The Muse Clio with a Capsa. (Pitture d’Ercolano, vol. ii. pl. 2.)
CAPSĀRĬI, the name of three different classes of slaves. [[Balneum]; [Capsa].]
CĂPUT, the head. The term “head” is often used by the Roman writers as equivalent to “person,” or “human being.” By an easy transition it was used to signify “life:” thus, capite damnari, plecti, &c., are equivalent to capital punishment. Caput is also used to express a man’s status, or civil condition; and the persons who were registered in the tables of the censor are spoken of as capita, sometimes with the addition of the word civium, and sometimes not. Thus to be registered in the census was the same thing as caput habere: and a slave and a filius familias, in this sense of the word, were said to have no caput. The sixth class of Servius Tullius comprised the proletarii and the capite censi, of whom the latter, having little or no property, were barely rated as so many head of citizens.—He who lost or changed his status was said to be capite minutus, deminutus, or capitis minor. Capitis minutio or deminutio was a change of a person’s status or civil condition, and consisted of three kinds.—A Roman citizen possessed freedom (libertas), citizenship (civitas), and family (familias): the loss of all three constituted the maxima capitis deminutio. This capitis deminutio was sustained by those who refused to be registered at the census, or neglected the registration, and were thence called incensi. The incensus was liable to be sold, and so to lose his liberty. Those who refused to perform military service might also be sold.—The loss of citizenship and family only, as when a man was interdicted from fire and water, was the media capitis deminutio. [[Exsilium].]—The change of family by adoption, and by the in manum conventio, was the minima capitis deminutio.—A judicium capitale, or poena capitalis, was one which affected a citizen’s caput.
CĂPUT. [[Fenus].]
CĂPUT EXTŌRUM. The Roman soothsayers (haruspices) pretended to a knowledge of coming events from the inspection of the entrails of victims slain for that purpose. The part to which they especially directed their attention was the liver, the convex upper portion of which seems to have been called the caput extorum. Any disease or deficiency in this organ was considered an unfavourable omen; whereas, if healthy and perfect, it was believed to indicate good fortune. If no caput was found, it was a bad sign (nihil tristius accidere potuit); if well defined or double, it was a lucky omen.
CĂRĂCALLA, an outer garment used in Gaul, and not unlike the Roman lacerna. It was first introduced at Rome by the emperor Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, who compelled all the people that came to court to wear it, whence he obtained the surname of Caracalla. This garment, as worn in Gaul, does not appear to have reached lower than the knee, but Caracalla lengthened it so as to reach the ankle.
CARCER (kerker, German; γοργύρα, Greek), a prison, is connected with ἕρκος and εἵργω, the guttural being interchanged with the aspirate. (1) Greek. Imprisonment was seldom used amongst the Greeks as a legal punishment for offences; they preferred banishment to the expense of keeping prisoners in confinement. The prisons in different countries were called by different names; thus there was the Ceadas (Κεάδας), at Sparta; and, among the Ionians, the Gorgyra (γοργύρα), as at Samos. The prison at Athens was in former times called Desmoterion (δεσμωτήριον), and afterwards, by a sort of euphemism, οἴκημα. It was chiefly used as a guard-house or place of execution, and was under the charge of the public officers called the Eleven.—(2) Roman. A prison was first built at Rome by Ancus Martius, overhanging the forum. This was enlarged by Servius Tullius, who added to it a souterrain, or dungeon, called from him the Tullianum. Sallust describes this as being twelve feet under ground, walled on each side, and arched over with stone work. For a long time this was the only prison at Rome, being, in fact, the “Tower,” or state prison of the city, which was sometimes doubly guarded in times of alarm, and was the chief object of attack in many conspiracies. There were, however, other prisons besides this, though, as we might expect, the words of Roman historians generally refer to this alone. In the Tullianum prisoners were generally executed, and this part of the prison was also called robur.
CARCĔRES. [[Circus].]