CĂLĬGA, a strong and heavy sandal worn by the Roman soldiers, but not by the superior officers. Hence the common soldiers, including centurions, were distinguished by the name of caligati. The emperor Caligula received that cognomen when a boy, in consequence of wearing the caliga, and being inured to the life of a common soldier. The cuts on pp. [1], [41], show the difference between the caliga of the common soldier and the calceus worn by men of higher rank.
CĂLIX (κύλιξ). (1) a drinking-cup used at symposia and on similar occasions.—(2) A vessel used in cooking.—(3) A tube in the aquaeducts attached to the extremity of each pipe, where it entered the castellum.
Calices, Drinking-cups. (Museo Borbonico, vol. v. pl. 18.)
CALLIS, a beaten path or track made by the feet of cattle. The sheep-walks in the mountainous parts of Campania and Apulia were the property of the Roman state; and as they were of considerable value, one of the quaestors usually had these calles assigned to him as his province, whence we read of the Callium provincia. His principal duties were to receive the scriptura, or tax paid for the pasturage of the cattle, and to protect life and property in these wild and mountainous districts. When the senate wished to put a slight upon the consuls on one occasion they endeavoured to assign to them as their provinces, the care of the woods (silvae) and sheep-walks (calles).
CALLISTEIA (καλλιστεῖα), a festival, or perhaps merely a part of one, held by the women of Lesbos; at which they assembled in the sanctuary of Hera, and the fairest received the prize of beauty. Similar contests of beauty are said to have been held in other places.
CĀLŌNES, the slaves or servants of the Roman soldiers, so called from carrying wood (κᾶλα) for their use. The word calo, however, was also applied to farm-servants. The calones and lixae are frequently spoken of together, but they were not the same: the latter were freemen, who merely followed the camp for the purposes of gain and merchandise, and were so far from being indispensable to an army, that they were sometimes forbidden to attend it.
CĂLUMNĬA. When an accuser failed in his proof, and the accused party was acquitted, there might be an inquiry into the conduct and motives of the accuser. If the person who made this judicial inquiry found that the accuser had merely acted from error of judgment, he acquitted him in the form non probasti; if he convicted him of evil intention, he declared his sentence in the words calumniatus es, which sentence was followed by the legal punishment. The punishment for calumnia was fixed by the lex Remmia, or as it is sometimes, perhaps incorrectly, named, the lex Memmia. But it is not known when this lex was passed, nor what were its penalties. It appears from Cicero, that the false accuser might be branded on the forehead with the letter K, the initial of Kalumnia. The punishment for calumnia was also exsilium, relegatio in insulam, or loss of rank (ordinis amissio); but probably only in criminal cases, or in matters relating to status.
CĂMĂRA (καμάρα), or CĂMĔRA. (1) A particular kind of arched ceiling, formed by semicircular bands or beams of wood, arranged at small lateral distances, over which a coating of lath and plaster was spread, and the whole covered in by a roof, resembling in construction the hooped awnings in use amongst us.—(2) A small boat used in early times by the people who inhabited the shores of the Palus Maeotis, capable of containing from twenty-five to thirty men. These boats were made to work fore and aft, like the fast-sailing proas of the Indian seas, and continued in use until the age of Tacitus.
CĂMILLI, CĂMILLAE, boys and girls employed in the religious rites and ceremonies of the Romans. They were required to be perfect in form, and sound in health, free born, and with both their parents alive; or, in other words, according to the expression of the Romans, pueri seu puellae ingenui, felicissimi, patrimi matrimique.