CORNU COPIAE, later Cornucopia (“horn of plenty”), a horn; generally twisted, filled with fruit and flowers, or an ornament representing it. It was used as a symbol of prosperity and abundance, and hence in works of art it is placed in the hands of Plutus, Fortuna and similar divinities (for the mythological account see [Amaltheia]). The symbol probably originated in the practice of using the horns of oxen and goats as drinking-cups; hence the rhyton (drinking-horn) is often confounded with the cornu copiae. For its representation in works of art, in which it is very common, especially in those belonging to the Roman period, see article in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire des Antiquités.
CORNUS, an ancient town of Sardinia, of Phoenician origin, on the west coast, 18 m. from Tharros, and the same from Bosa. At the time of the Second Punic War it is spoken of as the principal city of the district, and its capture by the Romans was the last act in the suppression of the rebellion of 215 B.C., it having served as a place of refuge for the fugitives after the defeat of the combined forces of the rebels and the Carthaginians. The site of the ancient acropolis, covered with débris, may still be made out. Here were found three inscriptions in 1831, with dedications by the ordo, or town council, of Cornus to various patrons, from one of which it seems that it was a colony, though when it became so is unknown (Th. Mommsen, Corp. Inscr. Lat. X. 7915 sqq.). Unimportant remains of an aqueduct and (perhaps) of a church exist. Excavations in the necropolis of the Roman period are recorded by F. Nissardi, Notizie degli Scavi, 1887, p. 47. Phoenician rock-cut tombs may also be seen.
CORNUTUS, LUCIUS ANNAEUS, Stoic philosopher, flourished in the reign of Nero. He was a native of Leptis in Libya, but resided for the most part in Rome. He is best known as the teacher and friend of Persius, whose satires he revised for publication after the poet’s death, but handed them over to Caesius Bassus to edit, at the special request of the latter. He was banished by Nero (in 66 or 68) for having indirectly disparaged the emperor’s projected history of the Romans in heroic verse (Dio Cassius lxii. 29), after which time nothing more is heard of him. He was the author of various rhetorical works in both Greek and Latin (῾Ρητορικαὶ Τέχναι, De figuris sententiarum). Another rhetorician, also named Cornutus, who flourished A.D. 200-250 (or in the second half of the 2nd century) was the author of a treatise Τέχνη τοῦ πολιτικοῦ λόγου (ed. J. Graeven, 1890). A philosophical treatise, Theologiae Graecae compendium (of which the Greek title is uncertain; perhaps, Έλληνικὴ θεολογία, or Περὶ τῆς τῶν θεῶν φύσεως, though the latter may be the title of an abridgment of the former) is still extant. It is a manual of “popular mythology as expounded in the etymological and symbolical interpretations of the Stoics” (Sandys), and although marred by many absurd etymologies, abounds in beautiful thoughts (ed. C. Lang, 1881). Simplicius and Porphyry refer to his commentary on the Categories of Aristotle, whose philosophy he is said to have defended against an opponent Athenodorus in a treatise Άντιγραφὴπρὸς Άθηνόδωρον. His Aristotelian studies were probably his most important work. A commentary on Virgil (frequently quoted by Servius) and Scholia to Persius are also attributed to him; the latter, however, are of much later date, and are assigned by Jahn to the Carolingian period. Excerpts from his treatise De enuntiatione vel orthographia are preserved in Cassiodorus. The so-called Disticha Cornuti (ed. Liebl, Straubing, 1888) belong to the late middle ages.
See G. Martini, De L. Annaeo Cornuto (1825); O. Jahn, Prolegomena to his edition of Persius; H. von Arnim in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie, i. pt. ii. (1894); M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, i. 2 (1901), p. 285; W. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur (1898), pp. 702, 755; Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), § 299, 2.
CORNWALL, the capital of the united counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario, Canada, 67 m. S.W. of Montreal, on the left bank of the St Lawrence river. Pop. (1901) 6704. It is an important station on the Grand Trunk and the Ottawa & New York railways, and is a port of call for all steamers between Montreal and Lake Ontario ports. The surplus from the Cornwall canal furnishes excellent water privileges for its factories, which include cotton and woollen mills and grist and saw mills. The town has long been celebrated for its lacrosse club. On the opposite bank of the river is St Régis, inhabited chiefly by Indians of the Iroquois tribe.