CAPTION (Lat. captio, a taking or catching), a term still used in law, especially Scots, for arrest or apprehension. From the obsolete sense of a catching at any possible plea or objection comes the adjective “captious,” i.e. sophistical or fault-finding. The term also has an old legal use, to signify the part of an indictment, &c., which shows where, when and by what authority it is taken, found or executed; so its opening or heading. From this is derived the modern sense of the heading of an article in a book or newspaper.
CAPTIVE (from Lat. capere, to take), one who is captured in warfare. As a term of International Law, it has been displaced by that of “prisoner of war.” The position and treatment of captives or prisoners of war is now dealt with fully in chapter ii. of the regulations annexed to the Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, of the 18th of October 1907.
See [Peace Conference] and [War]; also Sir T. Barclay, supplement to Problems of International Practice and Diplomacy, for comparison of texts of 1899 and 1907.
CAPTURE (from Lat. capere, to take; Fr. prise maritime; Ger. Wegnahme), in international law, the taking possession by a belligerent vessel of an enemy or neutral merchant or non-fighting ship. If an enemy ship is captured she becomes forthwith lawful prize (q.v.); when a neutral ship, the belligerent commander, in case her papers are not conclusive, has a right to search her. If he finds contraband on board or the papers or cargo or circumstances excite any serious suspicion in his mind, which the master of the ship has been unable to dispel, he places an officer and a few of his crew on board and sends her to the nearest port where there is a prize court for trial. The word is also used for the vessel thus captured (see [Blockade], [Contraband]).
(T. Ba.)
CAPUA (anc. Casilinum), a town and archiepiscopal see of Campania, Italy, in the province of Caserta, 7 m. W. by rail from the town of Caserta. Pop. (1901) 14,285. It was erected in 856 by Bishop Landulf on the site of Casilinum (q.v.) after the destruction of the ancient Capua by the Saracens in 840, but it only occupies the site of the original pre-Roman town on the left (south) bank of the river.