Carna and Cardinea, a goddess at Rome who presided over hinges, as also over the entrails and secret parts of the human body. She was originally a nymph called Grane, whom Janus ravished, and, for the injury, he gave her the power of presiding over the exterior of houses, and of removing all noxious birds from the doors. The Romans offered her beans, bacon, and vegetables, to represent the simplicity of their ancestors. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 101, &c.
Carnasius, a village of Messenia in Peloponnesus. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 33.
Carneădes, a philosopher of Cyrene in Africa, founder of a sect called the third or new academy. The Athenians sent him with Diogenes the Stoic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic, as ambassadors to Rome, B.C. 155. The Roman youth were extremely fond of the company of these learned philosophers; and when Carneades, in a speech, had given an accurate and judicious dissertation upon justice, and in another speech confuted all the arguments he had advanced, and apparently given no existence to the virtue he had so much commended, a report prevailed all over Rome, that a Grecian was come who had so captivated by his words the rising generation, that they forgot their usual amusements, and ran mad after philosophy. When this reached the ears of Cato the censor, he gave immediate audience to the Athenian ambassadors in the senate, and dismissed them in haste, expressing his apprehensions of their corrupting the opinions of the Roman people, whose only profession, he sternly observed, was arms and war. Carneades denied that anything could be perceived or understood in the world, and he was the first who introduced a universal suspension of assent. He died in the 90th year of his age, B.C. 128. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 12, ltr. 23; On Oratory, bks. 1 & 2.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 30.—Lactantius, bk. 5, ch. 14.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 8.
Carneia, a festival observed in most of the Grecian cities, but more particularly at Sparta, where it was first instituted, about 675 B.C., in honour of Apollo, surnamed Carneus. It lasted nine days, and was an imitation of the manner of living in camps among the ancients.
Carnion, a town of Laconia.——A river of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 34.
Carnus, a prophet of Acarnania, from whom Apollo was called Carneus. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 13.
Carnūtes, a people of Celtic Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6, ch. 4.
Carpasia and Carpasium, a town of Cyprus.
Carpăthus, an island in the Mediterranean between Rhodes and Crete, now called Scapanto. It has given its name to a part of the neighbouring sea, thence called the Carpathian sea, between Rhodes and Crete. Carpathus was at first inhabited by some Cretan soldiers of Minos. It was 20 miles in circumference, and was sometimes called Tetrapolis, from its four capital cities. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.—Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 45.—Diodorus, bk. 5.—Strabo, bk. 10.
Carpia, an ancient name of Tartessus. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 19.