CARNUNTUM (Καρνοῦς in Ptolemy), an important Roman fortress, originally belonging to Noricum, but after the 1st century a.d. to Pannonia. It was a Celtic town, the name, which is nearly always found with K on monuments, being derived from Kar, Karn (“rock,” “cairn”). Its extensive ruins may still be seen near Hainburg, between Deutsch-Altenburg and Petronell, in lower Austria. Its name first occurs in history during the reign of Augustus (a.d. 6), when Tiberius made it his base of operations in the campaigns against Maroboduus (Marbod). A few years later it became the centre of the Roman fortifications along the Danube from Vindobona (Vienna) to Brigetio (O-Szöny), and (under Trajan or Hadrian) the permanent quarters of the XIV legion. It was also a very old mart for the amber brought to Italy from the north. It was created a municipium by Hadrian (Aelium Carnuntum). Marcus Aurelius resided there for three years (172-175) during the war against the Marcomanni, and wrote part of his Meditations. Septimius Severus, at the time governor of Pannonia, was proclaimed emperor there by the soldiers (193). In the 4th century it was destroyed by the Germans, and, although partly restored by Valentinian I., it never regained its former importance, and Vindobona became the chief military centre. It was finally destroyed by the Hungarians in the middle ages.
A special society (Carnuntumverein) exists for the exploration of the numerous ruins, the results of which will be found in J.W. Kubitschek and S. Frankfurter, Führer durch Carnuntum (3rd ed., 1894); see also E. von Sacken, “Die römische Stadt Carnuntum,” in Sitzungsberichte der k. Akad. der Wissenschaften, ix. (Vienna, 1852); article by Kubitschek in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencydopadie, iii. part ii. (1899); Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, iii., part i. p. 550.
CARNUTES (Carnuti, Carnutae, Καρνουτῖνοι in Plutarch), a Celtic people of central Gaul, between the Sequana (Seine) and the Liger (Loire). Their territory corresponded to the dioceses of Chartres, Orléans and Blois, that is, the greater part of the modern departments of Eure-et-Loir, Loiret, Loir-et-Cher. It was regarded as the political and religious centre of the Gallic nation. The chief towns were Cenabum (not Genabum; Orléans) and Autricum (Chartres). According to Livy (v. 34) the Carnutes were one of the tribes which accompanied Bellovesus in his invasion of Italy during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus. In the time of Caesar they were dependents of the Remi, who on one occasion interceded for them. In 52 they joined in the rebellion of Vercingetorix. As a punishment for the treacherous murder of some Roman merchants and one of Caesar’s commissariat officers at Cenabum, the town was burnt and the inhabitants put to the sword or sold as slaves. During the war they sent 12,000 men to relieve Alesia, but shared in the defeat of the Gallic army. Having attacked the Bituriges Cubi, who appealed to Caesar for assistance, they were forced to submit. Under Augustus, the Carnutes, as one of the peoples of Lugdunensis, were raised to the rank of civitas socia or foederata, retaining their own institutions, and only bound to render military service to the emperor. Up to the 3rd century Autricum (later Carnutes, whence Chartres) was the capital, but in 275 Aurelian changed Cenabum from a vicus into a civitas and named it Aurelianum or Aurelianensis urbs (whence Orléans).
See Caesar, Bell. Gall. v. 25, 29, vii. 8, 11, 75, viii. 5, 31; Strabo iv. pp. 191-193; R. Boutrays, Urbis gentisque Carnutum historia (1624); A. Desjardins, Géographie historique de la Gaule, ii. (1876-1893); article and bibliography in La Grande Encyclopédie, T.R. Holmes, Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul (1899), p. 402, on Cenabum.
CARO, ANNIBALE (1507-1566), Italian poet, was born at Civita Nuova, in Ancona, in 1507. He became tutor in the family of Lodovico Gaddi, a rich Florentine, and then secretary to his brother Giovanni, by whom he was presented to a valuable ecclesiastical preferment at Rome. At Gaddi’s death, he entered the service of the Farnese family, and became confidential secretary in succession to Pietro Lodovico, duke of Parma, and to his sons, duke Ottavio and cardinals Ranuccio and Alexander. Caro’s most important work was his translation of the Aeneid (Venice, 1581; Paris, 1760). He is also the author of Rime, Canzoni, and sonnets, a comedy named Gli Straccioni, and two clever jeux d’esprit, one in praise of figs, La Ficheide, and another in eulogy of the big nose of Leoni Ancona, president of the Academia della Vertu. Caro’s poetry is distinguished by very considerable ability, and particularly by the freedom and grace of its versification; indeed he may be said to have brought the verso sciolto to the highest development it has reached in Italy. His prose works consist of translations from Aristotle, Cyprian and Gregory Nazianzen; and of letters, written in his own name and in those of the cardinals Farnese, which are remarkable both for the baseness they display and for their euphemistic polish and elegance. His fame has been greatly damaged by the virulence with which he attacked Lodovico Castelvetro in one of his canzoni, and by his meanness in denouncing him to the Holy Office as translator of some of the writings of Melanchthon. He died at Rome about 1566.
CARO, ELME MARIE (1826-1887), French philosopher, was born on the 4th of March 1826 at Poitiers. His father, a professor of philosophy, gave him an excellent education at the Stanislas College and the École Normale, where he graduated in 1848. After being professor of philosophy at several provincial universities, he received the degree of doctor, and came to Paris in 1858 as master of conferences at the École Normale. In 1861 he became inspector of the Academy of Paris, in 1864 professor of philosophy to the Faculty of Letters, and in 1874 a member of the French Academy. He married Pauline Cassin, the authoress of the Péché de Madeleine and other well-known novels. He died in Paris on the 13th of July 1887. In his philosophy he was mainly concerned to defend Christianity against modern Positivism. The philosophy of Cousin influenced him strongly, but his strength lay in exposition and criticism rather than in original thought. Besides important contributions to La France and the Revue des deux mondes, he wrote Le Mysticisme au XVIIIe siècle (1852-1854), L’Idee de Dieu (1864), Le Matérialisme et la science (1868), Le Pessimisme au XIXe siècle (1878), Jours d’épreuves (1872), M. Littré et le positivisme (1883), George Sand (1887), Mélanges et portraits (1888), La Philosophie de Goethe (2nd ed., 1880).