2. Hippeis (Ἱππεῖς), i.e. knights or persons able to keep a war-horse, were those whose lands yielded an annual produce of at least 300 medimni, whence they are also called τριακοσιομέδιμνοι. 3. Zeugitae (Ζευγῖται), i.e. persons able to keep a yoke of oxen (ζεῦγος), were those whose annual income consisted of at least 150 medimni. 4. The Thetes (Θῆτες) contained all the rest of the free population, whose income was below that of the Zeugitae. The constitution of Athens, so long as it was based upon these classes, was a timocracy (τιμοκρατία, or ἀπὸ τιμημάτων πολιτεία). The highest magistracy at Athens, or the archonship, was at first accessible only to persons of the first class, until Aristides threw all the state offices open to all classes indiscriminately. The maintenance of the republic mainly devolved upon the first three classes, the last being exempted from all taxes. As the land in the legislation of Solon was regarded as the capital which yielded an annual income, he regulated his system of taxation by the value of the land, which was treated as the taxable capital. Lists of this taxable property (ἀπογραφαί) were kept at first by the naucrari, who also had to conduct the census, and afterwards by the demarchi.—As property is a fluctuating thing, the census was repeated from time to time, but the periods differed in the various parts of Greece, for in some a census was held every year, and in others every two or four years. At Athens every person had to state the amount of his property, and if there was any doubt about his honesty, it seems that a counter-valuation (ἀντιτίμησις) might be made. This system of taxation according to classes, and based upon the possession of productive estates, underwent a considerable change in the time of the Peloponnesian war, though the divisions into classes themselves continued to be observed for a considerable time after. As the wants of the republic increased, and as many citizens were possessed of large property, without being landed proprietors, the original land-tax was changed into a property-tax. This property-tax was called εἰσφορά, concerning which see [Eisphora]. Compare [Leiturgiae]; and for the taxes paid by resident aliens, [Metoici].—(2) Roman. [[Censor].]

CENTESĬMA, namely pars, or the hundredth part, also called vectigal rerum venalium, or centesima rerum venalium, was a tax of one per cent. levied at Rome and in Italy upon all goods that were exposed for public sale at auctions. It was collected by persons called coactores. This tax was perhaps introduced after the civil war between Marius and Sulla. Its produce was assigned by Augustus to the aerarium militare. Tiberius reduced the tax to one half per cent. (ducentesima), after he had changed Cappadocia into a province, and had thereby increased the revenue of the empire. Caligula in the beginning of his reign abolished the tax altogether for Italy.

CENTUMVĬRI, were judices, who resembled other judices in this respect, that they decided cases under the authority of a magistratus; but they differed from other judices in being a definite body or collegium. This collegium seems to have been divided into four parts, each of which sometimes sat by itself. The origin of the court is unknown. According to an ancient writer, three were chosen out of each tribe, and consequently the whole number out of the 35 tribes would be 105, who, in round numbers, were called the hundred men. If the centumviri were chosen from the tribes, this seems a strong presumption in favour of the high antiquity of the court. It was the practice to set up a spear in the place where the centumviri were sitting, and accordingly the word hasta, or hasta centumviralis, is sometimes used as equivalent to the words judicium centumvirale. The praetor presided in this court. The jurisdiction of the centumviri was chiefly confined to civil matters, but it appears that crimina sometimes came under their cognizance. The younger Pliny, who practised in this court, makes frequent allusions to it in his letters.

CENTŬRĬA. [[Exercitus]; [Comitia].]

CENTŬRĬĀTA CŎMĪTĬA. [[Comitia].]

CENTŬRĬO. [[Exercitus].]

CENTUSSIS. [As.]

CĒRA (κηρός), wax. For its employment in painting, see [Pictura]; and for its application as a writing material, see [Tabulae] and [Testamentum].

CĔRĔĀLĬA, a festival celebrated at Rome in honour of Ceres, whose wanderings in search of her lost daughter Proserpine were represented by women, clothed in white, running about with lighted torches. During its continuance, games were celebrated in the Circus Maximus, the spectators of which appeared in white; but on any occasion of public mourning the games and festivals were not celebrated at all, as the matrons could not appear at them except in white. The day of the Cerealia is doubtful; some think it was the ides or 13th of April, others the 7th of the same month.

CĔRĔVĪSĬA, CERVĪSĬA (ζύθος), ale or beer, was almost or altogether unknown to the Greeks and Romans; but it was used very generally by the surrounding nations, whose soil and climate were less favourable to the growth of vines. According to Herodotus, the Egyptians commonly drank “barley wine;” and Diodorus Siculus says that the Egyptian beer was nearly equal to wine in strength and flavour. The Iberians and Thracians, and the people in the north of Asia Minor, instead of drinking their beer out of cups, placed it before them in a large bowl or vase, which was sometimes of gold or silver. This being full to the brim with the grains, as well as the fermented liquor, the guests, when they pledged one another, drank together out of the same bowl by stooping down to it, although, when this token of friendship was not intended, they adopted the more refined method of sucking up the fluid through tubes of cane. The Suevi and other northern nations offered to their gods libations of beer, and expected that to drink it in the presence of Odin would be among the delights of Valhalla.

CĒRŌMA (κήρωμα), the oil mixed with wax (κηρός) with which wrestlers were anointed; also the place where they were anointed, and, in later times, the place where they wrestled.

CĔRŪCHI. [[Navis].]

CESTRUM. [[Pictura].]

CESTUS. (1) The thongs or bands of leather, which were tied round the hands of boxers, in order to render their blows more powerful (ἱμάντες, or ἱμάντες πυκτικοί). The cestus was used by boxers in the earliest times, and is mentioned in the Iliad; but in the heroic times it consisted merely of thongs of leather, and differed from the cestus used in later times in the public games, which was a most formidable weapon, being frequently covered with knots and nails, and loaded with lead and iron.—(2) A band or tie of any kind, but more particularly the zone or girdle of Venus, on which was represented every thing that could awaken love.

Cestus. (Fabretti, de Col. Traj., p. 261.)

CETRA, or CAETRA, a target, i.e. a small round shield, made of the hide of a quadruped. It formed part of the defensive armour of the Osci, and of the people of Spain, Mauritania, and Britain, and seems to have been much the same as the target of the Scotch Highlanders. The Romans do not appear to have used the cetra; but we find mention of cetratae cohortes levied in the provinces. Livy compares it to the pelta of the Greeks and Macedonians, which was also a small light shield.

CHALCĬOĒCĬA (χαλκιοίκια), an annual festival, with sacrifices, held at Sparta in honour of Athena, surnamed Chalcioecus (Χαλκίοικος), i.e. the goddess of the brazen-house. Young men marched on the occasion in full armour to the temple of the goddess; and the ephors, although not entering the temple, but remaining within its sacred precincts, were obliged to take part in the sacrifice.

CHALCUS (χαλκοῦς), a denomination of Greek copper-money. Bronze or copper (χαλκός) was very little used by the Greeks for money till after the time of Alexander the Great. The χαλκία πονηρὰ at Athens issued in B.C. 406 were a peculiar exception; and they were soon afterwards called in, and the silver currency restored. It is not improbable, however, that the copper coin called χαλκοῦς was in circulation in Athens still earlier. The smallest silver coin at Athens was the quarter-obol, and the χαλκοῦς was the half of that, or the eighth of an obol. Its value was somewhat more than 3-4ths of a farthing. The χαλκοῦς in later times was divided into lepta, of which it contained seven. In later times the obol was coined of copper as well as silver.

CHĂRISTĬA (from χαρίζομαι, to grant a favour or pardon), a solemn feast among the Romans, to which none but relations and members of the same family were invited, in order that any quarrel or disagreement which had arisen amongst them might be made up. The day of celebration was the 19th of February.

CHEIRŎNŎMĬA (χειρονομία), a mimetic movement of the hands, which formed a part of the art of dancing among the Greeks and Romans. In gymnastics it was applied to the movements of the hands in pugilistic combat.

CHEIRŎTŎNĬA (χειροτονία). In the Athenian assemblies two modes of voting were practised, the one by pebbles (ψηφίζεσθαι), the other by a show of hands (χειροτονεῖν). The latter was employed in the election of those magistrates who were chosen in the public assemblies, and who were hence called χειροτονητοί, in voting upon laws, and in some kinds of trials on matters which concerned the people. We frequently find, however, the word ψηφίζεσθαι used where the votes were really given by show of hands. The manner of voting by a show of hands was as follows:—The herald said: “Whoever thinks that Meidias is guilty, let him lift up his hand.” Then those who thought so stretched forth their hands. Then the herald said again: “Whoever thinks that Meidias is not guilty, let him lift up his hand;” and those who were of this opinion stretched forth their hands. The number of hands was counted each time by the herald; and the president, upon the herald’s report, declared on which side the majority voted. It is important to understand clearly the compounds of this word. A vote condemning an accused person is καταχειροτονία: one acquitting him, ἀποχειροτονία; ἐπιχειροτονεῖν is to confirm by a majority of votes: ἐπιχειροτονία τῶν νομῶν was a revision of the laws, which took place at the beginning of every year: ἐπιχειροτονία τῶν ἀρχῶν was a vote taken in the first assembly of each prytany on the conduct of the magistrates; in these cases, those who voted for the confirmation of the law, or for the continuance in office of the magistrate, were said ἐπιχειροτονεῖν, those on the other side ἀποχειροτονεῖν: διαχειροτονία is a vote for one of two alternatives: ἀντιχειροτονεῖν, to vote against a proposition. The compounds of ψηφίζεσθαι have similar meanings.

CHĪRŎGRĂPHUM (χειρόγραφον), meant first, as its derivation implies, a hand-writing or autograph. In this its simple sense, χείρ in Greek and manus in Latin are often substituted for it. From this meaning was easily derived that of a signature to a will or other instrument, especially a note of hand given by a debtor to his creditor.

CHITON (χιτών). [[Tunica].]

CHLAENA (χλαῖνα). [[Pallium].]

Chlamys. (The Figure on the left from a Painting on a Vase; that on the right from the Brit. Mus.)

CHLĂMỸS (χλαμύς, dim. χλαμύδιον), a scarf, denoted an article of the amictus, or outer raiment of the Greeks. It was for the most part woollen; and it differed from the himation (ἱμάτιον), or cloak, the usual amictus of the male sex, in being smaller, finer, and oblong instead of square, its length being generally about twice its breadth. The scarf does not appear to have been much worn by children. It was generally assumed on reaching adolescence, and was worn by the ephebi from about seventeen to twenty years of age, and hence was called χλαμὺς ἐφηβηική. It was also worn by the military, especially of high rank, over their body armour, and by hunters and travellers, more particularly on horseback. The usual mode of wearing the scarf was to pass one of its shorter sides round the neck, and to fasten it by means of a brooch (fibula), either over the breast (cut, [Hasta]), in which case it hung down the back, or over the right shoulder, so as to cover the left arm (cut, [Causia]). In the following cut it is worn again in another way. The aptitude of the scarf to be turned in every possible form around the body, made it useful even for defence. The hunter used to wrap his chlamys about his left arm when pursuing wild animals, and preparing to fight with them. The annexed woodcut exhibits a figure of Neptune armed with the trident in his right hand, and having a chlamys to protect the left. When Diana goes to the chase, as she does not require her scarf for purposes of defence, she draws it from behind over her shoulders, and twists it round her waist so that the belt of her quiver passes across it. (See [woodcut].) Among the Romans the scarf came more into use under the emperors. Caligula wore one enriched with gold. Severus, when he was in the country or on an expedition, wore a scarf dyed with the coccus.

Chlamys. (Neptune from a Coin, and Diana from a Statue in the Vatican.)

CHOENIX (χοῖνιξ), a Greek measure of capacity, the size of which is differently given; it was probably of different sizes in the several states. Some writers make it equal to three cotylae (nearly 1½ pints English); others to four cotylae (nearly 2 pints English); others again make it eight cotylae (nearly 4 pints English).

CHŎRĒGUS (χορηγός), a person who had to bear the expenses of the choregia (χορηγία), one of the regularly recurring state burthens (ἐγκύκλιοι λειτουργίαι) at Athens. The choregus was appointed by his tribe, though we are not informed according to what order. The same person might serve as choregus for two tribes at once; and after B.C. 412 a decree was passed allowing two persons to unite and undertake a choregia together. The duties of the choregia consisted in providing the choruses for tragedies and comedies, the lyric choruses of men and boys, the pyrrhicists, the cyclic choruses, and the choruses of flute-players for the different religious festivals at Athens. When a poet intended to bring out a play, he had to get a chorus assigned him by the archon [[Chorus]], who nominated a choregus to fulfil the requisite duties. He had first to collect his chorus, and then to procure a teacher (χοροδιδάσκαλος), whom he paid for instructing the choreutae. The chorus were generally maintained, during the period of their instruction, at the expense of the choregus. The choregus who exhibited the best musical or theatrical entertainment received as a prize a tripod, which he had the expense of consecrating, and sometimes he had also to build the monument on which it was placed. There was a whole street at Athens formed by the line of these tripod-temples, and called “The Street of the Tripods.”

CHŎRUS (χορός) probably signified originally a company of dancers dancing in a ring. In later times, a choric performance always implies the singing or musical recitation of a poetical composition, accompanied by appropriate dancing and gesticulation, or at least by a measured march. In all the Dorian states, especially among the Spartans, choral performances were cultivated with great assiduity. Various causes contributed to this, as, for example, their universal employment in the worship of Apollo, the fact that they were not confined to the men, but that women also took part in them, and that many of the dances had a gymnastic character given them, and were employed as a mode of training to martial exercises. [[Saltatio].] Hence Doric lyric poetry became almost exclusively choral, which was not the case with the other great school of Greek lyric poetry, the Aeolian; so that the Doric dialect came to be looked upon as the appropriate dialect for choral compositions, and Doric forms were retained by the Athenians even in the choral compositions which were interwoven with their dramas. The instrument commonly used in connection with the Doric choral poetry was the cithara. A great impetus was given to choral poetry by its application to the dithyramb. This ancient Bacchanalian performance seems to have been a hymn sung by one or more of an irregular band of revellers, to the music of the flute. Arion, a contemporary of Periander, was the first who gave a regular choral form to the dithyramb. This chorus, which ordinarily consisted of fifty men or youths, danced in a ring round the altar of Dionysus. Hence such choruses were termed cyclic (κύκλιοι χοροί). With the introduction of a regular choral character, Arion also substituted the cithara for the flute. It was from the dithyramb that the Attic tragedy was developed. For details see [Tragoedia]. From the time of Sophocles onwards the regular number of the chorus in a tragedy was 15; but it is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion with regard to the number of the chorus in the early dramas of Aeschylus. The fact that the number of the dithyrambic chorus was 50, and that the mythological number of the Oceanides and Danaides was the same, tempts one to suppose that the chorus in the Prometheus and the Supplices consisted of 50. Most writers, however, agree in thinking that such a number was too large to have been employed. The later chorus of 15 was arranged in a quadrangular form (τετράγωνος). It entered the theatre by the passage to the right of the spectators. [[Theatrum].] Its entrance was termed πάροδος; its leaving the stage in the course of the play μετάστασις; its re-entrance ἐπιπάροδος; its exit ἄφοδος. As it entered in three lines, with the spectators on its left, the stage on its right, the middle choreutes of the left row (τρίτος ἀριστέρου) was the Coryphaeus or Hegemon, who in early times at least was not unfrequently the choregus himself. Of course the positions first taken up by the choreutae were only retained till they commenced their evolutions. To guide them in these, lines were marked upon the boards with which the orchestra was floored. The flute as well as the cithara was used as an accompaniment to the choric songs. The dance of the tragic chorus was called ἐμμέλεια.—The ordinary number of the chorus in a comedy was 24. Like the tragic chorus it was arranged in a quadrangular form, and entered the orchestra from opposite sides, according as it was supposed to come from the city or from the country. It consisted sometimes half of male and half of female choreutae. The dance of the comic chorus was the κόρδαξ. In the Satyric drama the chorus consisted of Satyrs: its number is quite uncertain. Its dance was called σίκιννις. When a poet intended to bring forward a play, he had to apply for a chorus (χορὸν αἰτεῖν) to the archons, to the king archon if the play was to be brought forward at the Lenaea, to the archon eponymus if at the great Dionysia. If the play were thought to deserve it, he received a chorus (χορὸν λαμβάνειν), the expenses of which were borne by a choregus. [[Choregus].] The poet then either trained (διδάσκειν) the chorus himself, or entrusted that business to a professed chorus trainer (χοροδιδάσκαλος), who usually had an assistant (ὑποδιδάσκαλος). For training the chorus in its evolutions there was also an ὀρχηστοδιδάσκαλος.

CHOUS, or CHOEUS (χοῦς or χοεῦς), was equal to the Roman congius, and contained six ξέσται, or sextarii (nearly six pints English). It seems that there was also a smaller measure of the same name, containing two sextarii (nearly two pints English).

CHRŎNOLŎGĬA (χρονολογία), chronology. The Greeks reckoned their years generally according to their magistrates, in the early times according to the years of the reign of their kings, and afterwards according to their annual magistrates. At Athens the year was called by the name of one of the nine archons, who from this circumstance was called ἄρχων ἐπώνυμος, or the archon par excellence; and at Sparta the years were called after one of the five ephors, who for this reason was likewise termed ἐπώνυμος. In Argos time was counted according to the years of the high priestess of Hera, who held her office for life (ἡρεσίς); and the inhabitants of Elis probably reckoned according to the Olympic games, which were celebrated every fifth year during the first full moon which followed after the summer solstice. Thus there was no era which was used by all the Greeks in common for the ordinary purposes of life.—Timaeus, who flourished about B.C. 260, was the first historian who counted the years by Olympiads, each of which contained four years. The beginning of the Olympiads is commonly fixed in the year 3938 of the Julian period, or in B.C. 776. If we want to reduce any given Olympiad to years before Christ, e.g. Ol. 87, we take the number of the Olympiads actually elapsed, that is, 86, multiply it by 4, and deduct the number obtained from 776, so that the first year of the 87th Ol. will be the same as the year 432 B.C. If the number of Olympiads amounts to more than 776 years, that is, if the Olympiad falls after the birth of Christ, the process is the same as before, but from the sum obtained by multiplying the Olympiads by 4, we must deduct the number 776, and what remains is the number of the years after Christ. As the Olympic games were celebrated 293 times, we have 293 Olympic cycles, that is, 1172 years, 776 of which fall before, and 396 after Christ.—Some writers also adopted the Trojan era, the fall of Troy being placed by Eratosthenes and those who adopted this era, in the year B.C. 1184. After the time of Alexander the Great, several other eras were introduced in the kingdoms that arose out of his empire. The first was the Philippic era, sometimes also called the era of Alexander or the era of Edessa; it began on the 12th of November B.C. 324, the date of the accession of Philip Arrhidaeus. The second was the era of the Seleucidae, beginning on the 1st of October B.C. 312, the date of the victory of Seleucus Nicator at Gaza, and of his re-conquest of Babylonia. This era was used very extensively in the East. The Chaldaean era differed from it only by six months, beginning in the spring of B.C. 311. Lastly, the eras of Antioch, of which there were three, but the one most commonly used began in November B.C. 49.—The Romans during the time of the republic reckoned their years by the names of the consuls, which were registered in the Fasti. Along with this era there existed another, used only by the historians. It reckoned the years from the foundation of the city (ab urbe condita); but the year of the foundation of the city was a question of uncertainty among the Romans themselves. M. Terentius Varro placed it on the 21st of April in the third year of the 6th Olympiad, that is, B.C. 753; and this is the era most commonly used. To find out the year B.C. corresponding to the year A.U.C., subtract the year A.U.C. from 754; thus 605 A.U.C. = 149 B.C. To find out the year A.D. corresponding to the year A.U.C., subtract 753 from the year A.U.C.; thus 767 A.U.C. = 14 A.D.

CHRȲSENDĔTA, costly dishes used by the Romans at their entertainments, apparently made of silver, with golden ornaments.

CIDĂRIS. [[Tiara].]

CINCTUS GABĪNUS. [[Toga].]

CINGŬLUM. [[Zona].]

CĬNĔRĀRĬUS. [[Calamistrum].]

CĬNĔRES. [[Funus].]

CĬNĬFLO. [[Calamistrum].]

CIPPUS, a low column, sometimes round, but more frequently rectangular. Cippi were used for various purposes; the decrees of the senate were sometimes inscribed upon them; and with distances engraved upon them, they also served as mile-stones. They were, however, more frequently employed as sepulchral monuments. It was also usual to place at one corner of the burying-ground a cippus, on which the extent of the burying-ground was marked, towards the road (in fronte), and backwards to the fields (in agrum).

Cippus, in the Vatican.

CIRCENSES LŪDI. [[Circus].]

CIRCĬTŌRES, or CIRCŬĬTŌRES. [[Castra].]

Ground Plan of the Circus.

CIRCUS. When Tarquinius Priscus had taken the town of Apiolae from the Latins, he commemorated his success by an exhibition of races and pugilistic contests in the Murcian valley, between the Palatine and Aventine hills, around which a number of temporary platforms were erected by the patres and equites, called spectacula, fori, or foruli, from their resemblance to the deck of a ship; each one raising a stage for himself, upon which he stood to view the games. This course, with its surrounding scaffoldings, was termed circus; either because the spectators stood round to see the shows, or because the procession and races went round in a circuit. Previously, however, to the death of Tarquin, a permanent building was constructed for the purpose, with regular tiers of seats in the form of a theatre. To this the name of Circus Maximus was subsequently given, as a distinction from the Flaminian and other similar buildings, which it surpassed in extent and splendour; and hence it is often spoken of as the Circus, without any distinguishing epithet. Of the Circus Maximus scarcely a vestige now remains; but this loss is fortunately supplied by the remains of a small circus on the Via Appia, the ground-plan of which is in a state of considerable preservation: it is represented in the annexed cut, and may be taken as a model of all others. Around the double lines (A, A) were arranged the seats (gradus, sedilia, subsellia), as in a theatre, termed collectively the cavea; the lowest of which were separated from the ground by a podium, and the whole divided longitudinally by praecinctiones, and diagonally into cunei, with their vomitoria attached to each. [[Amphitheatrum].] Towards the extremity of the upper branch of the cavea, the general outline is broken by an outwork (B), which was probably the pulvinar, or station for the emperor, as it is placed in the best situation for seeing both the commencement and end of the course, and in the most prominent part of the circus. In the opposite branch is observed another interruption to the uniform line of seats (C), betokening also, from its construction, a place of distinction; which might have been assigned to the person at whose expense the games were given (editor spectaculorum). In the centre of the area was a low wall (D) running lengthways down the course, which, from its resemblance to the position of the dorsal bone in the human frame, was termed spina. At each extremity of the spina were placed, upon a base (E, E), three wooden cylinders, of a conical shape, like cypress trees, which were called metae—the goals. Their situation is distinctly seen in the cut on [p. 89]. The most remarkable objects upon the spina were two columns (F) supporting seven conical balls, which, from their resemblance to eggs, were called ova. Their use was to enable the spectators to count the number of rounds which had been run; and they were seven in number, because seven was the number of the circuits made in each race. As each round was run, one of the ova was either put up or taken down. An egg was adopted for this purpose, in honour of Castor and Pollux. At the other extremity of the spina were two similar columns (G), sustaining dolphins, termed delphinae, or delphinarum columnae, which do not appear to have been intended to be removed, but only placed there as corresponding ornaments to the ova; and the figure of the dolphin was selected in honour of Neptune. These figures are also seen in the cut on [p. 89]. At the extremity of the circus in which the two horns of the cavea terminate, were placed the stalls for the horses and chariots (H, H), commonly called carceres, but more anciently the whole line of building at this end of the circus was termed oppidum: hence in the circus, of which the plan is given above, we find two towers (I, I) at each end of the carceres. The number of carceres is supposed to have been usually twelve, as in this plan.

Carceres opening of the Gates. (From a marble at Velletri.)

Carceres, with Gates open. (Marble in British Museum.)

They were vaults, closed in front by gates of open wood-work (cancelli), which were opened simultaneously upon the signal being given, by removing a rope attached to pilasters of the kind called Hermae, placed for that purpose between each stall, upon which the gates were immediately thrown open by a number of men, as represented in the preceding woodcut. The cut below represents a set of four carceres, with their Hermae, and cancelli open, as left after the chariots had started; in which the gates are made to open inwards. The preceding account and woodcuts will be sufficient to explain the meaning of the various words by which the carceres were designated in poetical language, namely, claustra, crypta, fauces, ostia, fores carceris, repagula, limina equorum. There were five entrances to the circus; one (L) in the centre of the carceres, called porta pompae, because it was the one through which the Circensian procession entered, and the others at M, M, N, and O. At the entrance of the course, exactly in the direction of the line (J, K), were two small pedestals (hermuli) on each side of the podium, to which was attached a chalked rope (alba linea), for the purpose of making the start fair, precisely as is practised at Rome for the horse-races during Carnival. Thus, when the doors of the carceres were thrown open, if any of the horses rushed out before the others, they were brought up by this rope until the whole were fairly abreast, when it was loosened from one side, and all poured into the course at once. This line was also called calx, and creta. The metae served only to regulate the turnings of the course, the alba linea answered to the starting and winning post of modern days.—From this description the Circus Maximus differed little, except in size and magnificence of embellishment. The numbers which the Circus Maximus was capable of containing are computed at 150,000 by Dionysius, 260,000 by Pliny, and 385,000 by P. Victor, all of which are probably correct, but have reference to different periods of its history. Its length, in the time of Julius Caesar, was three stadia, the width one, and the depth of the buildings occupied half a stadium. When the Circus Maximus was permanently formed by Tarquinius Priscus, each of the thirty curiae had a particular place assigned to it; but as no provision was made for the plebeians in this circus, it is supposed that the Circus Flaminius was designed for the games of the commonalty, who in early times chose their tribunes there, on the Flaminian field. However, in the latter days of the republic, these invidious distinctions were lost, and all classes sat promiscuously in the circus. The seats were then marked off at intervals by a line or groove drawn across them (linea), so that the space included between two lines afforded sitting room for a certain number of spectators. Under the empire, however, the senators and equites were separated from the common people. The seat of the emperor (pulvinar or cubiculum) was most likely in the same situation in the Circus Maximus as in the one above described.—The Circensian games (Ludi Circenses) were first instituted by Romulus, according to the legends, when he wished to attract the Sabine population to Rome, for the purpose of furnishing his own people with wives, and were celebrated in honour of the god Consus, or Neptunus Equestris, from whom they were styled Consuales. But after the construction of the Circus Maximus they were called indiscriminately Circenses, Romani, or Magni. They embraced six kinds of games:—I. [Cursus]; II. [Ludus Trojae]; III. [Pugna Equestris]; IV. [Certamen Gymnicum]; V. [Venatio]; VI. [Naumachia]. The two last were not peculiar to the circus, but were exhibited also in the amphitheatre, or in buildings appropriated for them. The games commenced with a grand procession (Pompa Circensis), in which all those who were about to exhibit in the circus, as well as persons of distinction, bore a part. The statues of the gods formed the most conspicuous feature in the show, which were paraded upon wooden platforms, called fercula and thensae. The former were borne upon the shoulders, as the statues of saints are carried in modern processions; the latter were drawn along upon wheels.—I. Cursus, the races. The carriage usually employed in the circus was drawn by two or four horses (bigae, quadrigae). [[Currus].] The usual number of chariots which started for each race was four. The drivers (aurigae, agitatores) were also divided into four companies, each distinguished by a different colour, to represent the four seasons of the year, and called a factio: thus factio prasina, the green, represented the spring; factio russata, red, the summer; factio veneta, azure, the autumn; and factio alba or albata, white, the winter. Originally there were but two factions, albata and russata, and consequently only two chariots started at each race. The driver stood in his car within the reins, which went round his back. This enabled him to throw all his weight against the horses, by leaning backwards; but it greatly enhanced his danger in case of an upset. To avoid this peril, a sort of knife or bill-hook was carried at the waist, for the purpose of cutting the reins in a case of emergency. When all was ready, the doors of the carceres were flung open, and the chariots were formed abreast of the alba linea by men called moratores from their duty; the signal for the start was then given by the person who presided at the games, sometimes by sound of trumpet, or more usually by letting fall a napkin; whence the Circensian games are called spectacula mappae. The alba linea was then cast off, and the race commenced, the extent of which was seven times round the spina, keeping it always on the left. A course of seven circuits was termed unus missus, and twenty-five was the number of races run in each day, the last of which was called missus aerarius, because in early times the expense of it was defrayed by a collection of money (aes) made amongst the people. The victor descended from his car at the conclusion of the race, and ascended the spina, where he received his reward (bravium, from the Greek βραβεῖον), which consisted in a considerable sum of money.

Chariot Race in the Circus. (Florentine Gem.)

The horse-racing followed the same rules as the chariots. The enthusiasm of the Romans for these races exceeded all bounds. Lists of the horses (libella), with their names and colours, and those of the drivers, were handed about, and heavy bets made upon each faction; and sometimes the contests between two parties broke out into open violence and bloody quarrels, until at last the disputes which originated in the circus had nearly lost the Emperor Justinian his crown.—II. Ludus Trojae, a sort of sham-fight, said to have been invented by Aeneas, performed by young men of rank on horseback, and often exhibited by the emperors.—III. Pugna equestris et pedestris, a representation of a battle, upon which occasions a camp was formed in the circus.—IV. Certamen Gymnicum. See [Athletae], and the references to the articles there given.—V. [[Venatio].]—VI. [[Naumachia].]

Cisium. (From monument at Igel, near Treves.)

CĬSĬUM, a light open carriage with two wheels, adapted to carry two persons rapidly from place to place. The cisia were quickly drawn by mules. Cicero mentions the case of a messenger who travelled 56 miles in 10 hours in such vehicles, which were kept for hire at the stations along the great roads; a proof that the ancients considered six Roman miles per hour as an extraordinary speed.

Cista. (From a Painting on a Vase.)

CISTA (κίστη). (1) A small box or chest, in which anything might be placed, but more particularly applied to the small boxes which were carried in procession in the festivals of Demeter and Dionysus. These boxes, which were always kept closed in the public processions, contained sacred things connected with the worship of these deities. In the representations of Dionysiac processions on ancient vases women carrying cistae are frequently introduced.—(2) The ballot-box, into which those who voted in the comitia and in the courts of justice cast their tabellae. It is represented in the annexed cut, and should not be confounded with the situla or sitella, into which sortes or lots were thrown. [[Situla].]

CISTŎPHŎRUS (κιστοφόρος), a silver coin, which is supposed to belong to Rhodes, and which was in general circulation in Asia Minor at the time of the conquest of that country by the Romans. It took its name from the device upon it, which was either the sacred chest (cista) of Bacchus, or more probably a flower called κιστός. Its value is extremely uncertain: some writers suppose it to have been worth in our money about 7¼d.

CĬTHĂRA. [[Lyra].]

CĪVIS. [[Civitas].]

CĪVĬTAS, citizenship. (1) Greek (πολιτεία). Aristotle defines a citizen (πολίτης) to be one who is a partner in the legislative and judicial power (μέτοχος κρίσεως καὶ ἀρχῆς). No definition will equally apply to all the different states of Greece, or to any single state at different times; the above seems to comprehend more or less properly all those whom the common use of language entitled to the name. A state in the heroic ages was the government of a prince; the citizens were his subjects, and derived all their privileges, civil as well as religious, from their nobles and princes. The shadows of a council and assembly were already in existence, but their business was to obey. Upon the whole the notion of citizenship in the heroic ages only existed so far as the condition of aliens or of domestic slaves was its negative. The rise of a dominant class gradually overthrew the monarchies of ancient Greece. Of such a class, the chief characteristics were good birth and the hereditary transmission of privileges, the possession of land, and the performance of military service. To these characters the names gamori (γάμοροι), knights (ἱππεῖς), eupatridae (εὐπατρίδαι), &c. severally correspond. Strictly speaking, these were the only citizens; yet the lower class were quite distinct from bondmen or slaves. It commonly happened that the nobility occupied the fortified towns, while the demus (δῆμος) lived in the country and followed agricultural pursuits: whenever the latter were gathered within the walls, and became seamen or handicraftsmen, the difference of ranks was soon lost, and wealth made the only standard. The quarrels of the nobility among themselves, and the admixture of population arising from immigrations, all tended to raise the lower orders from their political subjection. It must be remembered, too, that the possession of domestic slaves, if it placed them in no new relation to the governing body, at any rate gave them leisure to attend to the higher duties of a citizen, and thus served to increase their political efficiency. During the convulsions which followed the heroic ages, naturalisation was readily granted to all who desired it; as the value of citizenship increased, it was, of course, more sparingly bestowed. The ties of hospitality descended from the prince to the state, and the friendly relations of the Homeric heroes were exchanged for the προξενίαι of a later period. In political intercourse, the importance of these last soon began to be felt, and the Proxenus at Athens, in after times, obtained rights only inferior to actual citizenship. [[Hospitium].] The isopolite relation existed, however, on a much more extended scale. Sometimes particular privileges were granted: as ἐπιγαμία, the right of intermarriage; ἔγκτησις, the right of acquiring landed property; ἀτέλεια, immunity from taxation, especially ἀτέλεια μετοικίου, from the tax imposed on resident aliens. All these privileges were included under the general term ἰσοτέλεια, or ἰσοπολίτεια, and the class who obtained them were called ἰσοτελεῖς. They bore the same burthens with the citizens, and could plead in the courts or transact business with the people, without the intervention of a προστάτης, or patron. Respecting the division of the Athenian citizens into tribes, phratriae and demes, see the articles [Tribus] and [Demus].—If we would picture to ourselves the true notion which the Greeks embodied in the word polis (πόλις), we must lay aside all modern ideas respecting the nature and object of a state. With us practically, if not in theory, the essential object of a state hardly embraces more than the protection of life and property. The Greeks, on the other hand, had the most vivid conception of the state as a whole, every part of which was to co-operate to some great end to which all other duties were considered as subordinate. Thus the aim of democracy was said to be liberty; wealth, of oligarchy; and education, of aristocracy. In all governments the endeavour was to draw the social union as close as possible, and it seems to have been with this view that Aristotle laid down a principle which answered well enough to the accidental circumstances of the Grecian states, that a polis must be of a certain size. This unity of purpose was nowhere so fully carried out as in the government of Sparta. The design of Spartan institutions was evidently to unite the governing body among themselves against the superior numbers of the subject population. The division of lands, the syssitia, the education of their youth, all tended to this great object. [[Helotes]; [Perioeci].] In legal rights all Spartans were equal: but there were yet several gradations, which, when once formed, retained their hold on the aristocratic feelings of the people. First, there was the dignity of the Heraclide families; and, connected with this, a certain pre-eminence of the Hyllean tribe. Another distinction was that between the Homoioi (ὅμοιοι) and Hypomeiones (ὑπομείονες), which, in later times, appears to have been considerable. The latter term probably comprehended those citizens who, from degeneracy of manners or other causes, had undergone some kind of civil degradation. To these the Homoioi were opposed, although it is not certain in what the precise difference consisted. All the Spartan citizens were included in the three tribes, Hylleans, Dymanes or Dymanatae, and Pamphilians, each of which was divided into ten obes or phratries. The citizens of Sparta, as of most oligarchical states, were landowners, although this does not seem to have been looked upon as an essential of citizenship.—(2) Roman. Civitas means the whole body of cives, or members, of any given state, and the word is frequently used by the Roman writers to express the rights of a Roman citizen, as distinguished from those of other persons not Roman citizens, as in the phrases, dare civitatem, donare civitate, usurpare civitatem. Some members of a political community (cives) may have more political rights than others; and this was the case at Rome under the republic, in which we find a distinction made between two great classes of Roman citizens, one that had, and another that had not, a share in the sovereign power (optimo jure, non optimo jure cives). That which peculiarly distinguished the higher class, or the optimo jure cives, was the right to vote in a tribe (jus suffragiorum), and the capacity of enjoying magistracy (jus honorum). The inferior class, or the non optimo jure cives, did not possess the above rights, which the Romans called jus publicum, but they only had the jus privatum, which comprehended the jus connubii and jus commercii, and those who had not these had no citizenship.—Under the empire we find the free persons who were within the political limits of the Roman state divided into three great classes. The same division probably existed in an early period of the Roman state, and certainly existed in the time of Cicero. These classes were, Cives, Latini, and Peregrini. Civis is he who possesses the complete rights of a Roman citizen. Peregrinus was incapable of exercising the rights of commercium and connubium, which were the characteristic rights of a Roman citizen; but he had a capacity for making all kinds of contracts which were allowable by the jus gentium. The Latinus was in an intermediate state; he had not the connubium, and consequently he had not the patria potestas nor rights of agnatio; but he had the commercium or the right of acquiring quiritarian ownership, and he had also a capacity for all acts incident to quiritarian ownership, as the power of making a will in Roman form, and of becoming heres under a will. The rights of a Roman citizen were acquired in several ways, but most commonly by a person being born of parents who were Roman citizens. A slave might obtain the civitas by manumission (vindicta), by the census, and by a testamentum, if there was no legal impediment; but it depended on circumstances whether he became a civis Romanus, a Latinus, or in the number of the peregrini dediticii. [[Manumissio].] The civitas could be conferred on a foreigner by a lex, as in the case of Archias, who was a civis of Heraclea, a civitas which had a foedus with Rome, and who claimed the civitas Romana under the provisions of a lex of Silvanus and Carbo, B.C. 89. By the provisions of this lex, the person who chose to take the benefit of it was required, within sixty days after the passing of the lex, to signify to the praetor his wish and consent to accept the civitas (profiteri). This lex was intended to give the civitas, under certain limitations, to foreigners who were citizens of foederate states (foederatis civitatibus adscripti). [[Foederatae Civitates].] Thus the great mass of the Italians obtained the civitas, and the privileges of the former civitates foederatae were extended to the provinces, first to part of Gaul, and then to Sicily, under the name of Jus Latii or Latinitas. This Latinitas gave a man the right of acquiring the Roman citizenship by having exercised a magistratus in his own civitas; a privilege which belonged to the foederatae civitates of Italy before they obtained the Roman civitas.

CLĀRĬGĀTĬO. [[Fetiales].]

CLASSĬCUM. [[Cornu].]

CLĀVUS ANNĀLIS. In the early ages of Rome, when letters were yet scarcely in use, the Romans kept a reckoning of their years by driving a nail (clavus), on the ides of each September, into the side walls of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, which ceremony was performed by the consul or a dictator.

CLĀVUS GŬBERNĀCŬLI. [[Navis].]

CLĀVUS LĀTUS, CLĀVUS ANGUSTUS. The clavus, as an article of dress, seems to have been a purple band worn upon the tunic and toga, and was of two fashions, one broad and the other narrow, denominated respectively clavus latus and clavus angustus. The former was a single broad band of purple, extending perpendicularly from the neck down the centre of the tunic; the latter probably consisted of two narrow purple slips, running parallel to each from the top to the bottom of the tunic, one from each shoulder. The latus clavus was a distinctive badge of the senatorian order; and hence it is used to signify the senatorial dignity, and laticlavius, the person who enjoys it. The angustus clavus was the decoration of the equestrian order; but the right of wearing the latus clavus was also given to the children of equestrians, at least in the time of Augustus, as a prelude to entering the senate-house. This, however, was a matter of personal indulgence, and was granted only to persons of very ancient family and corresponding wealth, and then by special favour of the emperor. In such cases the latus clavus was assumed with the toga virilis, and worn until the age arrived at which the young equestrian was admissible into the senate, when it was relinquished and the angustus clavis resumed, if a disinclination on his part, or any other circumstances, prevented him from entering the senate, as was the case with Ovid. But it seems that the latus clavus could be again resumed if the same individual subsequently wished to become a senator, and hence a fickle character is designated as one who is always changing his clavus. The latus clavus is said to have been introduced at Rome by Tullus Hostilius, and to have been adopted by him after his conquest of the Etruscans; nor does it appear to have been confined to any particular class during the earlier periods, but to have been worn by all ranks promiscuously. It was laid aside in public mourning.

CLEPSȲDRA. [[Horologium].]

CLĒRŪCHI (κληροῦχοι), the name of Athenian citizens who occupied conquered lands; their possession was called cleruchia (κληρουχία). The Athenian Cleruchi differed from the ἄποικοι or ordinary colonists. The only object of the earlier colonies was to relieve surplus population, or to provide a home for those whom internal quarrels had exiled from their country. Most usually they originated in private enterprise, and became independent of, and lost their interest in, the parent state. On the other hand, it was essential to the very notion of a cleruchia that it should be a public enterprise, and should always retain a connection more or less intimate with Athens herself. The connection with the parent state subsisted in all degrees. Sometimes, as in the case of Lesbos, the holders of land did not reside upon their estates, but let them to the original inhabitants, while themselves remained at Athens. The condition of these cleruchi did not differ from that of Athenian citizens who had estates in Attica. All their political rights they not only retained, but exercised as Athenians. Another case was where the cleruchi resided on their estates, and either with or without the old inhabitants, formed a new community. These still retained the rights of Athenian citizens, which distance only precluded them from exercising: they used the Athenian courts; and if they or their children wished to return to Athens, naturally and of course they regained the exercise of their former privileges. Sometimes, however, the connection might gradually dissolve, and the cleruchi sink into the condition of mere allies, or separate wholly from the mother country. It was to Pericles that Athens was chiefly indebted for the extension and permanence of her colonial settlements. His principal object was to provide for the redundancies of population, and raise the poorer citizens to a fortune becoming the dignity of Athenian citizens. It was of this class of persons that the settlers were chiefly composed; the state provided them with arms, and defrayed the expenses of their journey. The Cleruchiae were lost by the battle of Aegospotami, but partially restored on the revival of Athenian power.

CLĒTĒRES or CLĒTORES (κλητῆρες, κλῆτορες), summoners, were at Athens not official persons, but merely witnesses to the prosecutor that he had served the defendant with a notice of the action brought against him, and the day upon which it would be requisite for him to appear before the proper magistrate.

CLĪBĂNĀRĬI. [[Cataphracti].]

CLĬENS is said to contain the same element as the verb cluere, to “hear” or “obey,” and may be accordingly compared with the German word höriger, “a dependant,” from hören, “to hear.” In the earliest times of the Roman state we find a class of persons called clientes, who must not be confounded with the plebeians, from whom they were distinct. The clients were not slaves: they had property of their own and freedom, and appear to have had votes in the comitia centuriata, but they did not possess the full rights of Roman citizens; and the peculiarity of their condition consisted in every client being in a state of dependence upon or subjection to some patrician, who was called his patronus, and to whom he owed certain rights and duties. The patronus, on the other hand, likewise incurred certain obligations towards his client. This relationship between patronus and cliens was expressed by the word clientela, which also expressed the whole body of a man’s clients. The relative rights and duties of the patrons and the clients were, according to Dionysius, as follows:—The patron was the legal adviser of the cliens; he was the client’s guardian and protector, as he was the guardian and protector of his own children; he maintained the client’s suit when he was wronged, and defended him when another complained of being wronged by him: in a word, the patron was the guardian of the client’s interests, both private and public. The client contributed to the marriage portion of the patron’s daughter, if the patron was poor; and to his ransom, or that of his children, if they were taken prisoners; he paid the costs and damages of a suit which the patron lost, and of any penalty in which he was condemned; he bore a part of the patron’s expenses incurred by his discharging public duties, or filling the honourable places in the state. Neither party could accuse the other, or bear testimony against the other, or give his vote against the other. This relationship between patron and client subsisted for many generations, and resembled in all respects the relationship by blood. The relation of a master to his liberated slave (libertus) was expressed by the word patronus, and the libertus was the cliens of his patronus. Distinguished Romans were also the protectors of states and cities, which were in a certain relation of subjection or dependence to Rome. In the time of Cicero we also find patronus in the sense of adviser, advocate, or defender, opposed to cliens in the sense of the person defended or the consultor,—a use of the word which must be referred to the original character of the patronus.

CLĬENTĒLA. [[Cliens].]

CLĬPĔUS (ἀσπίς), the large shield worn by the Greeks and Romans, which was originally of a circular form, and is said to have been first used by Proetus and Acrisius of Argos, and therefore is called clipeus Argolicus, and likened to the sun. But the clipeus is often represented in Roman sculpture of an oblong oval, which makes the distinction between the common buckler and that of Argos. The outer rim was termed ἄντυξ by the Greeks; and in the centre was a projection called ὀμφάλος or umbo, which served as a sort of weapon by itself, or caused the missiles of the enemy to glance off from the shield. In the Homeric times, the Greeks merely used a leather strap (τελαμών) to support the shield, but subsequently a handle (ὄχανον or ὀχάνη). The usual form of the clipeus is exhibited in the figure of the Greek warrior on [p. 41]. When the census was instituted by Servius Tullius at Rome, the first class only used the clipeus, and the second were armed with the scutum [[Scutum]]; but after the Roman soldiery received pay, the clipeus was discontinued altogether for the scutum.

CLĪTELLAE, a pair of panniers, and therefore only used in the plural number.

CLŎĀCA, a sewer, a drain. Rome was intersected by numerous sewers, some of which were of an immense size: the most celebrated of them was the cloaca maxima, the construction of which is ascribed to Tarquinius Priscus. It was formed by three tiers of arches, one within the other, the innermost of which is a semicircular vault of 14 feet in diameter. The manner of its construction is shown in the preceding cut. Under the republic, the administration of the sewers was entrusted to the censors: but under the empire, particular officers were appointed for that purpose, called cloacarum curatores, who employed condemned criminals in cleansing and repairing them.

Cloaca Maxima at Rome.

CŌA VESTIS, the Coan robe, was a transparent dress, chiefly worn by women of loose reputation. It has been supposed to have been made of silk, because in Cos silk was spun and woven at a very early period.

Coa Vestis. (From a Painting at Herculaneum.)

CŎACTOR, the name of collectors of various sorts, e.g. the servants of the publicani, or farmers of the public taxes, who collected the revenues for them, and those who collected the money from the purchasers of things sold at a public auction. Horace informs us that his father was a coactor of this kind. Moreover, the servants of the money-changers were so called, from collecting their debts for them. The “coactores agminis” were the soldiers who brought up the rear of a line of march.

CŎCHLĔA (κοχλίας), which properly means a snail, was also used to signify other things of a spiral form. (1) A screw, used in working clothes-presses, and oil and wine presses.—(2) A spiral pump for raising water, invented by Archimedes, from whom it has ever since been called the Archimedean screw.—(3) A peculiar kind of door through which the wild beasts passed from their dens into the arena of the amphitheatre.

COCHLĔAR. (κοχλιάριον), a kind of spoon, which appears to have terminated with a point at one end, and at the other was broad and hollow like our own spoons. The pointed end was used for drawing snails (cochleae) out of their shells, and eating them, whence it derived its name; and the broader part for eating eggs, &c. Cochlear was also the name given to a small measure like our spoonful.

CŌDEX, identical with caudex, as Claudius and Clodius, claustrum and clostrum, cauda and coda, originally signified the trunk or stem of a tree. The name codex was especially applied to wooden tablets bound together and lined with a coat of wax, for the purpose of writing upon them, and when, at a later age, parchment or paper, or other materials were substituted for wood, and put together in the shape of a book, the name of codex was still given to them. In the time of Cicero we find it also applied to the tablet on which a bill was written. At a still later period, during the time of the emperors, the word was used to express any collection of laws or constitutions of the emperors, whether made by private individuals or by public authority, as the Codex Gregorianus, Codex Theodosianus, and Codex Justinianeus.

COEMPTĬO. [[Matrimonium].]

COENA (δεῖπνον), the principal meal of the Greeks and Romans, dinner. (1) Greek. Three names of meals occur in the Iliad and Odyssey—ariston (ἄριστον), deipnon (δεῖπνον), dorpon (δόρπον). The word ariston uniformly means the early, as dorpon does the late meal; but deipnon, on the other hand, is used for either, apparently without any reference to time. In the Homeric age it appears to have been usual to sit during mealtimes. Beef, mutton, and goat’s flesh were the ordinary meats, usually eaten roasted. Cheese, flour, and occasionally fruits, also formed part of the Homeric meals. Bread, brought on in baskets, and salt (ἃλς, to which Homer gives the epithet θεῖος), are mentioned. The Greeks of a later age usually partook of three meals, called acratisma (ἀκράτισμα), ariston, and deipnon. The last, which corresponds to the dorpon of the Homeric poems, was the evening meal or dinner; the ariston was the luncheon; and the acratisma, which answers to the ariston of Homer, was the early meal or breakfast. The acratisma was taken immediately after rising in the morning. It usually consisted of bread, dipped in unmixed wine (ἄκρατος), whence it derived its name. Next followed the ariston or luncheon; but the time at which it was taken is uncertain. It is frequently mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis, and appears to have been taken at different times, as would naturally be the case with soldiers in active service. We may conclude from many circumstances that this meal was taken about the middle of the day, and that it answered to the Roman prandium. The ariston was usually a simple meal, but of course varied according to the habits of individuals. The principal meal was the deipnon. It was usually taken rather late in the day, frequently not before sunset. The Athenians were a social people, and were very fond of dining in company. Entertainments were usually given, both in the heroic ages and later times, when sacrifices were offered to the gods, either on public or private occasions; and also on the anniversary of the birthdays of members of the family, or of illustrious persons, whether living or dead. When young men wished to dine together they frequently contributed each a certain sum of money, called symbole (συμβολή), or brought their own provisions with them. When the first plan was adopted, they were said ἀπὸ συμβολῶν δειπνεῖν, and one individual was usually entrusted with the money to procure the provisions, and make all the necessary preparations. This kind of entertainment, in which each guest contributed to the expense, is mentioned in Homer under the name of ἔρανος. An entertainment in which each person brought his own provisions with him, or at least contributed something to the general stock, was called a δεῖπνον ἀπὸ σπυρίδος, because the provisions were brought in baskets.—The most usual kind of entertainments, however, were those in which a person invited his friends to his own house. It was expected that they should come dressed with more than ordinary care, and also have bathed shortly before. As soon as the guests arrived at the house of their host, their shoes or sandals were taken off by the slaves and their feet washed. After their feet had been washed, the guests reclined on the couches. It has already been remarked that Homer never describes persons as reclining, but always as sitting at their meals; but at what time the change was introduced is uncertain. The Dorians of Crete always sat; but the other Greeks reclined. The Greek women and children, however, like the Roman, continued to sit at their meals. [[Accubatio].] It was usual for only two persons to recline on each couch. After the guests had placed themselves on the couches, the slaves brought in water to wash their hands. The dinner was then served up; whence we read of τὰς τραπέζας εἰσφέρειν, by which expression we are to understand not merely the dishes, but the tables themselves, which were small enough to be moved with ease. In eating, the Greeks had no knives or forks, but made use of their fingers only, except in eating soups or other liquids, which they partook of by means of a spoon, called μυστίλη, μύστρον, or μύστρος. It would exceed the limits of this work to give an account of the different dishes which were introduced at a Greek dinner, though their number is far below those which were usually partaken of at a Roman entertainment. The most common food among the Greeks was the μάζα, a kind of frumenty or soft cake, which was prepared in different ways. Wheaten or barley bread was the second most usual species of food; it was sometimes made at home, but more usually bought at the market of the ἀρτοπῶλαι or ἀρτοπώλιδες. The vegetables ordinarily eaten were mallows (μαλάχη), lettuces (θρίδαξ), cabbages (ῥάφανοι), beans (κύαμοι), lentils (φακαῖ), &c. Pork was the most favourite animal food, as was the case among the Romans. It is a curious fact, which Plato has remarked, that we never read in Homer of the heroes partaking of fish. In later times, however, fish was one of the most favourite foods of the Greeks. A dinner given by an opulent Athenian usually consisted of two courses, called respectively πρῶται τράπεζαι and δεύτεραι τράπεζαι. The first course embraced the whole of what we consider the dinner, namely, fish, poultry, meat, &c.; the second, which corresponds to our dessert and the Roman bellaria, consisted of different kinds of fruit, sweetmeats, confections, &c. When the first course was finished, the tables were taken away, and water was given to the guests for the purpose of washing their hands. Crowns made of garlands of flowers were also then given to them, as well as various kinds of perfumes. Wine was not drunk till the first course was finished; but as soon as the guests had washed their hands, unmixed wine was introduced in a large goblet, of which each drank a little, after pouring out a small quantity as a libation. This libation was said to be made to the “good spirit” (ἀγαθοῦ δαίμονος), and was usually accompanied with the singing of the paean and the playing of flutes. After this libation mixed wine was brought in, and with their first cup the guests drank to Διὸς Σωτῆρος. With the libations the deipnon closed; and at the introduction of the dessert (δεύτεραι τράπεζαι) the πότος, συμπόσιον or κῶμος commenced, of which an account is given under [Symposium].—(2) Roman. As the Roman meals are not always clearly distinguished, it will be convenient to treat of all under the most important one; and we shall confine ourselves to the description of the ordinary life of the middle ranks of society in the Augustan age, noticing incidentally the most remarkable deviations. The meal with which the Roman sometimes began the day was the jentaculum, which was chiefly taken by children, or sick persons, or the luxurious. An irregular meal (if we may so express it) was not likely to have any very regular time: two epigrams of Martial, however, seem to fix the hour at about three or four o’clock in the morning. Bread formed the substantial part of this early breakfast, to which cheese, or dried fruit, as dates and raisins, were sometimes added. Next followed the prandium or luncheon, with persons of simple habits a frugal meal, usually taken about twelve or one o’clock. The coena, or principal meal of the day, corresponding to our “dinner,” was usually taken about three o’clock in the time of Cicero and Augustus, though we read of some persons not dining till near sunset. A Roman dinner at the house of a wealthy man usually consisted of three courses. The first was called promulsis, antecoena, or gustatio, and was made up of all sorts of stimulants to the appetite. Eggs also were so indispensable to the first course that they almost gave a name to it (ab ovo usque ad mala). The frugality of Martial only allowed of lettuce and Sicenian olives; indeed he himself tells us that the promulsis was a refinement of modern luxury. It would far exceed our limits to mention all the dishes which formed the second course of a Roman dinner. Of birds, the Guinea hen (Afra avis), the pheasant (phasiana, so called from Phasis, a river of Colchis), and the thrush, were most in repute; the liver of a capon steeped in milk, and beccaficos (ficedulae) dressed with pepper, were held a delicacy. The peacock, according to Macrobius, was first introduced by Hortensius the orator, at an inaugural supper, and acquired such repute among the Roman gourmands as to be commonly sold for fifty denarii. Other birds are mentioned, as the duck (anas), especially its head and breast; the woodcock (attagen), the turtle, and flamingo (phoenicopterus), the tongue of which, Martial tells us, particularly commended itself to the delicate palate. Of fish, the variety was perhaps still greater; the charr (scarus), the turbot (rhombus), the sturgeon (acipenser), the mullet (mullus), were highly prized, and dressed in the most various fashions. Of solid meat, pork seems to have been the favourite dish, especially sucking pig. Boar’s flesh and venison were also in high repute: the former is described by Juvenal as animal propter convivia natum. Condiments were added to most of these dishes: such were the muria, a kind of pickle made from the tunny fish; the garum sociorum, made from the intestines of the mackerel (scomber), so called because brought from abroad; alec, a sort of brine; faex, the sediment of wine, &c. Several kinds of fungi are mentioned, truffles (boleti), mushrooms (tuberes), which either made dishes by themselves, or formed the garniture for larger dishes. It must not be supposed that the artistes of imperial Rome were at all behind ourselves in the preparation and arrangements of the table. In a large household, the functionaries to whom this important duty was entrusted were four, the butler (promus), the cook (archimagirus), the arranger of the dishes (structor), and the carver (carptor or scissor). Carving was taught as an art, and performed to the sound of music, with appropriate gesticulations.

——“minimo sane discrimine refert,

Quo vultu lepores, et quo gallina secetur.”

In the supper of Petronius, a large round tray (ferculum, repositorium) is brought in, with the signs of the zodiac figured all round it, upon each of which the artiste (structor) had placed some appropriate viand, a goose on Aquarius, a pair of scales with tarts (scriblitae) and cheesecakes (placentae) in each scale on Libra, &c. In the middle was placed a hive supported by delicate herbage. Presently four slaves come forward dancing to the sound of music, and take away the upper part of the dish; beneath appear all kinds of dressed meats; a hare with wings to imitate Pegasus, in the middle; and four figures of Marsyas at the corners, pouring hot sauce (garum piperatum) over the fish, that were swimming in the Euripus below. So entirely had the Romans lost all shame of luxury, since the days when Cincius, in supporting the Fannian law, charged his own age with the enormity of introducing the porcus Trojanus, a sort of pudding stuffed with the flesh of other animals.—The third course was the bellaria or dessert, to which Horace alludes when he says of Tigellius ab ovo usque ad mala citaret; it consisted of fruits (which the Romans usually ate uncooked), such as almonds (amygdalae), dried grapes (uvae passae), dates (palmulae, caryotae, dactyli); of sweetmeats and confections, called edulia mellita, dulciaria, such as cheesecakes (cupediae, crustula, liba, placentae, artolagani), almond cakes (coptae), tarts (scriblitae), whence the maker of them was called pistor dulciarius, placentarius, libarius, &c. We will now suppose the table spread and the guests assembled, each with his mappa or napkin, and in his dinner dress, called coenatoria or cubitoria, usually of a bright colour, and variegated with flowers. First they took off their shoes, for fear of soiling the couch, which was often inlaid with ivory or tortoise-shell, and covered with cloth of gold. Next they lay down to eat, the head resting on the left elbow and supported by cushions. There were usually, but not always, three on the same couch, the middle place being esteemed the most honourable. Around the tables stood the servants (ministri) clothed in a tunic, and girt with napkins; some removed the dishes and wiped the tables with a rough cloth, others gave the guests water for their hands, or cooled the room with fans. Here stood an eastern youth behind his master’s couch, ready to answer the noise of the fingers, while others bore a large platter of different kinds of meat to the guests. Dinner was set out in a room called coenatio or diaeta (which two words perhaps conveyed to a Roman ear nearly the same distinction as our dining-room and parlour). The coenatio, in rich men’s houses, was fitted up with great magnificence. Suetonius mentions a supper-room in the golden palace of Nero, constructed like a theatre, with shifting scenes to change with every course. In the midst of the coenatio were set three couches (triclinia), answering in shape to the square, as the long semicircular couches (sigmata) did to the oval tables. An account of the disposition of the couches, and of the place which each guest occupied, is given in the article [Triclinium].

A Feast. (Vatican Virgil MS.)

COENĀCŬLUM. [[Domus].]

COENĀTĬO. [[Coena].]

COGNĀTI, COGNĀTĬO. The cognatio was the relationship of blood which existed between those who were sprung from a common pair; and all persons so related were called cognati. The foundation of cognatio is a legal marriage. The term cognatus (with some exceptions) comprehends agnatus; an agnatus may be a cognatus, but a cognatus is only an agnatus when his relationship by blood is traced through males. Those who were of the same blood by both parents were sometimes called germani; consanguinei were those who had a common father only; and uterini those who had a common mother only.

COGNĬTOR. [[Actio].]

COGNŌMEN. [[Nomen].]

CŎHORS. [[Exercitus].]

CŌLĂCRĔTAE (κωλακρέται, also called κωλαγρέται), the name of very ancient magistrates at Athens, who had the management of all financial matters in the time of the kings. Cleisthenes deprived them of the charge of the finances, which he transferred to the Apodectae. [[Apodectae].] From this time the Colacretae had only to provide for the meals in the Prytaneium, and subsequently to pay the fees to the dicasts, when the practice of paying the dicasts was introduced by Pericles.

COLLĒGĬUM. The persons who formed a collegium were called collegae or sodales. The word collegium properly expressed the notion of several persons being united in any office or for any common purpose; it afterwards came to signify a body of persons, and the union which bound them together. The collegium was the ἑταιρία of the Greeks. The legal notion of a collegium was as follows:—A collegium or corpus, as it was also called, must consist of three persons at least. Persons who legally formed such an association were said corpus habere, which is equivalent to our phrase of being incorporated; and in later times they were said to be corporati, and the body was called a corporatio. Associations of individuals, who were entitled to have a corpus, could hold property in common. Such a body, which was sometimes also called a universitas, was a legal unity. That which was due to the body, was not due to the individuals of it; and that which the body owed, was not the debt of the individuals. The common property of the body was liable to be seized and sold for the debts of the body. It does not appear how collegia were formed, except that some were specially established by legal authority. Other collegia were probably formed by voluntary associations of individuals under the provisions of some general legal authority, such as those of the publicani. Some of these corporate bodies resembled our companies or guilds; such were the fabrorum, pistorum, &c. collegia. Others were of a religious character; such as the pontificum, augurum, fratrum arvalium collegia. Others were bodies concerned about government and administration; as tribunorum plebis, quaestorum, decurionum collegia. According to the definition of a collegium, the consuls being only two in number were not a collegium, though each was called collega with respect to the other, and their union in office was called collegium. When a new member was taken into a collegium, he was said co-optari, and the old members were said with respect to him, recipere in collegium. The mode of filling up vacancies would vary in different collegia. The statement of their rules belongs to the several heads of [Augur], [Pontifex], &c.

CŎLŌNĬA, a colony, contains the same element as the verb colere, “to cultivate,” and as the word colonus, which probably originally signified a “tiller of the earth.” (1) Greek. The usual Greek words for a colony are ἀποικία and κληρουχία. The latter word, which signified a division of conquered lands among Athenian citizens, and which corresponds in some respects to the Roman colonia, is explained in the article [Cleruchi]. The earlier Greek colonies, called ἀποικίαι, were usually composed of mere bands of adventurers, who left their native country, with their families and property, to seek a new home for themselves. Some of the colonies, which arose in consequence of foreign invasion or civil wars, were undertaken without any formal consent from the rest of the community; but usually a colony was sent out with the approbation of the mother country, and under the management of a leader (οἰκιστής) appointed by it. But whatever may have been the origin of the colony, it was always considered in a political point of view independent of the mother country, called by the Greeks metropolis (μητρόπολις), the “mother-city,” and entirely emancipated from its control. At the same time, though a colony was in no political subjection to its parent state, it was united to it by the ties of filial affection; and, according to the generally received opinions of the Greeks, its duties to the parent state corresponded to those of a daughter to her mother. Hence, in all matters of common interest, the colony gave precedence to the mother state; and the founder of the colony (οἰκιστής), who might be considered as the representative of the parent state, was usually worshipped, after his death, as a hero. Also, when the colony became in its turn a parent, it usually sought a leader for the colony which it intended to found from the original mother country; and the same feeling of respect was manifested by embassies which were sent to honour the principal festivals of the parent state, and also by bestowing places of honour and other marks of respect upon the ambassadors and other members of the parent state, when they visited the colony at festivals and on similar occasions. The colonists also worshipped in their new settlement the same deities as they had been accustomed to honour in their native country: the sacred fire, which was constantly kept burning on their public hearth, was taken from the Prytaneium of the parent city; and sometimes the priests also were brought from the mother state. In the same spirit, it was considered a violation of sacred ties for a mother country and a colony to make war upon one another. The preceding account of the relations between the Greek colonies and the mother country is supported by the history which Thucydides gives us of the quarrel between Corcyra and Corinth. Corcyra was a colony of Corinth, and Epidamnus a colony of Corcyra; but the leader (οἰκιστής) of the colony of Epidamnus was a Corinthian who was invited from the metropolis Corinth. In course of time, in consequence of civil dissensions, and attacks from the neighbouring barbarians, the Epidamnians apply for aid to Corcyra, but their request is rejected. They next apply to the Corinthians, who took Epidamnus under their protection, thinking, says Thucydides, that the colony was no less theirs than the Corinthians’: and also induced to do so through hatred of the Corcyraeans, because they neglected them though they were colonists; for they did not give to the Corinthians the customary honours and deference in the public solemnities and sacrifices, which the other colonies were wont to pay to the mother country. The Corcyraeans, who had become very powerful by sea, took offence at the Corinthians receiving Epidamnus under their protection, and the result was a war between Corcyra and Corinth. The Corcyraeans sent ambassadors to Athens to ask assistance; and in reply to the objection that they were a colony of Corinth, they said, “that every colony, as long as it is treated kindly, respects the mother country: but when it is injured, is alienated from it; for colonists are not sent out as subjects, but that they may have equal rights with those that remain at home.” It is true that ambitious states, such as Athens, sometimes claimed dominion over other states on the ground of relationship; but as a general rule, colonies may be regarded as independent states, attached to their metropolis by ties of sympathy and common descent, but no further. The case of Potidaea, to which the Corinthians sent annually the chief magistrates (δημιουργοί), appears to have been an exception to the general rule.—(2) Roman. A kind of colonisation seems to have existed among the oldest Italian nations, who, on certain occasions, sent out their superfluous male population, with arms in their hands, to seek for a new home. But these were apparently mere bands of adventurers, and such colonies rather resembled the old Greek colonies, than those by which Rome extended her dominion and her name. Colonies were established by the Romans as far back as the annals or traditions of the city extend, and the practice was continued, without intermission, during the republic and under the empire. Colonies were intended to keep in check a conquered people, and also to repress hostile incursions; and their chief object was originally the extension and preservation of the Roman dominion in Italy. Cicero calls the old Italian colonies the propugnacula imperii. Another object was to increase the power of Rome by increasing the population. Sometimes the immediate object of a colony was to carry off a number of turbulent and discontented persons. Colonies were also established for the purpose of providing for veteran soldiers, a practice which was begun by Sulla, and continued under the emperors; these coloniae were called militares. The old Roman colonies were in the nature of garrisons planted in conquered towns, and the colonists had a portion of the conquered territory (usually a third part) assigned to them. The inhabitants retained the rest of their lands, and lived together with the new settlers, who alone composed the proper colony. The conquered people must at first have been quite a distinct class from, and inferior to, the colonists. No colonia was established without a lex, plebiscitum, or senatusconsultum; a fact which shows that a Roman colony was never a mere body of adventurers, but had a regular organisation by the parent state. When a law was passed for founding a colony, persons were appointed to superintend its formation (coloniam deducere). These persons varied in number, but three was a common number (triumviri ad colonos deducendos). We also read of duumviri, quinqueviri, vigintiviri for the same purpose. The law fixed the quantity of land that was to be distributed, and how much was to be assigned to each person. No Roman could be sent out as a colonist without his free consent, and when the colony was not an inviting one, it was difficult to fill up the number of volunteers. The colonia proceeded to its place of destination in the form of an army (sub vexillo), which is indicated on the coins of some coloniae. An urbs, if one did not already exist, was a necessary part of a new colony, and its limits were marked out by a plough, which is also indicated on ancient coins. The colonia had also a territory, which, whether marked out by the plough or not, was at least marked out by metes and bounds. Thus the urbs and territory of the colonia respectively corresponded to the urbs Roma and its territory. Religious ceremonies always accompanied the foundation of the colony, and the anniversary was afterwards observed. It is stated that a colony could not be sent out to the same place to which a colony had already been sent in due form (auspicato deducta). This merely means, that so long as the colony maintained its existence, there could be no new colony in the same place; a doctrine that would hardly need proof, for a new colony implied a new assignment of lands; but new settlers (novi adscripti) might be sent to occupy colonial lands not already assigned. Indeed it was not unusual for a colony to receive additions, and a colony might be re-established, if it seemed necessary, from any cause. The commissioners appointed to conduct the colony had apparently a profitable office, and the establishment of a new settlement gave employment to numerous functionaries, among whom Cicero enumerates—apparitores, scribae, librarii, praecones, architecti. The foundation of a colony might then, in many cases, not only be a mere party measure, carried for the purpose of gaining popularity, but it would give those in power an opportunity of providing places for many of their friends.—The colonies founded by the Romans were divided into two great classes of colonies of Roman citizens and Latin colonies; names which had no reference to the persons who formed the colonies, but merely indicated their political rights with respect to Rome as members of the colony. The members of a Roman colony (colonia civium Romanorum) preserved all the rights of Roman citizens. The members of a Latin colony (colonia Latina) ceased to have the full rights of Roman citizens. Probably some of the old Latin colonies were established by the Romans in conjunction with other Latin states. After the conquest of Latium, the Romans established colonies, called Latin colonies, in various parts of Italy. Roman citizens, who chose to join such colonies, gave up their civic rights for the more solid advantage of a grant of land, and became Latini. [[Civitas].] Such colonies were subject to, and part of, the Roman state; but they did not possess the Roman franchise, and had no political bond among themselves.—The lex Julia, passed B.C. 90, gave the Roman franchise to the members of the Latin colonies and the Socii; and such Latin colonies and states of the Socii were then called municipia, and became complete members of the Roman state. Thus there was then really no difference between these municipia and the Roman coloniae, except in their historical origin: the members of both were Roman citizens, and the Roman law prevailed in both.—In the colonies, as at Rome, the popular assembly had originally the sovereign power; they chose the magistrates, and could even make laws. When the popular assemblies became a mere form in Rome, and the elections were transferred by Tiberius to the senate, the same thing happened in the colonies, whose senates then possessed whatever power had once belonged to the community. The common name of this senate was ordo decurionum; in later times, simply ordo and curia; the members of it were decuriones or curiales. Thus, in the later ages, curia is opposed to senatus, the former being the senate of a colony, and the latter the senate of Rome. But the terms senatus and senator were also applied to the senate and members of the senate of a colony. After the decline of the popular assemblies, the senate had the whole internal administration of a city, conjointly with the magistratus; but only a decurio could be a magistratus, and the choice was made by the decuriones. The highest magistratus of a colonia were the duumviri or quattuorviri, so called, as the members might vary, whose functions may be compared with those of the consulate at Rome before the establishment of the praetorship. The name duumviri seems to have been the most common. Their principal duties were the administration of justice, and accordingly we find on inscriptions “Duumviri J. D.” (juri dicundo), “Quattuorviri J. D.” The name consul also occurs in inscriptions to denote this chief magistracy; and even dictator and praetor occur under the empire and under the republic. The office of the duumviri lasted a year.—In some Italian towns there was a praefectus juri dicundo; he was in the place of, and not co-existent with, the duumviri. The duumviri were, as we have seen, originally chosen by the people; but the praefectus was appointed annually in Rome, and sent to the town called a praefectura, which might be either a municipium or a colonia, for it was only in the matter of the praefectus that a town called a praefectura differed from other Italian towns. Arpinum is called both a municipium and a praefectura; and Cicero, a native of this place, obtained the highest honours that Rome could confer.—The censor, curator, or quinquennalis, all which names denote the same functionary, was also a municipal magistrate, and corresponded to the censor at Rome, and in some cases, perhaps, to the quaestor also. Censors are mentioned in Livy as magistrates of the twelve Latin colonies. The quinquennales were sometimes duumviri, sometimes quattuorviri; but they are always carefully distinguished from the duumviri and quattuorviri J. D.; and their functions were those of censors. They held their office for one year, and during the four intermediate years the functions were not exercised. The office of censor or quinquennalis was higher in rank than that of the duumviri J. D., and it could only be filled by those who had discharged the other offices of the municipality.

CŎLOSSUS (κολοσσός) is used both by the Greeks and Romans to signify a statue larger than life; but as such statues were very common, the word was more frequently applied to designate figures of gigantic dimensions. Such figures were first executed in Egypt, and were afterwards made by the Greeks and Romans. Among the colossal statues of Greece, the most celebrated was the bronze colossus at Rhodes, dedicated to the sun, the height of which was about 90 feet.

Colum. (Museo Borbonico, vol. viii. pl. 14.)

CŌLUM (ἠθμός), a strainer or colander, was used for straining wine, milk, olive-oil, and other liquids. Those that were used as articles of luxury for straining wine were frequently made of some metal, such as bronze or silver. Occasionally a piece of linen cloth (σάκκος, saccus) was placed over the τρύγοιπος or colum, and the wine (σακκίας, saccatus) filtered through. The use of the saccus was considered objectionable for all delicate wines, since it was believed to injure, if not entirely to destroy their flavour, and in every instance to diminish the strength of the liquor. For this reason it was employed by the dissipated in order that they might be able to swallow a greater quantity without becoming intoxicated. The double purpose of cooling and weakening was effectually accomplished by placing ice or snow in the filter, which under such circumstances became a colum nivarium, or saccus nivarius. The preceding woodcut shows the plan and profile of a silver colum.

CŎLUMBĀRĬUM, a dovecot or pigeon-house, also signified a sepulchral chamber formed to receive the ashes of the lower orders, or dependants of great families; and in the plural, the niches in which the cinerary urns (ollae) were deposited.

Ancient Columns.

CŎLUMNA (κίων, στύλος), a pillar or column. The use of the trunks of trees placed upright for supporting buildings, unquestionably led to the adoption of similar supports wrought in stone. As the tree required to be based upon a flat square stone, and to have a stone or tile of similar form fixed on its summit to preserve it from decay, so the column was made with a square base, and was covered with an abacus. [[Abacus].] Hence the principal parts of which every column consists are three, the base (basis), the shaft (scapus), and the capital (capitulum). In the Doric, which is the oldest style of Greek architecture, we must consider all the columns in the same row as having one common base (podium), whereas in the Ionic and Corinthian each column has a separate base, called spira. The capitals of these two latter orders show, on comparison with the Doric, a much richer style of ornament; and the character of lightness and elegance is further obtained in them by their more slender shaft, its height being much greater in proportion to its thickness. Of all these circumstances some idea may be formed by the inspection of the three accompanying specimens of pillars. The first on the left hand is Doric, the second Ionic, and the third Corinthian. In all the orders the shaft tapers from the bottom towards the top. The shaft was, however, made with a slight swelling in the middle, which was called the entasis. It was, moreover, almost universally channelled or fluted. Columns were used in the interior of buildings, to sustain the beams which supported the ceiling. Rows of columns were often employed within a building, to enclose a space open to the sky. Beams supporting ceilings passed from above the columns to the adjoining walls, so as to form covered passages or ambulatories (στοαί). Such a circuit of columns was called a peristyle (περίστυλον), and the Roman atrium was built upon this plan. The largest and most splendid temples enclosed an open space like an atrium, which was accomplished by placing one peristyle upon another. In such cases, the lower rows of columns being Doric, the upper were sometimes Ionic or Corinthian, the lighter being properly based upon the heavier. A temple so constructed was called hypaethral (ὕπαιθρος). But it was on the exterior of public buildings, and especially of temples, that columns were displayed in the most beautiful combinations, either surrounding the building entirely, or arranged in porticoes on one or more of its fronts. [[Templum].] Their original and proper use was, of course, to support the roof of the building; and, amidst all the elaborations of architectural design, this object was still kept in view. On the summit of the row of columns rests the architrave, i.e. chief beam (ἐπιστύλιον, epistylium): above this is the frieze (ζωοφόρος, ζωφόρος, zophorus), in which the most ancient order, namely the Doric, shows, in its triglyphs, what were originally the ends of the cross-beams: in the other orders these ends are generally concealed, and the frieze forms a flat surface, which is frequently ornamented by figures in relief, whence its Greek name. Above the frieze projects the cornice (κορωνίς, coronis or corona), forming a handsome finish to the entablature (for so these three members taken together are called), and also, on the sides of the building, serving to unite the ends of the rafters of the roof. The triangular gable-end of the roof, above the entablature, is called the pediment. [[Fastigium].]—Columns in long rows were used in aquaeducts, and single pillars were fixed in harbours for mooring ships.—Single columns were also erected to commemorate persons or events. Among these, some of the most remarkable were the columnae rostratae, called by that name because three ship-beaks proceeded from each side of them, designed to record successful engagements at sea. The most important and celebrated of those which yet remain, is one erected in honour of the consul C. Duillius, on occasion of his victory over the Carthaginian fleet, B.C. 261. Columns were also employed to commemorate the dead. The column on the right hand in the last woodcut exhibits that which the senate erected to the honour of the Emperor Trajan. Similar columns were erected to the memory of many of the Roman emperors.

Columna Rostrata. Columna Trajana.

CŎLUMNĀRĬUM, a tax imposed in the time of Julius Caesar upon the pillars that supported a house. The Ostiarium was a similar tax. [[Ostiarium].] The columnarium, levied by Metellus Scipio in Syria in B.C. 49-48, was a tax of a similar kind, but was simply an illegal means of extorting money from the provincials.

CŎLUS, a distaff. [[Fusus].]

Greek Head-dresses. (From Ancient Vases.)

The left-hand figure on the top wears a κεκρύφαλος proper (reticulum). Of the two bottom figures, the one on the left-hand wears a μίτρα, and the one on the right a σάκκος.]

CŎMA (κόμη, κουρά), the hair. (1) Greek. In the earliest times the Greeks wore their hair long, and thus they are constantly called in Homer καρηκομόωντες Ἀχαιοί. The Spartan boys always had their hair cut quite short (ἐν χρῷ κείροντες); but as soon as they reached the age of puberty (ἔφηβοι), they let it grow long. Before going to battle they combed and dressed it with especial care. It seems that both Spartan men and women tied their hair in a knot over the crown of the head. The custom of the Athenians was different. They wore their hair long in childhood, and cut it off when they reached the age of puberty. The cutting off of the hair, which was always done when a boy became an ἔφηβος, was a solemn act, attended with religious ceremonies. A libation was first offered to Hercules, which was called οἰνιστήρια or οἰνιαστήρια, and the hair after being cut off was dedicated to some deity, usually a river-god. But when the Athenians passed into the age of manhood, they again let their hair grow. In ancient times at Athens the hair was rolled up into a kind of knot on the crown of the head, and fastened with golden clasps in the shape of grasshoppers. This fashion of wearing the hair was called κρωβύλος, and in the case of females κόρυμβος. The heads of females were frequently covered with a kind of band or a coif of net-work. Of these coiffures one was called σφενδόνη, which was a broad band across the forehead, sometimes made of metal, and sometimes of leather, adorned with gold. But the most common kind of head-dress for females was called by the general name of κεκρύφαλος, and this was divided into the three species of κεκρύφαλος, σάκκος, and μίτρα. The κεκρύφαλος, in its narrower sense, was a caul or coif of net-work, corresponding to the Latin reticulum. These hair-nets were frequently made of gold threads, sometimes of silk, or the Elean byssus, and probably of other materials. The σάκκος and the μίτρα were, on the contrary, made of close materials. The σάκκος covered the head entirely like a sack or bag; it was made of various materials, such as silk, byssus, and wool. The μίτρα was a broad band of cloth of different colours, which was wound round the hair, and was worn in various ways. It was originally an Eastern head-dress, and may, therefore, be compared to the modern turban. The Roman calautica or calvatica is said by Servius to have been the same as the mitra, but in a passage in the Digest they are mentioned as if they were distinct.—With respect to the colour of the hair, black was the most frequent, but blonde (ξανθὴ κόμη) was the most prized. In Homer, Achilles, Ulysses, and other heroes are represented with blonde hair. At a later time it seems to have been not unfrequent to dye hair, so as to make it either black or blonde, and this was done by men as well as by women, especially when the hair was growing gray.—(2) Roman. Besides the generic coma we also find the following words signifying the hair: capillus, caesaries, crines, cincinnus, and cirrus, the two last words being used to signify curled hair. In early times the Romans wore their hair long, and hence the Romans of the Augustan age designated their ancestors intonsi and capillati. But after the introduction of barbers into Italy about B.C. 300, it became the practice to wear the hair short. The women, too, originally dressed their hair with great simplicity, but in the Augustan period a variety of different head-dresses came into fashion. Sometimes these head-dresses were raised to a great height by rows of false curls. So much attention did the Roman ladies devote to the dressing of the hair, that they kept slaves especially for this purpose, called ornatrices, and had them instructed by a master in the art. Most of the Greek head-dresses mentioned above were also worn by the Roman ladies; but the mitrae appear to have been confined to prostitutes. One of the simplest modes of wearing the hair was allowing it to fall down in tresses behind, and only confining it by a band encircling the head. [[Vitta].] Another favourite plan was platting the hair, and then fastening it behind with a large pin. Blonde hair was as much prized by the Romans as by the Greeks, and hence the Roman ladies used a kind of composition or wash to make it appear this colour (spuma caustica). False hair or wigs (φενάκη, πηνίκη, galerus) were worn both by Greeks and Romans. Among both people likewise in ancient times the hair was cut close in mourning [[Funus]]; and among both the slaves had their hair cut close as a mark of servitude.

CŌMISSĀTĬO (derived from κῶμος), the name of a drinking entertainment, which took place after the coena, from which, however, it must be distinguished. The comissatio was frequently prolonged to a late hour at night, whence the verb comissari means “to revel,” and the substantive comissator a “reveller,” or “debauchee.”

CŎMĬTĬA. This word is formed from co, cum, or con, and ire, and therefore comitium is a place of meeting, and comitia the meeting itself, or the assembled people. In the Roman constitution the comitia were the ordinary and legal meetings or assemblies of the people, and distinct from the contiones and concilia. All the powers of government were divided at Rome between the senate, the magistrates, and the people in their assemblies. Properly speaking, the people alone (the populus) was the real sovereign by whom the power was delegated to the magistrates and the senate. The sovereign people or populus, however, was not the same at all times. In the earliest times of Rome the populus consisted of the patricians (or patres) only, the plebs and the clients forming no part of the populus, but being without the pale of the state. The original populus was divided into thirty curiae, and the assembly of these curiae (the comitia curiata) was the only assembly in which the populus was represented. A kind of amalgamation of the patricians and the plebs afterwards appeared in the comitia of the centuries, instituted by king Servius Tullius, and henceforth the term populus was applied to the united patricians and plebeians assembled in the comitia centuriata. But Servius had also made a local division of the whole Roman territory into thirty tribes, which held their meetings in assemblies called comitia tributa, which, in the course of time, acquired the character of national assemblies, so that the people thus assembled were likewise designated by the term populus.

We shall examine in order the nature, power, and business of each of these different comitia. (1) Comitia curiata consisted of the members of the thirty curiae, that is, the patricians, who formed exclusively the populus in the early times. They were convened, in the kingly period, by the king himself, or by his tribunus celerum, and in the king’s absence by the praefectus urbi. After the death of a king the comitia were held by the interrex. In the republican period, the president was always one of the high patrician magistrates, viz. a consul, praetor, or dictator. They were called together by lictors or heralds. The votes were given by curiae, each curia having one collective vote; but within a curia each citizen belonging to it had an independent vote, and the majority of the members of a curia determined the vote of the whole curia. The meeting was always held in the comitium. The comitia curiata did not possess much power in the kingly period. They could only be called together when the king (or his representative) chose, and could only determine upon matters which the king submitted to them. The main points upon which the populus had to decide were the election of the king, the passing of laws, declarations of war, the capital punishment of Roman citizens, and, lastly, certain affairs of the curiae and gentes. The priestly officers, such as the Curiones, Flamines Curiales, were likewise either elected by the curiae, or at least inaugurated by them. The right of finally deciding upon the life of Roman citizens (judicia de capite civis Romani) is said to have been given to the populus by king Tullus Hostilius. It must further be remarked, that when the king had been elected, the populus held a second meeting, in which he was formally inducted into his new office. This formality was called lex curiata de imperio, whereby the king received his imperium, together with the right of holding the comitia. Down to the time of Servius Tullius, the comitia curiata were the only popular assemblies of Rome, and remained of course in the undiminished possession of the rights above described; but the constitution of that king brought about a great change, by transferring the principal rights which had hitherto been enjoyed by the curiae to a new national assembly or the comitia centuriata. But while the patricians were obliged to share their rights with the plebeians, they reserved for themselves the very important right of sanctioning or rejecting any measure which had been passed by the centuries. The sanction of decrees passed by the centuries is often expressed by patres auctores fiunt, and down to the time of the Publilian law no decree of the centuries could become law without this sanction. By the Publilian law (B.C. 339) it was enacted that the curiae should give their assent before the vote of the comitia centuriata; so that the veto of the curiae was thus virtually abolished. The comitia curiata thus became a mere formality, and, instead of the thirty curiae themselves giving their votes, the ceremony was performed by thirty lictors. The comitia of the curiae were also called Comitia calata or “the summoned comitia” (from calare, i.e. vocare), when summoned for the purposes mentioned below:—1. On the calends it was proclaimed to the comitia calata on what day of the new month the nones fell, and perhaps also the ides as well as the nature of the other days, namely, whether they were fasti or nefasti, comitiales, feriae, &c., because all these things were known in the early times to the pontiffs exclusively. 2. The inauguration of the flamines, and after the banishment of the kings, also that of the rex sacrorum. 3. The testamenti factio, or the making of a will. 4. The detestatio sacrorum, which was in all probability an act connected with the testamenti factio, that is, a solemn declaration, by which the heir was enjoined to undertake the sacra privata of the testator along with the reception of his property. The comitia calata were summoned by the college of pontiffs, who also presided in them.

(2) Comitia centuriata. The object of the legislation of Servius Tullius was to unite the different elements of which the Roman people consisted, into one great political body, in which power and influence were to be determined by property and age. The whole people was conceived as an army (exercitus), and was therefore divided into two parts, the cavalry (equites), and infantry (pedites). The infantry was divided into five classes, or, as Dionysius has it, into six classes, for he regards the whole body of people, whose property did not come up to the census of the fifth class, as a sixth. The class to which a citizen belonged determined the tributum, or war tax, he had to pay, as well as the kind of service he had to perform in the army and the armour in which he had to serve. But for the purpose of voting in the comitia, each class was subdivided into a number of centuries (centuriae, probably because each was conceived to contain 100 men, though the centuries may have greatly differed in the number of men they contained). Hence the name of Comitia Centuriata. Each century was divided into the seniores and the juniores. Each century, further, was counted as one vote, so that a class had as many votes as it contained centuries. In like manner, the equites were divided into a number of centuries or votes. The two principal authorities on these subdivisions are Livy and Dionysius. The annexed table will show the census as well as the number of centuries or votes assigned to each class.

	According to Livy.		According to Dionysius.
I.	Classis. Census: 100,000 asses.	I.	Classis. Census: 100 minae.
	40 centuriae seniorum.		40 centuriae seniorum.
	40 centuriae juniorum.		40 centuriae juniorum.
	2 centuriae fabrum.
II.	Classis. Census: 75,000 asses.	II.	Classis. Census: 75 minae.
	10 centuriae seniorum.		10 centuriae seniorum.
	10 centuriae juniorum.		10 centuriae juniorum.
			2 centuriae fabrum (one
			voting with the seniores
			and the other with the
			juniores).
III.	Classis. Census: 50,000 asses.	III.	Classis. Census: 50 minae.
	10 centuriae seniorum.		10 centuriae seniorum.
	10 centuriae juniorum.		10 centuriae juniorum.
IV.	Classis. Census: 25,000 asses.	IV.	Classis. Census: 25 minae.
	10 centuriae seniorum.		10 centuriae seniorum.
	10 centuriae juniorum.		10 centuriae juniorum.
			2 centuriae cornicinum and
			tubicinum (one voting with
			the seniores, and the
			other with the juniores).
V.	Classis. Census: 11,000 asses.	V.	Classis. Census: 12½ minae.
	15 centuriae seniorum.		15 centuriae seniorum.
	15 centuriae juniorum.		15 centuriae juniorum.
	3 centuriae accensorum,	VI.	Classis. Census: below 12½
	cornicinum, tubicinum.		minae.
	1 centuria capite censorum.		1 centuria capite censorum.

According to both Dionysius and Livy, the equites voted in eighteen centuries before the seniores of the first class; and hence there were, according to Livy, 194, and, according to Dionysius, 193 centuries or votes. The latter number is the more probable, since Livy’s even number of 194 centuries would have rendered it impossible to obtain an absolute majority. In this manner all Roman citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, who had property to a certain amount, were privileged to take part and vote in the centuriata comitia, and none were excluded except slaves, peregrini, women and the aerarii. The juniores were all men from the age of seventeen to that of forty-six, and the seniores all men from the age of forty-six upwards. The order of voting was arranged in such a manner, that if the eighteen centuries of the equites and the eighty centuries of the first class were agreed upon a measure, the question was decided at once, there being no need for calling upon the other classes to vote. Hence, although all Roman citizens appeared in these comitia on a footing of equality, yet by far the greater power was thrown into the hands of the wealthy.—As regards the functions of the comitia centuriata, they were—(a.) The election of magistrates. The magistrates that were elected by the centuries are the consuls (whence the assembly is called comitia consularia), the praetors (hence comitia praetoria), the military tribunes with consular power, the censors, and the decemvirs. (b.) Legislation. The legislative power of the centuries at first consisted in their passing or rejecting a measure which was brought before them by the presiding magistrate in the form of a senatus consultum, so that the assembly had no right of originating any legislative measure, but voted only upon such as were brought before them as resolutions of the senate. (c.) The decision upon war, on the ground of a senatus consultum, likewise belonged to the centuries. Peace was concluded by a mere senatus consultum, and without any co-operation of the people. (d.) The highest judicial power. The comitia centuriata were in the first place the highest court of appeal, and in the second, they had to try all offences committed against the state; hence, all cases of perduellio and majestas: and no case involving the life of a Roman citizen could be decided by any other court. The sanction of the curiae to the measures of the centuriae has been already explained.—The comitia centuriata could be held only on dies comitiales or fasti, on which it was lawful to transact business with the people, and the number of such days in every year was about 190; but on dies nefasti (that is, dies festi, feriati, comp. [Dies]), and, at first also on the nundinae, no comitia could be held, until in B.C. 287 the Hortensian law ordained that the nundinae should be regarded as dies fasti.—The place where the centuries met was the Campus Martius, which contained the septa for the voters, a tabernaculum for the president, and the villa publica for the augurs.—The president at the comitia was the same magistrate who convoked them, and this right was a privilege of the consuls, and, in their absence, of the praetors. An interrex and dictator also, or his representative, the magister equitum, might likewise convene and preside at the comitia. One of the main duties devolving upon the president, and which he had to perform before holding the comitia, was to consult the auspices (auspicari). When the auspices were favourable, the people were called together, which was done by three successive and distinct acts: the first was quite a general invitation to come to the assembly (inlicium). At the same time when this invitation was proclaimed circum moeros or de moeris, a horn was blown, which being the more audible signal, is mentioned by some writers alone, and without the inlicium. When upon this signal the people assembled in irregular masses, there followed the second call by the accensus, or the call ad contionem or conventionem; that is, to a regular assembly, and the crowd then separated, grouping themselves according to their classes and ages. Hereupon the consul appeared, ordering the people to come ad comitia centuriata; and led the whole exercitus—for, in these comitia, the Roman people are always conceived as an exercitus—out of the city, to the Campus Martius.—It was customary from the earliest times for an armed force to occupy the Janiculum, when the people were assembled in the Campus Martius, for the purpose of protecting the city against any sudden attack of the neighbouring people; and on the Janiculum a vexillum was hoisted during the whole time that the assembly lasted. This custom continued to be observed even at the time when Rome had no longer anything to fear from the neighbouring tribes.—When the people were thus regularly assembled, the business was commenced with a solemn sacrifice, and a prayer of the president, who then took his seat on his tribunal. The president then opened the business by explaining to the people the subject for which they had been convened, and concluded his exposition with the words, velitis, jubeatis Quirites, e.g. bellum indici, or ut M. Tullio aqua igni interdictum sit, or whatever the subject might be. This formula was the standing one in all comitia, and the whole exposition of the president was called rogatio. When the comitia were assembled for the purpose of an election, the presiding magistrate had to read out the names of the candidates, and might exercise his influence by recommending the one whom he thought most fit for the office in question. If the assembly had been convened for the purpose of passing a legislative measure, the president usually recommended the proposal, or he might grant to others, if they desired it, permission to speak about the measure, either in its favour or against it (Contionem dare). When the comitia acted as a court of justice, the president stated the crime, proposed the punishment to be inflicted upon the offender, and then allowed others to speak either in defence of the accused or against him. When the subject brought before the assembly was sufficiently discussed, the president called upon the people to prepare for voting by the words, ite in suffragium, bene juvantibus diis. He then passed the stream Petronia, and went to the septa.—Respecting the mode of voting, it is commonly supposed that the people were always polled by word of mouth, till the passing of the leges tabellariae about the middle of the second century before Christ, when the ballot by means of tabellae was introduced. [[Leges Tabellariae].] It appears, however, that the popular assemblies voted by ballot, as well as by word of mouth, long before the passing of the leges tabellariae, but that instead of using tabellae, they employed stones or pebbles (the Greek ψῆφοι), and that each voter received two stones, one white and the other black, the former to be used in the approval and the latter in the condemnation of a measure. The voting by word of mouth seems to have been adopted in elections and trials, and the use of pebbles to have been confined to the enactment and repeal of laws. Previous to the leges tabellariae, the rogatores, who subsequently collected the written votes, stood at the entrance of the septa, and asked every citizen for his vote, which was taken down, and used to determine the vote of each century. After the introduction of the ballot, if the business was the passing of a law, each citizen was provided with two tabellae, one inscribed V. R. i.e. Uti Rogas, “I vote for the law,” the other inscribed A. i.e. Antiquo, “I am for the old law.” If the business was the election of a magistrate, each citizen was supplied with only one tablet, on which the names of the candidates were written, or the initials of their names; the voter then placed a mark (punctum) against the one for whom he voted, whence puncta are spoken of in the sense of votes. For further particulars respecting the voting in the comitia, see [Diribitores] and [Situla]. In judicial assemblies every citizen was provided with three tabellae, one of which was marked with A. i.e. Absolvo, “I acquit;” the second with C. i.e. Condemno, “I condemn;” and the third with N. L. i.e. Non Liquet, “It is not clear to me.” The first of these was called Tabella absolutoria and the second Tabella damnatoria, and hence Cicero calls the former litera salutaris, and the latter litera tristis.—There were in the Campus Martius septa or inclosures (whether they existed from the earliest times is unknown), into which one class of citizens was admitted after another for the purpose of voting. The first that entered were the eighteen centuries of the equites, then followed the first class and so on. It very rarely happened that the lowest class was called upon to vote, as there was no necessity for it, unless the first class did not agree with the equites. After the time when the comitia of the centuries became amalgamated with those of the tribes, a large space near the villa publica was surrounded with an enclosure, and divided into compartments for the several tribes. The whole of this enclosure was called ovile, septa, carceres, or cancelli; and in later times a stone building, containing the whole people, was erected; it was divided into compartments for the classes as well as the tribes and centuries; the access to these compartments was formed by narrow passages called pontes or ponticuli. On entering, the citizens received their tablets, and when they had consulted within the enclosures, they passed out of them again by a pons or ponticulus, at which they threw their vote into a chest (cista) which was watched by rogatores. Hereupon the rogatores collected the tablets, and gave them to the diribitores, who classified and counted the votes, and then handed them over to the custodes, who again checked them off by points marked on a tablet. The order in which the centuries voted was determined in the Servian constitution, in the manner described above; but after the union of the centuries and tribes, the order was determined by lot; and this was a matter of no slight importance, since it frequently happened that the vote of the first determined the manner in which subsequent ones voted. In the case of elections, the successful candidate was proclaimed twice, first by the praeco, and then by the president, and without this renuntiatio the election was not valid. After all the business was done, the president pronounced a prayer, and dismissed the assembly with the word discedite.—Cases are frequently mentioned in which the proceedings of the assembly were disturbed, so that it was necessary to defer the business till another day. This occurred—1, when it was discovered that the auspices had been unfavourable, or when the gods manifested their displeasure by rain, thunder, or lightning; 2, when a tribune interceded; 3, when the sun set before the business was over, for it was a principle that the auspices were valid only for one day from sunrise to sunset; 4, when a morbus comitialis occurred, i.e. when one of the assembled citizens was seized with an epileptic fit; 5, when the vexillum was taken away from the Janiculum, this being a signal which all citizens had to obey; 6, when any tumult or insurrection broke out in the city.

(3) Comitia tributa. These assemblies likewise were called into existence by the constitution of Servius Tullius, who divided the Roman territory into thirty local tribes. It is a disputed question whether the patricians were originally included in these tribes; but, whether they were or not, it is certain, that by far the majority of the people in the tribes were plebeians, and that, consequently, the character of these assemblies was essentially plebeian. After the decemvirate, the patricians had certainly the right of voting in the assemblies of the tribes, which were then also convened by the higher magistrates. The assemblies of the tribes had originally only a local power; they were intended to collect the tributum, and to furnish the contingents for the army; they may further have discussed the internal affairs of each tribe, such as the making or keeping up of roads, wells, and the like. But their influence gradually increased, and they at length acquired the following powers:—1. The election of the inferior magistrates, whose office it was to protect the commonalty or to superintend the affairs of the tribes. Hence the tribunes of the plebs were elected in the comitia tributa. In like manner, the aediles were elected by them, though the curule aediles were elected at a different time from the plebeian aediles and under the presidency of a consul. At a still later time, the quaestors and tribunes of the soldiers, who had before been appointed by the consuls, were appointed in the assemblies of the tribes. The proconsuls to be sent into the provinces, and the prolongation of the imperium for a magistrate who was already in a province, were likewise points which were determined by the tribes in later times. The inferior magistrates elected by the tribes are:—the triumviri capitales, triumviri monetales, the curatores viarum, decemviri litibus judicandis, tribuni aerarii, magistri vicorum et pagorum, praefecti annonae, duumviri navales, quinqueviri muris turribusque reficiendis, triumviri coloniae deducendae, triumviri, quatuorviri, &c., mensarii, and lastly, after the Domitian law, B.C. 104, also the members of colleges of priests. The pontifex maximus had been elected by the people from an earlier time. 2. The legislative power of the comitia tributa was at first very insignificant, for all they could do was to make regulations concerning the local affairs of the tribes. But after a time, when the tribes began to be the real representatives of the people, matters affecting the whole people also were brought before them by the tribunes, which, framed as resolutions, were laid before the senate, where they might either be sanctioned or rejected. This practice of the tributa comitia gradually acquired for them the right of taking the initiative in any measure, or the right of originating measures, until, in B.C. 449, this right was recognised and sanctioned by a law of L. Valerius Publicola and M. Horatius Barbatus. This law gave to the decrees passed by the tribes the power of a real lex, binding upon the whole people, provided they obtained the sanction of the senate and the populus, that is, the people assembled in the comitia curiata or in the comitia centuriata. In B.C. 339, the Publilian law enacted ut plebiscita omnes Quirites tenerent. This law was either a re-enactment of the one passed in B.C. 449, or contained a more detailed specification of the cases in which plebiscita should be binding upon the whole nation, or, lastly, it made their validity independent of the sanction of other comitia, so that nothing would be required except the assent of the senate. In B.C. 287, the Hortensian law was passed, which seems to have been only a revival and a confirmation of the two preceding laws, for it was framed in almost the same terms; but it may also be, that the Hortensian law made the plebiscita independent of the sanction of the senate, so that henceforth the comitia tributa were quite independent in their legislative character. 3. The judicial power of the comitia tributa was much more limited than that of the comitia centuriata, inasmuch as they could take cognizance only of offences against the majesty of the people, while all crimes committed against the state were brought before the centuries. Even patricians, when they had offended against the commonalty or its members, were tried and fined by the tribes. This again constitutes a difference between the judicial power of the centuries and that of the tribes, for the former could inflict capital punishment, but the latter only fines. The comitia tributa might assemble either within or without the city, but not farther from it than 1000 paces, because the power of the tribunes did not extend farther. For elections the Campus Martius was usually chosen, but sometimes also the forum, the Capitol, or the Circus Flaminius. The presidents were commonly the tribunes, who were supported by the aediles, and no matter could be brought before the tribes without the knowledge and consent of the tribunes. As the comitia tributa, however, more and more assumed the character of national assemblies, the higher magistrates also sometimes acted as presidents, though perhaps not without previously obtaining the permission of the tribunes. The preparations for the comitia tributa were less formal and solemn than for those of the centuries. In the case of elections, the candidates had to give in their names, and the president communicated them to the people. When a legislative measure was to be brought before the assembly, a tribune made the people acquainted with it in contiones, and that on the three preceding nundines. The same was the case when the people were to meet as a court of justice. The auspicia were not consulted for the comitia of the tribes, but the spectio alone was sufficient, and the tribunes had the right of obnuntiatio. In the comitia the tribune who had been chosen to preside sat on the tribunal supported by his colleagues, and laid before the people the subject of the meeting, concluding with the words velitis, jubeatis Quirites. The bill was never read by the tribune himself, but by a praeco, and then began the debates, in which persons might either oppose or recommend the measure, though private persons had to ask the tribunes for permission to speak. When the discussion was over the president called upon the people ite in suffragium, as at the comitia centuriata. They then formed themselves into their tribes, which, like the centuries, ascertained their own votes in enclosures (septa). Which of the 35 tribes was to give its vote first, was determined by lot, and that tribe was called praerogativa or principium (the others were termed jure vocatae). The vote of the first tribe was given by some person of distinction whose name was mentioned in the plebiscitum, if it was of a legislative nature. The manner of collecting the votes was, on the whole, the same as in the comitia centuriata. The announcing of the result of the votes was the renuntiatio. If it so happened that two candidates had the same number of votes, the question was decided by drawing lots. The circumstances which might cause the meeting to break up and defer its business till another day, are the same as those which put an end to the comitia centuriata.

(4) The comitia centuriata mixed with the comitia tributa.—The Servian constitution was retained unaltered so long as no great change took place in the republic; but when the coinage and the standard of property had become altered, when the constitution of the army had been placed on a different footing, and, above all, when the plebeians began to be recognized as a great and essential element in the Roman state, it must have been found inconvenient to leave to the equites and the first class so great a preponderance in the comitia of the centuries, and it became necessary to secure more power and influence to the democratic element. A change, therefore, took place, and the comitia centuriata became mixed with the comitia tributa; but neither the time nor the exact nature of this change is accurately ascertained. Some refer it to the censorship of C. Flaminius, B.C. 220, others to that of Q. Fabius and P. Decius, B.C. 304. But there is evidence that it must be assigned to even an earlier date than this, for the (tribus) praerogativa is mentioned as early as B.C. 396 in the election of the consular tribunes, where the pure comitia tributa cannot be meant, and a centuria praerogativa is a thing unknown. With regard to the manner of the change, the most probable opinion is, that the citizens of each tribe were divided into five property classes, each consisting of seniores and juniores, so that each of the 35 tribes contained ten centuries, and all the tribes together 350 centuries. According to this new arrangement, the five ancient classes, divided into seniores and juniores, continued to exist as before, but henceforth they were most closely united with the tribes, whereas before the tribes had been mere local divisions and entirely independent of property. The union now effected was that the classes became subdivisions of the tribes, and that accordingly centuries occur both in the classes and in the tribes. Each tribe contained ten centuries, two of the first class (one of the seniores and one of the juniores), two of the second (likewise seniores and juniores), two of the third, two of the fourth, and two of the fifth class. The equites were likewise divided according to tribes and centuries, and they seem to have voted with the first class, and to have been in fact included in it, so as to be called centuries of the first class. The centuries of the cornicines, tubicines and fabri, which are no longer mentioned, probably ceased to exist as distinct centuries. The voting by tribes can hardly be conceived, except in those cases in which the ten centuries of every tribe were unanimous; this may have been the case very often, and when it was so, the tribus praerogativa was certainly the tribe chosen by lot to give its unanimous vote first. But if there was any difference of opinion among the centuries making up a tribe, the true majority could only be ascertained by choosing by lot one of the 70 centuriae of the first class to give its vote first, or rather it was decided by lot from which tribe the two centuries of the first class were to be taken to give their vote first. (Hence the plural praerogativae.) The tribe, moreover, to which those centuries belonged which voted first, was itself likewise called tribus praerogativa. Of the two centuries, again, that of seniores gave its vote before the juniores, and in the documents both were called by the name of their tribe, as Galeria juniorum, i.e. the juniores of the first class in the tribus Galeria, Aniensis juniorum, Veturia juniorum. As soon as the praerogativa had voted, the renuntiatio took place, and the remaining centuries then deliberated whether they should vote the same way or not. When this was done all the centuries of the first tribe proceeded to vote at once, for there would not have been time for the 350 centuries to vote one after another, as was done by the 193 centuries in the comitia centuriata.—These comitia of the centuries combined with the tribes were far more democratical than the comitia of the centuries; they continued to be held, and preserved their power along with the comitia tributa, even after the latter had acquired their supreme importance in the republic. During the time of the moral and political corruption of the Romans, the latter appear to have been chiefly attended by the populace, which was guided by the tribunes, and the wealthier and more respectable citizens had little influence in them. When the libertini and all the Italians were incorporated in the old thirty-five tribes, and when the political corruption had reached its height, no trace of the sedate and moderate character was left by which the comitia tributa had been distinguished in former times. Under Augustus the comitia still sanctioned new laws and elected magistrates, but their whole proceedings were a mere farce, for they could not venture to elect any other persons than those recommended by the emperor. Tiberius deprived the people even of this shadow of their former power, and conferred the power of election upon the senate. When the elections were made by the senate the result was announced to the people assembled as comitia centuriata or tributa. Legislation was taken away from the comitia entirely, and was completely in the hands of the senate and the emperor. From this time the comitia may be said to have ceased to exist, as all the sovereign power formerly possessed by the people was conferred upon the emperor by the lex regia. [[Lex Regia].]

COMMĔĀTUS, a furlough, or leave of absence from the army for a certain time.

COMMENTĀRĬUS or COMMENTĀRĬUM, a book of memoirs or memorandum-book, whence the expression Caesaris Commentarii. It is also used for a lawyer’s brief, the notes of a speech, &c.

COMMERCĬUM. [[Civitas] (Roman).]

CŌMOEDĬA (κωμῳδία), comedy. (1) Greek. Comedy took its rise at the vintage festivals of Dionysus. It originated with those who led off the phallic songs of the band of revellers (κῶμος), who at the vintage festivals of Dionysus gave expression to the feelings of exuberant joy and merriment which were regarded as appropriate to the occasion, by parading about, partly on foot, partly in waggons, with the symbol of the productive powers of nature, singing a wild, jovial song in honour of Dionysus and his companions. These songs were commonly interspersed with, or followed by petulant, extemporal witticisms with which the revellers assailed the bystanders. This origin of comedy is indicated by the name κωμῳδία, which undoubtedly means “the song of the κῶμος,” though it has sometimes been derived from κώμη, as if the meaning were “a village song.” It was among the Dorians that comedy first assumed any thing of a regular shape. The Megarians, both in the mother country and in Sicily, claimed to be considered as its originators, and so far as the comedy of Athens is concerned, the claim of the former appears well founded. Among the Athenians the first attempts at comedy were made at Icaria by Susarion, a native of Megara, about B.C. 578. Susarion no doubt substituted for the more ancient improvisations of the chorus and its leader premeditated compositions. There would seem also to have been some kind of poetical contest, for we learn that the prize for the successful poet was a basket of figs and a jar of wine. It was also the practice of those who took part in the comus to smear their faces with wine-lees, either to prevent their features from being recognised, or to give themselves a more grotesque appearance. Hence comedy came to be called τρυγῳδία, or lee-song. Others connected the name with the circumstance of a jar of new wine (τρύξ) being the prize for the successful poet. It was, however, in Sicily, that comedy was earliest brought to something like perfection. Epicharmus was the first writer who gave it a new form, and introduced a regular plot. In his efforts he appears to have been associated with Phormis, a somewhat older contemporary. The Megarians in Sicily claimed the honour of the invention of comedy, on account of Epicharmus having lived in Megara before he went to Syracuse. In Attica, the first comic poet of any importance whom we hear of after Susarion is Chionides, who is said to have brought out plays in B.C. 488. Euetes, Euxenides, and Myllus were probably contemporaries of Chionides; he was followed by Magnes and Ecphantides. Their compositions, however, seem to have been little but the reproduction of the old Megaric farce of Susarion, differing, no doubt, in form, by the introduction of an actor or actors, separate from the chorus, in imitation of the improvements that had been made in tragedy.—That branch of the Attic drama which was called the Old Comedy, begins properly with Cratinus, who was to comedy very much what Aeschylus was to tragedy. The old comedy has been described as the comedy of caricature, and such indeed it was, but it was also a great deal more. As it appeared in the hands of its great masters Cratinus, Hermippus, Eupolis, and especially Aristophanes, its main characteristic was that it was throughout political. Everything that bore upon the political or social interests of the Athenians furnished materials for it. The old Attic comedy lasted from Ol. 80 to Ol. 94 (B.C. 458-404). From Cratinus to Theopompus there were forty-one poets, fourteen of whom preceded Aristophanes. The later pieces of Aristophanes belong to the Middle rather than to the Old Comedy. The chorus in a comedy consisted of twenty-four. [[Chorus].] The dance of the chorus was the κόρδαξ, the movements of which were capricious and licentious, consisting partly in a reeling to and fro, in imitation of a drunken man, and in various unseemly and immodest gestures. Comedies have choric songs, but no στάσιμα, or songs between acts. The most important of the choral parts was the Parabasis, when the actors having left the stage, the chorus, which was ordinarily divided into four rows, containing six each, and was turned towards the stage, turned round, and advancing towards the spectators delivered an address to them in the name of the poet, either on public topics of general interest, or on matters which concerned the poet personally, criticising his rivals and calling attention to his merits; the address having nothing whatever to do with the action of the play. The parabasis was not universally introduced: three plays of Aristophanes, the Ecclesiazusae, Lysistrata, and Plutus, have none. As the old Attic comedy was the offspring of the political and social vigour and freedom of the age during which it flourished, it naturally declined and ceased with the decline and overthrow of the freedom and vigour which were necessary for its development.—It was replaced by a comedy of a somewhat different style, which was known as the Middle Comedy, the age of which lasted from the end of the Peloponnesian war to the overthrow of liberty by Philip of Macedon. (Ol. 94-110.) The comedy of this period found its materials in satirizing classes of people instead of individuals, in criticising the systems and merits of philosophers and literary men, and in parodies of the compositions of living and earlier poets, and travesties of mythological subjects. It formed a transition from the old to the new comedy, and approximated to the latter in the greater attention to the construction of plots which seem frequently to have been founded on amorous intrigues, and in the absence of that wild grotesqueness which marked the old comedy. As regards its external form, the plays of the middle comedy, generally speaking, had neither parabasis nor chorus. The most celebrated authors of the middle comedy were Antiphanes and Alexis.—The New Comedy was a further development of the last mentioned kind. It answered as nearly as may be to the modern comedy of manners or character. Dropping for the most part personal allusions, caricature, ridicule, and parody, which, in a more general form than in the old comedy, had maintained their ground in the middle comedy, the poets of the new comedy made it their business to reproduce in a generalized form a picture of the every-day life of those by whom they were surrounded. There were various standing characters which found a place in most plays, such as we find in the plays of Plautus and Terence, the leno perjurus, amator fervidus, servulus callidus, amica illudens, sodalis opitulator, miles proeliator, parasitus edax, parentes tenaces, meretrices procaces. In the new comedy there was no chorus. It flourished from about B.C. 340 to B.C. 260. The poets of the new comedy amounted to 64 in number. The most distinguished was Menander.—(2) Roman.—The accounts of the early stages of comic poetry among the Romans are scanty. Scenic entertainments were introduced at Rome in B.C. 363 from Etruria, where it would seem they were a familiar amusement. Tuscan players (ludiones), who were fetched from Etruria, exhibited a sort of pantomimic dance to the music of a flute, without any song accompanying their dance, and without regular dramatic gesticulation. The amusement became popular, and was imitated by the young Romans, who improved upon the original entertainment by uniting with it extemporaneous mutual raillery, composed in a rude irregular measure, a species of diversion which had been long known among the Romans at their agrarian festivals under the name of Fescennina [[Fescennina]]. It was 123 years after the first introduction of these scenic performances before the improvement was introduced of having a regular plot. This advance was made by Livius Andronicus, a native of Magna Graecia, in B.C. 240. His pieces, which were both tragedies and comedies, were merely adaptations of Greek dramas. The representation of regular plays of this sort was now left to those who were histriones by profession, and who were very commonly either foreigners or slaves; the free-born youth of Rome confined their own scenic performances to the older, irregular farces, which long maintained their ground, and were subsequently called exodia. [[Exodia]; [Satura].] Livius, as was common at that time, was himself an actor in his own pieces. The first imitator of the dramatic works of Livius Andronicus was Cn. Naevius, a native of Campania. He composed both tragedies and comedies, which were either translations or imitations of those of Greek writers. The most distinguished successors of Naevius were Plautus, who chiefly imitated Epicharmus, and Terence, whose materials were drawn mostly from Menander, Diphilus, Philemon, and Apollodorus. The comedy of the Romans was throughout but an imitation of that of the Greeks, and chiefly of the new comedy. Where the characters were ostensibly Greek, and the scene laid in Athens or some other Greek town, the comedies were termed palliatae. All the comedies of Terence and Plautus belong to this class. When the story and characters were Roman, the plays were called togatae. But the fabulae togatae were in fact little else than Greek comedies clothed in a Latin dress.

The togatae were divided into two classes, the trabeatae and tabernariae, according as the subject was taken from high or from low life. In the comediae palliatae, the costume of the ordinary actors was the Greek pallium. The plays which bore the name of praetextatae, were not so much tragedies as historical plays. It is a mistake to represent them as comedies. There was a species of tragi-comedy, named from the poet who introduced that style Rhinthonica. A tragedy the argument of which was Greek was termed crepidata. The mimes are sometimes classed with the Latin comedies. [[Mimus].] The mimes differed from the comedies in little more than the predominance of the mimic representation over the dialogue. Latin comedies had no chorus, any more than the dramas of the new comedy, of which they were for the most part imitations. Like them, too, they were introduced by a prologue, which answered some of the purposes of the parabasis of the old comedy, so far as bespeaking the good will of the spectators, and defending the poet against his rivals and enemies. It also communicated so much information as was necessary to understand the story of the play. The prologue was commonly spoken by one of the players, or, perhaps, by the manager of the troop. Respecting the Atellanae fabulae see that article.

COMPĬTĀLĬA, also called LŪDI COMPĬTĀLĬCĬI, a festival celebrated once a year in honour of the lares compitales, to whom sacrifices were offered at the places where two or more ways met. In the time of Augustus, the ludi compitalicii had gone out of fashion, but were restored by him. The compitalia belonged to the feriae conceptivae, that is, festivals which were celebrated on days appointed annually by the magistrates or priests. The exact day on which this festival was celebrated appears to have varied, though it was always in the winter, generally at the beginning of January.

COMPLŪVĬUM. [[Domus].]

CONCĬLĬUM generally has the same meaning as conventus or conventio, but the technical import of concilium in the Roman constitution was an assembly of a portion of the people as distinct from the general assemblies or comitia. Accordingly, as the comitia tributa embraced only a portion of the Roman people, viz. the plebeians, these comitia are often designated by the term concilia plebis. Concilium is also used by Latin writers to denote the assemblies or meetings of confederate towns or nations, at which either their deputies alone or any of the citizens met who had time and inclination, and thus formed a representative assembly. Such an assembly or diet is commonly designated as commune concilium, or τὸ κοινόν, e.g. Achaeorum, Aetolorum, Boeotorum, Macedoniae, and the like.

CONFARRĔĀTĬO. [[Matrimonium].]

CONGĬĀRĬUM (scil. vas, from congius), a vessel containing a congius. [[Congius].] In the early times of the Roman republic the congius was the usual measure of oil or wine which was, on certain occasions, distributed among the people; and thus congiarium became a name for liberal donations to the people, in general, whether consisting of oil, wine, corn, money, or other things, while donations made to the soldiers were called donativa, though they were sometimes also termed congiaria. Many coins of the Roman emperors were struck in commemoration of such congiaria. Congiarium was, moreover, occasionally used simply to designate a present or a pension given by a person of high rank, or a prince, to his friends.

Congiarium. (Coin of Trajan.)

CONGĬUS, a Roman liquid measure, which contained six sextarii, or the eighth part of the amphora (nearly six pints Eng.) It was equal to the larger chous of the Greeks.

CONNUBĬUM. [[Matrimonium].]

CŌNŌPĒUM (κωνωπεῖον), a gnat or musquito-curtain, i.e. a covering made to be expanded over beds and couches to keep away gnats and other flying insects, so called from κώνωψ, a gnat. Conopeum is the origin of the English word canopy.

CONQUĪSĪTŌRES, persons employed to go about the country and impress soldiers, when there was a difficulty in completing a levy. Sometimes commissioners were appointed by a decree of the senate for the purpose of making a conquisitio.

CONSANGUĬNĔI. [[Cognati].]

CONSĔCRĀTĬO. [[Apotheosis].]

CONSĬLĬUM. [[Conventus].]

CONSUĀLĬA, a festival, with games, celebrated by the Romans, according to Ovid and others, in honour of Consus, the god of secret deliberations, or, according to Livy, of Neptunus Equestris. Some writers, however, say that Neptunus Equestris and Consus were only different names for one and the same deity. It was solemnised every year in the circus, by the symbolical ceremony of uncovering an altar dedicated to the god, which was buried in the earth. For Romulus, who was considered as the founder of the festival, was said to have discovered an altar in the earth on that spot. The solemnity took place on the 21st of August with horse and chariot races, and libations were poured into the flames which consumed the sacrifices. During these festive games horses and mules were not allowed to do any work, and were adorned with garlands of flowers. It was at their first celebration that, according to the ancient legend, the Sabine maidens were carried off.

CONSUL (ὕπατος), the title of the two chief officers or magistrates of the Roman republic. The word is probably composed of con and sul, which contains the same root as the verb salio, so that consules signifies “those who come together,” just as praesul means “one who goes before,” and exsul, “one who goes out.” The consulship is said to have been instituted upon the expulsion of the kings in B.C. 509, when the kingly power was transferred to two magistrates, whose office lasted only for one year, that it might not degenerate into tyranny by being vested longer in the same persons; and for the same reason two were appointed instead of one king, as neither could undertake anything unless it was sanctioned and approved by his colleague. Their original title was praetores, or commanders of the armies, but this was changed into that of consules in B.C. 449, and the latter title remained in use until the latest periods of the Roman empire.—The consuls were at first elected from the patricians exclusively. Their office was suspended in B.C. 451, and its functions were performed by ten high commissioners (decemviri), appointed to frame a code of laws. On the re-establishment of the consulship in B.C. 449, the tribunes proposed that one of the consuls should be chosen from the plebeians, but this was strenuously resisted by the patricians, and a compromise effected by suspending the consular office, and creating in its stead military tribunes (tribuni militum) with consular power, who might be elected indifferently both from the patricians and plebeians. They were first appointed in B.C. 444. The plebeians, however, were not satisfied with this concession, and still endeavoured to attain the higher dignity of the consulship. At length, after a serious and long-protracted struggle between the two orders, it was enacted by the Licinian law, in B.C. 367, that henceforth the consulship should be divided between the patricians and plebeians, and that one of the consuls should always be a plebeian. Accordingly, in B.C. 366 L. Sextius was elected the first plebeian consul. This law, however, was not always observed, and it still frequently happened that both consuls were patricians, until, in later times, when the difference between the two orders had entirely ceased, and the plebeians were on a footing of perfect equality with the patricians, the consuls were elected from both orders indiscriminately.—During the later periods of the republic it was customary for persons to pass through several subordinate magistracies before they were elected consuls, though this rule was departed from in many particular cases. The age at which a person was eligible to the consulship was fixed in B.C. 180, by the lex annalis [[Lex Annalis]], at 43.—The election of the consuls always took place in the comitia of the centuries, some time before the expiration of the official year of the actual consuls, and the election was conducted either by the actual consuls themselves, or by an interrex or a dictator, and the persons elected, until they entered upon their office, were called consules designati. While they were designati, they were in reality no more than private persons, but still they might exercise considerable influence upon public affairs, for in the senate they were asked for their opinion first. If they had been guilty of any illegal act, either before or during their election, such as bribery (ambitus), they were liable to prosecution, and the election might be declared void.—The time at which the old consuls laid down their office and the consules designati entered upon theirs, differed at different times. The first consuls are said to have entered upon their office in October, then we find mention of the 1st of August, of the ides of December, the 1st of July, and very frequently of the ides of March, until, in B.C. 153, it became an established rule for the consuls to enter upon their duties on the 1st of January; and this custom remained down to the end of the republic. On that day the senators, equites, and citizens of all classes conducted in a procession (deductio or processus consularis) the new magistrates from their residence to the capitol, where, if the auspices were favourable, the consuls offered up sacrifices, and were inaugurated. From thence the procession went to the curia, where the senate assembled, and where the consuls returned thanks for their election. There they might also speak on any subject that was of importance to the republic, such as peace and war, the distribution of provinces, the general condition of the state, the feriae Latinae, and the like. During the first five days of their office they had to convoke a contio, and publicly to take a solemn oath, by which, in the earliest times, they pledged themselves not to allow any one to assume regal power at Rome, but afterwards only to maintain the laws of the republic (in leges jurare). On the expiration of their office they had to take another oath, stating that they had faithfully obeyed the laws, and not done anything against the constitution. The new consuls on entering upon their office usually invited their friends to a banquet. When a consul died during his year of office, his colleague immediately convoked the comitia to elect a new one. A consul thus elected to fill a vacancy was called consul suffectus, but his powers were not equal to those of an ordinary consul, for he could not preside at the elections of other magistrates, not even in the case of the death of his colleague. In the latter case, as well as when the consuls were prevented by illness or other circumstances, the comitia were held by an interrex or a dictator.—The outward distinctions of the consuls were, with few exceptions, the same as those which had formerly belonged to the kings. The principal distinction was the twelve lictors with the fasces, who preceded the consuls; but the axes did not appear in the fasces within the city. This outward sign of their power was taken by the consuls in turn every month, and while one consul was preceded by the twelve lictors with their fasces, the other was during the same month preceded by an accensus, and followed by the lictors; and the one was called during that month consul major, and the other consul minor. Other distinctions of the consuls were the curule chair (sella curulis), and the toga with the purple hem (toga praetexta). The ivory sceptre (scipio or sceptrum) and purple toga were not distinctions of the consuls in general, but only when they celebrated a triumph. Under the empire a consul was sometimes distinguished by the senate with a sceptre bearing an eagle on the top, but his regular ensigns consisted of the toga picta, the trabea, and the fasces, both within and without the city.—The consuls were the highest ordinary magistrates at Rome. Their power was at first quite equal to that of the kings, except that it was limited to one year, and that the office of high priest, which had been vested in the king, was at the very beginning detached from the consulship, and given to the rex sacrorum or rex sacrificulus. Yet the auspicia majora continued to belong to the consuls. This regal power of the consuls, however, was gradually curtailed by various laws, especially by the institution of the tribunes of the plebs, whose province it was to protect the plebeians against the unjust or oppressive commands of the patrician magistrates. Nay, in the course of time, whole branches of the consular power were detached from it; the reason for which was, that, as the patricians were compelled to allow the plebeians a share in the highest magistracy, they stripped it of as much of its original power as they could, and reserved these detached portions for themselves. In this manner the censorship was detached from the consulship in B.C. 443, and the praetorship in B.C. 367. But notwithstanding all this, the consuls remained the highest magistrates, and all other magistrates, except the tribunes of the plebs, were obliged to obey their commands, and show them great outward respect. The functions of the consuls during the time of the republic may be conveniently described under the following heads:—1. They were in all civil matters the heads of the state, being invested with the imperium, which emanated from the sovereign people, and which they held during the time of their office. In this capacity they had the right of convoking both the senate and the assembly of the people; they presided in each (in the comitia of the curies as well as in those of the centuries), and they took care that the resolutions of the senate and people were carried into effect. They might also convoke contiones, whenever they thought it necessary. In the senate they conducted the discussions, and put the questions to the vote, thus exercising the greatest influence upon all matters which were brought before the senate either by themselves or by others. When a decree was passed by the senate, the consuls were usually commissioned to see that it was carried into effect; though there are also instances of the consuls opposing a decree of the senate. 2. The supreme command of the armies belonged to the consuls alone by virtue of their imperium. Accordingly, when a war was decreed, they were ordered by a senatus consultum to levy the troops, whose number was determined by the senate, and they appointed most of the other military officers. While at the head of their armies they had full power of life and death over their soldiers, who, on their enrolment, had to take an oath (sacramentum) to be faithful and obedient to the commands of the consuls. When the consuls had entered upon their office, the senate assigned them their provinces, that is, their spheres of action, and the consuls either settled between themselves which province each was to have, or, which was more common, they drew lots. Usually one consul remained at Rome, while the other went out at the head of the army: sometimes both left the city, and carried on war in different quarters; and sometimes, when the danger was very pressing, both consuls commanded the armies against one and the same enemy. If it was deemed advisable, the imperium of one or of both consuls was prolonged for the particular province in which they were engaged, in which case they had the title of proconsuls [[Proconsul]], and their successors either remained at Rome, or were engaged in other quarters. During the latter period of the republic the consuls remained at Rome during the time of their office, and on its expiration they had a foreign province (in the real sense of the word) assigned to them, where they undertook either the peaceful administration, or carried on war against internal or external enemies. While in their provinces, both the consuls and proconsuls had the power of life and death over the provincials, for they were looked upon there as the chief military commanders; and the provincials, being peregrini, did not enjoy the privileges of Roman citizens. 3. The supreme jurisdiction was part of the consular imperium, and as such vested in the consuls so long as there were no praetors. In civil cases they administered justice to the patricians as well as plebeians, either acting themselves as judices, or appointing others as judices and arbitri. In criminal cases there appears from early times to have been this difference: that patricians charged with capital offences were tried by the curies, while the plebeians came under the jurisdiction of the consuls, whose power, however, was in this case rather limited, partly by the intercession of the tribunes of the people, and partly by the right of appeal (provocatio) from the sentence of the consuls. The consuls might, further, summon any citizen before their tribunal, and, in case of disobedience, seize him (prendere), and fine him up to a certain amount. After the institution of the praetorship, the consuls no longer possessed any regular ordinary jurisdiction; and whenever they exercised it, it was an exception to the general custom, and only by a special command of the senate. 4. Previous to the institution of the censorship the consuls had to perform all the functions which afterwards belonged to the censors: they were accordingly the highest officers of finance, held the census, drew up the lists of the senators, equites, &c. After the establishment of the censorship they still retained the general superintendence of the public economy, inasmuch as they had the keys of the aerarium, and as the quaestors or paymasters were dependent on them. But still in the management of the finances the consuls were at all times under the control of the senate. 5. In all relations with foreign states the consuls were the representatives of the Roman republic. Hence they might conclude peace or treaties with foreign nations, which had, however, to be sanctioned by the senate and people at Rome; and unless this sanction was obtained a treaty was void. They received foreign ambassadors, and introduced them into the senate, and in short all negotiations with foreign princes or nations passed through their hands. 6. In matters connected with their own official functions, the consuls, like all other magistrates, had the power of issuing proclamations or orders (edicta), which might be binding either for the occasion only, or remain in force permanently.—Although the consular power had been gradually diminished, it was in cases of imminent danger restored to its original and full extent, by a decree of the senate calling upon the consuls videant ne quid res publica detrimenti capiat. In such cases the consuls received sovereign power, but they were responsible for the manner in which they had exercised it.—It has already been observed, that to avoid collision and confusion, the two consuls did not possess the same power at the same time, but that each had the imperium every other month. The one who possessed it, as the consul major, exercised all the rights of the office, though he always consulted his colleague. In the earliest times it was customary for the elder of the two consuls to take the imperium first, afterwards the one who had had the greater number of votes at the election, and had therefore been proclaimed (renuntiare) first. In the time of Augustus it was enacted that the consul who had most children should take precedence of the other; and some distinction of rank continued to be observed down to the latest times of the empire.—Towards the end of the republic the consulship lost its power and importance. The first severe blow it received was from Julius Caesar, the dictator, for he received the consulship in addition to his dictatorship, or he arbitrarily ordered others to be elected, who were mere nominal officers, and were allowed to do nothing without his sanction. He himself was elected consul at first for five, then for ten years, and at last for life. Under Augustus the consulship was a mere shadow of what it had been: the consuls no longer held their office for a whole year, but usually for a few months only; and hence it happened that sometimes one year saw six, twelve, or even twenty-five consuls. Those who were elected the first in the year ranked higher than the rest, and their names alone were used to mark the year, according to the ancient custom of the Romans of marking the date of an event by the names of the consuls of the year in which the event occurred. During the last period of the empire it became the practice to have titular or honorary consuls, who were elected by the senate and confirmed by the emperor. Constantine appointed two consuls, one for Rome and another for Constantinople, who held their office for a whole year, and whose functions were only those of chief justices. All the other consuls were designated as honorarii or consulares. But though the consulship had thus become almost an empty title, it was still regarded as the highest dignity in the empire, and as the object of the greatest ambition. It was connected with very great expenses, partly on account of the public games which a consul had to provide, and partly on account of the large donations he had to make to the people. The last consul at Rome was Decimus Theodorus Paulinus, A.D. 536, and at Constantinople, Flavius Basilius junior, A.D. 541.

CONSŬLARIS, signified, under the republic, a person who had held the office of consul; but under the empire, it was the title of many magistrates and public officers, who enjoyed the insignia of consular dignity, without having filled the office of consul. Thus we find commanders of armies and governors of provinces called Consulares under the empire.

CONTĬO, a contraction for conventio, that is, a meeting, or a conventus. In the technical sense, however, a contio was an assembly of the people at Rome convened by a magistrate for the purpose of making the people acquainted with measures which were to be brought before the next comitia, and of working upon them either to support or oppose the measure. But no question of any kind could be decided by a contio, and this constitutes the difference between contiones and comitia. Still contiones were also convened for other purposes, e.g. of persuading the people to take part in a war, or of bringing complaints against a party in the republic. Every magistrate had the right to convene contiones, but it was most frequently exercised by the consuls and tribunes, and the latter more especially exercised a great influence over the people in and through these contiones. A magistrate who was higher in rank than the one who had convened a contio, had the right to order the people to disperse, if he disapproved of the object. It should be remarked, that the term contio is also used to designate the speeches and harangues addressed to the people in an assembly, and that in a loose mode of speaking, contio denotes any assembly of the people.

CONTŬBERNĀLES (σύσκηνοι), signified originally men who served in the same army and lived in the same tent. The word is derived from taberna (afterwards tabernaculum), which was the original name for a military tent, as it was made of boards (tabulae). Each tent was occupied by ten soldiers (contubernales), with a subordinate officer at their head, who was called decanus, and in later times caput contubernii. Young Romans of illustrious families used to accompany a distinguished general on his expeditions, or to his province, for the purpose of gaining under his superintendence a practical training in the art of war, or in the administration of public affairs, and were, like soldiers living in the same tent, called his contubernales. In a still wider sense, the name contubernales was applied to persons connected by ties of intimate friendship, and living under the same roof; and hence, when a freeman and a slave, or two slaves, who were not allowed to contract a legal marriage, lived together as husband and wife, they were called contubernales; and their connection, as well as their place of residence, contubernium.

CONTŬBERNĬUM. [[Contubernales].]

CONVĔNĪRE IN MĂNUM. [[Matrimonium].]

CONVENTUS, was the name applied to the whole body of Roman citizens who were either permanently or for a time settled in a province. In order to facilitate the administration of justice, a province was divided into a number of districts or circuits, each of which was called conventus, forum, or jurisdictio. Roman citizens living in a province were entirely under the jurisdiction of the proconsul; and at certain times of the year, fixed by the proconsul, they assembled in the chief town of the district, and this meeting bore the name of conventus (σύνοδος). Hence the expressions—conventus agere, peragere, convocare, dimittere. At this conventus litigant parties applied to the proconsul, who selected a number of judges from the conventus to try their causes. The proconsul himself presided at the trials, and pronounced the sentence according to the views of the judges, who were his assessors (consilium or consiliarii). These conventus appear to have been generally held after the proconsul had settled the military affairs of the province; at least, when Caesar was proconsul of Gaul, he made it a regular practice to hold the conventus after his armies had retired to their winter quarters.

CONVĪVĬUM. [[Symposium].]

CŎPHĬNUS (κόφινος, Engl. coffin), a large kind of wicker basket, made of willow branches. It would seem that it was used by the Greeks as a basket or cage for birds. The Romans used it for agricultural purposes, and it sometimes formed a kind of portable hot-bed. Juvenal, when speaking of the Jews, uses the expression cophinus et foenum (a truss of hay), figuratively to designate their poverty.

CORBIS, dim. CORBŬLA, CORBĬCŬLA, a basket of very peculiar form and common use among the Romans, both for agricultural and other purposes. It was made of osiers twisted together, and was of a conical or pyramidal shape. A basket answering precisely to this description, both in form and material, is still to be seen in every-day use among the Campanian peasantry, which is called in the language of the country “la corbella.”

CORBĪTAE, merchantmen of the larger class, so called because they hung out a corbis at the mast-head for a sign. They were also termed onerariae; and hence Plautus, in order to designate the voracious appetites of some women, says, “Corbitam cibi comesse possunt.”

Cornu. (Bartholini de Tibiis.)

Altar of Julius Victor. (Bartoli, Pict. Ant., p. 76.)

CORNU, a wind instrument, anciently made of horn, but afterwards of brass. Like the tuba, it differed from the tibia in being a larger and more powerful instrument, and from the tuba itself, in being curved nearly in the shape of a C, with a cross-piece to steady the instrument for the convenience of the performer. Hence Ovid says (Met. i. 98):

“Non tuba directi, non aeris cornua flexi.”

The classicum, which originally meant a signal, rather than the musical instrument which gave the signal, was usually sounded with the cornu.

“Sonuit reflexo classicum cornu,

Lituusque adunco stridulos cantus

Elisit aere.”

(Sen. Oed. 734.)

The Cornicines and Liticines, the persons who blew the Cornu and Lituus, formed a collegium. In the preceding cut, M. Julius Victor, a member of the Collegium, holds a lituus in his right hand, and touches with his left a cornu on the ground. See engraving under [Tuba].

Corona Civica, on a Coin of the Emperor Galba.
SPQR OB CS = Senatus Populusque Romanus ob civem servatum.

CŎRŌNA (στέφανος), a crown, that is, a circular ornament of metal, leaves, or flowers, worn by the ancients round the head or neck, and used as a festive as well as funereal decoration, and as a reward of talent, military or naval prowess, and civil worth. Its first introduction as an honorary reward is attributable to the athletic games, in some of which it was bestowed as a prize upon the victor. It was the only reward contended for by the Spartans in their gymnic contests, and was worn by them when going to battle. The Romans refined upon the practice of the Greeks, and invented a great variety of crowns formed of different materials, each with a separate appellation, and appropriated to a particular purpose.—I. Corona Obsidionalis. Amongst the honorary crowns bestowed by the Romans for military achievements, the most difficult of attainment, and the one which conferred the highest honour, was the corona obsidionalis, presented by a beleaguered army after its liberation to the general who broke up the siege. It was made of grass, or weeds and wild flowers, thence called corona graminea, and graminea obsidionalis, gathered from the spot on which the beleaguered army had been enclosed.—II. Corona Civica, the second in honour and importance, was presented to the soldier who had preserved the life of a Roman citizen in battle. It was made of the leaves of the oak. The soldier who had acquired this crown had a place reserved next to the senate at all the public spectacles; and they, as well as the rest of the company, rose up upon his entrance. He was freed from all public burthens, as were also his father, and his paternal grandfather; and the person who owed his life to him was bound, ever after, to cherish his preserver as a parent, and afford him all such offices as were due from a son to his father.—III. Corona Navalis or Rostrata, called also Classica. It is difficult to determine whether these were two distinct crowns, or only two denominations for the same one. It seems probable that the navalis corona, besides being a generic term, was inferior in dignity to the latter, and given to the sailor who first boarded an enemy’s ship; whereas the rostrata was given to a commander who destroyed the whole fleet, or gained any very signal victory. At all events, they were both made of gold; and one at least (rostrata) decorated with the beaks of ships like the rostra in the forum. The Athenians likewise bestowed golden crowns for naval services; sometimes upon the person who got his trireme first equipped, and at others upon the captain who had his vessel in the best order.—IV. Corona Muralis, was presented by the general to the first man who scaled the wall of a besieged city. It was made of gold, and decorated with turrets.—V. Corona Castrensis or Vallaris, was presented to the first soldier who surmounted the vallum, and forced an entrance into the enemy’s camp. This crown was made of gold, and ornamented with the palisades (valli) used in forming an entrenchment.—VI. Corona Triumphalis. There were three sorts of triumphal crowns: the first was made of laurel or bay leaves, and was worn round the head of the commander during his triumph; the second was of gold, which, being too large and massive to be worn, was held over the head of the general during his triumph, by a public officer. This crown, as well as the former one, was presented to the victorious general by his army. The third kind, likewise of gold and of great value, was sent as a present from the provinces to the commander. [Aurum Coronarium.]—VII. Corona Ovalis, was given to a commander who obtained only an ovation. It was made of myrtle.—VIII. Corona Oleagina, was made of the olive leaf, and conferred upon the soldiers as well as their commanders.—The Greeks in general made but little use of crowns as rewards of valour in the earlier periods of their history, except as prizes in the athletic contests; but previous to the time of Alexander, crowns of gold were profusely distributed, amongst the Athenians at least, for every trifling feat, whether civil, naval, or military, which, though lavished without much discrimination as far as regards the character of the receiving parties, were still subjected to certain legal restrictions in respect of the time, place, and mode in which they were conferred. They could not be presented but in the public assemblies, and with the consent, that is by suffrage, of the people, or by the senators in their council, or by the tribes to their own members, or by the δημόται to members of their own δῆμος. According to the statement of Aeschines, the people could not lawfully present crowns in any place except in their assembly, nor the senators except in the senate-house; nor, according to the same authority, in the theatre, which is, however, denied by Demosthenes; nor at the public games, and if any crier there proclaimed the crowns he was subject to atimia. Neither could any person holding an office receive a crown whilst he was ὑπεύθυνος, that is, before he had passed his accounts.—The second class of crowns were emblematical and not honorary, and the adoption of them was not regulated by law, but custom. Of these there were also several kinds.—I. Corona Sacerdotalis, was worn by the priests (sacerdotes), with the exception of the pontifex maximus and his minister (camillus), as well as the bystanders, when officiating at the sacrifice. It does not appear to have been confined to any one material.—II. Corona Funebris and Sepulchralis. The Greeks first set the example of crowning the dead with chaplets of leaves and flowers, which was imitated by the Romans. Garlands of flowers were also placed upon the bier, or scattered from the windows under which the procession passed, or entwined about the cinerary urn, or as a decoration to the tomb. In Greece these crowns were commonly made of parsley.—III. Corona Convivialis. The use of chaplets at festive entertainments sprung likewise from Greece. They were of various shrubs and flowers, such as roses (which were the choicest), violets, myrtle, ivy, philyra, and even parsley.—IV. Corona Nuptialis. The bridal wreath was also of Greek origin, among whom it was made of flowers plucked by the bride herself, and not bought, which was of ill omen. Amongst the Romans it was made of verbena, also gathered by the bride herself, and worn under the flammeum, with which the bride was always enveloped. The bridegroom also wore a chaplet. The doors of his house were likewise decorated with garlands, and also the bridal couch.—V. Corona Natalitia, the chaplet suspended over the door of the vestibule, both in the houses of Athens and Rome, in which a child was born. At Athens, when the infant was male, the crown was made of olive; when female, of wool. At Rome it was of laurel, ivy, or parsley.

Females with Crowns. (From an ancient Painting.)

CŎRŌNIS (κορωνίς), the cornice of an entablature, is properly a Greek word signifying anything curved. It is also used by Latin writers, but the genuine Latin word for a cornice is corona or coronix.

CORTĪNA, the name of the table or hollow slab, supported by a tripod, upon which the priestess at Delphi sat to deliver her responses; and hence the word is used for the oracle itself. The Romans made tables of marble or bronze after the pattern of the Delphian tripod, which they used as we do our sideboards, for the purpose of displaying their plate at an entertainment. These were termed cortinae Delphicae, or Delphicae simply.

CŎRỸBANTĬCA (κορυβαντικά), a festival and mysteries celebrated at Cnossus in Crete, by the Corybantes. (See Class. Dict., Corybantes.)

CŎRYMBUS (κόρυμβος). [[Coma].]

CORVUS, a sort of crane, used by C. Duilius against the Carthaginian fleet in the battle fought off Mylae, in Sicily (B.C. 260). The Romans, we are told, being unused to the sea, saw that their only chance of victory was by bringing a sea-fight to resemble one on land. For this purpose they invented a machine, of which Polybius has left a minute description. In the fore part of the ship a round pole was fixed perpendicularly, twenty-four feet in height and about nine inches in diameter; at the top of this was a pivot, upon which a ladder was set, thirty-six feet in length and four in breadth. The ladder was guarded by cross-beams, fastened to the upright pole by a ring of wood, which turned with the pivot above. Along the ladder a rope was passed, one end of which took hold of the corvus by means of a ring. The corvus itself was a strong piece of iron, with a spike at the end, which was raised or lowered by drawing in or letting out the rope. When an enemy’s ship drew near, the machine was turned outwards, by means of the pivot, in the direction of the assailant. Another part of the machine was a breast-work, let down from the ladder, and serving as a bridge, on which to board the enemy’s vessel. By means of these cranes the Carthaginian ships were either broken or closely locked with the Roman, and Duilius gained a complete victory.

CŌRȲTOS or CŌRȲTUS (γωρυτός, κωρυτός), [[Arcus].]

COSMĒTAE, a class of slaves among the Romans, whose duty it was to dress and adorn ladies.

COSMI (κοσμοί), the supreme magistrates in Crete, were ten in number, and were chosen, not from the body of the people, but from certain γένη or houses, which were probably of more pure Doric or Achaean descent than their neighbours. The first of them in rank was called protocosmus, and gave his name to the year. They commanded in war, and also conducted the business of the state with the representatives and ambassadors of other cities. Their period of office was a year; but any of them during that time might resign, and was also liable to deposition by his colleagues. In some cases, too, they might be indicted for neglect of their duties. On the whole, we may conclude that they formed the executive and chief power in most of the cities of Crete.

Cothurnus. (From Statues of Artemis—Diana.)

CŎTHURNUS (κόθορνος), a boot. Its essential distinction was its height; it rose above the middle of the leg, so as to surround the calf, and sometimes it reached as high as the knees. It was worn principally by horsemen, by hunters, and by men of rank and authority. The sole of the cothurnus was commonly of the ordinary thickness; but it was sometimes made much thicker than usual, probably by the insertion of slices of cork. The object was, to add to the apparent stature of the wearer; and this was done in the case of the actors in Athenian tragedy, who had the soles made unusually thick as one of the methods adopted in order to magnify their whole appearance. Hence tragedy in general was called cothurnus. As the cothurnus was commonly worn in hunting, it is represented as part of the costume of Artemis (Diana).

COTTĂBUS (κότταβος), a social game which was introduced from Sicily into Greece, where it became one of the favourite amusements of young people after their repasts. The simplest way in which it originally was played was this:—One of the company threw out of a goblet a certain quantity of wine, at a certain distance, into a metal basin. While he was doing this, he either thought of or pronounced the name of his mistress; and if all the wine fell in the basin, and with a full sound, it was a good sign for the lover. This simple amusement soon assumed a variety of different characters, and became, in some instances, a regular contest, with prizes for the victor. One of the most celebrated modes in which it was carried on is called δι’ ὀξυβάφων. A basin was filled with water, with small empty cups (ὀξύβαφα) swimming upon it. Into these the young men, one after another, threw the remnant of the wine from their goblets, and he who had the good fortune to drown most of the bowls obtained the prize, consisting either of simple cakes, sweetmeats, or sesame-cakes.

CŎTYTTĬA (κοττύτια), a festival which was originally celebrated by the Edonians of Thrace, in honour of a goddess called Cotys, or Cotytto. It was held at night. The worship of Cotys, together with the festival of the Cotyttia, was adopted by several Greek states, chiefly those which were induced by their commercial interest to maintain friendly relations with Thrace. The festivals of this goddess were notorious among the ancients for the dissolute manner and the debaucheries with which they were celebrated.

CŎTỸLA (κοτύλη), a measure of capacity among the Romans and Greeks: by the former it was also called hemina; by the latter, τρυβλίον and ἡμίνα or ἡμίμνα. It was the half of the sextarius or ξέστης, and contained 6 cyathi, or nearly half a pint English.

CŎVĪNUS (Celtic, kowain), a kind of car, the spokes of which were armed with long sickles, and which was used as a scythe-chariot chiefly by the ancient Belgians and Britons. The Romans designated, by the name of covinus, a kind of travelling carriage, which seems to have been covered on all sides with the exception of the front. It had no seat for a driver, but was conducted by the traveller himself, who sat inside. The covinarii (this word occurs only in Tacitus) seem to have constituted a regular and distinct part of a British army. Compare [Essedum].

CRĀTER (κρατήρ, Ionic κρητήρ, from κεράννυμι, I mix), a vessel in which the wine, according to the custom of the ancients, who very seldom drank it pure, was mixed with water, and from which the cups were filled. Craters were among the first things on the embellishment of which the ancient artists exercised their skill; and the number of craters dedicated in temples seems everywhere to have been very great.

CRĔPĬDA (κρηπίς), a slipper. Slippers were worn with the pallium, not with the toga, and were properly characteristic of the Greeks, though adopted from them by the Romans.

CRĪMEN. Though this word occurs so frequently, it is not easy to fix its meaning. Crimen is often equivalent to accusatio (κατηγορία); but it frequently means an act which is legally punishable. Those delicta which were punishable according to special leges, senatus consulta, and constitutiones, and were prosecuted in judicia publica by an accusatio publica, were more especially called crimina; and the penalties in case of conviction were loss of life, of freedom, of civitas, and the consequent infamia, and sometimes pecuniary penalties also.

CRISTA. [[Galea].]

CRĬTES (κριτής), a judge, was the name applied by the Greeks to any person who did not judge of a thing like a δικαστής, according to positive laws, but according to his own sense of justice and equity. But at Athens a number of κριταί was chosen by ballot from a number of selected candidates at every celebration of the Dionysia: they were called οἱ κριταί, κατ’ ἐξοχήν. Their office was to judge of the merit of the different choruses and dramatic poems, and to award the prizes to the victors. Their number was five for comedy and the same number for tragedy, one being taken from every tribe.

CRŌBỸLUS. [[Coma].]

CRŎCŌTA (sc. vestis, κροκωτὸν sc. ἱμάτιον, or κροκωτὸς sc. χιτών), was a kind of gala-dress, chiefly worn by women on solemn occasions, and in Greece especially, at the festival of the Dionysia. Its name was derived from crocus, one of the favourite colours of the Greek ladies.

CRŎTĂLUM. [[Cymbalum].]

CRUSTA. [[Caelatura].]

CRUX (σταυρός, σκόλοψ), an instrument of capital punishment, used by several ancient nations, especially the Romans and Carthaginians. Crucifixion was of two kinds, the less usual sort being rather impalement than what we should describe by the word crucifixion, as the criminal was transfixed by a pole, which passed through the back and spine and came out at the mouth. The cross was of several kinds; one in the shape of an X, called crux Andreana, because tradition reports St. Andrew to have suffered upon it; another was formed like a T. The third, and most common sort, was made of two pieces of wood crossed, so as to make four right angles. It was on this, according to the unanimous testimony of the fathers, that our Saviour suffered. The punishment, as is well known, was chiefly inflicted on slaves, and the worst kind of malefactors. The criminal, after sentence pronounced, carried his cross to the place of execution; a custom mentioned in the Gospels. Scourging appears to have formed a part of this, as of other capital punishments among the Romans; but the scourging of our Saviour is not to be regarded in this light, for it was inflicted before sentence was pronounced. The criminal was next stripped of his clothes and nailed or bound to the cross. The latter was the more painful method, as the sufferer was left to die of hunger. Instances are recorded of persons who survived nine days. It was usual to leave the body on the cross after death. The breaking of the legs of the thieves, mentioned in the Gospels, was accidental; because, by the Jewish law, it is expressly remarked, the bodies could not remain on the cross during the Sabbath-day.

CRYPTA (from κρύπτειν, to conceal), a crypt. Amongst the Romans, any long narrow vault, whether wholly or partially below the level of the earth, is expressed by this term. The specific senses of the word are:—(1) A covered portico or arcade; called more definitely crypto-porticus, because it was not supported by open columns like the ordinary portico, but closed at the sides, with windows only for the admission of light and air.—(2) A grotto, particularly one open at both extremities, forming what in modern language is denominated a “tunnel.” A subterranean vault used for any secret worship was also called crypta.—(3) When the practice of consuming the body by fire was relinquished [[Funus]], and a number of bodies was consigned to one place of burial, as the catacombs for instance, this common tomb was called crypta.

CRYPTEIA (κρυπτεία), the name of an atrocious practice at Sparta, said to have been introduced by Lycurgus. The following is the description given of the crypteia. The ephors, at intervals, selected from among the young Spartans, those who appeared to be best qualified for the task, and sent them in various directions all over the country, provided with daggers and their necessary food. During the day-time, these young men concealed themselves; but at night they broke forth into the high-roads, and massacred those of the helots whom they met, or whom they thought proper.

CŬBĬCŬLĀRĬI, slaves who had the care of the sleeping and dwelling rooms. Faithful slaves were always selected for this office, as they had, to a certain extent, the care of their master’s person. It was the duty of the cubicularii to introduce visitors to their master.

CŬBĬCŬLUM usually means a sleeping and dwelling room in a Roman house [[Domus]], but it is also applied to the pavilion or tent in which the Roman emperors were accustomed to witness the public games. It appears to have been so called, because the emperors were accustomed to recline in the cubicula, instead of sitting, as was anciently the practice, in a sella curulis.

CŬBĬTUS (πῆχυς), a Greek and Roman measure of length, originally the length of the human arm from the elbow to the wrist, or to the knuckle of the middle finger. It was equal to a foot and a half, which gives 1 foot 5·4744 inches Eng. for the Roman, and 1 foot 6·2016 inches for the Greek cubit.

CŬCULLUS, a cowl. As the cowl was intended to be used in the open air, and to be drawn over the head to protect it from the injuries of the weather, instead of a hat or cap, it was attached only to garments of the coarsest kind. The cucullus was also used by persons in the higher circles of society, when they wished to go abroad without being known.

CŪDO or CŪDON, a skull-cap made of leather or of the rough shaggy fur of any wild animal, such as were worn by the velites of the Roman armies, and apparently synonymous with galerus or galericulus.

CŪLĔUS, or CULLĔUS, a Roman measure, which was used for estimating the produce of vineyards. It was the largest liquid measure used by the Romans, containing 20 amphorae, or 118 gallons, 7·546 pints.

CŬLĪNA. [[Domus], [p. 143].]

Cultri (From Tombstone of a Cultrarius.)

CULTER (μάχαιρα, κοπίς, or σφαγίς), a knife with only one edge, which formed a straight line. The blade was pointed, and its back curved. It was used for a variety of purposes, but chiefly for killing animals either in the slaughter-house, or in hunting, or at the altars of the gods. The priest who conducted a sacrifice never killed the victim himself; but one of his ministri, appointed for that purpose, who was called either by the general name minister, or the more specific popa or cultrarius.

CULTRĀRĬUS. [[Culter].]

CŬNĔUS was the name applied to a body of foot soldiers, drawn up in the form of a wedge, for the purpose of breaking through an enemy’s line. The common soldiers called it a caput porcinum, or pig’s head. The name cuneus was also applied to the compartments of seats in circular or semi-circular theatres, which were so arranged as to converge to the centre of the theatre, and diverge towards the external walls of the building, with passages between each compartment.

CŬNĪCŬLUS (ὑπόνομος), a mine or passage underground, was so called from its resemblance to the burrowing of a rabbit. Fidenae and Veii are said to have been taken by mines, which opened, one of them into the citadel, the other into the temple of Juno.

CŪPA, a wine-vat, a vessel very much like the dolium, and used for the same purpose, namely, to receive the fresh must, and to contain it during the process of fermentation. The inferior wines were drawn for drinking from the cupa, without being bottled in amphorae, and hence the term vinum de cupa. The cupa was either made of earthenware, like the dolium, or of wood, and covered with pitch. It was also used for fruits and corn, forming rafts, and containing combustibles in war, and even for a sarcophagus.

CŪRĀTOR. Till a Roman youth attained the age of puberty, which was generally fixed at fourteen years of age, he was incapable of any legal act, and was under the authority of a tutor or guardian; but with the attainment of the age of puberty, he became capable of performing every legal act, and was freed from the control of his tutor. As, however, a person of that tender age was liable to be imposed upon, the lex Plaetoria enacted that every person between the time of puberty and twenty-five years of age should be under the protection of a curator. The date of this lex is not known, though it is certain that the law existed when Plautus wrote (about B.C. 200), who speaks of it as the lex quina vicemaria. This law established a distinction of age, which was of great practical importance, by forming the citizens into two classes, those above and those below twenty-five years of age (minores viginti quinque annis). A person under the last-mentioned age was sometimes simply called minor. The object of the lex was to protect persons under twenty-five years of age against all fraud (dolus). A person who wasted his property (prodigus), and a person of unsound mind (furiosus, demens), were also placed under the care of a curator.

CŪRĀTŌRES were public officers of various kinds under the Roman empire, such as the curatores annonae, the curatores ludorum, the curatores regionum, &c.

CŪRĬA, signifies both a division of the Roman people and the place of assembly for such a division. Each of the three ancient Romulian tribes, the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, was subdivided into 10 curiae, so that the whole body of the populus or the patricians was divided into 30 curiae. The plebeians had no connection whatever with the curiae. All the members of the different gentes belonging to one curia were called, in respect of one another, curiales. The division into curiae was of great political importance in the earliest times of Rome, for the curiae alone contained the citizens, and their assembly alone was the legitimate representative of the whole people. [[Comitia curiata].] Each curia as a corporation had its peculiar sacra, and besides the gods of the state, they worshipped other divinities and with peculiar rites and ceremonies. For such religious purposes each curia had its own place of worship, called curia, in which the curiales assembled for the purpose of discussing political, financial, religious and other matters. The religious affairs of each curia were taken care of by a priest, Curio, who was assisted by another called curialis Flamen. As there were 30 curiae, there were likewise 30 curiones, who formed a college of priests, presided over by one of them, called Curio Maximus. The 30 curiae had each its distinct name, which are said to have been derived from the names of the Sabine women who had been carried off by the Romans, though it is evident that some derived their names from certain districts or from ancient eponymous heroes. Curia is also used to designate the place in which the senate held its meetings, such as curia Hostilia, curia Julia, curia Pompeii, and from this there gradually arose the custom of calling the senate itself in the Italian towns curia, but never the senate of Rome. The official residence of the Salii, which was dedicated to Mars, was likewise styled curia.

CŪRIĀTA CŎMĬTĬA. [[Comitia].]

CŪRĬO. [[Curia].]

CŪRĬUS (κύριος), signified generally at Athens the person responsible for the welfare of such members of a family as the law presumed to be incapable of protecting themselves; as, for instance, minors and slaves, and women of all ages.

Currus. (Ancient Chariot preserved in the Vatican.)

CURRUS (ἅρμα), a chariot, a car. These terms appear to have denoted those two-wheeled vehicles for the carriage of persons, which were open overhead, thus differing from the carpentum, and closed in front, in which they differed from the cisium. The most essential articles in the construction of the currus were, 1. The rim (ἄντυξ) [[Antyx]]. 2. The axle (ἄξων, axis). 3. The wheels (κύκλα, τροχοί, rotae), which revolved upon the axle, and were prevented from coming off by the insertion of pins (ἔμβολοι) into the extremities of the axles. The parts of the wheel were:—(a) The nave (πλήμνη, modiolus). (b) The spokes (κνῆμαι, literally, the legs, radii.) (c) The felly (ἴτυς). (d) The tire (ἐπίσωτρον, canthus). 4. The pole (ῥυμός, temo). All the parts above mentioned are seen in the preceding cut of an ancient chariot. The Greeks and Romans appear never to have used more than one pole and one yoke, and the currus thus constructed was commonly drawn by two horses, which were attached to it by their necks, and therefore called δίζυγες ἵπποι, συνωρίς, gemini jugales, equi bijuges, &c. If a third horse was added, as was not unfrequently the case, it was fastened by traces. The horse so attached was called παρήορος, παράσειρος, σειραφόρος, in Latin, funalis, and is opposed to the ζυγῖται or ζύγιοι, the yoke-horses. The ἵππος παρήορος is placed on the right of the two yoke-horses. (See woodcut.) The Latin name for a chariot and pair was biga, generally bigae. When a third horse was added, it was called triga.

Triga. (From a Painting on a Vase.)

Quadrigae. (From Paintings on a Vase and a Terra-cotta.)

A chariot and four was called quadriga, generally quadrigae; in Greek, τετραορία or τέθριππος. The horses were commonly harnessed in a quadriga after the manner already represented, the two strongest horses being placed under the yoke, and the two others fastened on each side by means of ropes. This is clearly seen in the two quadrigae figured below, especially in the one on the right hand. It represents a chariot overthrown in passing the goal at the circus. The charioteer having fallen backwards, the pole and yoke are thrown upwards into the air; the two trace-horses have fallen on their knees, and the two yoke-horses are prancing on their hind legs.—The currus was adapted to carry two persons, and on this account was called in Greek δίφρος. One of the two was of course the driver. He was called ἡνίοχος, because he held the reins, and his companion παραβάτης, from going by his side or near him. In the Homeric ages, chariots were commonly employed on the field of battle. The men of rank all took their chariots with them, and in an engagement placed themselves in front. Chariots were not much used by the Romans. The most splendid kind were the quadrigae, in which the Roman generals and emperors rode when they triumphed. The body of the triumphal car was cylindrical, as we often see it represented on medals. It was enriched with gold and ivory. The utmost skill of the painter and the sculptor was employed to enhance its beauty and splendour. The triumphal car had in general no pole, the horses being led by men who were stationed at their heads.

Marble Chariot in the Vatican.

CURSŌRES, slaves whose duty it was to run before the carriage of their masters. They first came into fashion in the first century of the Christian aera. The word cursores was also applied to all slaves whom their masters employed in carrying letters, messages, &c.

CURSUS. [[Circus].]

CŬRŪLIS SELLA. [[Sella Curulis].]

CUSTŌDES. [[Comitia].]

CUSTŌDES, CUSTŌDĬAE. [[Castra].]

CUSTOS URBIS. [[Praefectus Urbi].]

Cyathi. (Museo Borbonico, vol. iv. pl. 12.)

CỸĂTHUS (κύαθος), a Greek and Roman liquid measure, containing one-twelfth of the sextarius, or ·0825 of a pint English. The form of the cyathus used at banquets was that of a small ladle, by means of which the wine was conveyed into the drinking-cups from the large vessel (crater) in which it was mixed. Two of these cyathi are represented in the preceding woodcut. The cyathus was also the name given to a cup holding the same quantity as the measure. Hence Horace says (Carm. iii. 8. 13):

“Sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici

Sospitis centum.”

CYCLAS (κυκλάς), a circular robe worn by women, to the bottom of which a border was affixed, inlaid with gold. It appears to have been usually made of some thin material.

CȲMA (κῦμα), in architecture, an ogee, a wave-shaped moulding, consisting of two curves, the one concave and the other convex. There were two forms, the cyma recta, which was concave above, and convex below, thus,

, and the cyma reversa, which was convex above and concave below, thus

. The diminutive cymatium or cumatium (κυμάτιον) is also used, and is indeed the more common name.

CYMBA (κύμβη) is derived from κύμβος, a hollow, and is employed to signify any small kind of boat used on lakes, rivers, &c. It appears to have been much the same as the acatium and scapha.

Cymbala. (From a Bas-relief in the Vatican.)

CYMBĂLUM (κύμβαλον), a musical instrument, in the shape of two half globes, which were held one in each hand by the performer, and played by being struck against each other. The word is derived from κύμβος, a hollow. The cymbal was a very ancient instrument, being used in the worship of Cybelé, Bacchus, Juno, and all the earlier deities of the Grecian and Roman mythology. It probably came from the East. The crotalum (κρόταλον) was a kind of cymbal. It appears to have been a split reed or cane, which clattered when shaken with the hand. Women who played on the crotalum were termed crotalistriae. Such was Virgil’s Copa:

“Crispum sub crotalo docta movere latus.”

The line alludes to the dance with crotala (similar to castanets).—For sistrum, which some have referred to the class of cymbala, see [Sistrum].

Crotala. (Borghese Vase now in the Louvre.)