Camalodūnum, a Roman colony in Britain, supposed Malden, or Colchester.
Camantium, a town of Asia Minor.
Camarīna, a town of Italy.——A lake of Sicily, with a town of the same name, built B.C. 552. It was destroyed by the Syracusans, and rebuilt by a certain Hipponous. The lake was drained, contrary to the advice of Apollo, as the ancients supposed, and a pestilence was the consequence; but the lowness of the lake below the level of the sea prevents it being drained. The words Camarinam movere are become proverbial to express an unsuccessful and dangerous attempt. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 701.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 134.
Cambaules, a general of some Gauls who invaded Greece. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 19.
Cambes, a prince of Lydia, of such voracious appetite that he ate his own wife, &c. Ælian, bk. 1, Varia Historia, ch. 27.
Cambre, a place near Puteoli. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 154.
Cambunii, mountains of Macedonia. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 53.
Camby̆ses, a king of Persia, was son of Cyrus the Great. He conquered Egypt, and was so offended at the superstition of the Egyptians, that he killed their god Apis, and plundered their temples. When he wished to take Pelusium, he placed at the head of his army a number of cats and dogs; and the Egyptians refusing, in the attempt to defend themselves, to kill animals which they reverenced as divinities, became an easy prey to the enemy. Cambyses afterwards sent an army of 50,000 men to destroy Jupiter Ammon’s temple, and resolved to attack the Carthaginians and Æthiopians. He killed his brother Smerdis from mere suspicion, and flayed alive a partial judge, whose skin he nailed on the judgment seat, and appointed his son to succeed him, telling him to remember where he sat. He died of a small wound he had given himself with his sword as he mounted on horseback; and the Egyptians observed that it was the same place on which he had wounded their god Apis, and that therefore he was visited by the hand of the gods. His death happened 521 years before the birth of Christ. He left no issue to succeed him, and his throne was usurped by the magi, and ascended by Darius soon after. Herodotus, bks. 2, 3, &c.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 3.——A person of obscure origin, to whom king Astyages gave his daughter Mandane in marriage. The king, who had been terrified by dreams which threatened the loss of his crown by the hand of his daughter’s son, had taken this step in hopes that the children of so ignoble a bed would ever remain in obscurity. He was disappointed. Cyrus, Mandane’s son, dethroned him when grown to manhood. Herodotus, bk. 1, chs. 46, 107, &c.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 4.——A river of Asia, which flows from mount Caucasus into the Cyrus. Mela, bk. 3, ch. 5.
Camelāni, a people of Italy.
Camelītæ, a people of Mesopotamia.