CARINUS, MARCUS AURELIUS, Roman emperor, a.d. 283-284, was the elder son of the emperor Carus, on whose accession he was appointed governor of the western portion of the empire. He fought with success against the German tribes, but soon left the defence of the Upper Rhine to his legates and returned to Rome, where he abandoned himself to all kinds of debauchery and excess. He also celebrated the ludi Romani on a scale of unexampled magnificence. After the death of Carus, the army in the East demanded to be led back to Europe, and Numerianus, the younger son of Carus, was forced to comply. During a halt at Chalcedon, Numerianus was murdered, and Diocletian, commander of the body-guards, was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Carinus at once left Rome and set out for the East to meet Diocletian. On his way through Pannonia he put down the usurper M. Aurelius Julianus, and encountered the army of Diocletian in Moesia. Carinus was successful in several engagements, and at the battle on the Margus (Morava), according to one account, the valour of his troops had gained the day, when he was assassinated by a tribune whose wife he had seduced. In another account, the battle is represented as having resulted in a complete victory for Diocletian. Carinus has the reputation of having been one of the worst of the emperors.
Vopiscus, Carinus (mainly the recital of his crimes); Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus, 38, Epit. 38; Eutropius ix. 18-20; Zonaras xii. 30; Orosius vii. 25; Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, ii. 24 ff. (Henze).
CARIPE, a small town of Venezuela in the state of Bermúdez, about 53 m. E.S.E. of Cumaná. It is the chief station of the Capuchin missions to the Chayma Indians, founded toward the close of the 17th century, and stands 2635 ft. above sea-level, in a fertile valley of the Sierra Bergantín, long celebrated for its cool, invigorating climate. The locality is also celebrated for the extensive system of caves in the limestone rocks found in its vicinity, which were described by Humboldt in his Personal Narrative. The principal cave, known as the Cueva del Guácharo, extends inward a distance of 2800 ft. with a height of 70-80 ft. These caves are frequented by a species of night-hawk, called guacharo, which nests in the recesses of the rocks. The young are killed in great numbers for their oil. Caripe itself has a population of only 580, but the valley and neighbouring stations have about ten times that number. Caripe should not be confounded with Rio Caribe, a town and port on the Caribbean coast a short distance east of Carúpano, which has a population of about 6000.
CARISBROOKE, a town in the Isle of Wight, England, 1 m. S. of Newport. Pop. (1901) 3993. The valley of the Lugley brook separates the village from the steep conical hill crowned by the castle, the existence of which has given Carisbrooke its chief fame. There are remains of a Roman villa in the valley, but no reliable mention of Carisbrooke occurs in Saxon times, though it has commonly been identified with the Saxon Wihtgaraburh captured by Cerdic in 530. Carisbrooke is not mentioned by name in the Domesday Survey, but Bowcombe, its principal manor, was a dependency of the royal manor of Amesbury, and was obtained from the king by William Fitz Osbern in exchange for three Wiltshire manors. The castle is mentioned in the Survey under Alvington, and was probably raised by William Fitz Osbern, who was made first lord of the Isle of Wight. From this date lordship of the Isle of Wight was always associated with ownership of the castle, which thus became the seat of government of the island. Henry I. bestowed it on Richard de Redvers, in whose family it continued until Isabella de Fortibus sold it to Edward I., after which the government was entrusted to wardens as representatives of the crown. The keep was added to the castle in the reign of Henry I., and in the reign of Elizabeth, when the Spanish Armada was expected, it was surrounded by an elaborate pentagonal fortification. The castle was garrisoned by Baldwin de Redvers for the empress Maud in 1136, but was captured by Stephen. In the reign of Richard II. it was unsuccessfully attacked by the French; Charles I. was imprisoned here for fourteen months before his execution. Afterwards his two youngest children were confined in the castle, and the Princess Elizabeth died there. In 1904 the chapel of St Nicholas in the castle was reopened and reconsecrated, having been rebuilt as a national memorial of Charles I. The remains of the castle are extensive and imposing, and the keeper’s house and other parts are inhabited, but the king’s apartments are in ruins. Within the walls is a well 200 ft. deep; and another in the centre of the keep is reputed to have been still deeper. The church of St Mary, Carisbrooke, has a beautiful Perpendicular tower, and contains transitional Norman portions. Only the site can be traced of the Cistercian priory to which it belonged. This was founded shortly after the Conquest and originated from the endowment which the monks of Lyre near Evreux held in Bowcombe, including the church, mill, houses, land and tithes of the manor. Richard II. bestowed it on the abbey of Mountgrace in Yorkshire. It was restored by Henry IV., but was dissolved by act of parliament in the reign of Henry V., who bestowed it on his newly-founded charter-house at Sheen. Carisbrooke formerly had a considerable market, several mills, and valuable fisheries, but it never acquired municipal or representative rights, and was important only as the site of the castle.
See Victoria County History—Hampshire; William Westall, History of Carisbrooke Castle (1850).
CARISSIMI, GIACOMO (c. 1604-1674), one of the most celebrated masters of the Italian, or, more accurately, the Roman school of music, was born about 1604 in Marino (near Rome). Of his life almost nothing is known. At the age of twenty he became chapel-master at Assisi, and in 1628 he obtained the same position at the church of St Apollinaris belonging to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, which he held till his death on the 12th of January 1674, at Rome. He seems never to have left Italy. The two great achievements generally ascribed to him are the further development of the recitative, lately introduced by Monteverde, and of infinite importance in the history of dramatic music; and the invention of the chamber-cantata, by which Carissimi superseded the madrigals formerly in use. His position in the history of church music and vocal chamber music is somewhat similar to that of Cavalli in the history of opera. It is impossible to say who was really the inventor of the chamber-cantata; but Carissimi and Luigi Rossi were the composers who first made this form the vehicle for the most intellectual style of chamber-music, a function which it continued to perform until the death of Alessandro Scarlatti, Astorga and Marcello. Of his oratorios Jephthah has been published by Novello & Co., and is well known; this work and others are important as definitely establishing the form of oratorio unaccompanied by dramatic action, which has maintained its hold to the present day. He also may claim the merit of having given greater variety and interest to the instrumental accompaniments of vocal compositions. Dr Burney and Sir John Hawkins published specimens of his compositions in their works on the history of music; and Dr Aldrich collected an almost complete set of his compositions, at present in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. The British Museum also possesses numerous valuable works by this great Italian master. Most of his oratorios are in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris.