Authorities.—Joule’s Scientific Papers (London, 1890); Ames and Griffiths, Reports to the International Congress (Paris, 1900), “On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat,” and “On the Specific Heat of Water”; Griffiths, Thermal Measurement of Energy (Cambridge, 1901); Callendar and Barnes, Phil. Trans. A, 1901, “On the Variation of the Specific Heat of Water”; for combustion methods, see article [Thermochemistry], and treatises by Thomsen, Pattison-Muir and Berthelot; see also articles [Thermodynamics] and [Vaporization].
(H. L. C.)
CALOVIUS, ABRAHAM (1612-1686), German Lutheran divine, was born at Mohrungen in east Prussia, on the 16th of April 1612. After studying at Königsberg, in 1650 he was appointed professor of theology at Wittenberg, where he afterwards became general superintendent and primarius. He died on the 25th of February 1686. Calovius was the most noteworthy of the champions of Lutheran orthodoxy in the 17th century. He strongly opposed the Catholics, Calvinists and Socinians, attacked in particular the reconciliation policy or “syncretism” of Georg Calixtus (cf. the Consensus repetitus fidei vere lutheranae, 1665), and as a writer of polemics he had few equals. His chief dogmatic work, Systema locorum theologicorum (12 vols. 1655-1677), represents the climax of Lutheran scholasticism. In his Biblia Illustrata (4 vols.), written from the point of view of a very strict belief in inspiration, his object is to refute the statements made by Hugo Grotius in his Commentaries. His Historia Syncretistica (1682) was suppressed.
CALPURNIUS, TITUS, Roman bucolic poet, surnamed Siculus from his birthplace or from his imitation of the style of the Sicilian Theocritus, most probably flourished during the reign of Nero. Eleven eclogues have been handed down to us under his name, of which the last four, from metrical considerations and express MS. testimony, are now generally attributed to Nemesianus (q.v.), who lived in the time of the emperor Carus and his sons (latter half of the 3rd century a.d.). Hardly anything is known of the life of Calpurnius; we gather from the poems themselves (in which he is obviously represented by “Corydon”) that he was in poor circumstances and was on the point of emigrating to Spain, when “Meliboeus” came to his aid. Through his influence Calpurnius apparently secured a post at Rome. The time at which Calpurnius lived has been much discussed, but all the indications seem to point to the time of Nero. The emperor is described as a handsome youth, like Mars and Apollo, whose accession marks the beginning of a new golden age, prognosticated by the appearance of a comet, doubtless the same that appeared some time before the death of Claudius; he exhibits splendid games in the amphitheatre (probably the wooden amphitheatre erected by Nero in 57); and in the words
maternis causam qui vicit Iulis[1] (i. 45),
there is a reference to the speech delivered in Greek by Nero on behalf of the Ilienses (Suetonius, Nero, 7; Tacitus, Annals, xii. 58), from whom the Julii derived their family.[2] Meliboeus, the poet’s patron, has been variously identified with Columella, Seneca the philosopher, and C. Calpurnius Piso. Although the sphere of Meliboeus’s literary activity (as indicated in iv. 53) suits none of these, what is known of Calpurnius Piso fits in well with what is said of Meliboeus by the poet, who speaks of his generosity, his intimacy with the emperor, and his interest in tragic poetry. His claim is further supported by the poem De Laude Pisonis (ed. C.F. Weber, 1859) which has come down to us without the name of the author, but which there is considerable reason for attributing to Calpurnius.[3] The poem exhibits a striking similarity with the eclogues in metre, language and subject-matter. The author of the Laus is young, of respectable family and desirous of gaining the favour of Piso as his Maecenas. Further, the similarity between the two names can hardly be accidental; it is suggested that the poet may have been adopted by the courtier, or that he was the son of a freedman of Piso. The attitude of the author of the Laus towards the subject of the panegyric seems to show less intimacy than the relations between Corydon and Meliboeus in the eclogues, and there is internal evidence that the Laus was written during the reign of Claudius (Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist, of Rom. Lit. § 306, 6).
Mention may here be made of the fragments of two short hexameter poems in an Einsiedeln MS., obviously belonging to the time of Nero, which if not written by Calpurnius, were imitated from him.